Sega Chihiro

The Sega Chihiro is an arcade system board developed by Sega in collaboration with Microsoft, released in 2002. It is based on the original Xbox hardware with doubled RAM (128 MB vs 64 MB) and additional arcade-specific boards for GD-ROM loading, JVS I/O, and VGA output. It was Sega's last arcade board derived from a home console. Notable games include The House of the Dead III, OutRun 2, Virtua Cop 3, Ghost Squad, and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune.

Quick reference

  • Emulator: xemu
  • Folder: /userdata/roms/chihiro
  • Accepted ROM formats: .iso

Sega Chihiro emulation requires an x86_64 system. ARM devices (Raspberry Pi, Odroid, etc.) are not supported.

Only a handful of Chihiro games are currently playable through xemu. See the game compatibility section below.

BIOS

The following BIOS files are required and must be placed in /userdata/bios/:

File MD5 Description
mcpx_1.0.bin d49c52a4102f6df7bcf8d0617ac475ed Xbox/Chihiro boot ROM (MCPX)
cerbios.bin f23d7e00ae8fbf88908ed1f9165f35eb Cerbios custom flash ROM

Unlike regular Xbox emulation which uses Complex_4627.bin, Chihiro requires Cerbios (cerbios.bin) as its flash ROM. Batocera handles this automatically.

ROMs

Place your ROM files in:

/userdata/roms/chihiro/

ROMs must be in XISO format (.iso extension). These are Xbox-compatible patched versions of the original Chihiro GD-ROM disc images. Standard MAME ROM sets (.zip / .chd) are not used for this system.

Game compatibility

Only a few Chihiro games have been converted to work with xemu. The following games are known to be supported in Batocera:

Game Year Input type Status Note
Ghost Squad 2004 lightgun Playable Light gun not supported in xemu. Only controller.
OutRun 2 2003 steering wheel / pedals Playable Steering wheel not supported in xemu. Only controller.
Virtua Cop 3 2003 lightgun Playable Light gun not supported in xemu. Only controller.

Full Chihiro game library

The complete Chihiro arcade library includes the following titles. Most of these are not yet playable through xemu in Batocera.

Lightgun games

Game Year Notes
The House of the Dead III 2002 2-player lightgun + reload button
Virtua Cop 3 2003 2-player lightgun + foot pedal (bullet time)
Ghost Squad 2004 2-player lightgun + weapon/mode switch buttons

Racing games

Game Year Notes
Crazy Taxi High Roller 2003 Steering wheel + pedals
OutRun 2 2003 Steering wheel + pedals + gear shift
OutRun 2 Special Tours 2004 Steering wheel + pedals + gear shift
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2004 Steering wheel + pedals + 6-speed shift (Namco)
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 2 2005 Steering wheel + pedals + 6-speed shift (Namco)

Other games

Game Year Notes
Ollie King 2003 Skateboard controller
Sega Golf Club Network Pro Tour 2005 2004 Joystick + buttons, network game
Sega Club Golf 2006 Next Tours 2005 Joystick + buttons, network game
Quest of D 2004 Card reader + joystick, network RPG
Quest of D Ver. 3.02 2007 Card reader + joystick, network RPG
Quest of D The Battle Kingdom 2007 Card reader + joystick, network RPG
Sega Network Taisen Mahjong MJ 2 2005 Mahjong panel, network game
Sega Network Taisen Mahjong MJ 3 2006 Mahjong panel, network game
Sega Network Taisen Mahjong MJ 3 Evolution 2007 Mahjong panel, network game
Gundam Battle Operating Simulator 2005 Special cockpit controls (Banpresto)
Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Card Builder 2005 Card reader + joystick (Banpresto)
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Card Builder 2007 Card reader + joystick (Banpresto)

Emulators

xemu

xemu is an open-source Xbox emulator that also supports Chihiro arcade hardware. It is the only emulator available for Chihiro in Batocera.

Batocera automatically applies Chihiro-specific settings when launching games from the Chihiro system:

  • Memory is set to 128 MiB (double the standard Xbox 64 MiB)
  • Flash ROM is set to Cerbios instead of the standard Xbox flash
  • Renderer is forced to OpenGL due to a known Vulkan bug with Chihiro games

xemu configuration

ES setting name
batocera.conf key 		Description ⇒ ES option key value
EMULATOR
chihiro.emulator 		Emulator to use. ⇒ xemu (default)
RENDERING RESOLUTION
chihiro.rendering_resolution 		Internal rendering resolution multiplier. ⇒ 1x (default) through 10x
SCALING MODE
chihiro.scaling_mode 		How the image is scaled to fit the screen. ⇒ scale (default), center, stretch
ASPECT RATIO
chihiro.aspect_ratio 		Display aspect ratio. ⇒ native (default), 4:3, 16:9
VSYNC
chihiro.vsync 		Vertical sync. ⇒ on (default), off
BIOS BOOT LOGO
chihiro.skip_bios 		Show or skip the boot animation. ⇒ show (default), skip

Controls

Chihiro games use a wide variety of input devices. Standard gamepad mapping works for most titles.

Lightgun games (House of the Dead III, Virtua Cop 3, Ghost Squad) require a compatible lightgun device (not supported yet). See the lightgun setup guide for configuration. Virtua Cop 3 additionally uses a foot pedal for the bullet time feature — this can be mapped to a button.

Racing games (OutRun 2, Crazy Taxi, Wangan Midnight) benefit from an analog steering wheel and pedals (not supported yet), but can also be played with an analog gamepad.

Specialized controllers (mahjong panels, card readers, skateboard controllers) used by some Chihiro games are difficult to emulate with standard input devices. Games requiring these controllers may not be fully playable.

Hardware specifications

Component Specification
Manufacturer Sega / Microsoft
Year 2002
CPU Intel Pentium III @ 733 MHz
GPU NVIDIA NV2A (GeForce 3-class) @ 200 MHz
RAM 128 MB DDR (shared, 2× Xbox)
Extended RAM Up to 512 MB or 1 GB (DIMM board)
Sound MCPX AC'97 + Motorola DSP56362 coprocessor
Media GD-ROM (loaded entirely into DIMM RAM)
Display 640×480 VGA @ 60 Hz
Polygon performance 125 million polygons/sec
I/O JVS (Japan Video Standard)
Based on Microsoft Xbox

Board variants

  • Type 1 — Uses a removable NAOMI-style DIMM board. Less common.
  • Type 3 — Integrated DIMM board in a compact cube form factor, 512 MB or 1 GB RAM. Most common variant. Some early games (Crazy Taxi High Roller, House of the Dead III) are reportedly incompatible with Type 3 hardware.

Games are copied entirely from GD-ROM into DIMM RAM before execution, eliminating disc loading times during gameplay.

Troubleshooting

"BIOS file not found" error

Make sure both BIOS files are present in /userdata/bios/:

  • mcpx_1.0.bin
  • cerbios.bin

You can verify BIOS files via the Batocera menu: System Settings → Missing BIOS.

Game doesn't boot or shows black screen

  • Verify your .iso file is a valid XISO-format image. Standard ISO-9660 images will not work.
  • Ensure the file is a Chihiro-patched version, not a raw GD-ROM dump.
  • Try toggling BIOS Boot Logo to skip in the per-game settings.

Graphical glitches

Batocera forces OpenGL for Chihiro due to a known Vulkan bug. If you experience graphical issues, ensure no manual override is set in batocera.conf: 

# Remove or comment out this line if present:
# chihiro.gfxbackend=vulkan

No sound

Audio emulation in xemu for Chihiro games may be incomplete. Some games may have missing or distorted audio. This is a known limitation of the emulator.

Performance is poor

Chihiro emulation is demanding. Ensure you are running on an x86_64 system with:

  • A modern multi-core CPU (Intel Core i5/i7 or AMD Ryzen recommended)
  • A dedicated GPU with OpenGL 4.0+ support
  • At least 4 GB system RAM

Why can't I use MAME for Chihiro?

The MAME Chihiro driver (chihiro.cpp) has preliminary status for all games — no game is playable, sound is completely unemulated, and 3D rendering is non-functional. This is due to the extreme complexity of emulating the Xbox-derived hardware (NV2A GPU, MCPX APU, modified Xbox kernel). Batocera uses xemu instead, which provides significantly better compatibility through its Xbox-focused emulation approach.

  • systems/chihiro.txt
  • Last modified: 2 months ago
  • by tovarichtch