There is a new racing game set to enter the arcade market this year and this one is coming from Sega Amusements Europe and Codemasters. It’s one console gamers may already be familiar with, GRID (or as it’s called on consoles Race Driver GRID). Thanks to a tipster who only calls himself Bill, we have your first detailed look at the game (we also contacted Sega first to ensure that it would be OK to go ahead with this as we had ran a post on this some weeks ago and were asked to remove it) as it was seen on location test at the Trocadero in London, UK. As you can see from the pictures, they are reusing the Sega Racing Classic cabinet, but have greatly improved the lighting to draw more attention to it. Here is what we know about it so far:
GRID features event based Racing – You chose and event and then chose a car from a selection of 4 per event.
3 Game Modes
Multiplayer – Quickrace
Single Player – Quickrace
Single Player – Championship: 3 Tiered competition, come 1st, 2nd or 3rd to move to the next tier. (Come first to unlock a special event in the next tier)
Many licensed cars to chose from including: Dodge Viper, Saleen S7, Aston Martin DB9, Bugatti Veyron, Pagani Zonda, Jaguar XKR
Real world environments including – Washington, San Francisco, Milan, Nurburgring, Donington
Full damage – Great fun in Multiplayer, damage is only visual and does not affect the handling of the cars
Reset button – puts you back on the track facing the right direction almost immediately so you get straight back into the race after a smash
I have not personally played GRID on consoles or PC so I’m not sure if it’s the kind of game that can just be dropped as-is into arcades or if they will be needing to change it a bit. I imagine that there will need to be some changes made and hopefully they are also enough to make the game stand above it’s console cousin. The addition of the arcade cabinet is already a plus but we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out more. Fortunately, we will have more exclusive information on GRID in the near future as it nears a release, with many more details(beyond the Stinger update below)
UPDATE: As soon as I posted this I checked the e-mail and Kevin Williams of the Stinger Report also sent me some additional information on the game(including a little hardware talk), along with pictures. Here’s Kevin’s deeper look at GRID
Name: ‘GRID’
Manufacturer: SEGA Amusement Europe
Developer: Codemasters
SEGA Amusement Europe (SAE) held a special LocTest for their in-house developed racing title – ‘GRID’; marking the first time consumer game publisher Codemasters has dabbled in the amusement scene – approached by SAE to license the game for coin-op. A location in London played host to two cabinets shown in a 70 per cent completed state. The prototype cabinets displayed were a version of the same system used to house ‘SEGA Classic Racing’ (now painted black). 
The arcade version of the of the original ‘Race Driver: Grid’ – a consumer street racing game launched in 2008, based on the Codemasters ‘TOCA Touring Car Championship’ series started in 1997. The arcade version featured a scaled down version of the original PC game running on a new PC architecture created exclusively to run the Ego game engine (this was not the SEGA Europa-R architecture).
The popular racing game in its arcade clothes includes both a ‘Championship mode’ and a ‘Quick Race mode’ – with the conventional game cockpit layout including ‘Recovery’ button, Up – Down gear shifter and force feed-back steering.
The prototype colourful neon-light ‘blinged’ cabinets were networked for two player racing, and included a ‘Race leader’ light for the audience. The final cabinets are being developed by SAE, and will support six-player simultaneous racing competition (but with no online or tournament support). The game following in the mould of the last SAE release (‘SEGA Rally 3’ in 2008) – though sources suggested that a special deluxe configuration is being considered for release.
The game is expected to be released in fall of this year, though it seems unlikely that a Japanese release will be considered. However sources revealed that SEGA USA will be testing a US specific conten
t version of the game (following the same track as seen with the SAE developed ‘Ford Racing’). SEGA US/UK hoping to make the squeeze on a crowded amusement driving scene, competing with – Namco’s still to be launched ‘Dead Heat Street Racing’, Taito’s ‘D1 GP: Arcade’, Konami’s ‘GTi-Club’ and to be launched ‘Road Fighter’, Global VR’s ‘NASCAR Team Racing’ and ‘TWISTED’ and InjoyMotion ‘Street Racing Stars’.
UPDATE #2 : AH reader RJAY sent us a video he took of the game from the location test.
Another racing game? Hooray? *sigh*
And notice the seven other titles Kevin mentions, which isn’t even a complete list of racers out there to compete with. The Chinese racers we’ve covered recently probably won’t attract much attention; Sega themselves have already released two racers this year (Sega Racing Classic and Hummer). I keep wondering when that market saturation point is reached but apparently the number of racers out there must mean that it will be a while before we reach it. I’m expecting to see a plethora of light-gun games towards the end of the year though, from the various companies.
The same could be said about the console\PC industry. I mean how many FPS games does a man\woman\child really need? Answer: One can NEVER have enough FPS games!
That is true – the console/PC industry does have it’s share of genre fillers but I think the problem is that the arcade industry has been whittled down mostly to racers, light-gun, dance games and fighters when it used to have a larger variety of game types to choose from. So it makes it feel a little more cramped. Granted – racers are better in the arcade than anywhere else thanks to the controls. They also a solid money makers. They have been since the first arcade racer came out in 1974. So I’m not against them, in fact I wouldn’t mind one more racer for my own arcade. But it is much easier to get excited about something that isn’t part of one of the four genres mentioned above in terms of arcades, at least in my opinion.
I think you are spot on that racers and shooters and dance and fighting games are what make money. Hence this is what the manufacturers make…..
It isn’t just another racer. It is yet another arcade game that is a port of a console game that has been out for a few years now.
sigh yet another boy racer, I get more excited about gun games that come out to be honest. although at least sega are starting to update their cabinets now at least compared to when R tuned was released last year. it would be ok if it was the late 90’s early millenium but now R tuned already looks dated. none the less I’ll be giving this a go when I find one
I am not a prolific gamer, but I have spent a lot of time and money in arcades since I was a kid (which sadly I am no longer) mainly playing racing games as I am a bit of a petrolhead.
I work right near the Trodadero and for the past few months have spent the equivalent of at least a pound a day playing this brilliant arcade racer. It is not simply as one post said ‘another boy racer’ it has great physics, gameplay, multiplayer made, graphics… and volume, so much volume.
Like I said I am not massively knowledgable about games, but I have done some competitive racing for real and this is the closest an arcade racer has come to that experience that I have seen. It is (was) brilliant.
Sadly and tragically it has been removed I found out on my trip to the Trocadero today. Instead I had to go take my frustration out on Sega Rally 3, which is frankly a poor pretender in comparison. I hope it comes back otherwise I will have to spend my money on drugs… think about that Trocadero/Sega/Codemasters.
That’s a bit drast
It’s a shame they removed GRID from… the grid. Well, seriously, I’d love to get my hands on this machine. But unfortunately all we have this side of the Atlantic is Sega Rally 3, too. Speaking of which, I wonder if Sega Rally will feature damage in its next installment, if it ever sees the light of the day, now that SRS has been disbanded…
Tested it in Tennispalatsi helsinki, great driving feel an controls . and the really fast (also hard) gameplay that NEEDS your sk1lls, is what gets me ignited. Only minus is this straaange feeling that the AI cars are harder at early laps , and “give up” little in the end part of race. :0 . 😉 This got me buying the old GRID game for my pc, hence i lost the previous. // (if want challenge in Grid 1-2 , my steam acc is Q3gun 😉