''Alpine Racer 2'' is a 3D

alpine skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel Ski binding, bindings, unlike other types of skiing (Cross-country skiing, cross-country, Telemark skiing, Telemark, or ski jumping) ...

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

released by

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. It is the sequel to ''

Alpine Racer is a racing game, racing sports video game developed and published by Namco for Arcade game, arcades. It had a limited release in December 1994, followed by a wide release in July 1995. It ran on the Namco System 22 arcade hardware. The player ...

''. Unlike the original, two cabinets can be linked together so that players can race against each other.

Sleep research

''Alpine Racer 2'', along with ''

Tetris ''Tetris'' () is a puzzle video game created in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet software engineer. In ''Tetris'', falling tetromino shapes must be neatly sorted into a pile; once a horizontal line of the game board is filled in, it disa ...

'', was used by Harvard sleep scientist

Robert Stickgold Robert Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. A sleep researcher, his work focuses on the relationship between sleep and learning. Stickgold's articles in the popular pre ...

to study the relationship between learning and

sleep Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical activity in which consciousness is altered and certain Sensory nervous system, sensory activity is inhibited. During sleep, there is a marked decrease in muscle activity and interactions with th ...

. He found that after playing the game for hours before going to sleep, even subjects suffering from

anterograde amnesia In neurology, anterograde amnesia is the inability to create new memories after an event that caused amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact. Thi ...

, the inability to form new memories, would dream of skiing.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Alpine Racer 2'' on their February 15, 1997 issue as being the sixth most-popular dedicated arcade game at the time. A reviewer for ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' remarked that the ability to choose from three different characters adds depth to the gameplay, the new courses are larger and more beautiful than those of the original ''Alpine Racer'', and the added multiplayer capability greatly increases the fun of the game. However, he said the actual skiing and opponent AI are unchanged from the first game, and "in the final analysis there aren't enough improvements to carry ''Alpine Racer 2'' now that the novelty of the original has worn off". He gave it three out of five stars.

TV segment

Some scenes of this game were shown on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Horizon The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...

'' episode, "What Are Dreams?", aired in 2009, months later as a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

' ''

Nova A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

'' episode.

Series

*1. ''

'' (1994) *2. ''Alpine Racer 2'' (1996) *3. '' Alpine Surfer'' (1996) *4. ''Alpine Racer 3'' (2002) *5. ''Super Alpine Racer'' (2013)

References

External links

''Alpine Racer 2''
a
Arcade History
*
''Super Alpine Racer''
a
Bandai Namco Amusements America
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140822093856/http://www.namcoamerica.com/game.php?gameid=46 , date=2014-08-22
PBS' NOVA episode "What Are Dreams?" Transcript & Video
1996 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Namco arcade games Namco System 22 games Skiing video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Namco games