D1 Grand Prix Arcade is an arcade

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 racing game developed by Yuke's and published by Taito Corporation

Taito Corporation

The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....

, released in September 2008. The game underwent location test in late 2007, and was officially published in September 2008. The game samples various aspects of the D1 Grand Prix

D1 Grand Prix

The , abbreviated as D1GP and subtitled Professional Drift, is a production car drifting series from Japan. After several years of hosting amateur drifting contests, Option magazine & Tokyo Auto Salon founder Daijiro Inada, and drifting legend Keiichi Tsuchiya hosted a professional level drifting...

, and features some of the tracks, drivers and cars of it. The game also features Manabu Suzuki

Manabu Suzuki

is a former racing driver, journalist, sport announcer and radio and TV presenter for the automotive industry. He is a Japanese citizen and is nicknamed Mana-P .Suzuki competed in the Formula Toyota and Saurus Cup until the mid nineties...

 who "comments" the player's run.

For saving data the game writes it to a magnetic card, which is sold separately. The card also holds the player's name, his selected car and the progress through the game in various modes.

Gameplay

The player controls the car using the steering wheel, gear shifts and pedals. A hard steering maneuver combined with the handbrake puts the car into a drift. When the player is in a drift, the game prompts the player to apply opposite lock. Depending on the game mode, the player scores points during a drift, and earns more if he manages to follow the line and clip the points on the line.

The game is split into four modes:

1. Tutorial mode. It features a simple tutorial on driving a D1 tuned car and its particular handling. The usage of the handbrake is introduced as well. The player practices drifting on several circuits and sections of them, ending with a solo run on a 3-lap course.
2. Solo mode. This puts the player through a course he has selected, shooting for the maximum score. The player may also play through a short tutorial before the run.
3. Twin-run mode. Similar to the actual D1 main event, the player is teamed up with an AI rival chosen at random. The player starts behind the AI rival and needs to stay close to his opponent while performing a drift to score points. Getting a high score puts the player in front on the next run. Getting left behind, crashing, bumping into the rival car or being overtaken (when leading) will incur a penalty of points. The player gets to choose the course in this mode.
4. Drift championship mode is the final mode available in game. This part is essentially the top-8 shootout of a race. A player takes part in a single elimination tournament with 7 other AI drivers, with each run comprises a chase and lead run on the selected venue. The player advances if he outscores the opponent, and gets knocked out otherwise.

The link-up multiplayer is available if two players joins into the game, and could be played for a point shootout or a speed shooting. The first one is a match against each other by drift points, while the latter one is a simple speed shootout.

Courses and Cars

The game features 5 courses as of September 2008. These include 3 street circuits and 2 race circuits. Featured actual locations include the Irwindale Speedway

Irwindale Speedway

Toyota Speedway at Irwindale is a motorsports facility located in Irwindale, California, United States. It features banked, paved 1/2- and 1/3-mile oval tracks and a 1/8-mile drag strip. It opened on March 27, 1999, as Irwindale Speedway and held that name until Toyota purchased the naming rights...

, Ebisu circuit

Ebisu Circuit

is an established race complex at 1 Sawamatsukura, Nihonmatsu-shi, Fukushima Prefecture, 964-0088, Japan. The complex features 7 individual tracks plus 2 skid pan type circuits. The circuits are, Nishi , Kita , Higashi , Minami as well as Drift Land, the School Course, The Touge and 'KuruKuru...

 south course and the Odaiba

Odaiba

is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. It was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s, dramatically expanded during the late 20th century as a seaport district, and has developed since the 1990s as a major commercial, residential...

 course, a venue used for the all-star event. Reverse directions of the tracks are offered as unlockables for a card-bearing player

There are 8 drivers and cars featured in the game, all being well-known D1 drivers in 2006. Examples include Youichi Imamura

Youichi Imamura

is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for team with .He has always enjoyed driving, so drifting was a natural thing for him. His other passion is flowers as his parents ran a florist and he has always helped them out...

's Nissan 350Z (2006 spec), Nobushige Kumakubo

Nobushige Kumakubo

is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed Kuma, he is commonly referred to one of the pioneers of drifting....

's Team Orange Subaru Impreza WRX, Ken Nomura

Ken Nomura

is a drifting driver from Japan. He made his debut in the D1 Grand Prix in the 3rd round in 2001, driving the Blitz D1 Spec ER34 Skyline which he still drives...

's Blitz Nissan Skyline ER34, Tetsuya Hibino

Tetsuya Hibino

is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for SunRise and Aion.Like many of the drivers in the D1GP he is the owner of his own tuning shop called RunRise, and works on his car himself...

's Toyota AE86, among others.

Cars in the game

Team	Car	Driver
Team Toyo	Nissan Silvia Nissan Silvia The S12 was produced from 1984 to 1988, with revisions to the exterior trim in 1987 . It was sold in three configurations—a coupe , a hatchback, and a widebody chassis called grandprix .A number of different engines were equipped in the S12 chassis, depending on production year and more...  S15	Masato Kawabata Masato Kawabata is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for Team Toyo.-Biography:Kawabata first received his license at 18 he bought the Nissan 180SX. He practiced alone until he met late D1 driver Atsushi Kuroi who started to teach and advise Kawabata. At age...
RE Amemiya RE Amemiya is an automotive tuning company from Chiba, Chiba Prefecture, Japan founded by Isami Amemiya. Amemiya has made a name for himself tuning rotary engines since 1974 and has become a pioneer in tuning rotary-powered Mazdas...	Mazda RX-7 Mazda RX-7 Series 1 is commonly referred to as the "SA22C" from the first alphanumerics of the vehicle identification number. This series of RX-7 had exposed steel bumpers and a high-mounted indentation-located license plate, called by Werner Buhrer of Road & Track magazine a "Baroque depression."In 1980...  FD3S	Masao Suenaga Masao Suenaga is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for RE Amemiya and Greddy. He is the younger brother of Naoto who both were taught by Nobushige Kumakubo....
Blitz	Nissan Skyline Nissan Skyline The first Skyline was introduced in April 1957, by the Prince Motor Company, and was marketed as a luxury car. It featured a 1.5 L GA-30 engine producing 44 kW @ 4400 rpm. It used a de Dion tube rear suspension and was capable of 140 km/h . The car weighed around 1300 kg...  ER34	Ken Nomura Ken Nomura is a drifting driver from Japan. He made his debut in the D1 Grand Prix in the 3rd round in 2001, driving the Blitz D1 Spec ER34 Skyline which he still drives...
Top Secret	Nissan Fairlady Z Nissan 350Z The Nissan 350Z is a two seat sports car that was manufactured by Nissan from 2002 to 2009 and marks the fifth generation of Nissan's Z-car line. The 350Z entered production in late 2002 and was sold and marketed as a 2003 model. The first year there was only a coupe, as the roadster did not debut...	Youichi Imamura Youichi Imamura is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for team with .He has always enjoyed driving, so drifting was a natural thing for him. His other passion is flowers as his parents ran a florist and he has always helped them out...
Sunrize	Toyota Corolla Levin Toyota AE86 The AE86 generation of the Toyota Corolla Levin and Toyota Sprinter Trueno is a small, lightweight coupe introduced by Toyota in 1983 as part of the fifth generation Toyota Corolla lineup. For the purpose of brevity, the insider-chassis code of "AE86" is used to describe the whole range...  AE86	Tetsuya Hibino Tetsuya Hibino is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for SunRise and Aion.Like many of the drivers in the D1GP he is the owner of his own tuning shop called RunRise, and works on his car himself...
Yamasa	Toyota Sprinter Trueno Toyota AE86 The AE86 generation of the Toyota Corolla Levin and Toyota Sprinter Trueno is a small, lightweight coupe introduced by Toyota in 1983 as part of the fifth generation Toyota Corolla lineup. For the purpose of brevity, the insider-chassis code of "AE86" is used to describe the whole range...  AE86	Toshiki Yoshioka Toshiki Yoshioka is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for and Even before he started drifting professionally he always used the Toyota AE86. He first competed in the D1 Grand Prix in the first round of 2002 and has always scored points in every season. He got...
Bee*Racing	Nissan Skyline Nissan Skyline The first Skyline was introduced in April 1957, by the Prince Motor Company, and was marketed as a luxury car. It featured a 1.5 L GA-30 engine producing 44 kW @ 4400 rpm. It used a de Dion tube rear suspension and was capable of 140 km/h . The car weighed around 1300 kg...  "R324"	Tsuyoshi Tezuka Tsuyoshi Tezuka is a Japanese professional drifting driver, currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix series for .He developed a love for cars from an early age, his first was a Toyota Crown but to start with he was more interested in drag racing than drift. That soon changed as he found out how much it cost to...
Team Orange	Subaru Impreza Subaru Impreza Introduced in November 1993, the Impreza was offered in either front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive versions and as a four-door sedan/saloon or five-door station wagon/estate. According to a Motor Trend article written March 1992 on page 26, the name of Subaru's new compact was, initially, to be...  WRX STI "GDB"	Nobushige Kumakubo Nobushige Kumakubo is a drifting driver from Japan who competes in the D1 Grand Prix series and racetrack and land owner. Nicknamed Kuma, he is commonly referred to one of the pioneers of drifting....

Magnetic Card System

A player may choose to play with a magnetic card that stores the name, car and progressed completed. When inserting a new card, the player will be prompted to enter his name and choose a preferred car. The progress is saved for every game completed.

A card lasts for 50 plays, and needs to be renewed when it expires.

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Taito Corporation