'Eunos Roadster Driving Simulator' and 'Sim Drive' (lost Namco/Mazda driving simulators; 1990-1992)
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Eunos Roadster Driving Simulator cabinet.
Status: Lost
In 1990 and 1992, Namco (with involvement of Mazda Motors) developed two driving simulator prototypes based on the Mazda MX-5 (known as the Eunos Roadster in Japan). These driving simulator prototypes later became the basis of the 1993 arcade game Ridge Racer and its full scale counterpart.
Eunos Roadster Driving Simulator
In 1990, Namco (with the involvement of Mazda Motors) developed a driving simulator based on the Mazda MX-5 (known as the Eunos Roadster in Japan). It uses Namco's System 21 arcade hardware, unlike Sim Drive and the final game. The game simulates a Eunos Roadster in a flat-shaded three-dimensional environment. A second prototype based on the Eunos Roadster was later released in 1992.
Sim Drive
Sim Drive was shown at the 1992 AM Show. It is also the first ever arcade game to feature texture-mapped polygons, which Namco took advantage of the System 22 hardware, which uses the TR3 graphics chipset from Evans & Sutherland. It was not commercially released, with its concept being evolved into Ridge Racer Full Scale, released in 1994.
Status
Due to their obscurity, both simulators are somewhat hard to track. No screenshots or recordings of these prototypes have been released yet.