Kasco The Driver | RARE 16mm FILM FOOTAGE FROM 1978 | RAW SCAN IN 4K!

FMV fans, rejoice! Because I present to a piece of arcade gaming history that I thought I'd never come across. A reel of 16mm film from the old FMV arcade game, The Driver from Kasco in 1978, scanned in 4K resolution.

Unlike most FMV games, which would use either laserdiscs, DVDs or actual digital video files to provide the FMV content, this game uses motion picture film as the source to provide the FMV content, as video didn't start becoming a thing until the early 1980s when it would be provided on laserdisc. The film itself is one continuous loop of film, meaning that it has no head or tail like most motion picture film reels. The game itself does not end when you reach the end of the reel, because there is no end to the reel. It ends when you steer off-course long enough for the machine to say "game over." How the arcade cabinet and film worked is a topic for another video. If you want a lot more information about the arcade game and the inner-mechanics of how it worked, I'd recommend checking ‪@keinert‬'s video on how this game operated and the film was projected.

Multiple variations of shot film have been produced for this game for the purposes of being able to swap films to change the mode of gameplay. Hence why you may have seen other videos online showing different footage that was made for this game unique from the one that I'm presenting here. This is essentially me showcasing another of those reels made for the game.

Now back to the film itself. This film was scanned and color corrected in 4K resolution, and it looks great from what I'm seeing. You'll also notice that at the beginning is the well-known SMPTE Universal countdown leader. That has been spliced at the beginning of the reel for syncing purposes during the scanning process. The thing regarding this film that I would like to announce is that I'm making plans to digitally restore this film. Because right now, while the scan looks good, it is coated in film scratches, which look very distracting in my opinion. In the future, I'm planning to clean up this scan, removing any visible film damage and scratches that appear on the film. Once the film has been fully restored, I plan to release it along with the original source files, uncompressed DPX image sequences and the like, so that other people can use it, potentially for preservation purposes, like the MAME team, creating a mod/fan game that utilizes this footage as a source, or in an unlikely or rare event that you own an original The Driver arcade cabinet that either has a heavily damaged or lost film, to record the restored footage back onto 16mm film via film out to continue operating your machine with the newer, restored footage.

However, that will take a massive amount of time and patience, and I didn't feel like holding onto this, essentially gatekeeping it from the internet. So, my decision here is while I'm restoring the film, I'll post the original "raw" scan for you to watch. The raw scan is the exact scan that I had gotten back from the film scanning company as is before I will begin doing any restoration work on it (film scratches and damage are visible). While restoration work is being done, in the meantime, I hope you all enjoy the footage in its current state. Feel free to use it if you wish as I continue working on restoring the original film. I hoping to have the restored version of this film out very soon, so fingers crossed that it comes out looking better than it had ever been before.

Thank you all very much for watching. I'm looking forward to hear what you have to say about this rare footage and to see how you will use it.


Huge thanks to the talented folks over at Video Conversions Experts (‪@vcetube‬) for scanning this material.


Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/KingAnd...


Herpy-derk! =)