OutRun

Players: 1 About: Driving, not racing Courtesy of: Sega Back in: 1986 Originally on: Arcade Also on: Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, GBA, PC-Engine, MSX, PC, C64/128, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST, Dreamcast, Saturn, Xbox, PS2

Sega's OutRun is known as one of the finest arcade racers ever made. Created by Yu Suzuki and team AM2, it makes use of the "Super Scaler" technology seen in Hang-On, Afterburner, and Space Harrier to provide blazing fast scaling of sprites and recreate an experience far smoother than most other arcade racing titles from the mid 80's.
While most games in the genre were at the time designed from a bird's eye view (see Konami's Road Fighter, or Bally Midway's Spy Hunter) which rendered the player's car minuscule, Yu instead decided to go with Pole Position's rear view camera, putting the player on the seat of what closely resembled the world's most famous red sports car (Ferrari and Sega had some feisty encounters in court over this).
OutRun's premise though, didn't include blasting enemy cars or beating other racers to the finish line. Yu's game emphasized the driving experience, accentuated by beautiful stages, FM radio, and a gorgeous blonde at your side. No frenetic timed laps or pit stops. No ramming opponents into oblivion. Just cruising along, enjoying the ride.

Japanese MSX cover

OutRun is also remembered for being the first racing game where you could choose your own route AND music, although technically speaking Atari's TX-1 formula 1 racer introduced forked roads in 1983.
There are also five different amusing endings depending on the route you take. Back when getting a still picture or a simple "Congratulations" used to be enough reward, OutRun's endings are just a little bit more fun.

The game hit the arcades in 1986 in 3 different cabinets: an upright one, a standard sitdown one, and a deluxe sitdown cabinet. The latter equipped with hydraulics that would move the seat to the sides when you turn. Its graphics have that fresh, clean and bright style that characterized AM2's titles (although softer pastel combinations are also found in some of the stages), which in conjuction with OutRun's three different in-game songs (Magical Sound Shower, Splash Wave and Passing Breeze) are the game's strongest selling points. The game only uses FM synth, but the soundtrack still sounds remarkable thanks to a separate sound-dedicated microchip.

OutRun's Deluxe sitdown cabinet

The Deluxe cabinet tilts slightly to the sides with the help of hydraulics.

As one of the most popular driving games of all time, OutRun ports flooded the market. Since none of the 8 or 16-bit systems were as powerful as the original arcade hardware, the whole package had to be scaled down.
All Sega consoles and various home computers at the time got their share. The latter ones, such as the ZX Spectrum's, shipping with a bonus soundtrack tape.
As with most Master System ports, its version plays just like its older brother even if it isn't powerful enough to pull off the smooth graphic effects.The scrolling is relatively good for an 8-bit system and the music sounds decent.
Strangely, the Game Gear version's graphics and controls are awful in comparison. Specially since the two systems run on approximately the same hardware. It does, however, feature a versus mode which lets you race against the computer or a friend.

Home computer flyer

For a long time, the Genesis version was as close as you could get to playing OutRun at home. The system still wasn't powerful enough to handle scaling, but it definitely looks much nicer than any previous versions. It's also a little easier, and has an exclusive fourth selectable song called Step on Beat, which isn't quite up to the quality of the original tunes.
The Japan-exclusive PC-Engine version was ported by NEC Avenue. It's not as nice looking as the Genesis one and is missing some of the details, but it plays just fine.

Other OutRun rarities...
OutRun handheld	OutRun Tiger handheld with steering wheel and stick.
OutRun F1 handheld	Nokia cellphone version

When consoles were powerful enough to replicate the arcade, Sega brought out several other conversions. These include a port to the Sega Saturn in the Sega Ages collection, as well as full playable instances in both Shen Mue titles and the Xbox port of OutRun 2. A decent rendition of it for GBA in the cart Sega Arcade Gallery is also available.
These are all nearly arcade perfect, but be it the emulator they run on, or just the quality of the conversion, very small differences and faults have always been found in them by hardcore OutRun fans. You would think developers would get a perfect convertion done after all this time, but arcade emulators still seem to do the best job around.

Arcade flyer

Sega also released the game as part of their 3D Ages collection, redoing the entire game in 3D. While the gameplay feels faithful, the graphics are a bit unpolished. They also made the car too large and too far up on the screen, making it difficult to see in the distance.
Still, this version has a welcomed arranged soundtrack, and made it to America on the Sega Classics Collection for the Playstation 2.

Soundtrack:
	Last Wave arrange (3D Ages)
	Magical Sound Shower arrange (3D Ages)
	Last Wave arrange (OutRun - Saturn)
	Splash Wave 1986 (OutRun 2 - Xbox)
	Passing Breeze 1986 (OutRun 2 - Xbox)
Rare unofficial mixes:
	OutRun (live by Press Play On Tape)
	After Tonight (Last Wave with lyrics!)

OutRun 20th Anniversary Original Soundtrack Special Box Set