Sega rally

Many hundreds of years ago, I was a student in Dublin Institute of Technology. That was so long ago that today, the college is known as Technical University of Dublin, and is located in a modern, swanky campus that's not too far from where I live.

One of my odd memories from that time was the absolutely abysmal student union. Where none of us Computer Science students seemed to feel welcome, though that could have just been me in that era of my life. The one reason we did visit the basement room selling shitty snacks and DIT branded apparel, was Sega Rally. It was, to my recollection, the only arcade cabinet on the entire campus.

I was, bluntly putting it, bad at it. But there were a few folks who loved every second of the game. Trying to beat high scores, nailing every corner, and pumping money into such an unforgiving machine.

It wasn't until later years that I appreciated the camaraderie we didn't take advantage of around this machine. In later years in college, we would bring PS2 consoles to hook up to the screens in the cafeteria. One memory I have was bringing Burnout 2, and declaring "watch this" to about a dozen people, only to have my car explode on the starting line from over-cooking it. I've done similar idiotic things throughout my life & career since.

But where Unreal Tournament was my intro to online FPS fun over LAN, that Sega Rally cabinet is where the interactive, in-person stuff really was born.

One day, when I have enough money to retire but too young to truly stop working, I would love to establish some sort of arcade with a goal of preserving the retro world before it all dies off as a distant memory. And Sega Rally would be one of my first installs. Despite the fact that it consumes an enormous amount of space.