Namco 500 GP arcade game attract demo and gameplay

Namco 500 GP arcade game, complete PCB boot-up sequence, attract demo and gameplay. This arrived here 27th of April 2004 and was not working so I just dumped it for MAME then it sat in a box waiting. I just repaired this today, it was a nasty job, took about 10 hours. I noticed a couple of graphic glitches in the video. This is caused by youtube's crappy 'processing'. The actual PCB works 100%. I must say this game looks pretty amazing for a 1998 game (actually released in 1999). So amazing in fact that I wired up a couple of potentiometers and I have included some (not very good) game play at the end (about the last 3 minutes). Unfortunately it's a bit difficult to control the bike with a couple of pots (brake and bank are wired up to pots, throttle is hard-wired full on because I'm not an octopus), the game requires heavy and specific usage of the throttle and brake on the corners as well as banking left & right so I sort of crash a lot and spend more time in the dirt than on the track, but hey, I came 9th out of 17 so not that bad. Anyway you get the idea :-)

The game uses three 5k-ohm pots for bank left/right, throttle and brake and a motion sensor on the front panel between the handlebars to detect when you crouch down over the tank to increase the streamlining which makes you go faster on the straights. The game controls are quite realistic so you need to understand how to ride a real bike, you must keep your feet on the foot pegs and lean the bike and accelerate and brake at the right time. I believe this game is very rare and had a limit release. I've never seen one in an arcade and you're unlikely to see one now so this is as good as it gets ;-)
See my site for more good stuff at http://guru.mameworld.info

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Namco
• 500
• GP
• motorbike
• racing
• bike
• grand
• prix
• motocross
• System23
• 3D