Holy Cow - YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS DRIVING CAB!!!!

[RetroJames]

 F1 Sit-down Racing Arcade-Style Machine!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3248316205&category=3945

[Dave_K.]

OMG! I know exactly how I'd setup that 3 monitor system.  Crap, why do all the good deals happen in LA anyway? (buyer must pick up business).  To me, I don't care much about the hotwheels plastic body (which is cool)...but I really like the 3 monitor housing and racing seat.

To bad they gutted everything...no controls, nothing.  Bet it doesn't even have a power supply (which would be hefty) for the monitors.  So I'm SURE nobody here would ever want to bid on this...right?....right?...

[SNAAAKE]

 
HOLY SH!T !!!

Dude,3 monitors....I think I am bidding...

[RetroJames]

The TVs alone are worth the 132 it is at.  I would love to know what it is really bid up to.  If that was in the South East I would try to grab it for sure.

[Spaced Invader]

I HATE living in the midwest!  

[tmasman]

HOLY SH!T !!!

Dude,3 monitors....I think I am bidding...

Um...
Are you going to pick it up in LA, California? I thought you were in NY...
That's a little bit of a drive to pick it up...  

[jerryjanis]

I can't believe that anybody has the space to fit this stuff...  An arcade cabinet is bad enough, but that thing is GIGANTIC.

[NY_in_TX]

this reminds me of a setup I saw at the IAA in Frankfurt last month.  The F1 body was on a motion platform and instead of 3 screens they mounted an LCD projector over the cockpit and projected the game on a curved wraparound seemless theater screen mounted in front...the effect was awesome.  

ny

[RandyT]

I've seen these.

A local mall had a NASCAR type store with a room full of these (with NASCAR bodies).  They were all networked together and you could race against others and it cost something like $5 a race.

It was pretty cool, but I think the novelty wore off and they folded....the one near me did anyway.

Hard to imagine that you could do too much with those screens unless an application were designed to take advantage of it.

RandyT

[RetroJames]

There is a game that takes full advantage of the three screens, got to this page and scroll to the bottom.

http://mickster.freeservers.com/custom.html

"Race Drivin Panorama Information
Race Drivin was also released in a three monitor panorama model. This version is extremely rare (rumored to be less than 100 made). I bought all the circuit boards and most of the wiring from a non-working machine. I fixed the pcbs and made the rest of the missing wiring harness. I created a test rig using one of my race driving cabinets. My plan is to buy a couple of 25 inch arcade monitors and add them to a Race Drivin cabinet and make my own Race Drivin Panorama machine. The picture to the right is of my 'test rig'. Here is a link to another website (only website I have found) with Race Drivin Panorama information."

[SirPoonga]

Hehe, find that race drving pcb  Or get Ferrari Challenge.  There are many racing games that used three monitors.

As for the computer, you'd need a fast computer with three video cards or a matrox that supports 4 monitors.  I've seen people (one of my friends too) use a 3 monitor setupto play unreal.

[Dave_K.]

Hard to imagine that you could do too much with those screens unless an application were designed to take advantage of it.

Ever hear of Grand Turismo 3 or 4 for the PS2?  You need 3 PS2's networked together and it will render the 2 side views.  IMHO this would be the one of the best (and cheapest) home driving simulators you could build.  Cheaper than 3 PCs running some simulator.

Now if GT3 or GT4 would only allow manual shift with clutch it would be perfect.  Unfortunally they axed that feature for gt4.

[RandyT]

Yeah, it'd be cool....but it's a lot of real-estate to take up.  Plus, you'd need to hack the motion base to really take advantage of it and all those PS2's and 3 copies of the game will cost a chunk of change too!  But, if you have the space, cash and time to devote to something that plays 3, maybe 4 games max,  it would be an interesting toy.

Or, you could just buy a DLP projector and sit close to the resulting 10' screen.    I think the effect you get from that is just as realistic.  I played Halo like this for hours and had a really weird "returning to reality" experience when I forced myself to stop .  It was the first time I felt that level of immersion in a game.

Driving games played like this are pretty realistic too, plus you can watch a movie on it afterwards .

RandyT

[night]

i am doing early design on a driving cab which is gonna be PC game only. i was really wanting multiscreen but its not all its cracked up to be. the best thing to do is get a big screen and run widescreen resolutions.
the projector sounds awesome but ur gonna have to buy it for me  

[ErikRuud]

RandyT,

I beleive you are referring to "Silicon Motor Speedway"

The original owners apparently over extended and went bankrupt.  Some one else bought up the chain at a bargain price and re-opened two thirds of them.

The one by me was one that re-opened.

The SMS system uses three projection screens (not monitors) for the forward and side views.  There is a monitor behind the driver to provide an image in the rear-view mirror.

[RandyT]

RandyT,

I beleive you are referring to "Silicon Motor Speedway"

The original owners apparently over extended and went bankrupt.  Some one else bought up the chain at a bargain price and re-opened two thirds of them.

The one by me was one that re-opened.

The SMS system uses three projection screens (not monitors) for the forward and side views.  There is a monitor behind the driver to provide an image in the rear-view mirror.

You're right, those are the ones!  I see now that they are quite different than the one on Ebay.  I actually went in for a race in one of those.  It was kind of cool, but the graphics struck me as outdated and it seemed difficult to control.  

It was a while ago, so I don't remember it awfully well.  Thanks for straightening me out .

RandyT

[ErikRuud]

A real NASCAR is difficult to control.

I have been too the one by me twice.  I think I did two races the first time. They give a choice of Manual or Automatic transmission.  I chose manual, becuase that is what I drive in real life.  BIG MISTAKE! The shifters in those cars are so loose(worn out?) that it is impossible to find the right gear!

A week after my first visit, my brother in law gave me a gift certificate to the place.  A few eeks later, I get an email saying that they are closing their doors in one week. So I ran down there and used up my gift certificate before it was no good.  I got in three races and I was able to get a video of the last race.

I thought the graphics were pretty good, not state of the art but pretty good.  One of the cool things is that the centers are networked, so you could be racing against people in the other centers.

[wboy]

Hard to imagine that you could do too much with those screens unless an application were designed to take advantage of it.

Ever hear of Grand Turismo 3 or 4 for the PS2?  You need 3 PS2's networked together and it will render the 2 side views.  IMHO this would be the one of the best (and cheapest) home driving simulators you could build.  Cheaper than 3 PCs running some simulator.

Now if GT3 or GT4 would only allow manual shift with clutch it would be perfect.  Unfortunally they axed that feature for gt4.

GT4?  or do you mean GT3 Concept?  GT4 is not due for release till late 2004.

The 3 monitor view in GT3 is pretty average anyway, as you can only effectively do time trials...  its doesn't let you race against any other cars, including CPU controlled ones.

There is a new GT4 official wheel that includes a side shifter, and supposedly 900 degrees of rotation   And it may include a clutch... I can't remember now... read it a while ago.