Were there ever any 3-screen arcade racing games?

[Dcpmark]

I know there have been a few PC racing games that supported multiple monitors, but any in the arcade?

Thanks in advance.

[BadMouth]

off the top of my head:


TX-1


Sega F355 Challenge


Hard Drivin'/Race Drivin'



I know the multiple screen versions of F355 and Hard Drivin' aren't emulated.
I'm thinking TX-1 has all three screens in MAME, but there was some other issue.  I haven't tried it in a while.

[Malenko]

I know the multiple screen versions of F355 and Hard Drivin' aren't emulated.

Here comes Xiaou2 to complain how he donated money and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- to MAME and the 3 to 5 screens in Race Driving arent emulated.

[Dcpmark]

Thanks!

I've been obsessing about building a SMALL sit-down cab with 3 LCDs (2 folding away when not in use) for both racing and flying games. F355 would work nicely, but I just read it used 4 Naomi units! I think I can understand why it's not emulated yet. The F355 cabs themselves are still pricey at $6k - $7k, so I guess I'll have to stick with a 3-screen PC racing cab instead unless I can find a cheap non-functioning F355 with working innards.

[BadMouth]

Although the games didn't originally have 3 screens, I know people have succeeded in getting Supermodel emulator to run across three screens using the video cards app. (eyefinity or NVidia surround...don't remember which)  This might have been a newer SVN build that isn't available on the supermodel site yet.

Daytona and Sega Rally can be ran in a custom widescreen resolution in Model 2 Emulator (no other games can), so it might work with those also.

The main thing is that your video card allow you to specify one crazy wide resolution that covers all three screens. (ex 720x3840).
The emulators don't really support three screens, but they allow you a custom resolution which can be set to the proper dimensions.
It doesn't stretch the image, just renders more to each side of the original HUD.

[Malenko]

softTH will let you span all your monitors accross as if they were 1 giant monitor.

http://www.kegetys.fi/SoftTH/

[ant2]

my cabinet runs 3x 24" monitors

It uses an ATI card, so I run eyefinity to combine all 3 monitors in to one big monitor.

I couldnt get model2 to display properly with my set up (it looked stretched) but model3 and the dolphin emulator work perfect.

If you like playing racing sim type games too (pc based= then 3X monitors IMHO is the way to go, you get a much better sensation of speed.

any questions let me know.

[Dcpmark]

If you like playing racing sim type games too (pc based= then 3X monitors IMHO is the way to go, you get a much better sensation of speed.

any questions let me know.

Yes, you are my new hero and racing cab guru (well, you and BadMouth). How do you feel about a combo racing/flying cab? I'm thinking a right-hand flight stick and left-hard throttle will not get in the way of a good racing wheel in the middle….

[ant2]

Ha, thing is if you are modding an existing cabinet you will have to butcher so much to get 3 screens in place.

The car sim + flight sim has been done before. Ive seen a video on youtube, I dont think the guy was off here though.
If I liked flight sims I would probably do the same.
Check youtube for racing flight sim...

This guy made a rotating piece on the right arm, where he fixed the flight stick on one side and the g27 gearstick on the other. You then unclipped and flipped it to change them

I think with anything it needs to be easily inter changeable otherwise it will never get used. So you will need to design a big unit to hold both. His was massive.
This was the main reason I built a driving cabinet was I could never be arsed to take my wheel from the cupboard and scew it all in and put it all away again.

Keep us updated
Are you building from scratch?

[BadMouth]

The car sim + flight sim has been done before. Ive seen a video on youtube, I dont think the guy was off here though.

First video in the stickied "Links to Driving Cab Projects" thread 
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130665.0.html
(link to build thread above video)

[Fursphere]

my cabinet runs 3x 24" monitors

It uses an ATI card, so I run eyefinity to combine all 3 monitors in to one big monitor.

I couldnt get model2 to display properly with my set up (it looked stretched) but model3 and the dolphin emulator work perfect.

If you like playing racing sim type games too (pc based= then 3X monitors IMHO is the way to go, you get a much better sensation of speed.

any questions let me know.

The angles of the "outside" monitors looks pretty "steep" - does the tweaked graphics bother you much?  (the lines from the center monitor drastically changing when it jumps to the next monitor?)

I was originally looking at building a 3-screen cabinet, but the bezels the distortion killed the idea for me.   I've seen guys with 3x projects and a cured screen setups - but thats a lot of money and real estate for that kind of rig.

[Xiaou2]

Here comes Xiaou2 to complain how he donated money and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- to MAME and the 3 to 5 screens in Race Driving arent emulated.

 You Obviously lack Reading skill.

The one who was complaining, was Jeff Anderson, who runs Videotopia.  He graciously dumped and sent the roms to the Mame team... and years later, had not a single response or shred of progress.

 I only know this, because I had him help me dump a few TX-1 roms from my machine, for the Mame team... to which he grumbled about it.   I decided to sell the machine to him, because I lacked the time and money to repair it + mod it for easier transport (was going to rebuild with detachable monitors, and mount PCBs under a raised seat). 

  Its main assembly doesnt break down past a certain point only the seat and top seat connector lightbox comes apart) ... so you need wide doors, and cant make any tight corners.

 Jeff is a nice guy, with an amazing collection of authentic machines.  Videotopia is also a great idea, and was an awesome experience.   All of his machines were running real hardware, and he maintained them himself... as well as had custom displays that showed off internal controllers, and custom programmed quiz kiosks - that dispensed token awards for 100% correctly answered quizzes.

 Jeff stated, as far as my understanding goes,  that there was no need to emulate all the PCB boards of a Race Driven for the extra monitors in the Panorama version.   The only board utilized in those was just used for passing a video signal to the monitor. 

 He stated you could plug in as many monitors as you wanted (If memory serves correct.  He had tested 5 monitors working with it) ... and that you could specify each monitors 3d position (camera), where you wanted that monitor to display.   Which included above the car...   or even facing away from it.   You could actually make a full sphere display, if you had enough monitors.

 Panorama also has an extra track.  I think its a stock car oval.  I think I remember another collector friend tell me that you could set like +30 laps, and have a seriously awesome linked race with that setup.

[Xiaou2]

http://arcarc.xmission.com/Web%20Archives/Jeff%20Andersen%20%28Sep%2027%202003%29/rdp/default.htm

 1st Link = Jeff's info on Panorama.

 http://arcarc.xmission.com/Web%20Archives/Jeff%20Andersen%20%28Sep%2027%202003%29/rdp/s4.jpg


 And below from:   http://www.jmargolin.com/patents/vgame.htm

-----
Race Drivin' came with the ability to link two games together. All you have to do is connect them together with a Null modem Cable and make the appropriate selection in the Operator Screens in Self-Test. (Some early production Race Drivin's don't have the link capability; they would just need a few EPROMs in order to link.)

Race Drivin' Panorama came out around 1991. It had three displays to present the player with a wrap-around view. This was done by using three hardware sets. The Center Hardware simply used the game link to tell the two side displays where to look.
-----

 Another 3 monitor Arcade game is a version of Buggy Boy.

[Xiaou2]

 The complaint I had, was to due mainly to due with the many inadequacies of Mame to run games like TX-1 properly.

1)  Mame does not have a single switch shifter option.   So, no high - low gear shifter can be used correctly.

2)  Mame did not at that time, output more than 2 speakers. (have not checked to confirm if that was fixed recently or not)  TX-1 uses 4 speakers, and they help to convey the feeling of 3d space.  When you pass cars for example, the sounds of that car pass to the rear speaker.

3)  As far as I know, Mame cant connect to Optical pedals?  ... such as the ones used by TX-1, as well as Sega's Turbo.    This makes it so that If you had an existing game, or found a broken one cheap... where the PCBs were mission & or fried... you couldnt power it with Mame to get it functional.  (until such time as you may be able to afford repairs and or find functional parts.. if they even exist)

 So...

 Yes, you can get the monitors to display... and the wheel to operate.  But you cant use the shifter without a custom build, nor can you use the original pedals.   And... you dont get the true 4 speaker output, which is totally lame.

 (even Sega Turbo has 3 speakers, the larger speaker being a Sub, which plays the engine noises and tunnel amped effect)

 So.. what do most people end up doing?   Selling off the original parts, and Butchering an original machine... even IF they wanted to try to maintain its original purpose (with addition to being able to play a few more games on it).   Such changes will be so radical, that they are not really reversible anymore.   And most will choose the most drastic changes, because they figure its impossible to resurrect anyways.   Where as, if the ease of conversion was possible... they may often choose that route instead, which is fully reversible.   (PCBs and wire harnesses, as well as original controllers.. all left inside the original cab)

[ant2]

fursphere: that video was shortly after I first built the cabinet. I adjusted the screens several times since then. The video also recorded at some strange aspect ration, it was recorded using my girlfriends point and shoot camera in video mode. so it makes the angle look even worse.

With the monitors angled as per my video it was a bit more "car" like in that they were like your side windows. But they work better with less of an angle and thats how I have them now. Alot of people actually have them pretty much straight but because of the way I have the cabinet built I cant physically do that so i was unable to see if this worked any better.

The lines match up better now, although they are not perfect this is mainly because the monitor mounts I have used are not able to get the monitors completely level with each other.  so they are out by a few mms in level as they sag slightly because of the amount of extra metal mount connectors I have had to use to get them to be a lot higher than they are supposed to be, to match the center screen. I could probably get another monitor mount to fit in my cabinet if I wanted to blow another 300 plus quid, but it wouldnt be worth the money or an extra 5 hours to try and fit it all in. I am a bit of a perfectionist and it does annoy you when you actively look at the lines and they are out by a few mm, even after the bezel compensation has been adjusted but you really do not notice it when you are playing anything.


I play sega rally and daytona on 1 screen  (as it doesnt stretch properly on all 3) and you certainly miss the other 2, problem is you do need a beefy GFX card to drive the crazy resolution and obviously 3x monitors are not cheap (although they are going down in price every day)
 

Now that I have finished rebuilding\fixing up my games room I can finally play on it a bit more (although I want to spend a few more weekends adding a lot more games plus pscx2 support and then after this I want to build my second rig for LAN play) but after this ill do another video just shifting through all the games set up, LAN play and it will show the monitors less angled.

Alot of the sim racers spend some SERIOUS cash on their set ups, hell even mine cost well over 1000. I am very happy with it though and its nice to be able to play sim games evey now and then, yet still be able to play all the cool arcade games perfectly too.

[Malenko]

@ Xooshe  Thanks for proving me right. 3 post rant off topic about Race Driving.   

[Dcpmark]

Keep us updated
Are you building from scratch?

Yes, that's the plan, and space is at a premium. I plan on it being a small but immersive 3-screen unit.....probably shouldn't call it a cab. Like yours, but the seat will not be enclosed and it will be a 2-piece unit (seating + flight controls, racing wheel + display).

I'll have lots of questions soon.

Just found this.....this is more like what I had in mind:

http://shop.volairsim.com/Volair-Sim-Flight-Racing-Sim-Cockpit-VS-01.htm

[Fursphere]

Alot of the sim racers spend some SERIOUS cash on their set ups, hell even mine cost well over 1000. I am very happy with it though and its nice to be able to play sim games evey now and then, yet still be able to play all the cool arcade games perfectly too.

Still a hell of a lot cheaper than the real thing! 

Thanks for the insight on your setup.  Maybe someday I'll build a 3 screen setup - but for now my 32" in my cabinet is working pretty good.

[ant2]

Sounds good. I always wanted to enclose mine to make it more immersive but an enclosed wooden unit I think would get hot, have bad accoustics  and be hard to build.
I was thinking about adding a plastic sheet over it with hooks so it can be detached easily. I might try it out with an old shower curtain to see if its even worth attempting lol

Fursphere have you got a video or pics of your cabinet?

I was thinking of adding nfs themed art work to the sides and front of my cabinet which isnt covered with leather. Opinions? Or leave it plain?

[Singapura]

I'll just keep waiting for the Oculus Rift 

[Fursphere]

Sounds good. I always wanted to enclose mine to make it more immersive but an enclosed wooden unit I think would get hot, have bad accoustics  and be hard to build.
I was thinking about adding a plastic sheet over it with hooks so it can be detached easily. I might try it out with an old shower curtain to see if its even worth attempting lol

Fursphere have you got a video or pics of your cabinet?

I was thinking of adding nfs themed art work to the sides and front of my cabinet which isnt covered with leather. Opinions? Or leave it plain?

Here's a link to my build thread...   http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130864.0.html

[darbyweb]

My first post on the site - thought i should show my 3 screen setup running Supermodel - kids love it.
http://youtu.be/c4G4-9WWEAg]
[url]http://youtu.be/c4G4-9WWEAg[/url]



Never did succeed with Model 2 though and just let it run on each screen



We also have another PC in the same room running on a 42" Plasma that we link up for a bit of Model 2 Network fun



Dean.

[BadMouth]

My first post on the site - thought i should show my 3 screen setup running Supermodel - kids love it.

Welcome aboard! 

Thanks for posting that.  Seeing video of it is much better than reading that it's possible.

[ant2]

Hey darby, welcome have  you got any videos of your cabinet?
Your video of model2 just shows the image being repeated to each of the screens, this is how I have mine. There is a way to put it across all 3 screens with a wide screen hack but the aspect ratio looks way off to me. But if you find a way to get it working let me know.

Are you just linking model2 games or have you tried others?