Thanks to the enormous success of the Jurassic Park film franchise, it didn’t take a dinosaur-sized brain to realize that the video games would follow closely behind. In 1997, following the release of The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Sega provided a coin-operated counterpart. A thrilling light gun adventure awaited, as you drove your vehicle into the treacherous “Site B” and tried to keep from getting munched by an assortment of, count em, 16 prehistoric predators.

As these were all endangered species, your gun merely shot tranquilizer darts. Your adversaries, however, didn’t want to induce a nap - they wanted a little dinner. To keep from becoming a stegosaurus snack, you were going to have to display good aiming skills and a speedy trigger finger. As you made your way through the five levels, precision aiming meant an easier path to victory. Various beasts were marked with “sweet spot” targets, letting you know the most effective place to fire your darts, thereby ending the threat before your life bar took a significant beating. Careful aiming also ensured the safety of the innocent people wandering around, who generally frowned upon being shot with a dart.  

Should that life bar get a little too low for comfort, additional health was scattered about, as were some more formidable weaponry, including a handy laser site, a shotgun, grenade launcher (tranquilizer grenades?) and even a lightning gun. Finding these objects was a much easier task if you happened to rescue a human from impending doom.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park was a surprisingly immersive experience, thanks to impressive polygon graphics and surround sound. Two versions of the game were made available; a stand-up unit and the much cooler sit-down enclosed version featuring seats that rumbled each time one of the dinosaurs pranced around. One or two players could take part in the action, but two-player games offered an additional twist – occasionally a T-Rex would wander by and scoop up you or your partner in its jaws, requiring a swift rescue from the other player. This attention to detail, combined with immersive non-stop action made The Lost World: Jurassic Park a must-play experience.