Monday 5 September 2011

Jet Set Radio Fruit Machine (and more)

So recently in my eBay hunts for anything and everything Sega I came across this oddity. I had a crack at bidding on it but lost out though it didn't go for any where as much as I thought it would, but it's worth talking about I think.

Finding one of these in the UK is extremely rare as they were only seen in Japanese arcades. It's a jet Set radio fruit machine! The one on auction did not take money but rather tokens. The main draw of this machine the screen at the top of it which, judging from videos, uses in-game graphics from the Dreamcast game. Is this footage pre rendered videos or is this machine running on Naomi/Dreamcast like hardware?

There are a few videos of this neat machine on Youtube, which you can check out after the jump!


It's very slick, is it not? You wanna see it busting some Hideki Naganuma tunes though, right?

Here you go! There is a website for the machine still online here.It was developed by a company called Rodeo in 2003, so I'm surprised it's not jet Set Radio Future themed machine considering that game was released the year before.

On further investigation of the Rodeo website it appaers there made more Sega themed machines much like this one! First off, two cabinets based on Virtua Fighter from 2007, and these ones have an even more elaborate screens that wrap around the reels with graphics from Virtua Fighter 4. If this running on Naomi like hardware, is that was VF4 could have looked like on Dreamcast?

Last but not least there is 'Sonic Live!' from 2008. Don't worry, it has nothing in common with that infamous Archive comic special with the same name. Irt clearly uses assets and graphics from Sonic Adventure 2, but unlike the other two slot machines, does quite a lot of new things with them including having Sonic and his mates perform as a band with instruments! There are a few videos on the website, which show game play elements like racing against Shadow, UFO Catcher machines and even a Chao Garden feature!



There are only a handful of videos of this about, but boy does it look like a stunner. Who doesn't want to gamble to the beat of City Escapes annoying catchy theme? I would pay a high price for this, one day. Cor!

By the way if you were the lucky Brit who won the Jet Set Radio machine on eBay last week for such a cheap price, could you get in contact with us? We'd love to see some photos and videos of it! :D

1 comment:

Barry the Nomad said...

I love this machine! I had a webpage saved for the longest time from an American vendor selling the machine for around $250 (I think $350 with shipping). I never thought I'd buy it, and it has since sold out, but it was cool to know one was an online transaction away.