Original Release: Sega, 1986, Arcade
Other Releases: Spectrum (1987), C64 (1988), Amiga (1988), Turbografx 16 (1990), Genesis (1991), Dreamcast (with Shenmue – 1999), PC (with Shenmue 1&2 – 2018)
Yu Suzuki’s second big arcade title was arguably his biggest overall hit and cemented his legacy as an arcade pioneer.
OutRun (Arcade, Sega, 1986)
Where to Buy: eBay, KLOV
Review by: C. M0use
You might not get the appeal of Outrun if you didn’t experience it in the arcades back in the late ’80s / early ’90s somewhere. It was really quite an impressive leap forward for racing games (the rather limited Pole Position being the leader of the pack to that point). It was the first racer to implement parallax scrolling, as well as having a gear shift and seat that tilted when you took sharp corners and crashed. These days it seems a little limited and simplistic compared to the highly evolved racers on our current generation systems, but it’s still a pleasant enough game to give a spin even twenty years later.
Playing this on a home system (or emulator) omits the experience of the game’s moving seat and gear shift, which really added a level of tactile involvement to the game. Even with just a joypad, however, one can appreciate the pleasant and clean graphics, fairly good gameplay and multiple race paths (with a variety of colorful scenery) that actually give you an impetus to replay the game multiple times. It also has some classic tunes such as “Magical Sound Shower” and “Passing Breeze,” which provide a relaxing calypso counterpoint to the tension of the race.
Unfortunately there’s no easy way for us to get a sit-down Outrun cabinet to enjoy the game in its original glory (unless you happen to be rich or a brilliant engineer), but we can at least take a trip down memory lane with relative ease thanks to emulation and the many ports of this game.
Links
OutRun: Enhanced Edition rom hack
Tomy Turnin Turbo Dashboard conversion
Videos
Outrun (Turbografx 16, NEC, 1989)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: coming soon!
Review by: C. M0use
The music (and engine sound) is a bit on the weak side, and there are tiny little graphical details and frames missing here and there, but really this is impressively close to being arcade-perfect for the not-exactly-16-bit Turbografx. It might be just a bit less good than the Sega Genesis port by virtue of the Turbografx having a bit less graphical horsepower, but this cart is still a totally worthy pickup if you’re a fan of the system.
Videos
Cannonball (PC, Chris White, 2014)
Where to Buy: Freeware – Download from Github (needs OutRun arcade ROMs)
Review by: C. M0use
I remember when MAME was in the earliest years of its development, about 20-25 years ago, there used to be a lot of “single-game emulators” that branched off of its code and added new features or tried to be more accurate and such for that one particular game. That all seemed to die out in the 00s somewhere, you rarely see these things anymore. But Cannonball demonstrates why these projects are worthy concepts, adding all sorts of new tweaks and additions to beloved Sega racing hit OutRun.
You plug the MAME ROMs into it and you get a framework that emulates the arcade game pretty much perfectly, but gives you a couple new camera angles and a lot of options. You can shift between angles at any time mid-race, there’s a higher angle that’s particularly helpful and then you can also drive in first-person now … pretty impressive for an old sprite scaling engine.
As far as options go … well, it’s a long list. You can change the color of the car (five or six options), increase the maximum speed, improve the handling, give it “offroad tires”, reduce/eliminate (or increase) the traffic levels, adjust the time between checkpoints, and so on. You can also throw the Japanese ROMs in to play the somewhat altered courses that those offered, made available as a convenient menu option. There’s also a new “time trial” mode, a track editor is in the works, and you can insert your own custom MP3s for background music. And apparently offers some sort of native support for racing wheels as well.
Basically an absolute must have for the OutRun fan.
Links
Videos