San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition. Even the title itself sounds cool. Like this just isn't any racing game. It's the Alcatraz Edition, and you have to be a hard core convict with a don't care mentality in order to win the race. This game is an upgrade to the original San Francisco Rush Extreme Racing. It adds 4 new cars, new music and 4 new tracks including The Rock where you race around and through Alcatraz prison. Yes this game is a nail biter. From the moment you sit in the comfortably controured seat to the quadraphonic sound built into the head rest, this games really rocks, no pun intended.

I have 2 classic driving games, an Outrun and a Super Offroad. Fun though they are, they don't hold the attention for todays kids. I needed something that would be in your face, challenging them to the task. I settled on getting an up-to-date sitdown driving game, but which one? After some thorough research I had settled on San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition. It had a cool cab, large monitor, cool graphics, and challenging courses. The only problem? I couldn't find one for sale. The few that popped up on ebay and other areas wanted well over a grand for them. For awhile there it seemed like it wasn't going to happen, not for that price.

My saving grace was that an arcade auction was coming up soon, and they usually had a decent amount of sitdown drivers that went for very fair prices. I watched, waited, and saved up my cash. Then auction day finally arrived. What I saw were 2 stripped down, beat-up, non-working Rush The Rocks. It was a very sad sight, nothing I wanted even on the cheap. My thoughts turned to other games, a Party Zone pinball, a Crazy Taxi, and a Cruisin Exotic. The Crazy Taxi broke while at the auction, and the other games went sky high on the price. Not wanting to leave home empty handed, I spent all my cash on a Robotron that was there. I had been wanting a Robotron for awhile now so this was the next best thing.

My thoughts had completely turned from the driving game when I received an out-of-the-blue email from someone. I had posted a Craigslist wanted ad a month prior looking for a Rush The Rock, and someone answered it saying they had one for sale. Lucky for me it was local. An arcade game operator around the area was selling it for a friend, and they just lowered the price. I was in. I brought cash in hand, bought the game and took her home. One thing I didn't notice when I bought the game was that the force feedback for the wheel was not working in one direction. I managed to troubleshoot the problem to a bad op amp on the driver board. I replace 2 of them for good measure, and force feedback was fully working again.

This game comes in 2 pieces, so it was really a bugger to get it down into the basement arcade, but of course I managed it. I must say this game has really been a blast to play.....or drive...or whatever. I'm going to be holding onto this game for a long time coming. And oh yeah, Alcatraz? YOU'RE GOING DOWN!

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