The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Retro Coin Op Synopsis

The biggest movie of 1997 came to the video arcade that same year, putting scare-hungry players right in the middle of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Designed by Sega, the game was one of the most elaborate light gun shooters created to that date, and certainly one of the most heart-stopping. With only a tranquilizer gun at your side, you (or you and a friend) drove into the heart of “Site B,” breeding ground for rexes and raptors and pterodons (oh, my!)

Presumably, your character used a tranquilizer gun because he was a humanitarian. The dinos were also humanitarians, but in the same way that some people are vegetarians. They wanted nothing more than to dine on your bones, and it took a quick trigger finger to keep that from happening, firing at the speedy raptors, enormous T-rexes, tiny compsognathuses and more.

The game had five stages, but the story was rarely the same twice. There was a simple cause and effect at play—the more accurate your shots, the easier your path. Wild shots rarely paid off, as tender-skinned humans often got in the way. As a further incentive for accuracy, boss dinos and other dangerous objects had small colored circles on their bodies, indicating “sweet spots.” Hitting the mark kept the dino at bay, forcing it off the attack and preserving your precious lifebar.

Additional health was occasionally up for the taking, as were weapon power-ups like a laser sight, grenades, a shotgun and lightning (tranquilizer lightning, of course). Rewards usually came after rescuing a human from dino attack, which happened disturbingly frequently.

Everything about the game was designed to immerse players in the look and feel of the movie, from the detailed polygon graphics to the surround sound speakers, to a seat that rumbled with every dino step. In a two-player game, the T-rexes would even swoop down and catch one player in their mouths, forcing the other player to attempt a rescue. That kind of realism made The Lost World: Jurassic Park a dino-sized arcade hit, a faithful adaptation of the wildly successful feature film.

Arcade Machine Release History

1997 - The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Arcade Game Sub Categories

adventure
shooting

Machine Manufacturer

Sega

Other Arcade Game Links