Through Sega’s history, they have launched a variety of games as Medium scale attractions – not necessarily something that would fill up a huge space in an amusement park like a ride but not small enough that would allow for a typical mom & pop arcade to have it either. Some of those have carried the “Special” moniker – The Lost World: Special, House of the Dead 4 Special or Showdown. Now they have taken their popular light-gun game Transformers: Human Alliance and given it the Special works, while hearkening back to another famous gaming technology of theirs – the Sega R360.
If you are unfamiliar with the Sega R360, it was a gyroscopic arcade cabinet that allowed the user to be moved in any direction. It supported several games in the 1990s but they are rather hard to find now – I knew of an FEC here locally that had 2 of them but when that facility closed down, they left them outside and uncovered. One local guy was trying to restore one years ago but I don’t know what became of that; there was a working unit in Bountiful, UT back around 2009 but when the landlord sold that location off, I do not know what became of it. It was quite a sight to behold in person though. There is a small but active community of R360 fans on Facebook, which you can find here.
UPDATE: The Tokyo Joypolis has posted a video of this in action to their Twitter account:
【7月18日オープン】いよいよ明日オープンの『トランスフォーマー・ヒューマンアライアンス スペシャル』のプレオープン開始ポリ〜♪早速たくさんの人が体験してくれて嬉しい(((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o))) 楽しみにしててね〜♪ pic.twitter.com/YZW7p5pNiy
— 東京ジョイポリス (@TokyoJoypolis) July 17, 2015
As you can see from the photo & video here, this new take on the R360 can hold two people at a time, giving it a one-up on the single player R360 design. They also have re-done the controls – while the standard arcade version of the game uses a mounted gun, this attraction uses an odd joystick combo, with the left device looking very much like a Wii Nunchuck controller. What that is for is unclear but given that the arcade version of this is just point-and-shoot, a secondary control like that seems to hint that this software is going to be a bit different from the arcade version we are familiar with. [Official Transformers Special Page]
According to this page, the game is intended for Japan-only, giving you another reason to stop by the Tokyo Joypolis if you just so happen to be in the area. What are your thoughts about this new development?
nice real shame it wont see Europe etc? its about time i heard something new from sega arcade? ? there awfully quiet ATM!really hoping something big comes along soon.
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I think it has a fair chance to see a European release. After all, Sega Amusements Europe released the Special models of Let’s Go Jungle and The House of the Dead 4 in Europe, two attractions that premiered at Tokyo Joypolis. Plus, they are still heavily promoting Transformers Human Alliance around here. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Transformers Special being showcased at EAG 2016.
Not exactly the game I would expect to see in an R360 cabinet. Hopefully more pictures of the controls get posted soon since I’m curious as to how this works.