3D Acceleration Comparison Ep14: Rave Racer on PowerVR **SPECIAL**

[@RazorEdge2006]

Rave Racer could have been a killer app for the PowerVR in their war against the later 3DFX card, but it's a shame Rave Racer was never released for the PC.

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

Namco System 22 uses a Motorola 68020 CPU and has a dedicated graphics chips from Evans and Sutherlands called TR3 (Texture Mapping, Real-Time, Real-Visual, Rendering System). Rave Racer arcade uses the System 22 along with Time Crisis 1 and Ridge Racer 1/2(and other games). Namco left Evans and Sutherland for Videologic graphic chips in the Namco System 23 which came out in 1997. It used multiple graphics chips working together but it was never stated if it used the PCX1(1996) or PCX2(1997). System 23 had games like Time Crisis 2 and Crisis Zone. Tekken and SoulEdge came out on the Sony ZN-1 arcade board which is just a PS1 with 2mb of video memory and the games are read from ROM instead of a cd.

[@apollosungod2819]

The PS1 based Namco arcade hardware was called "Namco System 11" since 1994 when Tekken was released and advertised as being the same hardware for Sony PlayStation only with 1MB Video RAM as opposed to 2MB Video RAM for arcade version and obviously the PS1 was CD-ROM based while the arcade used a large ROM for nanosecond access times. Despite Namco using their Namco System 22 and Namco System 23 arcade hardware, they basically sort of gave up on development of proprietary arcade hardware after System 23 was made and released in 1997 simply because in 1997 Sega of America's 90s management staff was busy spilling the beans and signing documents without proper N.D.A. forms while also deliberately giving the company named 3DFX in written contract the impression that somehow they were gonna be providing the 3d chipset solution for Sega's not so secret next gen hardware again because it was primarily Sega of America's management staff in the year 1997 that did not keep this a secret and kept sort of hinting at, announcing at and basically behaving delusional under the belief that the American gamer would buy into new next gen hardware prematurely with "Sega" This is completely contrary to how the Sega brand was managed in Japan where the Sega Saturn was holding a secured first place in console units sold until January 1997 (because of the release of Square's Final Fantasy VII game) that only slipped to second place in 1997 while Nintendo 64 was a distant third. This is when Sega of America's 90s management staff kept putting even more pressure on the Japanese Sega headquarters to make new next gen hardware contracts leading to the 3DFX mess which was leaked to the public but ended up costing the Sega parent company a ten million dollars or so legal settlement with 3DFX in 1997. As such because you could easily find out what hardware was being developed for Sega's next generation hardware given that Sega of America's 90s management staff refused to support and properly market the Sega Saturn leading to prematurely killing it off in late 1997 with 1998 being a joke year where SoA president Bernie Stolar released short supplies of games because he claimed they wouldn't sell anyway which gave Sony and Nintendo basically no competition. All that mess did with Sega of America's 90s management staff bad choices of 3DFX, the leaked info and the not so secret selection of PowerVR2 was an easy to figure out road map for Sony to begin next generation hardware development which in turn became the NEXT gen arcade platform for Namco to use the PS2 based chipset because there simply was no logical reason to keep working on System 23 derivative hardware or any PowerVR sequel hardware since Sony was investing big engineering efforts. This also gave Nintendo a sign that they had no choice but to follow and thus Nintendo had to begin finding a next generation hardware chipset alliance prematurely (because the Japanese Sega Saturn launched in November 1994 but Sega of America's management staff succeeded in making sure it failed by focusing on their 32X project instead, shifting programmers and marketing money into that money pit which immediately failed to sell and angered retailers which was the true reason why Kaybee Toy stores refused to carry the Sega Saturn because they were stuck with unsold and unreturnable 32X units and software therefore in the West the Sega Saturn launched in May 1995 and was killed off in May 1997 by Bernie Stolar himself after Tom Kalinske and Joe Miller did most of the damage before the Japanese launch. Also keep in mind that the real reason why Namco backed out of making PC platform versions of Tekken, Air Combat 22 and Rave Racer that would require the Videologic Power VR chipset is not really mysterious, because around 1996 to 1997 it was Microsoft themselves who released Direct X API and the Direct 3d outline so PC 3d graphics chipsets that would use proprietary software development tools or custom APIs were being prevented from having any relevance... even if 3DFX managed to somehow have their Glide API, they were basically being targeted by Microsoft as they would keep updating Direct X which eventually exposed some weaknesses in 3DFX hardware features. Therefore Namco would have developed three games that would require the PowerVR chipset and PC-DOS and release them when Microsoft would be requiring Direct 3d and Direct X compliance was just not gonna happen ever. Also note that it was Videologic who sought out Namco no different from early Nvidia seeking out Sega because those 3d chipset makers were seeking an alliance with strong arcade game maker companies and back then Namco and Sega were the dominant names. This is why 3DFX was seeking the same type of partnership or alliance and they found it with Atari Games (note that Atari Games was an arcade company not to be confused with Atari Corp) which led to the development of Atari Games's 3d graphics being powered by 3DFX but iirc there may have been some expensive costs to making such hardware because when those 3d arcade games came out and were not as profitable as expected, things changed and it was Midway Games who bought out Atari Games.

[@2PeteShakur]

Nice, i remember watching Cybernet on tv every weekend, a games review show in 1995, classic! Who remembers that it's Lucy Longhurst that narrated it?! ;)

[@AlexOjideagu2]

I remember this being front page on gaming magazines in 1995 promoting Rave Racer/Ridge Racer and the Power VR card

[@JohnSmith-iu8cj]

Look at the car smokers, Druaga1 here!

[@Laserdreamz]

Excellent video, this has always been a fascinating story since the news first broke.

[@turrican4d599]

The demo of Ultimate Race had more pleasing graphics than the full game two years later I think. I did love my PowerVR card.

[@vetzRetro]

Thanks :) That combo is great for alot of old retro games! If you are on the Vogons forum feel free to come and post some pics of the system when it's ready.

[@DragonSpikeXIII]

Nice video, full of information on one of the most obscure ridge racer games!

[@ConayR]

Rave Racer is a third (or fourth - depends on how you count 'em) game in the Ridge Racer series. So, yeah, it is a Ridge Racer game. :)

[@apollosungod2819]

Ridge Racer 1 arcade game Ridge Racer 2 is just the same game with new billboards a twin networked cabinet and a rear view mirror in first person mode Rave Racer was the third and was part of Namco's "Rave" series which originally was supposed to begin with Rave War... what was renamed Tekken which in turn used the weaker Sony PS1 based System 11 hardware aka a PS1 PCB with 1MB more of Video RAM. Ultimately the Sony PS1 based System 11 and System 12 arcade hardware despite being weaker ended up making Namco way more money and games which is why Namco easily transitioned to Sony PS2 based arcade hardware.

[@RandomlyDrumming]

Namco's "Rave Racer" has almost identical look and feel as their ow "Ridge Racer". :) In any case, this was very informative video. I didn't have I clue that Namco was planning to port Tekken to PC (although it's not unimaginable since Sega ported both Virtua Fighter 1 and 2 to PC).

[@nightwatchmanita7092]

i Remember that Dreamcast gpu is made by powervr,anyway, why Power vr exit from pc graphic card market?

[@SegaSaturnSubs]

NightWatchMan 85 Because by 2000 Nvidia and ATI basically left everyone to dust, including the old king 3dFx. It was not profitable anymore. PowerVR went the low-power route, however, and it has found much success in mobile devices - as a matter of fact, all iPhone GPUs have been PowerVRs from the start, and still are to this day.

[@beezle1976]

There was the Kyro II and Kyro III based cards, which had some moderate success.

[@vetzRetro]

The left one is the PowerVR version, right is the arcade. The footage had been shown in fullscreen at 1:10 with the PowerVR mark, so I thought people would instantly know. Anyway, I'll add some annotations to avoid any confusion in the future.

[@Gridseeker]

Wow I never knew Namco planned to enter into the PC gaming industry as Capcom! It´s a shame they never did it, imagine a Tekken for PC :(

[@PKMNwww411_MkII]

640x480 at 30fps at the time was snazzy. You could even achieve 60fps at 320x240.

[@gurerozdil3203]

It was a pity Videologic cancelled the Midas Arcade board based on the PowerVR. They should've completed it instead of focusing completely on the PC market and competing with 3Dfx, nVidia and ATI back in the day. It would be interesting to see what it could deliver for the arcades.

[@Blueflag04]

someone will eventually leak the whole files in the future

[@vetzRetro]

I've been in touch with one of the devs behind this and the files do still exist, but the demo was coded for Midas1 and 2 cards, which were both prototypes. It would take significant work to make it run on a retail PowerVR card.

[@theangel540]

Great videos! Just curious if you have tested a MIDAS card from compaq ?

[@vetzRetro]

Yes, I have. Very limited compatibility with Direct3D and with even PowerSGL games. It only basically works with titles released around 1996 and 1997.

[@vetzRetro]

Unfortunately not. Only way to play around with PowerVR is with the actual hardware. Maybe someone will write a wrapper at some point in the future.

[@Xale007]

I can't extract the EXE from vivanonoo, I have an error I try disbaling my antivirus, tryed 7zip winzip still the same

[@RetroAmateur1989]

namco in the pc industry, well that's new, in a retro kind of way.

[@actualarcade9825]

The arcade shots are upscaled right? I have the DX arcade machine, and the real hardware on a cut is far from that sharpness. Rave racer is quite choppy low res graphics in arcade.

[@Mau1wurf1977]

At 3:26 there are two versions side by side? What is the difference? The one on the left is a bit blurry.

[@RandomlyDrumming]

Guess I should've Google it before commenting... Thanks! :)

[@Mau1wurf1977]

Ah I get it now :)

[@DevilMaster]

So a Tekken port was in the works too. Was it ever leaked?

[@vetzRetro]

+DevilMaster Nope, not even a screenshot surfaced.