Laser Grand Prix: A Lost Media Mystery

[lemmyk2008]

Did some more digging, and found another flyer, this time letting us see un-cropped game screenshots and even some more in-depth looks at the cabinet itself. I also found another magazine that has another image of LGP.

 

[Bods]

what about Cosmos Circuit in the same Cabinet as well, even less on this one

 

[Bods]

Laser Grand Prix line here and other games

 

[Bods]

Could find them on the site but

The PCB Pics Are Still There

 

[lemmyk2008]

what about Cosmos Circuit in the same Cabinet as well, even less on this one

View attachment 8456

Yeah, about Cosmos Circuit... that's a whole other can of worms. I think we should focus on LGP for now, then try to find Cosmos. However, it is interesting that it got an MSX port while LGP didn't.

EDIT: Actually, there might be something related to this game that might help on this search. On Dragon's Lair Project, "Cosmos Circuit" is listed under the Prototypes section, despite there being evidence the game was indeed released. What is interesting is that they mention that the game screenshots were said to come "directly from Taito archives". If we could find out what this is, they may have more info on LGP, or even a full cabinet. Just an idea, though.

 

[lemmyk2008]

Decided to scour the bowels of the internet for anything Cosmos Circuit-related, and I found this picture on a weird Indonesian website. Supposedly, this was taken at a supermarket in Jakarta in 1986. Not only does it show a Cosmos cabinet with what seems to be a never-before-seen carboard panel, but to the right, you can also see Top Gear, another extremely illusive racing laserdisc game made by the same guys who made Mr. Do! and Super Don Quix-Ote. The site says this came from an Instagram account called "perfectlife.id". I'll provide both the picture and a link to the original site.

.hitekno.com/games/2021/12/10/131548/foto-jadul-arena-permainan-1980-an-netizen-kenang-kejayaan-mesin-ini

 

[lemmyk2008]

I was also able to find a Road Blaster cabinet that's TOTALLY NOT COSMOS CIRCUIT, providing further evidence the arcade version was indeed released:

 

[Alpha1]

Yeah Cosmos Circuit was released.

Taito on Twitter recently shared some pictures of their PCB archive and there's a box labelled Cosmos Circuit ❤️

 

[lemmyk2008]

Yeah Cosmos Circuit was released.

Taito on Twitter recently shared some pictures of their PCB archive and there's a box labelled Cosmos Circuit ❤️

Oh, neat! Could I have a link?

 

[lemmyk2008]

Yeah Cosmos Circuit was released.

Taito on Twitter recently shared some pictures of their PCB archive and there's a box labelled Cosmos Circuit ❤️

Also, that is interesting, as the page on DLP says that Cosmos went unreleased.

 

[lemmyk2008]

For those who can't find the tweet, Alpha1 was kind enough to give me the image he was referencing:

I also managed to find the original tweet via reverse image search, linked here:
twitter.com/TaitoASelection/status/1661968049883447296

 

[lemmyk2008]

Hey! Long time, no see! I think I might have found another lead: On the laserdisc image provided by DLP, it mentions another company called VAP Inc., a TV production company that likely had a hand in making the disc. Do you think they might know anything?

 

[lemmyk2008]

Another small update: I uploaded the game files (including Fantazia2's disc rip) to the Internet Archive for posterity's sake. You can find it here:
archive.org/details/lgp_20230914

 

[lemmyk2008]

Something else, too: I found an eBay listing for an ad for Laser Grand Prix taken from the November 1983 issue of RePlay Magazine. I noticed it wasn't scanned and put online, so I bought it and scanned it for all to see in high quality. It can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bKoKzlElJyTDIXUwbFTP4hIRU-jQvmpq/view

I'll also have it uploaded to archive.org a bit later.

 

[lemmyk2008]

No real updates, but merry belated Christmas, I guess.

 

[Bods]

Something else, too: I found an eBay listing for an ad for Laser Grand Prix taken from the November 1983 issue of RePlay Magazine. I noticed it wasn't scanned and put online, so I bought it and scanned it for all to see in high quality. It can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bKoKzlElJyTDIXUwbFTP4hIRU-jQvmpq/view

I'll also have it uploaded to archive.org a bit later.

Cockpit and Upright Not seen anything of an upright.

Pretty sure in arcade section of Zzap magazine it mentioned Upright of Sega Rail Chase but never seen any evidence of them either

 

[lemmyk2008]

This isn't necessarily related to LGP, but it does involve another lost arcade racing game. On a Facebook page called "Universal Arcade Fans", a user named Jim Hernandez uploaded clips of the laserdiscs of Top Gear 1 and 2, which I believed were fully lost. I took them both and uploaded them to my YouTube channel, as I felt it would help them be more easily accessible to the general public (Where I'm from, no one really uses Facebook anymore). However, in another post, Jim states that someone actually did the full rips of both discs, but did not provide any links. I tried looking around, and found nothing. Could anyone help me with this?

 

[Alpha1]

I know someone with a complete Top Gear game.

 

[Alpha1]

 

[lemmyk2008]

Wow! I recognize these pictures from the Facebook group, but I had no idea you actually knew the guy!
Also, I'm weirdly curious what the instructions in the bottom right say.