![hydro thunder arcade machine hydro thunder arcade machine](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0JTADSlPr_8/maxresdefault.jpg)
" has figured it out where nobody else has," says Ranck. Apparently the name is deceiving, however, as Ranck describes it as "kind of an expansion pack." He elaborates: "We were just gonna add some tracks, beef up the boats, add a new set of boats, and things like that." were actually working on an official "Hydro Thunder 2" that never made it very far in development. Enter new developer Specular Interactive and H2Overdrive.īefore Midway closed their arcade division, Ranck and co. Long story short, Blizzard cancelled Ghost, Ranck left, and then Eugene Jarvis (best known for classic games like Robotron and Defender, and current proprietor of arcade publisher/developer Raw Thrills) convinced him to form a company to make arcade games for Raw Thrills. Following that, he formed Swingin' Ape Studios, which produced the excellent shooter Metal Arms before getting bought by Blizzard to take over development on StarCraft Ghost. For the purposes of this story - oh yeah, this is supposed to be a preview of the new arcade boat racing game H2Overdrive I'll get to that soon, promise - the most relevant game he's worked is the much beloved Hydro Thunder, which he headed up at Midway San Diego approximately 10 years ago. Ranck isn't a household name in the game industry, but his track record holds up better than most.
![hydro thunder arcade machine hydro thunder arcade machine](https://www.used.forsale/sh-img/121105884_10220111871680884_8326135530415783825_n_hydro%2Bthunder%2Barcade.jpg)
The theory, as it goes in my head, is that people who have made games I've liked in the past will probably do so again, so when I heard from an arcade operator friend back in mid-2007 that Steve Ranck had started up a new development studio, I did a double take. If you ask my coworkers, they'll tell you I spend a bit too much of my time tracking developers. We go hands-on and deliver the first video footage of this spiritual successor to Hydro Thunder, from part of the team that made the original game. Hopefully there will be an X360/PS3 version of H2Overdrive before the end of the year He also tells us that “The whole cabinet is a radical departure from the original Hydro…This cabinet is brand new from the ground up.”
#Hydro thunder arcade machine update#
UPDATE #2: I asked Andrew Eloff at Raw Thrills’ about the throttle control on H2Overdrive and he has confirmed that the new games does indeed use the Hydro Throttle like what was used in the original game but it has been “upgraded to be more reliable PLUS with cool new features!”. Now just imagine the game running at 60 fps on a 42″ screen and we have a good idea of what it will look like in person Many thanks to them for sending us these pics. UPDATE: We just received the first screenshots of H2Overdrive from Raw Thrills’. We’ll have more on this when ATEI rolls around in a few days! The cabinet to be shown features a 42″ LCD HD screen, pulsing LED lights and the game itself looks “amazing”.
![hydro thunder arcade machine hydro thunder arcade machine](https://bid.captainsauctionwarehouse.com/images/lot/3747/37477_0.jpg)
In news that should be music to the ears of Hydro Thunder fans, Raw Thrills’ has brought together the original team that created Hydro Thunder to give us this new game, which will feature many of the things players loved about that game (such as the huge drops and many shortcuts) but add some new aspects to it as well (which they couldn’t say much about at this time).
#Hydro thunder arcade machine ps2#
Raw Thrills’ has revealed to us a brand new racing game that will be shown at ATEI next week that is tentatively called “H2Overdrive” (which is not based upon the PS2 game of the same name).