Congratulations on a very successful restoration and thanks for writing such a beautiful deep dive.
The work put in here is a perfect example of how motivation can be so much stronger if it’s for the love, done by volunteers, than for any amount of money.
It also evokes the Penn & Teller quote, “Sometimes, magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.”
These days, it seems like one of the best multiplayer arcade games is "Killer Queen" [1]. It'd be nice if there were more games like that. It offers a gaming experience that's more unique to the arcade IMO.
Expo '90 had over 23 million people turn up. That is a sizeable audience. However, on top of that, one of the themes with the expo was "coexistence" with nature. It wasn't just a gardening show. [0]
For example, Professor Iwatsuki gave the conference talk "Coexistence of Nature and Mankind in Urban Areas Role of Natural Science", and one of the forums was on "The Role of the Science in Building the 21st Century".
It was definitely partly a garden show. But it was also a scientific conference, discussing how to shape the world in the future, in a sustainable way. That meant any technological breakthrough was something to pull the crowd.
I have an old Xbox 360, and a projector. Any multilayer games for get togethers. I'm actually building a backyard tki bar soon. Would be fun to add this for parties as well.
We are? There are games like this in any modern "arcade" like Dave & Buster's.
If you mean why aren't we building highly specialized hardware like this any more, I'd say it's because most of that complexity has moved into software running on general-purpose hardware, which is infinitely more flexible and maintainable.
The arcades these days have almost zero wow factor, stuck in the 90s, I’m sure these machines were nothing short of fantastic if you first play it back then.
very sorry to post something tangentially related but does anyone know what happened to that ridge racer full scale machine? Can't find anything on it past 2022.
Congratulations on a very successful restoration and thanks for writing such a beautiful deep dive.
The work put in here is a perfect example of how motivation can be so much stronger if it’s for the love, done by volunteers, than for any amount of money.
It also evokes the Penn & Teller quote, “Sometimes, magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.”
Way back in 2007 someone found one of these, disassembled it(!), transported it(!), rebuilt it(!). Long story but full of great pics. [0]
[0] https://www.dragonslairfans.com/smfor/index.php?topic=231.0
These days, it seems like one of the best multiplayer arcade games is "Killer Queen" [1]. It'd be nice if there were more games like that. It offers a gaming experience that's more unique to the arcade IMO.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_Queen_(video_game)#
Perfect reading with an easter long weekend coffee - I love well written and interesting stories like these.
> a 28 player behemoth that debuted in April 1990 at the International Garden and Greenery Exposition in Osaka, Japan
Why would an arcade game be debuted at a gardening and greenery expo?
Expo '90 had over 23 million people turn up. That is a sizeable audience. However, on top of that, one of the themes with the expo was "coexistence" with nature. It wasn't just a gardening show. [0]
For example, Professor Iwatsuki gave the conference talk "Coexistence of Nature and Mankind in Urban Areas Role of Natural Science", and one of the forums was on "The Role of the Science in Building the 21st Century".
It was definitely partly a garden show. But it was also a scientific conference, discussing how to shape the world in the future, in a sustainable way. That meant any technological breakthrough was something to pull the crowd.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20130314172710/http://www.expo90...
Why not?
Have played that (not that cab, a European one). Was, indeed, a world of fun.
Where is the European one based? Apparently there is only one left.
I have an old Xbox 360, and a projector. Any multilayer games for get togethers. I'm actually building a backyard tki bar soon. Would be fun to add this for parties as well.
Wow! Great deep dive! I haven’t seen S100 boards in the wild since we retired our rack mounted 1980s Sun 2 decades ago (also 68020-based)
Amazing. Why aren't we building things like this anymore?
We are? There are games like this in any modern "arcade" like Dave & Buster's.
If you mean why aren't we building highly specialized hardware like this any more, I'd say it's because most of that complexity has moved into software running on general-purpose hardware, which is infinitely more flexible and maintainable.
It got hard to compete with home gaming setups.
The arcades these days have almost zero wow factor, stuck in the 90s, I’m sure these machines were nothing short of fantastic if you first play it back then.
very sorry to post something tangentially related but does anyone know what happened to that ridge racer full scale machine? Can't find anything on it past 2022.
I assume you're referring to this article https://arcadeblogger.com/2022/11/20/the-last-ridge-racer/ contact Tony (the arcade blogger) he's a nice guy to deal with - his book is also great by the way. Maybe he can do a follow up?