Ridge Racer (1993)

The title that started it all in the Ridge Racer series. This is the original version for Namco System 22 arcade machines. A PSX version was made a year later, with noticeable downgrades in textures and resolution due to hardware limitations, but adding new stuff such as more cars and the option to choose a third person view.

The game only offers one track where route varies depending on the difficulty, this setting also affects your car's peak speed, AI cars being a bit more smart and the starting/additional time when you reach a checkpoint. Plus that unlike in the later PSX version, you only control the red No. 76 car all the time. Default settings for the cabinet were used (two laps for Novice race and three laps for the rest, as well as default starting and additional times), which should be enough to cover everything it has to offer considering it's marketed as a true arcade racing title, to be honest I really like the day/night cycle effect they added for all modes except for Novice race.

00:00 - Start
01:51 - Novice Race
05:07 - Intermediate Race
08:53 - Advanced Race
13:47 - Time Trial