The 1st gameplay video of Racing Jam Super Deluxe (SDX) is here! This arcade machine from 1997 featured a 70" curved display, an LCD projector, a cockpit with realistic controls and a 4.1 channel surround sound system! There was and still is nothing else like it! But its high price of $24,500 ($39,600 adjusted for inflation), and huge size meant that only a few arcades could afford it/have room for it, making it incredibly rare. In 1997, the average price of a brand new car was about $19,000 so investing so much money into 1 machine that takes up so much space, did not make financial sense to most arcade operators. Konami has never been known for their racing games anyways, so most arcades passed on Racing Jam and it never got the attention it deserved.
No version of Racing Jam was ported to any home console and it is currently not playable through emulation. The only way to play this game is on an original machine, or by making a custom supergun setup. I was fortunate enough to acquire this Super Deluxe machine in 2019 and to my knowledge, it is the only machine known to me, but I hope I can be proven wrong. I plan on making multiple videos on Racing Jam to show the world what makes this game so amazing so be sure to subscribe and turn on bell notifications.
One reason why the Super Deluxe machine was so expensive was because it ran on the Konami Cobra hardware, a very powerful and complicated system that produced some of the best graphics the gaming world had ever seen. Sega was still ruling arcades in the late 90s and their Model 3 hardware seemed unbeatable in terms of graphical power. Konami had finally made a 3D arcade system that could rival Sega's hardware. But on top of being very expensive, the Cobra was power hungry, unreliable and suicidal thanks to a suicide battery that limited the game's life to about 10 years. Konami had made a racing game like no other and a machine that no other arcade manufacture was offering, yet Sega's Model 3 racer, Super GT, (AKA Scud Race), was much more successful.
If we are comparing Racing Jam to Sega Super GT, then Super GT has better graphics and a better presentation, but Racing Jam has more variety and replayablity. Super GT Plus had 8 cars and 5 circuit tracks, but Racing Jam had 19 customizable cars with 2 circuit tracks, 1 touge track and 4 gymkhana tracks (the only arcade racer to ever offer gymkhana racing). The circuit tracks and touge track could also be raced in a time trial mode and mirror mode. Racing Jam was the only driving game to have a handbrake, clutch and 5 speed H-gate shifter (plus reverse gear). The game is not a simulation racing game, but it did offer the most realistic controls.
In 1998, Racing Jam was released as a twin cabinet with 27" CRT monitors and as a deluxe cabinet with a 50" rear projection monitor. These versions were more affordable than the Super Deluxe machine, however they ran on the Konami NWK-TR hardware, which is inferior to the Konami Cobra in terms of graphics and audio. The Cobra version was only available in the Super Deluxe machine. So yes, there are 2 versions of the original Racing Jam that run on different hardware. As far as I know, they are the same game and the NWK-TR version isn't a that big of a downgrade. It runs at a resolution of 512 by 384 with 2.1 channels of sound, when the Cobra version runs at a resolution of 640 by 400 with 4.1 channels of sound. As for Racing Jam Chapter II, it only runs on the NWK-TR, because by the time that game came out in 1999, Konami had abandoned the Cobra. Chapter II is playable in a Super Deluxe cabinet with all the controls working.
More Racing Jam videos are to come, so be sure to subscribe and turn on bell notifications! Check out my video on Racing Jam Chapter II here!
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