In 2002, Sega partnered with Nintendo and Namco to create the Triforce, a GameCube-based arcade platform that transformed a home console into arcade hardware. The collaboration emerged as Sega faced financial struggles after the Dreamcast's failure against the PlayStation 2, seeking to leverage its legendary arcade development teams in a declining market.

Built around a stock GameCube motherboard with two specialized boards—the AM-Baseboard and AM-Mediaboard—the Triforce handled input/output and game storage respectively. The system used a modified GameCube IPL to initialize hardware and load games through a custom Segaboot interface. Operators could access service menus for hardware tests and settings, while enthusiasts discovered they could load standard GameCube games through homebrew modifications.

The Triforce primarily used DIMM variants with GD-ROM drives for game storage, chosen for reliability in arcade environments where machines run continuously for years. GD-ROM, originally developed by Sega for the Dreamcast, offered comparable capacity to GameCube discs while being more cost-effective. This hardware collaboration represented an unprecedented moment when Sega, once Nintendo's fiercest rival, teamed up to create arcade experiences that would define a new era of coin-op gaming.