Restoring the Galaxian3 Theatre 6, 1992 six player arcade machine

Summary

Introduction During the late 1980s, Namco set out to create the world’s largest arcade game. The result was Galaxian3: Project Dragoon; a 28 player behemoth that debuted in April 1990 at the International Garden and Greenery Exposition in Osaka, Japan. Codenamed GH-28, it featured real-time, flat-shaded 3D graphics, powered by hardware derived from the System 21 platform first used by 1988’s Winning Run. In 1991, a 16 player version (‘GM-16’) was released, introducing pre-rendered CGI backgrounds stored on LaserDisc and more performant 3D hardware. This version was sold to several arcades and establishments in the Asia region. In 1992, the experience was further condensed into a room-sized, six player version: “Galaxian3 Theatre 6″ (‘GT-6’). This was produced in greater numbers and saw a worldwide release. Source: The Arcade Flyer Archive A sequel to Project Dragoon, “Attack of the Zolgear” was released in 1994 and offered as a conversion kit in the form of replacement ROMs and LaserDiscs. Source: The Arcade Flyer Archive Tragically, in the early 2000s, many Galaxian3 installations were converted to Tsunami Visual Technologies’ Air Raid, a PC-based game, with most of the Galaxian3 electronics discarded in the process. As of 2025, there are four known remaining instances of GT-6; one in Europe, two in Japan and one in the USA. The latter resides at the Fun World arcade in Nashua, New Hampshire. Unfortunately the game has been out of service for over a decade, its exact condition unknown. Contact was established with the owner to allow an effort to repair the game and to preserve the data contained within; specifically the ROM data and the LaserDiscs. Trip 1: March 2024 A team assembled at Fun World to assess the game – myself Phil Bennett, Alex Cmaylo, Bill DeLeo and Scott Gurney. Alex and I had flown from California and we had two days to inspect the machine during the week while the arcade was closed. A World of Fun awaits! The machine is situated at the top of the...