One of my lasting childhood memories is the Saab 900 based driving simulator at the Saab dealer in the next town. It was an OG 900 convertible that had been chopped in half behind the front seats, featuring a full dashboard and three-spoke steering wheel, and you could play Pole Position with it. It was fantastic and I still remember pushing the dashboard buttons that did nothing.
The same approach was done with Mazda’s Eunos brand, under which the first generation MX-5 Miata was marketed as the Roadster. In 1989, Mazda joined forces with the video game company Namco and Mitsubishi’s mechatronics arm, Mitsubishi Precision, to firstly create a driving simulator game that featured the new Roadster, as well as an arcade sim setup. The gaming cabinet was built using a Miata dashboard and tombstone seat, and in surviving photos you can see the full dash that even had a stereo fitted. In some setups, Mazda even provided actual Eunos Roadsters that were parked in front of projection screens, as Arcade Blogger reported a few years back.
In addition to all this being incredibly cool, it wasn’t just a marketing exercise. The driving simulator had real potential. A further development by Namco, called SimDrive, was the first arcade game to feature texture-mapped 3D polygons and what is called Gouraud shading, to provide continuous shading of surfaces on polygon meshes – a shape of things to come. SimDrive didn’t end up a fully launched commercial product, but it gave birth to something far better known: Ridge Racer, released in late 1993 in Japan.
Ridge Racer built on SimDrive’s System 22 hardware and was an instant hit. It’s an unquestionable 1990s gaming classic, complete with its made-up cars and soundtrack, something I can vividly remember decades later. Namco, having realized the game’s potential, returned with real Eunos Roadsters in custom setups for Ridge Racer Full Scale. The Miata deal was back on.
The marketing blurb for Full Scale is just delightful. “Super Realism Beyond Realism! Extremely Attractive Effect! Overwhelming live feeling! Faster, more beautiful, bodily sensible racing game with a real car. Can you challenge the maximum speed of 230 km/h?”
[Editor’s Note: I just want to mention I did something similar for an art project back in 2015 for the Indianapolis Museum of Art, but with an Atari 8-bit computer and a Lancia. – JT]
At the time, it would have cost $250,000 to fit an arcade with a real Miata built for Ridge Racer, and luckily they were as reliable as on the road. Arcade Blogger says an Eunos-based Full Scale setup survived decades of hard use in Blackpool, Britain, before finally being disassembled in 2019-2020. After repeated attempts and a degree of bungling, the Blackpool Full Scale setup, likely one of the last if not the last of its kind, was saved and safely stored from elements in 2022.
Ridge Racer spawned countless sequels, especially as Ridge Racer 2 was re-released for Sony’s new world-beating PlayStation console in 1995, as Ridge Racer Revolution, further enhancing its popularity. Along with Gran Turismo and Need For Speed, it absolutely is one of the definitive racing game franchises of the era.
1998’s Ridge Racer Type 4 introduced racing teams and story lines, as well as a memorable intro sequence that lives in my head rent free even today. It’s fun to think that the clip could just as well include a Mazda Miata.
[Source: Arcade Blogger]
Imagine trying to convince the board of the IMA to buy a Lancia off Craig’s list. Cool beans!
There was an example of the “full-Miata” Ridge Racer setup in an arcade at Fisherman’s Wharf (Pier 39?) in San Francisco ~25 years ago. I may or may not have played it – my memory these days is like a steel colander – but I do remember giving it a thorough going-over.
Many Miata things still worked, including the hood release and the trunk and fuel filler levers under the working center armrest lid. The shifter was present and shifted something, but it wasn’t the transmission. As I recall (again, suspect) even the headlight button worked to raise and lower the pop-ups; the radio may have been there, too.
Under the hood lived a lot of electronics. The trunk was fairly empty, except for the original Japanese-market Eunos owners manuals. Did I take them? You bet your sweet bippy I did. Pretty sure my Miata-owning buddy still has them.
I remember being absolutely mesmerized by the fact someone made an immersive video game out of a Miata (the word “sim” wasn’t really in my vocabulary then). The internet was very young in those days, so any information on this rig wasn’t just a Google search away. I do wonder what happened to that example.
Ugh, I hate it when I’m taking a nice walk on a deserted-but-pristine freeway and my shoe breaks right in the middle of the tunnel!
I played this once in Nashua NH. It was $5 to play iirc, and I had a hard time shifting with my left hand.
Gran Turismo converted me almost irreversibly to the dark side of racing games (sim, no fun, boo!) but I will always have a very soft spot for Ridge Racer. I remember seeing it in the arcades and being dazzled. Then just a few years later, playing Revolution on my hard-earned Playstation felt like a dream.
Wow that Miata has some legs.
Damn, wish I’d known about that exhibit in Indy. I still lived in Indiana back then and it was only a two hour drive. Would have loved to see that.
Fwiw, this version of Ridge Racer is completely lost to time. However, an arcade enthusiast in 2022 tried to fix one. I don’t think he succeeded: https://arcadeblogger.com/2022/11/20/the-last-ridge-racer/
Thank you! I was surprised that whole saga wasn’t part of the article, it’s way more interesting. Maybe a followup? I should just make my own version I guess.
Today I learned that Torch was famous in Indy!
Unfortunately, I’d moved away a decade or more prior; that exhibit would have been fun to see!
SEGA Joypolis had full motion simulators in Initial D cars. It’s since been remove, but it must have been incredible:
Initial D arcade game with real cars at Sega Joypolis Tokyo
I’m surprised Jason doesn’t have a Beetle based version in that basement of his running a Namco.
I remember getting to use one of the full roadster arcade cabinets at the wharf arcade in San Francisco in the mid 90’s.