Rush 2049 Special Edition
Manufactured by Atari Games / Midway Games West (c)2003
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Condition When Purchased:
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B
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Current Condition:
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B
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Rush 2049 Special Edition is an updated version of Rush 2049 which was produced by Atari in 1999. Evidently the company Betson had some hand in developing the upgrade and the game came out with Atari Game’s name and logo plastered all over it even through they were in the process of being acquired by Midway. From what I have read on the situation, the original Rush 2049 that came out in 1999 was pretty buggy… evidently in 2000 Atari released Rush 2049 Tournament Edition which was quickly recalled due to the fact that Midway closed down the online servers for the tournament (or something to that effect) but evidently there are still a few Tournament Edition machines around. In 2003 Betson and Atari teamed up and came out with the game that the original should have been… Rush 2049 Special Edition, which included a few new cars, a couple new tracks, etc.
I picked up this cabinet from the same local guy that I picked up Outrun 2 (and others) from. It originally came from Game World which closed down and the guy I bought it from picked up at auction. It was one of the few working games he was selling and being I was a Rush the Rock fan by this time, I immediately jumped on it. The game did work but the force feedback didn’t register. I figured the issue was a pretty minor one and after negotiations I ended up picking the game up for a song. Overall, as you can see to the left, the game came to me in pretty good shape for a one-time “routed” sit down driver. Esthetically the game had a few scratches, but nothing terrible by any stretch. Probably the biggest “issue” aside from the force feedback not working is the seat had a crack at the bottom right side. To this day that crack’s Duct-Tape repair job is holding though I heard from an arcade operator that using expandable foam to repair it works great… I have yet to try it though.
The force feedback issue turned out to be a fuse…
well, sort of. Once I dropped a new fuse in the force feedback did, indeed, work… for a couple games. The for some reason, the fuse would blow again. Hmmm… after dropping in another fuse I played some more but I noticed that if I turned the wheel to the right and hold it for just long enough, the fuse would blow. I figured there had to be something going on with the windings in the motor. Now, it’s been a while since I did this but from recollection I do believe I read that the windings in the motor could be cleaned with a wire brush. I remember I did take the motor apart and clean them up. I also, for good measure, dropped the force feedback level to “low”… when I put it all back together, the force feedback worked… and the game played… and I have yet to have to replace another fuse. I am not sure if it’s because the force feedback is set to low or because I actually did manage to clean the windings and I don’t really care at this point… the game works! Another thing I found odd was that the game was set to run in EGA mode (medium res)… but the monitor in the cabinet was a Tri-Res monitor that could easily handle the VGA signal the game can output. After plugging the monitors DSUB VGA plug directly in to the video card of the board-set and setting the dips to VGA, sure enough… the game played in VGA. To be 100% honest, there wasn’t much of a difference in graphics quality, but if you have the ability to run VGA, why not run VGA?
I guess if I was going to nit-pick at things, the monitor is a little dim. I have tried to adjust it out but I think it’s at a point where it needs a cap kit to brighten back up. The photo to the right doesn’t really do it justice though as the flash washes out the image quite a bit. When sitting in front of the game it doesn’t appear nearly as washed out… but could use a little improvement. The reason I’m holding off on re-capping is because it’s one of those wonderful Wells Gardner D9200 monitors. I am currently at 50/50 when it comes to recapping D9200’s… the first one I recapped worked great afterward. The 2nd (and last) one I recapped went from bad to… well…. >click< >click< >click<… ie: it didn’t work again. I pretty much loathe working on these newer digital monitors… I want to say I read that they were all soldered with lead-free solder, which sucks, but don’t quote me on that. I do know that there are a LOT of caps and they are just a pain in the ass to get out… work on… and put back in… so I am leaving “good enugh” alone at this point.
As for the game itself… it’s fun as hell. Think Rush the Rock but set in the future. The graphics are a step up from Rush the Rock… and the sounds are simply amazing…the sub ands speakers in the seat really help to envelop the racer. The force feedback is very similar feeling to Rush the Rock … which means it kicks ass! Like Rush the Rock, in this game you are free to roam wherever you want. You’re not stuck to the track and as a matter of fact, you’re often rewarded for roaming by finding cool areas to play around in and coins to collect. As for the coins, each level has a number of coins for you to collect… I’ve yet to find every coin from any one level. Short cuts are abound just like Rush the Rock as well. What sets this game apart from Rush the Rock is the ability to save a “career” (for a lack of a better name) via the keypad. Coins, miles accumulated, etc are remembered. Cars and paint schemes are unlocked when you race certain numbers of miles, etc. It’s actually a pretty nifty system. The only complaint I would have is that it only allows one high score per “record” on the high score list… so you can’t rack up a list of high scores unless you use different player records for each. If you don’t beat your last best time on a track, it’s simply not saved … had i known this from the get-go I probably wouldn’t have cleared out the high scores from the time it was living at Game World. Overall though, the game is a good time and certainly worthy of a spot on “Pit Row” in my garagecade.
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