|
 History
Jurassic Park
for arcade systems was developed and released in 1994 by Sega of Japan
during the peak of the Jurassic Park videogame craze. It was distributed
widely throughout the United States and was extremely popular in arcades
for some time after its release, continuing to be a fan favorite until
eventually being pulled due to its outdated status (for complete
technical details see below).
It is a
two-player first-person rail shooter by genre, although, unlike later
arcade games, it does not feature lightguns, and instead players have to
use triggered analog joysticks to aim the onscreen crosshair and shoot
at oncoming dinosaurs (and anything else in the way of the vehicle,
including logs, various signs and gates, and much else).
For many of the
dinosaurs, most notably the Tyrannosaurus, the game features Sega’s
standard and highly effective sprite scaled graphics. In terms of
gameplay, Jurassic Park for arcade is remarkably similar to Sega’s 1991
classic “Rail Chase” (even possessing a near identical cabinet and
moving seats) and Taito’s popular rail shooter “Operation Wolf”.
Gameplay
The game’s
premise is rather simple; the player(s) ride a Jurassic Park Jeep
through the park and attempt to survive by fending off hordes of
attacking dinosaurs and killing as many as possible. The title screen
explains that “a few months later...we return to the island...again”
although no actual explanation is given for the players’ arrival to Isla
Nublar. The game features many species of dinosaurs including the
Velociraptor, T. rex, Gallimimus, Brachiosaurus, Dilophosaurus,
Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Pteranodon, and a few others. The game even
includes several non-dinosaur species such as Itchysaurus.
Players start
the game in “Area-1”; Jurassic Park’s main gates, and are promptly
attacked by a T. rex. After evading the dinosaur the game becomes
nothing short of a wild ride as you cruise in a Jeep through the
jungles, lakes, caves, and highlands of “Area-2” and “Area-3” before
finally arriving to “Area-4”; Jurassic Park’s Visitor’s Center, where
you face hordes of hungry Velociraptors. After escaping the Visitor’s
Center you must defeat two last Tyrannosaurs for the adventure to
finally come to an end. The entire game can take anywhere from 15 to 20
minutes to complete.
Status
Jurassic Park
for the arcade is incredibly rare, as is evidenced by a recent survey
conducted by the Vintage Arcade Preservation Society (VAPS) of approximately 900 collectors and their nearly 20,000 arcade
games. The survey found that none of the participating collectors owned
this game, or even knew of any collectors owning the game. This does not
mean that no examples of this game exist; only that is exceedingly rare.
Although rarity is not always the best indicator of value, this arcade
game, should it be found, is expected to sell for many thousands of
dollars.
Technical
Details
Conversion class: Sega System 32
Main CPU: V60 (@ 16.10795 Mhz), Z80 (@ 8.053975 Mhz)
Sound chips: (2x) YM3438 (@ 8.053975 Mhz), RF5C68 (@ 12.5 Mhz)
Sound: Amplified Stereo (two channel)
Screen orientation: Horizontal
Screen type: Raster (standard resolution)
CRT: Color
Video resolution: 416 x 224 pixels
Aspect ratio: 4/3
Screen refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette colors: 16384
Players: Two (2)
Control panel layout: Multiple Player
Controls: Analog joystick with trigger
Buttons: One (1)
Directors: Juro Watari, Kenji Kanno
Programmers: Takeshi Goden, Toshikazu Goi, Kenji Yamamoto, Mari
Tsuruzoe, Hideshi Kawatake, Akira Ohe
Graphic designers: kyoshi Ieizumi, Megumi Matsuda, Nahoko Naruke,
Kenji Arai, Seiichi Yamagata, Jun Uriu, Shinichi Nakagawa
Sound: Saeko Sasaki, Maki Morrow
Mechanical designers: Yasuo Ishikawa, Masayoshi Yamada
Electrical designers: Hiroki Koyama, Tomoyuki Goto
Industrial designers: Kimio Tsuda, Hiroyuki Yoshimi
Screenshots
|
