Super cool F355 simulator upgrade project

A group of us in the video game world are working on a super cool (if we can toot our own horn) project that I hope will have some of my fellow 355 owners looking for a Sega 355 Challenge for their gameroom or garage. If you have not seen one yet it is a 1200Lb 3 screen simulator of our car: F355 Challenge - Videogame by Sega

One of the features of the game was a Japanese market only (unless special ordered) printer that would spit out a ticket with your lap times and performance such as braking, Gs, etc. We are exploiting that printer port to do a few things. First, the data will be captured and overlayed on an image of the ticket paper so you will get a .jpg of what would have printed. That image can be printed locally, this is a big deal because those printers are super hard to find and the paper is out of production, so now anyone with the sim can print tickets. But that is just the beginning. The data will be captured by an Arduino and passed to a Raspberry Pi that will display a really slick background graphic and the tickets will whizz on screen to a monitor (I am using a 42in mounted atop the game), but you could use anything that takes HDMI and can display 1080.

Ok, that is pretty cool, have some people over and your results are displayed on a leader board. But wait, there is more! We are going to set up a server so that the Raspberry Pi will upload your results and they will be sent to a leader board and compared against other racers online!

I have to ask, if you are a 355 owner, how could you not own this sim?
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In "Arcade mode" with auto braking and auto trans and traction control you can do that, but in sim mode, NOPE, you have to drive it.

 

I paid 2k for the cream of the crop. Give me a few days and I will post a how to guide to buy this sim.

 

One aspect of the game's design that helps with upgrades is that the Sega NAOMI system (this game uses 4 Sega NAOMI boards that are linked to share processing) is that it outputs in VGA. My next project is to pick up one of the Samsung curve TVs and see how it performs on the center channel. The aspect ratio is what I am concerned about. Many games in that era were developed on a widescreen aspect ratio then shipped with 4:3 type aspect ratio due to cost. Revenge from Mars is this way, you replace the 4:3 with a widescreen LCD and it looks so much better, not distorted at all. I won't know until I try, but if it works I will replace all 3 with curves and get a much larger wrap around effect with much smaller gaps.

Chad also acquired the overseas only F355 2 boardset that has 6 more tracks including Fiorano circuit and were going to get a setup done so that US owners can get those tracks working on their machines.

Also, just an FYI, the Sega NAOMI board is pretty much a pumped up Sega Dreamcast console, the Dreamcast version of the game is nearly identical to the arcade version (obviously single screen) in case anyone wanted a slightly smaller version, but the leaderboard functionality can't be adapted to the console version.

 

I do arcade parties a few times a year, and will be doing one sometime late spring early summer, I will be sure to post it here. I have right at 100 games with about 60 in the house at any given time, and the 355 sim is always there. Nothing like doing a lap around Longbeach with a cold beer in your hand.

 

Ran a circuit today to do a test print, gathering data on how the printer draws the commands sent to it by the game. This is what is printed out:
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As an Army vet, I have had it both ways. This project is all about making the best of this arcade game, we are not contesting it Vs a real car or any other comparison. I love to drive my car but I also love arcade games and this is an epic opportunity for both communities to benefit. Average price for this game is a lucky find of a few hundred to about 3k for top shelf stuff, and every op that wants to sell asks 5k. I looked for years and paid 2k for a superb example assembled from the best of 3 in the warehouse.

 

One neat aspect of the project is that the background graphic that the tickets that are displayed over can be customized by the end user, and the tickets as well, so that you could feature your own car or whatever your imagination and photoshop skills allow.

I know a few folks on the board have these sims, and I am hoping they will run into this thread.