A collaboration to bring you the ultimate PCB setup reaches its fruition!

Arcade Shock, Jasen’s Customs, and Brook Gaming have joined forces to bring you the means to build near-total console compatibility to a single controller: the new Brook Retro Board.

While there are other retro PCBs on the market — such as the Toodle’s MC Cthulhu, or discontinued models like the Akishop’s PS360+ — Arcade Shock wanted players to have access to a rock-solid PCB that would allow compatibility with a wide variety of systems. The Brook Retro Board can be used with the following platforms:

Nintendo Entertainment System

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo GameCube

Xbox

Sega Saturn

Sega Dreamcast

TurboGrafx-16

PlayStation

PlayStation 2

PlayStation 3

Pairing the Retro Board with Brook’s Universal Fighting Board can offer compatibility with every major gaming console, both old and current-generation. Details follow from Arcade Shock.

With Brook’s expertise in manufacturing and product support, we asked them to work with us and Jasen’s Customs to develop a board that is extremely simple to install, update, and — most importantly — work seamlessly with their Universal Fighting Board. With current methods, it’s possible to use two boards in a single arcade stick; however, they require increased cost and time to mod (labor: 90 minutes or more, for the seasoned modder), two separate cables, a hard switch, or other PCB switching circuits.

With the new Brook Retro Board, a 20-pin Multiplier Board designed by Jasen’s Customs, and included cables, you will be able to toggle between this board and the Brook UFB with a button combo; all of these functions are programmed into the Retro Board’s software, and with no extra hardware required! Using a RJ45 common output, you can use existing products on the market — such as Akishop’s RJ45 to USB, RJ45 to Sega Dreamcast and RJ45 to PS1/PS2 cables. Furthermore, we are in the process of developing NES, SNES, GameCube, and Sega Saturn cables that will use the common RJ45 jack, which has never been offered on a commercial basis.

There will be a few variations of the Brook Retro Board to make installation a snap:

Solo, using just the Retro Board by itself, offered by both Arcade Shock and Jasen’s Customs

Side-by-Side, good for most arcade sticks, offered by Arcade Shock

Stacked, designed by Jasen’s Customs for the Panzer Fight Stick featuring drop-in EZ BUILD installation, offered by Jasen’s Customs

Stacked for generic/other commercial arcade sticks, offered by Arcade Shock. This setup takes up less surface area if mounted on a flat surface. (More tests will be required for a complete list of compatible arcade stick shells.)

Product Overview / Benefits:

Dual Mod Support

Combine with the Brook UFB in 2 configurations – either side-by-side with the 20-pin Multiplier, or a custom stacked variant.

Use a single cable out and toggle between the Brook UFB or the Brook Retro Board using a simple button combination on plug-in. Other retro boards on the market require two separate cables, a hard switch, soldering wires to the PCB, or another PCB switching circuit to accomplish this — at increased costs, mod time, and clutter.

Upgradeable Firmware

With Brook’s amazing customer support, if an update is needed, it can be easily done. Brook backs you up!

Effortless Installation

Continuing our philosophy, we made sure that installation for the Brook Retro is as easy as the Brook UFB by pre-soldering the main connectors beforehand, saving you time to work on other parts of your mod.

Zero Lag

When the Brook UFB was in production, the main thing emphasized was response time. A slow board is the difference between victory or loss. A laggy board has no place in today’s FGC. We wanted super low numbers, less latency (lag); from Arcade Shock’s tests, it’s zero. It doesn’t get any better than this.

The Brook Retro Board will be exclusive to Arcade Shock and Jasen’s Customs, and will soft-launch at Evo 2018; check out Arcade Shock and Jasen’s Customs to order online for late August 2018 shipping.

Source: Arcade Shock [press release]