One of the few remaining Coelacanths in the Sonic series is coming to a PC near you soon. Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car is a relatively obscure arcade title where the player drives in a car booth and assists a police clad Sonic. It’s also one of the earlier instances of a fully voiced Sonic early in the brand’s life, albeit in Japanese.
Sadly, it has been increasingly difficult to find a working machine in public, with one of the most recent reports being that some friends over at Sonic Paradise found the machine in a Spanish mall, albeit with a broken steering wheel.
Starting with the next release of MAME, you can enjoy this odd bit of Sonic history too, thanks to an effort to secure the board and the generous donations of many people. Further documentation about the game can be found here.
The video below, recorded by Gavin Hugh, shows one such working booth in Japan in 2012 and features game play. Using the steering wheel, the player drives through the busy city streets and avoids traffic until an encounter with Dr. Eggman happens. Regardless if you do well or nothing at all, you’ll reach the Eggman encounter and even if you beat him or not, the game is soon over.
No tickets are dispensed and the player is only awarded a score and a star ranking. It’s pretty basic as far as arcade games go, but that isn’t a big shock. It’s an attraction ride game for kids after all.
It’s not a unique game as there are many others with similar gameplay that remain undumped, but it is another obscure bit of Sonic history down. That doesn’t leave much left to dump, short of someone going crazy and finding/repairing a SegaSonic Popcorn Shop machine.
That said, if trying to preserve and dump old arcade boards interests you, definitely explore MAMEWorld and other preservation and documentation groups.
Arcade Games, Game News
13 Comments
Mention Cosmo Fighter somewhere.
You just did. :V
Is it weird that I’m excited just to finally actually see the damned game (other than on a video)? It’s goddamned mythical, after all.
“generous donations of many people” is actually a false statement.
I was the person that bought that game, had a indiegogo that garnered no interest, and got the game into MAMES hands. I assure you, aside from a few hundred bucks I received for my troubles, it wasn’t close to the shipping costs, $3000+. I’m glad to see it out for everyone and I’m even more happy that people seem to somehow still care.
Ahh, good to know. It’s another side of this whole preservation thing people usually don’t know much about. This stuff is certainly not cheap to come by. Anyway, it’s not much, but your work is really appreciated
As far as I know, I was the one person who stumped up the amount that you asked for to release the dump, and personally I commend you on being willing to release it for just the auction price rather than the auction price plus shipping. As for shipping, feel free to get in contact with me via Andy, I’ll see what I can do to reimburse part of the shipping as well – though I can’t handle all of it.
As someone who tends to request help getting Satellaview ROMs and only gets a donation once in a blue moon, I feel your pain, Battletoad and Mooglyguy. You have my sincere thanks for putting so much effort out for this game.
I thusfar havn’t been able to find it anywhere, so I don’t understand why it seems everything is over before anyone has played it at all.
I has it. :3
How much?
Was meant to be in reply to JackSkellingHog, in reference to the Patrol Car ROM. I’ve done a few video recordings of it already if one cares to check my YouTube. But I’m not entirely aquainted with how replies work on this Sonic Retro frontpage.
PLEASE
Ms. PACMAN TWINS also
Awesome, can’t wait to play Sonic Cosm… I mean Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car.