While I was at the Sega Rally 3 launch last week, I got to see a little bit of what goes on at Sega Amusements Europe. It is a fun place! The developers from the former Sega Racing Studio turned up for a look at the finished product, but some members were also addicted to another machine – the UFO Catcher in the corner! They got quite good at it and managed to win quite a few times, which was impressive given the bulky nature of the prizes in the machine. As well as playing Sega Rally 3 against them, I took on the testing team (who are scarily good at the game). One particular tester known as “The Stig” also got to witness me making a real hash of things on the PS3 version of Sega Rally, and asked me the question of the day – “do you read UK:Resistance?”, which is one of those questions you’re always afraid to face in public.
Speaking of UK:R, one of my missions for the day was to locate the Sonic statue that Zorg made infamous. As you can see, the quest was successful! The building also contains many other items of interest for those of us raised on the Master System and Mega Drive. The warehouse is full of spares for games going right back to the early 1990s – I noticed things for the 1992 games Virtua Racing and Stadium Cross, but the collection extends through to the present day fairly comprehensively. I must admit to geeking out a bit when I saw the Spikeout marquee pictured below, and Scud Race is still a gem (which still isn’t available on home consoles). Meanwhile, the workshop contains various fun things, including the prototype “Super Challenge” cabinet from the Sega Rally 3 location tests and a disassembled 1995 Sega Rally cabinet, as well as various modern machines such as 2 Spicy and Virtua Tennis 3.
Have a peek at some pictures I gathered on my trip:
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- My cover is blown; I am a UK:R reader!
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- Since taking this picture, I have a craving for the game
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- This game would be in my dream arcade
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- Am I the only one who preferred it when arcade guns only came in primary colours?
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- That top box was changed for the final machine, it’s too tall!
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- Similarly, the car model was too long and has been shortened
If that’s was The Stig from Top Gear then you probably could have gotten alot of money for a picture of him.
Sadly, it was not Clarkson’s mate, but an extremely good Sega Rally player. Of course, if it was the real Stig, I wouldn’t know unless I was told!
Thanks for the write up on your visit HeavyElectricity. That brought back some great arcade gaming memories for me from the 1990s. Remember playing lots of Scud Race and Spikeout. It’s funny the latter game came up because I was only thinking about Spikeout the other day.
I remember playing this at the old Sega arcade in the basement of Hamley toyshop in London where they had a four player network very nicely arranged around one of the floor pillars. And just a few meters away were two deluxe Scud Race machines and a separate eight player network produced using four twin cabinets. Brilliant gaming.
That’s a cool prototype cabinet for Sega Rally 3 too. The final design is very pleasing aesthetically however and can’t wait to try it out. Cheers, all the best.
Hey another UK:R reader! Also, good stuff, We love this blog!
-Ryan
http://www.seganerds.com