MAME Work-In-Progress: Panic! at the Park (Namco System 23, Panic Park)

Context and overall message

• In the late 1990s arcades were declining as development shifted to console-based chipsets. Manufacturers responded with large “Super Deluxe” cabinets intended to offer ride-like, out-of-home experiences.
• Super Deluxe titles are historically important but rarely ported to home systems and are difficult to emulate because very few dumps/test cases exist across the various Namco System 23 board variants.
• The referenced video is a work-in-progress (WIP) report showing progress getting Panic Park to boot and be mostly playable in MAME, narrated by the MOG Miner.

Arcade / Super Deluxe examples

• Final Furlong
• Rapid River
• Downhill Bikers
• Time Crisis 2
• Panic Park

Namco System 23 family (concise breakdown)

• System 22.5 (a.k.a. Gorgon): adds a 133 MHz MIPS CPU and upgraded 3D hardware; only two games known.
• System 23: removes sprites, ups CPU to 166 MHz; about four games.
• Super System 23: unknown upgrades; six games released, only one currently runs in MAME.
• System 23 Evolution 2: ups CPU to ~200 MHz; one known game (Crisis Zone).
• Primary emulation problem: very few games/dumps serve as test cases, making educated guesses unreliable — likened to a “Mount Everest” problem for driver development.

About Panic Park

• Released in 1997. Considered an early predecessor to microgame compilations (WarioWare-style rapid minigames).
• Two-player competitive cabinet: players stand side-by-side and each control a pair of levers with identical ranges; the goal is to physically push your control motion into the opponent’s space.
• Gameplay is physical and intense — reports of elbowing and shoulder-checking; the rumor of a US ban due to injuries is likely apocryphal but understandable.
• Notable for its cabinet-driven social and physical interaction rather than conventional head-to-head video combat.

MAME progress and technical state (WIP)

• After a couple of days’ work, Panic Park boots and is “mostly playable” in MAME.
• Major graphical and rendering issues remain:
  • No lighting implementation.
  • No alpha blending (transparency) working.
  • Multiple triangle depth-sorting issues, causing invisible obstacles and blocking gameplay (the most significant blocker).
• The developer is building a graphical debugger for System 23 to help diagnose and fix rendering problems.
• Having Panic Park running provides a valuable additional test case for the System 23 driver.

Strategies and tips

For players (arcade context)

• Expect very physical play; be mindful of safety and machine durability.
• Aggressive positioning and timing matter because the game rewards invading the opponent’s space.

For emulation developers

• Acquire more test cases — small game libraries per board variant make debugging fragile and slow.
• Prioritize fixes to the rendering pipeline (lighting, alpha blending, and especially correct triangle depth sorting) since depth errors can produce game-blocking invisible geometry.
• Use or develop graphical debugging tools specific to System 23 to inspect geometry, blending and sort order.

Other notes and commentary

• The presenter (MOG Miner) had previously posted a WIP video about System 23, paused development for years due to work, and has returned to progress the driver.
• The arcade scene has shifted toward redemption/gambling-focused setups (ticket/cheap-prize machines), changing the nature of modern arcades.
• Reference to a film quote from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (“Dog”) appears in the presentation.

Gamers, sources and people mentioned

• The MOG Miner (presenter)
• Zophar of Zophar’s Domain (upcoming interview mentioned)
• Mike (subtitle reads “Mike Tedar”) — described as the original author of Project Unreality (an early N64 emulator); name uncertain in auto-generated subtitles
• “One of the original two authors” of a short-lived Nintendo 64 emulator (unnamed in the subtitles)
• Other references/sources: arcade event California Extreme

Panic Park is now booting in MAME and is nearly playable, but critical rendering problems (especially triangle depth-sorting) remain. The additional test case and an upcoming graphical debugger should accelerate System 23 emulation progress.