Cruis'n USA (1994 Midway Mfg., Nintendo)
Click on Marquee for KLOV listing.
The Story: "Cruis'nnnnnnnnnn Yeayayayayayaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, Cruis'n USA, YEAH!"
Unless you were livin' in a van down by the river in the mid 1990's, then you know what I'm singing here. It's the theme song to one of the best arcade drivers to hit the scene. Cruis'n USA was one of the two arcade favorites that Nintendo had a hand in along with Midway, the other of course being Killer Instinct. Both were revolutionary for their time. And to hype these games even more, Nintendo announced that these titles would also launch on what was going to be dubbed as the new Nintendo "Ultra 64" home gaming system, which was supposed to be released in 1995. Even the in-game attract screens advertised the hype. Nintendo also claimed that these would be direct ports, meaning that the home console would perform equal to the arcade games. Unfortunately the hype was, well, just that, hype. The Nintendo "Ultra 64" wasn't released in time. It did eventually see a release late in 1996 and renamed the "Nintendo 64". Later on, both Cruis'n USA and Killer Instinct were released for the console. While Killer Instinct Gold was a pretty good game, it was slightly inferior to it's arcade counterpart. Unfortunately, many considered Cruis'n USA to be a badly butchered conversion for the N64. Mainly because of the controls and the over-censorship.
I have both games in my N64 collection. While I don't personally believe Cruis'n USA is as bad as many gamer's make it out to be, I do see their disgust with it. The arcade game is fun and has all the funny cliche's of the era. Babe's in bikini's, dude's with long hair headbanging, and, of course, President Clinton in a Hummer hot tub atop the White House. Nintendo, for whatever reason, removed all of these fun little thing's from the N64 title. Meanwhile, they left all the blood and gore in Killer Instinct Gold. Same hold's true for Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Why they censored the least offensive game of those three remain's a mystery.
While these fact's don't necessarily have anything to do with why I enjoyed and now own the arcade game, I just wanted to share the game's history. Even with all the ugly facts, Cruis'n USA was a huge hit in the arcade. It was so successful that it had 2 sequels, Cruis'n World and Cruis'n Exotica. Later on, many similar games would come along, one being Atari's California Speed. I had fond memories of this game in particular and had the privelage of owning it in recent years. Unfortunately it's time had passed and a recent layoff forced me to sell it, along with a few other games. However, as luck would have it, it was during this time that a cheap deal on a nice Cruis'n USA came along...
The Score: Why, another Craigslist find of course. The game was a half an hour away and originally listed at $200. The listing claims that the game was working fine until the monitor recently crapped out, meaning the game is now "playing blind". Now I normally wouldn't entertain spending that much on a broken game. Don't get me wrong, it's still a decent asking price, but I've been collecting these games long enough to get spoiled on cheap, broken games. I was also unemployed at the time. With that said, I knew I was about to have a sale on at least one of my other driving games, and something was telling me this game would be worth fixing. So I figured "why not?". I make the short trip with Alli and we check the game out. We were both impressed with the overall condition of the game. Normally these are dirty and scarred up from years of commercial abuse. This one was a very nice example, clean and in very good condition overall. As described, the game powered up, but the monitor was completely dead. We negotiate, agree on $150, and I'm bringing home another heavy driving game.
The Service: Did you notice that I described this as another heavy driving game? Well, there's a reason why I decided I had to buy this one and add it to my lineup. The overall size of the cabinet is a little bit smaller than most sit-down models. On top of that, I had made plans to lose the 25" CRT alltogether and replace it with a more modern flat panel LCD. This would not only make this game more modern and energy efficient, it would also be much lighter and easier to deal with in a move, which I'm still hoping will happen soon. While I would never entertain putting an LCD screen in a classic arcade game, I did think it would look good in this one, seeing as how it's a more modern, higher resolution game. So upon arrival, I removed the dead monitor from the cabinet and started taking measurements. I then began searching for LCD TV's. I settled on an Insignia 29" LCD TV which turned out to be a perfect fit for this project. Not only that, but it was on clearance for a mere $179.99. Unfortunately, the nearest model was in Wentzville, about 75 miles away. And since it was a discontinued model, there was no option for shipping. Luckily I have a friend in the hobby. Jeremy (The Basement Arcade) agreed to pick up the TV for me while shopping with his wife in Wentzville the following day. Of course this means I'm now traveling to his home in Warrenton to claim it, but it did shave time and mileage from my commute. And of course, it was just another excuse for Alli and I to once again hang out in his awesome game room. On top of that, all of us wanted to go see the new "Wreck It Ralph" movie and decided to see it all together that evening while we were in town.
Once I finally got the LCD TV home, I figured out an easy, inexpensive and practical way to mount it in the cabinet. Pegboard. I simply had to ream out a few holes for the mounting brackets and then cut larger holes for ventilation and for cables to feed thru to the back of the cabinet. All I had to do was mount the TV to the pegboard, mount the pegboard to the cabinet and cut a new bezel out of black poster board. Everything fits perfectly. There is literally less than a half inch to spare on the sides and the front of the TV literally hug's the monitor glass. Even the poster board was the right size. To feed power to the TV, I took one of my old extension cords and cut off the outlet end. Then I cut the connector that provides power to the original monitor and wired in the outlet from the extension cord. Now the TV powers on with the game and automatically enters VGA mode, just like it belongs in there.
From there I obviously had to convert the game's video output to VGA. I searched eBay and found a Sintron GBS-8200 CGA to VGA converter. Perfect, just what I needed to get this game going with the new LCD. Once it arrived, I had to extend the power cable since it wasn't long enough to reach the front of the game. I would temporarily need to access the converter while having the screen in view to make adjustments. I also had to cut the original video connector from the game and wire in a 5-pin connector required for the converter. Once I had everything wired in, I spent a half an hour tweaking the on-screen video adjustments until I finally had the picture I wanted. It looks great. Even in widescreen. Of course, I can change to the 4:3 aspect at anytime simply by pressing a button on the remote control.
The only other pieces this game really needed was a new button cell battery and a new marquee. The original wasn't terrible, but it was warped and yellowed. Given the overall great condition of the cabinet along with the new LCD it received, I just thought this game deserved a new marquee. I also added a Nintendo logo to the back of the seat as well as casters for easy transport. Now it's a really sharp looking Cruis'n. Time to go coast to coast and hang with the President.
Unless you were livin' in a van down by the river in the mid 1990's, then you know what I'm singing here. It's the theme song to one of the best arcade drivers to hit the scene. Cruis'n USA was one of the two arcade favorites that Nintendo had a hand in along with Midway, the other of course being Killer Instinct. Both were revolutionary for their time. And to hype these games even more, Nintendo announced that these titles would also launch on what was going to be dubbed as the new Nintendo "Ultra 64" home gaming system, which was supposed to be released in 1995. Even the in-game attract screens advertised the hype. Nintendo also claimed that these would be direct ports, meaning that the home console would perform equal to the arcade games. Unfortunately the hype was, well, just that, hype. The Nintendo "Ultra 64" wasn't released in time. It did eventually see a release late in 1996 and renamed the "Nintendo 64". Later on, both Cruis'n USA and Killer Instinct were released for the console. While Killer Instinct Gold was a pretty good game, it was slightly inferior to it's arcade counterpart. Unfortunately, many considered Cruis'n USA to be a badly butchered conversion for the N64. Mainly because of the controls and the over-censorship.
I have both games in my N64 collection. While I don't personally believe Cruis'n USA is as bad as many gamer's make it out to be, I do see their disgust with it. The arcade game is fun and has all the funny cliche's of the era. Babe's in bikini's, dude's with long hair headbanging, and, of course, President Clinton in a Hummer hot tub atop the White House. Nintendo, for whatever reason, removed all of these fun little thing's from the N64 title. Meanwhile, they left all the blood and gore in Killer Instinct Gold. Same hold's true for Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Why they censored the least offensive game of those three remain's a mystery.
While these fact's don't necessarily have anything to do with why I enjoyed and now own the arcade game, I just wanted to share the game's history. Even with all the ugly facts, Cruis'n USA was a huge hit in the arcade. It was so successful that it had 2 sequels, Cruis'n World and Cruis'n Exotica. Later on, many similar games would come along, one being Atari's California Speed. I had fond memories of this game in particular and had the privelage of owning it in recent years. Unfortunately it's time had passed and a recent layoff forced me to sell it, along with a few other games. However, as luck would have it, it was during this time that a cheap deal on a nice Cruis'n USA came along...
The Score: Why, another Craigslist find of course. The game was a half an hour away and originally listed at $200. The listing claims that the game was working fine until the monitor recently crapped out, meaning the game is now "playing blind". Now I normally wouldn't entertain spending that much on a broken game. Don't get me wrong, it's still a decent asking price, but I've been collecting these games long enough to get spoiled on cheap, broken games. I was also unemployed at the time. With that said, I knew I was about to have a sale on at least one of my other driving games, and something was telling me this game would be worth fixing. So I figured "why not?". I make the short trip with Alli and we check the game out. We were both impressed with the overall condition of the game. Normally these are dirty and scarred up from years of commercial abuse. This one was a very nice example, clean and in very good condition overall. As described, the game powered up, but the monitor was completely dead. We negotiate, agree on $150, and I'm bringing home another heavy driving game.
The Service: Did you notice that I described this as another heavy driving game? Well, there's a reason why I decided I had to buy this one and add it to my lineup. The overall size of the cabinet is a little bit smaller than most sit-down models. On top of that, I had made plans to lose the 25" CRT alltogether and replace it with a more modern flat panel LCD. This would not only make this game more modern and energy efficient, it would also be much lighter and easier to deal with in a move, which I'm still hoping will happen soon. While I would never entertain putting an LCD screen in a classic arcade game, I did think it would look good in this one, seeing as how it's a more modern, higher resolution game. So upon arrival, I removed the dead monitor from the cabinet and started taking measurements. I then began searching for LCD TV's. I settled on an Insignia 29" LCD TV which turned out to be a perfect fit for this project. Not only that, but it was on clearance for a mere $179.99. Unfortunately, the nearest model was in Wentzville, about 75 miles away. And since it was a discontinued model, there was no option for shipping. Luckily I have a friend in the hobby. Jeremy (The Basement Arcade) agreed to pick up the TV for me while shopping with his wife in Wentzville the following day. Of course this means I'm now traveling to his home in Warrenton to claim it, but it did shave time and mileage from my commute. And of course, it was just another excuse for Alli and I to once again hang out in his awesome game room. On top of that, all of us wanted to go see the new "Wreck It Ralph" movie and decided to see it all together that evening while we were in town.
Once I finally got the LCD TV home, I figured out an easy, inexpensive and practical way to mount it in the cabinet. Pegboard. I simply had to ream out a few holes for the mounting brackets and then cut larger holes for ventilation and for cables to feed thru to the back of the cabinet. All I had to do was mount the TV to the pegboard, mount the pegboard to the cabinet and cut a new bezel out of black poster board. Everything fits perfectly. There is literally less than a half inch to spare on the sides and the front of the TV literally hug's the monitor glass. Even the poster board was the right size. To feed power to the TV, I took one of my old extension cords and cut off the outlet end. Then I cut the connector that provides power to the original monitor and wired in the outlet from the extension cord. Now the TV powers on with the game and automatically enters VGA mode, just like it belongs in there.
From there I obviously had to convert the game's video output to VGA. I searched eBay and found a Sintron GBS-8200 CGA to VGA converter. Perfect, just what I needed to get this game going with the new LCD. Once it arrived, I had to extend the power cable since it wasn't long enough to reach the front of the game. I would temporarily need to access the converter while having the screen in view to make adjustments. I also had to cut the original video connector from the game and wire in a 5-pin connector required for the converter. Once I had everything wired in, I spent a half an hour tweaking the on-screen video adjustments until I finally had the picture I wanted. It looks great. Even in widescreen. Of course, I can change to the 4:3 aspect at anytime simply by pressing a button on the remote control.
The only other pieces this game really needed was a new button cell battery and a new marquee. The original wasn't terrible, but it was warped and yellowed. Given the overall great condition of the cabinet along with the new LCD it received, I just thought this game deserved a new marquee. I also added a Nintendo logo to the back of the seat as well as casters for easy transport. Now it's a really sharp looking Cruis'n. Time to go coast to coast and hang with the President.
