Rave Racer (Japan, RV1 Ver.B) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Rave Racer © 1995 Namco.

Rave Racer is a racing game and is the third arcade game in the Ridge Racer series. As with its prequels, success is dependent upon mastering the art of drifting, as this allows players to take corners at high speed. This is crucial in reaching timed check-points and overtaking rival racers.

Players can choose from either manual or automatic gears and start each place in last place. They then have a limited number of laps in which they can overtake opponents and ultimately win the race.

As well as including tracks from the earlier games, two new tracks are added to the sequel. There have also been improvement made to car handling, force feedback steering, and improved car and racetrack graphics. The new tracks contain various side roads, but some of them take more time than others to complete a full lap of the track.

The four tracks are: Ridger Racer short, City, Ridge Racer Long, Mountain. The race ends if either the timer expires or upon completion of the race.

TECHNICAL
Namco System 22 hardware
Game ID: RV

Main CPU: 68020 (@ 24.576 Mhz), (2x) TMS32025 (@ 49.152 Mhz), M37702 (@ 16.384 Mhz)
Sound Chips: C352 (@ 16.384 Mhz)

Control: steering wheel
Pedals: accelerator and brake

TRIVIA
Rave Racer was released in June 1995 in Europe, North America, and Japan.

It was one of the first games to feature high resolution 3D texture mapping, a feature that would not be seen on other platforms until the Sega's Dreamcast console, over three years later. "Rave Racer" ran at a resolution of 640x480 and 60 frames per second.

A Microsoft Windows version was originally under development for NEC's PowerVR graphics processor and was demonstrated in early 1996. The game was cancelled, however, and the PC wouldn't see A RR game until "Unbounded" in 2012. A PlayStation version was announced later in 1996, but it too was cancelled (although many of the game's elements would resurface in the Playstation-exclusive "Rage Racer").

Graphically enhanced versions of the City and Mountain tracks appear in Ridge Racer PSP as "Midtown Expressway" and "Greenpeak Highlands" respectively.

Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Rave Racer: Namco Game Sound Express Vol.24 - VICL-15048) on 21/10/1995.

SERIES

• Ridge Racer (1993, Arcade)
• Ridge Racer 2 (1994, Arcade)
• Rave Racer (1995, Arcade)
• Ridge Racer Revolution (1995, PlayStation)
• Rage Racer (1996, PlayStation)
• R4 - Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998, PlayStation)
• Ridge Racer V (1999, PS2)
• Ridge Racer 64 (2000, N64)
• Ridge Racer V - Arcade Battle (2000, Arcade)
• Ridge Racer DS (2004, DS)
• Ridge Racers (2005, PSP)
• Ridge Racer 6 (2005, XBOX360)
• Ridge Racers 2 (2006, PSP)
• Ridge Racer 7 (2006, PS3)
• Ridge Racer 3D (2011, 3DS)
• Ridge Racer (2011, PSVita)
• Ridge Racer Unbounded (2012, PS3/XBOX360/Windows)

STAFF
Game designers: Kenji Wakabayashi, Fumihiro Tanaka
Game programmers: Kazuhiro Mori, Takahiro Kakizawa, Yoichi Mizuno
Visual designers: Akira Fujii, Nobuhiro Morishita, Yoshikazu Komatsu, Norifumi Nagaoka
Visual programmers: Takashi Yano
Sound composers: Etsuo Ishii, Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso, Takayuki Aihara, Nobuyoshi Sano
Industrial & Graphic designers: Naotaka Yoshimatu, Takeshi Fujikawa
Mechanical designers: Shougo Kanebako, Toshifumi Ohara, Matsumi Ohta
Electrical designers: Kouichi Asano, Kei Kobayashi, Kousei Yahaba
Circuit designer: Kentaro Arai
PWB designer: Kazuhiro Abe
Direction: Kenji Wakabayashi

CONTRIBUTE
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