Drivable Sega OutRun Arcade Cabinet makes commuting to work fun again

Sega’s OutRun videogame fed the racing dreams of millions of arcade-crazy people in the late 1980s. designer and artist Garnet Hertz was perhaps one of those people since his latest creation is an OutRun cabinet that actually goes places. The golf-cart-based augmented-reality enabled, er, vehicle is the first of its kind in the world. Using 8-bit graphic imagery similar to the one employed in the hit 1986 Sega game, the electric golf cart lets you steer though real life on-road obstacles so you get to enjoy the best of both worlds. With a 13 mph top speed, the drivable OutRun cabinet might not be an ideal replacement for your family car unless you find your daily commute to work not stimulating enough.

Getting the 1,100-pound arcade machine mounted on an old golf cart and getting the whole thing wasn’t an easy task which is where his background in engineering came in handy. The Fulbright Scholar and adjunct assistant professor at Pasadena Art Center College of Design bought the 1959 Turf Rider cart CraigsList and decided to mate it to the OutRun cabinet he purchased in ’08. Luckily, the footprint of the game cabinet matched the wheelbase of the cart. To make the snazzy drive, Hertz mounted the cabinet on top of the cart that was already stripped of its body with only the drivetrain remaining intact.

With a little help from his video-game development program students from the Irvine campus of the University of California, the first prototype of the vehicle was created; though Hertz soon discovered that the three-wheeled chassis of the cart could not support the weight of the cabinet. In another lucky turn of events, Hertz’s project got a generous backer in Irvine-based game-research initiative called Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds who offered him a replacement for the Turf Rider in the guise of a four-wheeled ‘07 model year golf cart.

The team spent a better part of the summer of ’10 prepping the cart and integrating the cabinet with the cart and Hertz even built a bespoke steering column to get the cart’s steering system linked to the game’s wheel. And just in case you are wondering what the finished product actually does, check this out- the vehicle actually simulates the classic arcade game on its virtual windshield and you can maneuver though real life obstacles while you “play” the game. With “real” foot pedals, steering and electric motors, the Sega OutRun Arcade Cabinet, er, vehicle qualifies as a legitimate car though you may require a special license to drive it in certain parts of the world.

Via: PopSci