COMING SOON

An exciting new way to play your Sega F355 Challenge Deluxe is rapidly progressing through development. A formal website will be open soon with more details and features.

What are we building? In short, we are adding an online ranking and leaderboard system for the 355 CDX that will allow your game to post your lap results online and be ranked. You will also be able to print your lap results on an off the shelf printer. And you can add a monitor that will display your recent and best laps locally.

How did we do that? The 355 CDX game came with a printer in the Japanese market, and listed it as optional in the US market. This printer is quite rare and even more rare are the rolls of refill paper. The paper is important because it has pre-printed graphics that put what the printer prints into context. Many owners are not even aware of this printer option. What we have done is to create a set of programs that run on a Raspberry Pi 2 connected to the game through a custom interface that pretends to be the printer. The game passes the printer data to the Pi thinking it just did a regular printout. The software converts that data into an image that is overlaid on a scan of the original pre-printed paper. That image is then sent to the monitor for display above the game and sent to this website to be processed for ranking and of course you can print the image out locally.

Can I modify it? While the core engine that runs the system will be heavily locked down to prevent cheating, the graphical assets are yours to modify as you like, and we encourage it! Create a new background for the monitor or printout paper and share it on the forum for others to use!

How do I sign up? A registration page will go live allowing you to enroll your game and participate.

How much will this cost? Participation in the online community and leader board are going to be free. You will need an off the shelf Raspberry Pi 2 with typical accessories, and our interface board. Our goal is to get as many 355 CDX games online as possible so the board will be sold at cost plus shipping. We are finalizing the board design so price isn’t nailed down yet.