Review: If the Egret II is the Rolls-Royce of candies, then the Sega Blast City is probably in the Ferrari category. The Egret II might have a huge following, high demand (and price), and luxury features, but the Blast City is turbo-charged. First off, the monitor. The tri-sync Nanao may be the most perfect arcade monitor ever created, at least in terms of picture quality. The rave reviews you've heard about this monitor are all true. The low res is crisp and the high res is smooth. It has an OSD for safe and painless on-screen adjustments. Now for the unfortunate bit: these monitors are also notorious for the "black goop of death", named because many of these monitors start leaking a thick fluid from the flyback, and the chassis may eventually suicide. However, it is important to note that many monitors have the "death goop" and still work fine, so it is questionable what part the goop actually plays and what the signs mean. And if your chassis is unfortunate enough to die, there are drop-in Wei-Ya and Rodotron monitors that will replace it, although the picture quality of course doesn't quite match the Nanao. Another important note is it is very common to find burn-in on the Nanao's Toshiba tube, for whatever reason. Back to the good news. The cabinet is very aerodynamic and unique. It is made almost entirely of metal and is very strong (and very heavy); like all Sega cabinets, it is very well-built and does not have a "plasticy" feel at all. The bookshelf stereo speakers are placed at ear level and sound amazing. The control panel is of course Sega-standard so you can play a large variety of gimmicky Naomi games with little trouble. The marquee area is built into the cabinet so you will not break it or lose it. The only real cabinet "design flaw" is how easily sitting on the control panel will crack the plastic surround, but this issue is also apparent on the Astro City. Inside the cabinet is an interface board, and a Model 3 harness by default. If the cabinet comes with one of these, you will need to supply a JAMMA or JVS harness that plugs into this board, which are readily available overseas. The cabinet is fairly roomy and should support any PCB you want to put in it. It is perfect as a Naomi cabinet because of the high res monitor, but works fine for anything you throw at it. The only thing that would make this cabinet a 10/10 is if it had a rotation mech, but that's just me being picky. All in all, the typical high price on these machines is worth every penny and should suit any needs you might have. On top of that, it looks and sounds amazing. It's a solid, beautiful cabinet with quality written all over it.

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