The Lost World: Jurassic Park Special (lost updated version of arcade light gun shooter; 1998)
The outside of a The Lost World: Special arcade cabinet in an undisclosed location.
Status: Lost
The Lost World Special is a 1998 Sega arcade game that is an updated version of their 1997 arcade hit The Lost World: Jurassic Park, based on the eponymous movie of the same name.
The updated version includes features that were not in the original version, due to the huge time constraints placed upon the game's developers Sega AM3, in order to get it released in time for the movie's premiere in the summer of 1997. The new features added include stylistic ones, including a new sound system, a new movie-theatre like cabinet improved hardware, gun recoil and more immersive elements, like air bursts whenever the T-Rex boss roared to stimulate it.
Meanwhile, the game followed the movie's plot much closer than the original version, mainly by removing the level with the Carnotaurus boss, and replacing it with one that follows the climax of the film, whereby the players have to defeat the T-Rex boss as it causes havoc in San Diego, California.[1] The arcade cabinet itself was far different to the original as well, with it being akin to a movie theatre that took a year for co-developers Sega AM4 to develop according to a developer interview in the British Sega Saturn Magazine in January 1998.[2]
The game since has become lost media, with neither the original or Special version being ported to home consoles in the years since. Meanwhile, the Supermodel emulator (of which emulated games based on the Sega Model 3 arcade board, of which both versions ran on) has no ROM for the Special version of the game, although they have one for the original. The only remaining pieces of the game are screenshots of the cabinet itself, and the aforementioned interview, alongside anecdotal and forum discussions about player memories and hunting for the game itself.[3]