Hello everybody. I've been a fan of Sega Racing games (Daytona USA 1/2, Scud Race, OutRun 1/2, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Racing, etc.) ever since I first played Daytona USA 2 in the arcade around 2002. I like them and try to promote them as much as I can. Let everyone know about the magic that is Sega Racing Games!!!
If you didn't see the end of this Talladega race, you're a big dummy.
Congratulations! Welcome to Victory Lane! You made it!!
Just so you know, I helped that guy win.
Basically, teammates David Ragan (#34) and David Gilliand (#38), two of the Sprint Cup's "perennial losers," starting 11th/12th on the green-white-checkered finish, made a mad dash at the end of the Talladega race to finish 1st and 2nd respectively. Unlike other cars, the two bump-drafted each other through the field. I'm no David Ragan fan (who is anyway?) but I went NUTS when I saw him just slip into the lead and win. Beautiful. Especially teammate Gilliland, who had never won before, helping push his teammate across the line. A very selfless deed...
Just for reference's sake, I decided to look up both Davids' records for the start of the 2013 season and let you know how poorly they had done up until Talladega, just to illustrate how amazing it was to see their 1-2 finish:
To be fair, you look at Ragan in the #34 car last year and he fared very well at both Talladega races (7th and 4th) so you could tell that for this team, Talladega was their one bullet in the chamber...took a chance and won the race. You'll probably lose next Sunday but savor this win as long as possible...
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is you take a look at someone like David Regan and Gilliland and you think "well, they can't accomplish anything, they have no chance." Well they had a chance with 2 laps to go and they WON. Don't quit, don't ever give up, don't let people tell you "you have no chance." JUST WIN, DAMMIT!!!! Winners never quit and quitters never win. Ok, you get the idea so GOOD NIGHT, POTENTIAL WINNERS!!!
Okay, it's Saturday and my dad is hanging out with me in Orlando over the weekend. What is there to do in the big O on Saturday? PLENTY OF THINGS LIKE GET STUCK IN TRAFFIC AND LOUSY TOURIST TRAPS!!!
So after eating some pizza, me and my dad decided to go check out some go-karts. There's one place to go and that is the Fun Spot. It's basically a mini amusement park with a hundred, thousand billboards going up and down International Drive. It has a bunch of go-kart tracks, bumper boats, that scary-ass flinger ride, and an arcade.
Wooohoooooooooooooo.....
Whatever, so me and dad get stuck in traffic for an hour but we make it to the Fun Spot. Obviously my main goal is to check out that big-ass arcade of theirs!
There's the Fun Spot.
Omg, arcade.
I get there and frantically search both floors for a Sega racing game. Aaaaand...there is none. After spending an hour lamenting the inevitable death of yet ANOTHER arcade (no really, it's like being a WWII medic who has watched the tenth soldier die in front of him...like it just sucks ass to be completely helpless to the fact you can't save 'em), we decide to go out the go-karts.
The "Fun" Spot, rofl.
Okay, they're fine, they've got FOUR different tracks on the premises (with all but one being multi-level), but there's a catch. They're just super-ass slow--like I could run faster than these things. I'm guessing they went 10-15 mph. The tracks were neat but me and dad just had a sudden realization...the 45+ mph go-kart tracks that we've been meaning to visit for AGES...
FAST GO-KARTS
ARE
BACK...
Indeed, so we go rummaging the Fun Spot's pamphlet bin and find NOTHING based on go-karts. No kidding right, like why would the Fun Spot tell us to go ride any other go-karts besides these? Quick, let's leave the cheap-ass Fun Spot and run up the road to the Super McDonald's, get a pamphlet there, and head out to the go-karts at last.
Track Panorama
This is the go-kart track in question--the Orlando Kart Center. Now to get to this place, you had to drive super far away from Disney, Universal, or any tourist trap... Basically up the highway, down a few backroads, and there you go--a go-kart track. I was tempted to wear by Daytona hat but no, I left it in the car. It was probably for the best because this place turned out to be an F1 car haven...flying Brazilian flags (Ayrton Senna) and painting everything with Italian flag stripes (Ferrari). Surely I would've been booted out of the building because I didn't know how to turn right, or something.
Someone else's video of le track
Me and dad sign up for three 10-minute sessions, a grand total of 30 minutes driving. You start by filling out a health-and-safety form (in other words, we could die and we can't sue them) as well as a "nickname" on a computer (mine was "Junior" cause of #88 and I'm Eric Junior after all). Then you're given a balaclava (those socks that go over your head) and a helmet. Oh snap, this is getting serious. BUT THERE'S MORE--while waiting in the lobby, for our turn, there's a crowd of latino-looking men speaking to each other in Italian. They had Ferrari t-shirts on. They had nicknames on the screens like "Alberto," "Omar," "Rodrigo," and "Goias." Shit just got real.
Eventually, we put on our helmets and went to our assigned go-karts. Since there was no starting grid or rolling start, you basically compete against each other to get the fastest possible lap time. Computers can save each of your lap times and display them on screens next to your nickname. They also displayed your kart's RPMs so you can see who had the fastest karts (an outstanding feature). But enough about stats cause we're racing.
The Mysterious Driver!!!
I'll fix this damn picture later.
I am KICKING ASS at this stuff. Forget about the whole "lap time" business--I was gunning for everyone and made a ton of passes. My expertise at nailing the racing lines really payed off. Brake in, accel out. Gotta be careful though because if you slam the brakes, you'll do a slide and those aren't pretty in real life. After two or three laps, I finally got a feel for the thing. I was stunned after the first 10-minute session to find out that "Junior" had finished with the fastest time. Nobody said anything to me afterwards but I was feeling rather hot so I just stood in front of a fan sipping my McDonald's Root Beer.
Junior wins!!
Second session, the unfortunate news is that my kart was slower this time. The brakes were also weaker but at least I was less fearful of spinning out. Because guys were making steady progress on me (what else could I do?), I summoned up some sisu* and basically threw the kart into the corners, taking turns at full speed when before, I would've let off the gas a little. I slipped and slided but I ended up finishing somewhere in the middle in terms of time. Real bummer but I overachieved considering my kart's performance compared to the others.
Really, Google??? Is your Picasa photo uploading so stupid it won't submit the images with the right rotation???
Third session turned out to be the same thing but with a slightly better kart. This is when fatigue really kicked in. The problem this whole time was the damn balaclava and helmet were really obstructing me. Being constricted like that, I breathed in hot air which made me suffocate a bit so I had to adjust the mask often. Also, I lifted up the helmet visor because the scratched lens really pissed me off. Too bad all the dirt particles flew into my eye and made me uncomfortable. I also got bruises on my arm and sides from bouncing up and down on a plastic kart seat all this time. But regardless of physical pain, I still pushed the kart to 110 percent. I finished the last session in 2nd which was a good way to end the day.
I know where to hold my next cake day.
After that, me and dad went home. Dad had motion sickness, I had bruises and dirty eyes. But we drove over 45+ mph and it was a rewarding experience. Compared to video games, you actually get a "feel" of how the car's moving so you can react differently and do a better job of sensing where the racing lines are. That made me think of the potential I could use in real race-car driving as well as in video games where the "feel" of the car (sense of speed, momentum, center of gravity, etc) comes into play. Anyway, Orlando Kart Center. Better than the Fun Spot. Laters...
PLEASE NOTE: I will post pictures I took on my iPhone really soon but since I'm typing this at work, I can't do that just yet. Later today...
Last Saturday was very strange to me. And it's not cause it was 4/20 (I don't smoke, SORRY KIDS). It's because my brother (2 years younger than me) and his girlfriend were driving to Orlando to come visit me for the day. It was a treat since it gave me the incentive to do something besides sleep in all day to make up for my lack of sleep during the work week.
Whatever, so we're off to go do stuff. First, we stop at Chipotle to eat tacos. I throw around a lot of jokes, get a bunch of laughs. Then after we eat, we want to do something fun. Since we're near International Drive where all the tourist traps are, we think "Hey, let's go putt-putt." So Brother searches for "putt putt" on his iPhone and we're off to some place called "Putting Edge." Strange thing is it takes us to the Festival Bay, a gigantic mall near the end of International Drive (by the Fun Spot and the terrible outlet malls that sell clothes I'm not interested in). We don't see a sign ANYWHERE for a Putting Edge but we do spot a Bass Pro Shops which served as an anchor to a large mall! Because Brother and Girlfriend are into outdoors stuff, they inexplicably want to go in. And I obliged.
In case you're like "dafuq is bass pro shops", it's basically a giant log-cabin department store with a shiatload of ourdoor merchandise--hunting, camping, fishing, boats, ATV's, an aquarium-esque fishing tank, "homemade" candy prepared an log cabin (yo dawg we herd you like...), NASCAR toys, Cabela's silly light-gun games (which reminds me, where the hell is Sega Bass Pro Fishing???), and old-timey red-state stuff. A far cry from Academy Sports (from my hometown Slidell, LA) which is basically a white box with some sporting goods in it. Since this place is so big, it was like an amusement park of its own. Brother pushed Girlfriend around in the shopping cart, checked out the lousy light-gun game, tried on hats, looked at poor taxidermed animals, took pictures next to the Tony Stewart sign, also checked out the stuffed toy animals (I bought a coyote and a brown thrasher, I like little toy animals, I think they're cool so STFU), and sat in comfy recliners.
But after we've had our fun for about an hour, I glance at the other exit to Bass Pro Shops--the one leading to the actual mall. Now the last time I was at this store, I hadn't gone into the mall. But here, there was a sign leading to the "Fantasy Arcade" or something. It was too alluring not to go so I told Brother and Girlfriend, "I'm going to check out that arcade, see ya later."
What happened next was rather surreal like a Twilight Zone or Creepypasta (at least to me anyway). See, I had walked into....a dead mall. It was a big, vacant hallway. All the stores were boarded up except for a few stragglers like a sporting goods, Smoothie King, and the indoor glow-in-the-dark Putting Edge that took us to this very building in the first place. As I was wandering around looking for the arcade, I felt like I had been here before... Visually, this building is nearly the same as some of the macabre dreams I had before--ones where everything was dim, the building was on its last legs, and a shoddy arcade. I did find the arcade and not to my surprise, it was a bunch of poorly aligned arcade cabinets with a bias towards American games (as usual). No Sega racers but they had Cruis'n World (dumb) and San Francisco Rush (better).
I didn't play any games though. Didn't feel like it. Was too weirded out by the place. I sort of wandered around aimlessly as I nearly crawled up into a ball to cry. Pains of going to the Northshore Square Mall in Slidell, LA to play Daytona USA 2 wrought me with misery. I feel like those dreams were just self-fulfilling prophecy of the death of malls (see this informative site), arcades, and Sega in general and that the happy times were never coming back. And how my journey thus far was really a dramatic one--that malls like this is where my "life force" came from and I'm trying to bring it home for racing game fans everywhere but I been shut out from being able to help for so long. Drama, I have it...
And like any good Creepypasta story, I didn't simply "run away" when things got weird. I stuck around and wandered some more and took pictures (Frank West style, speaking of Dead Rising, yeah this mall looks like it). Eventually, Brother & Girlfriend walked to the mall too but I ran back to Bass Pro Shops. What would happen is 30 minutes of us trying to message each other in order to meet up again but to little success. When I finally found them, in a cold I bought a bag of malted milk balls, munched on 'em in the car as I took off uneasy. I told Brother & Girlfriend that I felt ill but they didn't get it. I was very talkative up until the moment I went into the mall but afterwards, my energy was drained.
Well, what else is there to do on a Saturday night in Orlando? Eventually, we agreed to go to Dave & Buster's, the one that I went to twice already (once, twice). My mood lightened up once we got there. We paid $25 to play some games and, obviously, I had opted to play Daytona USA (no really?). Brother & Girlfriend stood on and watched but were mostly interested in getting in petty debates over dating stuff (which is why I'm currently single--no debating with girls and more time to play games).
While I shed a tear and was slightly healed from experiencing the cathartic effects of a Sega racer, the problem was the pedals were defunct. If you floored it, the car only accelerated 70-90% of the way, varying on the different machines. Like on Expert, I couldn't even pass a single car on the starting straightaway which is not supposed to happen. After playing a couple of rounds to much disappointment, I spotted an arcade attendee repairing a House of the Dead 3 machine. Told him "the pedals on those machines are off," he said okay but was mostly uninterested. I highly doubt he fixed them. Judging by how content people are from playing Beginner with the AT car bouncing off the walls with no skill, I highly doubt it was in Dave & Buster's interest to even repair the machines. That is depressing.
The day did end on an okay thing. We played this little football game where you score points by throwing tiny footballs through some holes. I got the worst score of us three and, in three plays, got consecutively worse scores. I Tebowed in the middle of the place. Girlfriend got the highest score of all (WTF indeed), plus she also beat me at Daytona USA on beginner (a first for me) but only because my cabinet had busted pedals and hers didn't and she used rubber banding to win. Was shitty but she didn't rub it in.
We go home to my apartment, I convince Brother & Girlfriend to watch a few Top Gear UK clips on YouTube, they go to sleep on the crappy Target futon, wake up early and drive back home. It was an interesting Saturday but in many ways depressing. It makes me think that over the last year or few, I sorta missed out on the pain that Sega & arcade games were going through and that I opted to spend my time on personal projects that had nothing to do with Sega, really. I couldn't help but cry a little.
Man, the reason I'm going through this "journey" to Sega is to bring back the good times for everyone who was in my boat. And we're making progress but still, I always feel I could've done better.
Good news though and that is my dad is coming up to visit me today. I get to see my dad again, it will be fun. Hopefully we don't get in any stupid situations like I did with Brother & Girlfriend, heh. I just want to be at peace, that is all...
I love you, Dad. I love you too, Sega, for your games fathered me like a real father would. You convinced me to be this way so I'm trying to spend time with you again. Just don't shut me out, please. And yes, I do have a habit of spinning media about missing family/friends/loved ones into missing Sega games and now you know that.
"Games have become too extreme (Burnout), wacky (Mario Kart), photo-realistic (Gran Turismo)." - paraphrase the guy
"We lost these 90's arcade racers that have soul and are really fun to play." - paraphrase the guy again
At 1:00, does the guy wipe away a tear? I did at at the same time.
Spotted the Aquarium tank (Scud Race), dinosaur skull (Daytona 1), etc. Stuff from previous games we've already seen before.
4:10, the CHECK sign is back!!!
4:14, looks like a rocket ship or a scud missile. Daytona 1 and Scud Race, lol.
4:35 looks like Sonic Mountain turn on Beginner on Daytona 1.
4:40, the glass sheet up above reminds me of the Forest Dome from Daytona 2.
4:56, looks like that little brown tunnel from Advanced course on Daytona 2, after the space port section.
5:08, TWO NEW CARS, the Pelikan and the Stingray cars are the Porsche and Scorpio cars from Scud Race and Daytona 2 respectively!!! Hell, the Stringray even has that colored front of the car, it's clearly influenced by the Scorpio, no question!!! Hit the juice!!!
6:36, NIGHT TIME!!!
7:00, get that stupid mouse cursor off the screen!!
Wheel support has been confirmed! Somewhere in the video, I forgot when the guy said it...
There is no new "racing" footage in the game, just new scenery and cars. Nothing OutRun related though it's not likely since OutRun was mainly focused in the 80's and 00's. I am still a bit concerned about drifting, manual transmission, and other sense of speed facets like car shake, force feedback, and tire effects but let's be patient...
I'm at work so I'm trying to rush through this. I honestly want to punch a hole through the wall that I'm not working on this. I would rather be working on that game than any other game right now. Honestly, the only thing I can do to help these guys is to simply give all my disposable income to them. Seriously, if I can't work on the game, I will do whatever I can to help and unfortunately, all that I can do is provide them with resources and blather on about it on the Internet. I'm ecstatic while simultaneously crying and feeling depressed right now. I will get back to you later once I finish working on these other obligations. Until then, God Speed, Sega Racing Fans...
How I feel about right now. Jim Mora, eh...................
Here is a nifty little game that's also a shameless plug for a project that a couple of my FIEA friends are working on. This is a game called "Divekick." My friends at Iron Galaxy Orlando didn't invent the game but they are polishing it and releasing it in PSN, Vita, and (hopefully) PC.
The game only uses two buttons--jump (hover upwards as long as the button is held) and dive kick (kick down-forward). No combos, throws, or blocking! One-hit KO's (best of 9 rounds). When two opponents kick each other, the higher person wins. There's a few other features like "headshots"--kick a guy in the head and he's stunned at the start of the next round, but the gameplay is still simple-stupid in a paper-rock-scissors way but I know diehards like Dave Sirlin will love it. Actually, the game has gained some traction at PAX and even EVO with its two-button arcade-style controls which is pretty nice... I'm proud of my guys at Iron Galaxy. I love it because it's basically a parody of fighters...like why is there a health bar when you're KO'ed in one hit anyway? So look out for this game.
.JPG)
