https://philwip.com/2025/04/14/galaxian-3-project-revival/
"During the late 1980s, Namco set out to create the world’s largest arcade
game. The result was
Galaxian3: Project Dragoon; a 28 player behemoth that
debuted in April 1990 at the International Garden and Greenery Exposition in
Osaka, Japan. Codenamed GH-28, it featured real-time, flat-shaded 3D graphics,
powered by hardware derived from the System 21 platform first used by 1988’s
Winning Run.
In 1991, a 16 player version (‘GM-16’) was released, introducing pre-rendered
CGI backgrounds stored on LaserDisc and faster 3D hardware. This version was
sold to several arcades and establishments in the Asia region.
In 1992, the experience was further condensed into a room-sized, six player
version: “Galaxian3 Theatre 6″ (‘GT-6’). This was produced in greater numbers
and saw a worldwide release.
A sequel to
Project Dragoon, “Attack of the Zolgear” was released in 1994 and
offered as a conversion kit in the form of replacement ROMs and LaserDiscs.
Tragically, in the early 2000s, many
Galaxian3 installations were converted
to Tsunami Visual Technologies’
Air Raid, a PC-based game, with most of the
Galaxian3 electronics discarded in the process.
As of 2025, there are four known remaining instances of GT-6; one in Europe,
two in Japan and one in the USA. The latter resides at the Fun World arcade in
Nashua, New Hampshire. Unfortunately the game has been out of service for over
a decade, its exact condition unknown.
Contact was established with the owner to allow an effort to repair the game
and to preserve the data contained within; specifically the ROM data and the
LaserDiscs."
Great to see people doing this valuable repair and preservation work!
Via Yifei Zhan.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics