cadamsdotcom2 hours ago
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.”
lordfrito3 hours ago
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
wyldfire34 minutes ago
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)#
ljf6 hours ago
Perfect reading with an easter long weekend coffee - I love well written and interesting stories like these.
timcobb3 hours ago
> 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?
shakna2 hours ago
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...
loloquwowndueo2 hours ago
Why not?
flir3 hours ago
Have played that (not that cab, a European one). Was, indeed, a world of fun.
countrymileop3 hours ago
Where is the European one based? Apparently there is only one left.
dukeofdoom27 minutes ago
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.
squeedles3 hours ago
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)
glimshe4 hours ago
Amazing. Why aren't we building things like this anymore?
ticklemyelmo3 hours ago
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.
praptak2 hours ago
It got hard to compete with home gaming setups.
m3kw92 hours ago
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.
unleaded4 hours ago
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.
HansardExpertan hour ago
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?
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