Ace Driver

To do: There are red crosses on the first turn and in the hospital building, which are removed in the Arcade Archives version.

Ace Driver continues Namco's lineage of open wheel arcade games with technology and flair of Ridge Racer.

Play as Computer Car#

A cheat mostly forgotten until its Arcade Archives release in 2026: to play as the black cars normally used as non-scored opponents, hold brake when coining up (or stepping on the gas pedal to start if set to free play), then hold the gear shifter up or down after selecting the racing class until the lights are out and the racers are set to go.

It is recommended to play with chase view when using this cheat, as the cockpit will remain that of the currently set (as set in service menu) team car.

Debugging Features#

To enable a couple of debug features in MAME, press Tab while the game is running to bring up MAME's menu. Choose Machine Configuration and change Enable Dev Inputs to Yes.

Recording Feature#

Pressing Dev Service Enter activates a recording feature that records the current input (including attract mode demo input if used during the view change button demonstration) for use in the "1 TO X CAN PLAY!" portion of the attract mode; Dev Service Exit stops the recording. The elapsed recording time and remaining recording capacity is displayed in the lower-right corner.

Free Camera#

Pressing Dev Unknown 2 activates a free camera mode. The steering wheel turns the camera left and right, the brake moves the camera forwards, and the shifter slowly raises and lowers the camera.

This can only be done in attract mode when it is demonstrating the view change button; pressing Dev Unknown 2 during gameplay or selection will restart the game back to title screen.

Build Dates#

Present at 0x400 in the main CPU.

94/10/20 16:22:25

Present at the beginning of the MCU.

NSTX7702 ver1.00
namco all rights reserved 93/7/01

Hidden Credit#

Present at 0x10 in both DSPs.

(c)namco

References#