he was genuinely a huge inspiration for me, such a loss

they got actual full page coverage as late as sega race TV but now they're lucky to even have this 🥲

no numan athletics sharon and undercover cops rosa as well

the carnevil cab in the background just makes it

IMO they're neglecting that level creatively in general to be honest, couldn't believe they didn't include its JP/EU music in sonic symphony's CD medley either as it would've been such a good fit for that as well

it's come as a shock to pretty much everyone over in the amusement industry - he did suddenly stand down as CEO a few weeks ago, but from the sounds of things he had been ill for the past year and generally kept it quiet (even within sega amusements) until very recently... RIP

i honestly think it's a regional thing when it comes to touring car as i've seen plenty out there in europe, even years after it released - it's the same thing as sega rally but to a greater extent, as that was at least successful enough to get sequels (though daytona still did better in the US)

IIRC the arcade version only lasted a year before the cabs got converted to a mushiking revival - in looking at the patent referenced there, i additionally learned that kazuya takahashi (now a director at big N on DK bananza!) was also involved with it, which was the real surprise for me out of this

95% certain the vet they mention is kazuhiro mori, one of the ridge racer devs that left namco to do rally... was also trying to figure out who the protege is and i think it's this guy, as they also mention him being involved with sega race TV at yu suzuki's later team segaretro.org/Makoto_Shimo...

youtu.be/ic0Z32baI3o

i want to believe...

ah nice, is that sega park? i know they had derby owners there in the 00s

my hopium is that this is being snuck out quickly after the HOTD2 remake to fulfill the remainder of the license they agreed with sega 5+ years back now... if they sign anything else with them for more remakes, god/segata is truly dead