Let’s all go back in time. Before Sonic Boom, before the Dreamcast, before the Saturn. To a time when Sega was awesome, and as famous for their killer arcade games as their console efforts.
Specifically, we’re going to 1989, and the release of Sega Super Circuit, a game that you could convincingly argue wasn’t even a video game at all.
Instead, it was a room-sized monster that featured a number of modified OutRun arcade cabinets, a giant racetrack and some RC cars. The cars had cameras attached to them, and players received that feed in their cabinets, from which they controlled the vehicles.
It’s got to be the most exorbitant, pointlessly elaborate arcade thing of all time. Like, we’ve seen gimmicks come and go, from big lightguns to gyro-powered seats to touch screens, but a game that needed an empty warehouse just to set it up is some next level shit.
Don’t believe me about the warehouse?
Just look at this thing.
There’s not much else out there on the internet about this beast, though fansite OutRun86 (via Arcade Heroes) did manage to get hold of some flyers for the game’s only reported installation, in 1989 at the Tokyo Roof complex in Yokohama.
While a part-time gimmick — Sega was never going to find a permanent home for something like this — it looked fun as hell, as the cameras weren’t stuck behind the cars, but rather mounted so that the driver was given a low, first-person view of the action.
Up to 8 people could play at once. Fingers crossed it’s still around, sitting disassembled in a warehouse somewhere, just waiting for someone from Nintendo to be smart enough to dig it up and add banana peels…
Picture: system16
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Comments
6 responses to “1989 Sega Game Was A Racing Monstrosity”
Thats actually pretty awesome. This is why most people love Sega
DO WANT!
It’s just like the new Drone racing we’re seeing – but normal people could play this – while the drone racing would be too costly with crashes.
I do drone racing, the only major expense is the props, about $1-2 per bad crash if you lose a couple props. The drones are built tough out of carbon fiber.
This is the most badass thing ever 🙂 imagine with Go Pros on it now instead for a better video feed 🙂
Bad-ass! though Go Pros have input lag so wouldn’t be ideal, still use low-res cctv cameras in FPV racing.