sega as-1 virtual rides unreleased ?

does somebody know anything about the as-1 sega virtual rides ? were they actually released in the arcades or they were just showed to the public and then cancelled?

i have found two videos about virtual rides, but i can't find any other info about it

http://www.youtube.com/v=s5UWcUoKZxw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaSwZ6NXsI8(it was supposed to be released for 32x too)

any info about the destiny of those as-1 and the as-1 project in general would be much appreciated i can only find an old wired article...

 

The AS-1 was a ride & it just showed films, so it's more likely to be near dodgems than an arcade.

I have no idea what films they released, they were expensive to go on and didn't interest me.

I don't know how a 32x port would work. You'd have no motion for a start & they would have to invent a game otherwise they might as well just sell a VCD/VHS.

 

uhm so some as-1 were actually released ?

from the video these as-1 look like laser games in huge cabinets, but i don't have actually ever seen one. I wonder how the megapolis one was supposed to work in 32x. Maybe it was a 32x-sega cd game ?

 

I remember a Sega unit I played years ago that was similar to the AS-1, so similar it could have been part of that line, though the seat was more like a spaceship/rollcage and the game was a space shooter where I blew up asteroids and avoided them with the ship. It's been a really long time so I can't tell you the name of the game or much more, but it was quite fun and, again, very similar to the system on display in the second video, but definitely not the Megalopolis game. The system I played may have been capable of playing the Megalopolis game, though the MJ title is much more complicated. Would have liked to have played that, and would love to know what happened to such a license. MJ looks like he did circa Scream/HIStory, which was around the time of Space Channel 5 if I remember correctly.

 

I once saw a print article that showed the French equivalent of SegaWorld taking delivery of AS-1 units, plus I'm fairly sure Megalopolis was represented at the Trocadero in London as well for a while. On the subject of this particular title, apart from being Tetsuya Mizugichi's first project it was also "recycled" for the Japanese exclusive Sega Video Magazine series (where it served as the opening and ending sequences for each volume, though a few of the very earliest tapes had Sonic instead). While there's never been any confirmation to my knowledge, I suspect Megalopolis would probably have required the Mega CD along with the 32X due to the sheer amount of FMV it featured... also, didn't HIStory predate Space Channel 5 by a few years?

 

Here's the page showing Megalopolis: Tokyo City Battle running on 32X:


(Consoles + 34 - july 1994)

IMHO, it was just a technical demo, similar to the one showing Ecco (on 32X).

The original version was produced by Tetsuya Mizuguchi and directed by Michael Arias:

A friend told me it was "playable" in Joypolis-Tokyo, but MJ wasn't featured in the show. Though, as said on the page I linked, he was originally asked to play in the movie. But you can see him in the other AS-1 movie: Space Pilote Licence:

 

very interesting infos about the as-1, i didn't know that it was mizuguchi first project!

youlote i have the same pics on an italian magazine, but the french magazine at least have some info about it. I don't know french, but many words of that language are similar to italian, so it seems to me that it does say that the 32x version will not feature michael jackson presence and commentary due to his problems with the law.

 

Actually, it seems to say Sega canceled the AS-1 version due to the participation of MJ. Sega only removed MJ from the movie and probably delayed its release, but it's not an unreleased project. Though, AS-1 are not very common. That's not the kind of machine which pop up on ebay/craigslist every day.

 

I remember seeing some footage of Megalopolis on an old french tv show...

 

ah ok, thanks for the translation.

Anyway,as-1 were expensive to made and probably broke very easily, thus very few of them seems to exist nowadays.

 

here is a photo of the cabinet, it was really huge

 

I'm pretty sure that is just a picture from the AS-1 version.

I'd love to know what type of "game" it is in an 8 person simulator where the ride is going to be the same for everyone? Maybe you get to vote on what to do? I didn't think they were interactive at all.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niZ4qg-vnP8 This video also claims it was in SEGAs own arcade.

 

Here is the video I was talking about, it's an episode of "L'oeil du cyclone" wich was a french tv show mainly about a subcultures, this episode is dedicated to the history of video games from the beginning to 1993:
http://vimeo.com/31482056

You can download a version of lower quality at http://www.abandonware-videos.org/affiche_vid.php?vid=5&page=1
I started making english subtitles for it a while ago, I'll post them if I can find them...

 

that would be wonderful, that episode looks interesting

 

Grab the video at http://vidownloader.com/index.php?url=http://vimeo.com/31482056
The subs are attached to this post.

 

thanks

 

I almost forgot to post this video of Space Pilote Licence


By the way, I don't have access to the first link in your first post.

 

Is it blocked or just 404'ing? If it's the latter, try this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5UWcUoKZxw