When Ridge Racer hit the arcades in the early 1990s, it came in a few different versions. The last variant used three large CRTs to create a wraparound display for the player. Incredibly rare, it’s believed that only a single-digit number of machines remain in existence. [beaumotplage] has secured a remaining example, and been working to preserve this historical artifact.
The first mission when it comes to this machine was to dump the ROMs, which have thus far not been preserved in any major archive. With that done, [beaumotplage] worked to hack a version of MAME that could emulate the Three Monitor Version’s unique mode of operation. As it turns out, each screen is driven by its own arcade board, with the three boards linked via C139 serial links. To emulate this, the trick was simply to write some C139 linkup code and run three versions of MAME all at once, letting them communicate with each other as the original boards would have. It’s a little janky in operation right now, but it does work!
You can download the hacked version of MAME for three-monitor operation here, though note that this does not include the ROM dumps from the machine itself. We look forward to seeing if the hardware ends up getting a full restoration back to operational standard, too.
Overall, this work goes to show that arcade preservation and archival work sometimes requires getting deep into the nitty-gritty technical stuff.
The you for doing
… the lords work.
Amen
If only the Mame devs would introduce a mandatory bezel between the screens :/
A) This has not been merged into mainline MAME yet mostly because [beaumotplage] has not yet created a pull request, and it’s kinda hard to merge in a feature that the author has not yet requested to be merged.
B) MAME has an artwork system, and it would basically be Layouting 101 for someone to create such an external artwork file.
C) you’d want this one three monitors anyway
Pull request #13867 should have what is needed (the CRCs for the new ROMs are in).
That was created after less than enthusiastic responses to #13421 (Feb 2025).
I did the initial C139 code but I don’t have the skills to push #13867 over-the-line and I suspect Sailorsat has lost heart. I’m certainly not saying all criticisms are invalid either, although others on the reviews could maybe chip-in to help implement the code?
I could go the other way and do a single-instance build* (like Drivers Eyes) with none of the external networking and a hugely simplified C139 file, but that’d trample on the work in the other pulls which is ultimately more useful (multiplayer Namco etc).
(and MAME can do your bezels, rather than you just leaving a gap between windows with a black background)
There’s open pull requests by Sailorsat that include linkup code I worked on (see mid 2025). This game needs those changes in to be able to work.
Now I’m not saying ‘just accept them’, but I think a bit of help might be needed to get them over-the-line, and franky I don’t have the skills to help with some of the requested changes.
I could do a dumbed-down build for 3-screen games and ditch all the networking, but that would trample over those pull requests, and I think the world would like to see multiplayer Namco games out there.
(yes, I’m ‘beaumotplage’ to avoid confusion.)
Nice
What happened to the comments that were here previously?
Odd… they were there, then they were gone, and then they are back.
Here is the full setup so you can be Ridge Racing across three screens in minutes, includes improved controls and everything else you need.
limewire
[{(.com))}]
/d/46yxq#5A8mfdaK7x
Should only be up for a little under a week. Enjoy!