NFG Games + GameSX

Sega's Astro City, Blast City, Net City and Naomi Universal cabinets use a connector system that's common between them. More or less. They use the AMP/TE Universal Power family of connectors.

On all connectors, there is a key that indicates the location of pin #1. For this reason, no attempt has been made below to indicate plug or socket because it doesn't matter. Pin 1 is always pin 1.

Somewhat confusingly, the shape of the plug determines whether it is a plug or a socket. Normally the smallest element - the pins inside the plug - determine this. So, when you have the socket mounted to the cabinet bracket, it has tab pins, and the plug coming from the control panel has socket pins.

For all of these connectors, the part codes are listed. The pins come in two gauges, typically the large gauge (lower numbers) are used for power, the smaller gauge (higher numbers) are used for everything else. The last number indicates the alloy type, but for our purposes this isn't important. The cheaper parts have been listed here.

ProTip: A very expensive special tool is needed when pins are removed from these connectors. You can file down a small screwdriver (a tiny allen tip is a good start) or use a spare pin instead. The pins are the perfect width and length to reach the clasp inside the connector housing.

The last digit of every plug or socket is the colour. Most of these colours are no longer available, but maybe you'll get lucky. The colours are:

The 12-pin connector carries most of the player's necessary control inputs. Start, stick and buttons 1-3. On Net City and Naomi cabinets, it carries buttons 1-5.

Buttons 4-6 (4-7 for Net City & Naomi) can be found on the extra buttons connector (aka kick harness).

The extra button connector changed when the Net City, New Net City and Naomi Universal cabinets came out. The ground pin was moved from 4 to 5, and button 7 was added on pin 4. And in order to prevent confusion, the connector was changed from 10 to 15 pins. The third row is unused.

Note that, at least on a New Astro City, it seems the connector is fully populated in the cabinet, and runs straight through from panel to board. Based on the wire colours, 14 is supposed to be +5V and 15 is Ground. However the intent of each wire isn't relevant: all 10 pins run straight through from end to end.

There are two of these connectors, one for each player.

Sega used the same connector with two different pinouts, depending on the audio function. It seems that most Astro and Blast City cabinets used the same pinout, some Astro City cabs had stereo amps that used an alternate arrangement. Both are shown, but for your own sanity, you should check the wiring in your cab.

Though every *City cab had stereo speakers, the default audio arrangement supported only monaural sound. The audio from the PSU to the speakers had a jumper wire from pin 3 to pin 4. This connected both speakers in series.

For the Astro and Blast City cabs, the power supplies didn't change much. The Net City and Naomi cabs were very different.

For some reason the coin counter must be connected in order for the coin slot/coin input to work, because the ground line to the coin slot goes through the counter. Seems like a security issue, making it harder to ring in credits without triggering the counter as well? In any case, if you unplug the counter, you can't trigger a coin input.