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!!!
There's a new indie game that popped onto the scene last week! It's got a name and it's called "Drift Stage." The name is pretty meh to me but check out the gameplay! This is just a beta stage so never mind the blue/orange abyss.
Unlike The 90's Arcade Racer, which targets Daytona, Scud Race, and Indy 500, this Drift Stage game gives me and OutRun vibe. The physics don't look that complicated--you can twitch in and out of drifts. Very snappy, predictable handling which is good since responsive racing games tend to be the most fun of all. It also reminds me of Ridge Racer (lol) and Screamer (old PC game).
This isn't on any sort of Kickstarter just yet. It has a Tumblr site (www.driftstagegame.com redirects to it) as well as the aforementioned gameplay clip but not much else. Oh! There's also Chase Pettit's Twitter (the game's lone programmer) and judging from this video, you can tell he's pretty diehard about his racing games!!
SPOILER ALERT: The car is a looping image.
ALSO, stumbling through this guy's Twitter, I found another little indie gem. Thunder Desert GP for the Ouya (which is basically a dead console now but hey, points for effort), a 3D version of Super Hang-On. Not sure how you can access such a game...I don't have an Ouya so I'm SOL from the start.
So...back to Drift Stage. What do I really think? It's a breath of fresh air. I mean we're actually looking at gameplay footage, something that The 90's Arcade Racer hasn't delivered on for over a year. Drifting looks like a lot of fun, however I'm a bit concerned that without manual transmission or unique track layouts (preferably with varying road widths) that the game will get too predicable or easy.
The colors are nice and bright. However, I think the game will be a little TOO saturated. The demo video is entirely blue and orange which can be interpreted as "retro" but the original 1986 OutRun and even 1981 Turbo utilized the entire hue wheel. Drift Stage's cars, a Ferrari 288 GTO/512 BB, a Lotus Esprit, and Toyota AE86, look quaint and pixelated (no "realistic car models" BS, thank God) but again, the two-tone colors...make me consider the alternative--that fully-colored cars would fare better (or at least black tires). It's an acquired taste, thus the more I observe this game, the more I'll loosen up to it.
NO ONE SLEEP IN TOKYO
The sense of speed and environments have great potential. Barring the color palettes, the environments could use a wider variety of "stuff." I only see two types of fences, buildings, trees, and other doodads. One of the things that made OutRun so great is because you would whizz by so many things and give you that riveting sense of speed (I wrote a whole article about sense of speed). if Drift Stage can capitalize on this, this game will be AWESOME.
Finally, the soundtrack. I didn't like the music in that first gameplay video. I can see they're trying to recreate OutRun's poppy jazz-fusion stuff so odds are I probably won't warm up to it for a while due to unfamiliarity. But anyway, soundtrack (as well as audio) is KEY to these sort of games so hit it hard! Get some real car engines and pay Richard Jacques to get his ass down here in the studio.
Yeah my review is a bit negative but consider it constructive criticism. I want this game and The 90's Arcade Racer to succeed!!!
Also I'm honestly surprised that a lot of the Sega sites (SegaBITS, TSSZ News) didn't report shit on this game. Why not? Because it doesn't have the SEGA logo on it despite being heavily influenced by said arcade games? Even lousy Kotaku beat those sites to the punch. Labels aren't important anymore. I love FAST-PACED, COLORFUL racing games. Sega used to deliver on these but nowadays, not so much. So while you guys give your write-ups on the next dreadful Sonic, Aliens, and Hatsune-Miku games, I'm going to focus on Sega's legacy. So yeah, keep an eye out for Drift Stage! GET READY!! VROOM, VROOM!!....
When you post GIFs like this to promote your game, you're automatically a winner.
Okay guys, we're back online and I'm sorry about the huge ass delay. I'm alive and kicking, just barely though...
This news is OLD'd but I don't care, I thought you'd want to hear my take on it. So, the new DLC character for Sega All-Stars Racing is the Russian commander from Company of Heroes 2. This is DLC that came out on July 4th which makes no sense since it's an AMERICAN holiday, not a Red Commie one (BOOOOO) but that's besides the point because the character choice is certainly a strange one. It's a WWII tank/submarine/fighter combo and that alone deserves praise because the idea of driving a TANK sounds like real neat idea. Otherwise, my response might as well be summarized by this...
This character, along with the other PC exclusives like the Tactician and the Shogun really show how much Sega has fallen off the map. Perhaps I'm a bit bitter that I wish more relatable Sega characters like Ryo Hazuki, Segata Sanshiro, Jacky Bryant, Ristar, Vectorman, Bonanza Bros. Toejam & Earl, ChuChu's, or even freakin Bayonetta made it into a game that was meant to promote Sega's Golden Age. Or also bitter that DarthS0L, Sumo, or Sega basically played us for fools, proposing "Internet petishuns" to help get our favorite characters in the game that were all for naught really.
But the main cause for bitterness is seeing characters from games that I could barely consider Sega in nature (Football Manager, Total War, Company of Heroes) are getting precedence over the other characters for political posturing--people who liked Sega All-Stars Racing are more likely to get into Football Manager, Total War, etc. and vice versa. It's free promotional material for games that are just painfully non-Sega in nature. I mean Western-developed games about gritty war heroes and football simulators isn't what Sega should be known for. It shows that they've completely failed to develop good games in recent time and are willing to stamp their name on any decent games they can get their hands on to seem relevant once again. I'm not saying games like Football Manager or Total War suck, but whenever I read stories about them on the Sega blogs, my thoughts basically devolve to "meh" since I didn't get involved in Sega years ago just to read about them. Really, to this day I'm still utterly baffled that Sega would get involved in the Aliens franchise, only to watch garbage Gearbox and Randy Pitchfork piss all over it.
Anyway, cause the Reddit-spooge-inducing Steam Summer Sale is on, I picked up Sonic All-Stars Racing: Transformed up for PC for $8. Not bad and I hope you did too. I haven't played it yet but I'll have it for 60 FPS goodness on a rainy day. One problem I finally realized after all these months is that the game isn't going to work with this fancy GT steering wheel I got a while back. Why?? Because you can't fly planes with a steering wheel. Now that's just lame... Think I said this before but if given the choice for cars only at 60 FPS or cars/boats/planes for 30 FPS, I'd take the cars at 60 FPS. And the steering wheel compatibility is another reason...
Sonic All-Stars Racing: Transformed is basically in its waning phase and if Sumo were to add anything else to the game at this point, I'd probably shit bricks. Doubt it'd happen though.
We do have another update from another game and it's from The 90's Arcade Racer crew via Kickstarter email. This was some time in June. Basically, they're going all-out with this game now, as they have introduced what appears to be an airport terminal level (Scud Race, duh) as well as the "Omnomnomnom" car which is clearly meant to be the Phantom Full Force car. In other words, I think feature creep is kicking in as the crew has said f*** it to normal arcade conventions, let's crank the number of cars and tracks in this game up to 11. Here's two hi-res screenshots.
Now, I might as well tell you what happened recently too and this was after I got fired. Basically, I sent Pelikan another email about my recent woes and said I can help with the game if necessary (also gave him the link to my personal portfolio site). He sympathized with me but has since then never replied back with an "offer" (even a free one would do, that's how much I want to help with the game). And I can understand the lack of offer since I am a programming noob who lives on a completely different continent than he does.
So the game is coming along nicely and let's face it--I've kinda run out of things to do for racing games. The 90's Arcade Racer is basically out there honing in on the Sega Racing Utopia Project we've all desired while Sega and Sumo Digital are jerking off and every other racing dev is obsessed with making their racing games as photorealistic as possible, gameplay or fun be damned. I did throw out the idea about a year ago that I should create my own 3D arcade racing game like Daytona or OutRun on my own but let's face it--it'd never work. I'm not an artist and I no longer have access to the same tools/software that I did during my days at grad school. It would be like constructing a car out of popsicle sticks but no glue. The 90's Arcade Racer is doing better than I ever could in a freelance project so I'm basically left in the dust to play the role of an inept cheerleader. You have no idea how much this depresses me.
As an aside, and I hate getting all emo once again, but my motives have most certainly changed over the last couple of years. At first it was all "hoorah, we're gonna work for Sega and make Daytona USA 3," then it's "well, Sega seems out of reach but it might happen and I might get to work on some racing games," to "I don't give a shit anymore, I'll work for anyone who pays for me." My optimism certainly got shot down, curb stomped, and roasted as firewood really quickly. I'd consider it fortunate if I ever get to "contribute" to a racing game ever again outside of Super Sprint. Argh, everything just got all fucked up since I was fired and I'll be lucky if I ever get a job working at a video game studio again. Sorry to be Debbie Downer. I'll be back with more updates someday so later guys.
You know what guys, the EA circlejerk must continue. "SimCity 5" is one of the most broken pieces of trash in recent history for a multitude of reasons. I won't parrot the news but rather just give you my quick opinions as to what went down. But first, a quick recap in case you simply haven't paid attention or you're from the future:
You know, maybe EA is not to blame for all this. Maybe this is Maxis' fault. Good little Maxis with the Stockholm Syndrome, running to defend poor daddy EA, "it's not their fault!!!" Yes it is, even if they weren't directly involved with the SC5 Lockdown. They're like the problematic child on the playground who's always coincidentally around whenever trouble strikes. SimCity 5 disaster? Mass Effect 3 ending sucks (plus the on-disc DLC)? Origin "spyware" and lousy customer service? The assimilation and dismantling of smaller studios? Monetization spam in all their games? Need for Speed sucks? There's just too much crap EA is tied to at this point for one to say "well, it's really not their fault" or "you people are overreacting." If crap like SimCity and Need for Speed are the "future" of gaming, then I will not stand for it.
Look, here's a video. Despite how utterly embarrassing it must be to be this guy, there's one line the guy drops half-way through the vid that really gets to me. "When the servers go down, you can't play the game anymore." I pointed this out before but I guess now it's official--SimCity 5 will be NULL AND VOID in a couple of years. Tell me, how asinine is it that I can pick up a 24-year old copy of the original SimCity on the PC (1989) and still play it to this day yet in 24 years from now (2037) odds are I won't be able to play my copy of SimCity 5? I mean, not just the multiplayer aspects, the WHOLE ENTIRE GAME will be gone by then! For you "games are art" folks out there, isn't that kind of shitty--like burning a museum full of paintings or sculptures? It's 2013, I think we can preserve everything on computers, especially if its a game from a wildly popular franchise such as this one.
But this is the "rebuttal" of my point and it is this: How do we know if people will care about SimCity 5 in 20+ years? And wouldn't there be a better SimCity out by that time? Good question! We don't know what people are going to want in the future. But look at today--some of us still care about old games like the SimCity 1-4, Pac-Man, Street Fighter 2, Doom, DAYTONA USA, OUTRUN, and so forth. It's why we have crap like emulators & ROMs for the sake of preserving these games "forever."
Also, who's to say the next SimCity will be better than SC5, or better yet, even exist at all? Game franchises have fallen off the map before. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is a great example. Loved the series up until Underground 1 but then it went downhill from there. Underground 2 and American Wasteland's story and designs got less appealing and glitchier in nature but were still "playable." Then comes Project 8 with a brand new engine and the game is even less fun. A few games later and you have Tony Hawk: Ride. Hell, at least I can still play the old Tony Hawk games so we should be thankful!
But yeah, we do know that SC5 has gameplay flaws and can be played offline but we don't know where it'll stand in a year or two--Maxis and EA may relinquish the game and allow modders to salvage it at last but otherwise, I'm not holding my breath. I've been a SimCity diehard most of my life, playing the crap out of SC2000 and SC4, but now the series is dead to me. Congrats EA on strangling another one of your franchises to death.
Also, here's another thing that really sucks about this DRM. It doesn't allow any kind of user mods whatsoever. Look, I've played enough of these old PC games where you can create your own mods, scripts maps, skins, models, gameplay rules, other fun stuff (Half-Life mods come to mind) and they were wildly enjoyable. Yeah, this makes way for hackers and pirates but do tell me which games DON'T have that as a problem (last time I checked, Spore, despite the DRM protection, was the most pirated game of 2008). As for SimCity, check out this screenshot:
Check it out--this is a whole gallery of SimCity 4 in-game screenshots made possible with modifications. I'm serious, you look at SimCity 4 from 2003 and yeah, the game was rather glitchy and had performance issues when it came out. But guess what--you can download fan mods like the Transportation Mod or the Opera House Fix which really tweak the game and make it much more playable. Yet without any sort of fan-made mods, you're basically at the whim of EA/Maxis to fix the damn game for you...and odds are that they'll fuck it up more than the fans can. Seriously, over the years, I've learned that fans can tweak a game better than the game designers themselves. Dammit, EA, really?
EDIT: I guess one more point about this server nonsense is that it fosters multiplayer gaming. C'mon people, multiplayer is fun! You alway want to be in multiplayer, right? Um, not always! What if I *le GASP* don't care for playing with other people or I want to develop a metropolis without being molested by other pinheads out there on the Internets, how about that?? Like check out this city. Think this dude gives a crap about online play?
Honest to God, I'm not talking about SimCity anymore. I do, however, want to talk about another EA published disaster. It's called Real Racing 3 and it's an iOS/Android game similar to Gran Turismo/Forza's sim racing model. It's free-to-play which means it's going to suck ass. Seriously, check out the Eurogamer review--trashed it by literally limiting gameplay (making you wait X minutes before you can race again) and encouraging overpriced microtransactions for underwhelming car upgrades. You know what, I'm not gonna fuckin' lie--I'd rather up front pay $10 or so for an unmolested, disturbance free experience instead of a "free" one that looks to inhibit me every step of the way. But someone I know did say, "ain't nothing free, soon" but I counter by saying there's a difference between "offering microtransactions/advertisements" and "offering microtransactions/advertisements in such a way that it destroys any semblance of gameplay and fun."
To prove the point, here's a fun little game I downloaded for my iPhone recently. It's called Tiny Tower. It's a FREE game. It's a "grind-it-out" Facebook-y kinda game that you really can't lose at. You just save up money by clicking on crap and building new floors on your tower. The only kind of advertisements that appear are ones on startup and they're very innocuous popups for games like "Sky Burger" and "Hungry Squirrels" that only last for two seconds before you click the red X. As for monetization, there's a sly little option in the game's menu labeled "Get Bux" which lets you spend up to $30 for the in-game premium currency used to speed up construction, restocking of stores, etc. But the good news if you play the game efficiently, you can earn tons of Bux easily. Basically, I'm at 76 floors, have the best elevator, and I've spent ZERO United States Dollars on this game thus far.
I imagine the real life Samuel Willis has a James Earl Jones/Danny Glover voice as he utters, "Boy, my dream since I was a child was to work at the cheese shop."
And besides, even if someone DOES choose to buy Bux in the game, so what? At least this game isn't being an ass about it like in EA games. Seriously, man, if you're going to be a free-to-play game, you don't have to suck dick like an EA game. Or at least grow a pair and charge $4 bucks or something like the Kairosoft games. I got a lot of value and little grief out of games like Grand Prix Story and Mega Mall Story because Kairosoft chose not to go the shitty route when it came to monetizing games.
Anyway, this has been a scintillating discussion. I'm sorry I haven't been posting as much as I should have. Not only am I pissed about SimCity, I'm also pissed about the Rock Band weekly DLC coming to a close in a few weeks (although I have no qualms against Harmonix for choosing to do so). Sucks man, everything does these days. I only hope and pray to God that Sega doesn't make these mistakes. That's all, goodnight everyone.
Well hello there, everybody. It's been a while since I posted because I've been readjusting to Orlando, particularly my new job and my crappy old apartment. So about my job, I am a "Junior Software Engineer" at a modest game studio here in Orlando. I can't tell you what studio it is and I ESPECIALLY cannot tell you what game I'm working on. I literally found out the game I would be programming for the day I arrived. I will give you a few hints though:
1. It's a third-person shooter.
2. It's done in the Unreal 3 engine.
3. It has driveable vehicles in it.
4. It's a "clean, family-friendly" game (as in I don't find it completely repulsive)
That's all there is too it. I started working on the vehicle stuff when I arrived! In a few months, if this game is greenlit, then the game will be announced. I don't want to talk about it anymore since I've come close to dropping buzzwords that would give it away.
Since I wasn't fired yet, I celebrated by eating five Chipotle tacos and two Jello pudding things.
Oh, also in local news, remember that Warp Derby game made at my grad school I told you about last December? Well it survived Vertical Slice and will be made into a "full" game by the end of August! So we all wait in aniticipation for another generic UDK drive/shoot-em-up (just kidding, it'll be awesome).
Also, I'm fairly certain everyone has seen this. So a site called Liberty Games (which specializes in arcade machines) posted an infographic of many Sega racing games with pictures and a description of each. I actually got an e-mail from these guys, saying "Hey I saw your blog, we like Sega games too" and other compliments. I think they may have seen my Sega Racer Timeline (which still needs to be updated BTW) but I don't care, I really appreciate the comments.
You can read the whole thing here. Now I wouldn't say it's the whole history of arcade racers--it's missing some like Scud Race, Indy 500, Initial D, Rad Mobile but it covers many of the popular ones so it's not that bad. It also mentions Drivemobile, Motocross/Fonz, and Head On (Apply Directly to the Forehead), old-ass games that only teh hardcore Sayguh nerdz would remember.
Look at it...just look at it...that's the first Sega racing game there, ladies and gents.
1968, the birth of a movement. THANKS, FLIPPERS.
Great job Mr. Poster Artist, it's like I'm looking at a colorblind test!!
Anyway, one more Sega racing game I never knew about until recently. It's called "Storm G." It's one of those strange Sega "amusement park" arcade games that you'd find at the Joypolis park in Tokyo. You drive a bobsled through a bunch of pipes (errr, F-Zero? STUN Runner?) as the capsule-shaped cabinet rolls back and forth. I imagine a couple of visitors had become ill playing this but it doesn't look as violent as you'd think.
I'll get back to you guys later with a couple more racing games and EA diatribes. Just be patient.
"The three that ate up most of my coins where Scud Race, Daytona USA and Indy 500, my goal is to recreate the feeling these games evoked from players by maintaining the colorful, vibrant look and sense of speed but with modern visuals and car handling models."
Do you hear anyone talk like this anymore!?!?! Besides me!?!?!
Without a moment's hesitation...
Here, take my money. Take 80 GBP ($127). I pledged THAT MUCH and I'll pledge more if I have to. It's not just for the "in-game billboard" I get, it's cause I want the game to be good (for what it's worth, the billboard can be 128x512 or 256x512). I'm still sitting on my "Lousy Internship Stash Cash" and am now playing the role of "Sega Racer Philanthropist," giving out cash to racing game devs who don't suck ass (in addition to handing out copies of Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed to strangers).
Just for fun, it's worth pointing out the aquarium is from Scud Race's Beginner Day course. And the T-Rex is from Daytona USA's Advanced course. Wait, you say this game was done in the UNITY engine? Genius? I've done two games in Unity before for FIEA. You can make driving games in it like this. The new Unity engine even works on the Wii U. This game is CASH GOLD MONEY EPIC BEAST SWAG MODE and it's too bad I got stuck with lousy Super Sprint instead, lol. The only thing amiss thus far is that the F1/Indy car looks a tad too big. I'm going to e-mail this guy soon.
Holy shit people, how fucking hard is it for game developers to MAKE GAMES LIKE THIS. CLEAN, COLORFUL, FAST, HAPPY, SKILLFUL RACING GAMES. Instead we get this Need for Speed bullshit every three months and I want to vomit.
And Kotaku does the first right thing they've done in the last 8 years and that is mention this damn Kickstarter in a post inferring "You won't get a new Daytona but you'll get this." Geez, Kotaku, just do open-heart vivisection on me already. Screw you and your lousy ass site but thanks for the hits cause this game needs all the publicity it can handle. Oh yeah, by the way, to Kotaku user GunFlame who said "Daytona wasn't a very good game" -- you're wrong, end of story.
First Model2 emulation. Then Model3 emulation. Then Daytona, Sega Rally, OutRun 2 ports. Then the Hornet in Sega All-Stars Racing. Then this. This project still needs 7,700 Great British Pounds and 25 days left to do it. Donate at least 10 quid and get a digital download of the game for free. Donate more for physical copies of the game. DONATE, DONATE, DONATE, DONATE, DONATE, DONATE, DONATE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great, it's like the announcements of the Supermodel emulator, the Daytona USA XBLA trailer, and the Hornet in Sega All-Stars Racing leak all over again. How am I going to follow up a post like this? Talk about the NFL games? Geez...
Just for kicks I'm gonna play the Virtua Racing intro music...DUN DUN DUN, PICK YOUR TRACK THEN PRESS THE PEDAL IDIOT!!!
I know in a few days, Sega All-Stars Racing: Transformed will be among us and it'll surely consume much of our attention. But before then, I want to get as many on the queue things out of the way.
This is the first draft of the timeline I made. It's HUGE. This image below is just a thumbnail.
Now, if you want to see the large timeline,CLICK HERE. It's 2.9 mb and that's after converting to a .jpg with good (not maximum) quality so I don't want to dump this on you people. Yet I had to make the image 3000x4000 because it's the only way to fit so many games without the images being too small to read.
The pic is uploaded to deviantART. Click here and favorite the submission. But since I already described the timeline in the deviantART submission, I'll just copy & paste it here:
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I spent about 30-40 hours on this over the course of a month. It's a list of (most) every relevant racing game since the beginning of video games. From 1976 to 2012. The original timeline is 3000x4000 size so click to zoom in twice for the best view.
I should mention I'm a huge fan of Sega's racing games so the original purpose of the graph was to chart Sega racing games only. Then I branched out and decided to include some other racing games for a point of reference. Then I included video game consoles. Then even more racing games. Now there's a few hundred racing games on there because I'm obsessed like that.
As for how this chart works, I basically thought up as many racing games as I could. The usual suspects like Daytona USA, OutRun, Sega Rally, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, Mario Kart, etc. Then I looked at some more racing game lists here and there for for more recommendations. After going through that many racing games, I may have missed some. If I forgot some famous racing game, please let me know and I'll get to it. Sorry if I screwed up.
Also I should mention that I'm only looking for semi-relevant racing games. Go to GameFAQs and type in "gp" or "f1" in the search bar and scroll through the list. Should all of those be included here when you've only heard of maybe 5-10% of those?
I've also favored arcade racing games which is why there's a couple of obscure racing games on there. Many of the Sega racing games are arcade titles so comparing them to other arcade titles makes sense.
Now for the dates and the pictures. Basically, I have a game I want to add to the timeline. I look for a box art/title screen pic, chop it, and put it in the chart according to the year I was provided with. Some games I looked up the year on GameFAQs which proves to be inaccurate at times. Other games I look up on Wikipedia which seems more accurate. The point is if the date is wrong then please let me know and I can amend it.
Though some dates are major judgment calls--like Gran Turismo 4 was released in Japan on Dec. 28, 2004 and everywhere else months later. So should I list GT4 under 2004 even though it really isn't? Same thing with Mario Kart 64--Japanese release was Dec. 14, 1996, NA release was Feb. 10, 1997, EU release was June 24, 1997. So there's some judgment calls that had to be made. I still may be wrong with the dates but at least give me "proof" that I'm not.
One more thing--I included Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row in the list purely because driving is a huge part of the gameplay. Those technically don't count as "racing games" but oh well. If their presence is too bothersome, I can take them out.
I appreciate all comments. If this is a big deal and I get a lot of suggestions, I'll make it look much more polished. Until then, here's the first version. Adios.
Oh and I hope this is acceptable for deviantART even though it really isn't "artwork." Maybe I'll move it to scraps then. Isn't all art subjective?
Copyright all these games not to me. So many to list...
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Like most projects I engage in, this one took much too long so I hope it's worthwhile. If only to highlight Fonz, heh...
I always come on this blog and call out enemies of the Sega Nation all the time. Yet I should flip it around and mention those guys who do the Sega Nation well. Here goes.
I wonder how secure is this house. Now that probably every burglar in the world knows that so much stuff is inside, it's pretty tempting to steal all this shit.
Anyway amazing setup, i liked arcade racing machines the most, also i twitched seeing those cds, no matter if they're the cheapest of all of this, he should treat them with respect :P
Another thing that bothered me was screen sizes, shouldn't all be the same? or the owners screen is the biggest and you, little pawns, can have those tiny ones?
I hope to see more photos :D
Thank you so much Reddit user Citizen_Gamer for posting pics of this and doing your part to get Sega Racers a little more exposure. Nice house and thanks for having that friend of yours making the world a better place...one arcade at a time. I don't have a Reddit account (and I really don't want one...that site's all about being upvoted) but I wish I could put in a good word for him.
AND THEN, there's this...this is on SEGAbits, same site that had DarthSOL on the podcast to do Q&A'S. Well they did a brief story on Danica's 14th place finish and posted the links to Danica's Sega car gallery and a Fox Sports race recap. Funny thing is I referenced the same exact two links in my blog post and I don't think these guys are digging around for obscure Danica stuff either. So is it possible they read my blog? I'm not mad, obviously I look up to them for Sega news and that's great if we got a little webring going cause us Sega fans need to stick together lest we get cannibalized by this stupid gaming media. But it's cool bro, good job with the short story and it's great that people know more about Danica's race, that's all.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Also on Reddit Gaming, there's a classic Sega Genesis plug-in-and-play console with 80 games already built in to the console. Supposedly $30 bucks at Best Buy, Rite Aid, any generic store. I mean, I hear from one or two people it's crummy but others say it's alright so I can't attest to its quality. The packaging looks okay so it doesn't look like a Chinese knockoff like the "Greatstation 3." So I wanna let you know there's a new Sega console floating around out there in stores so keep your eyes peeled on it. It's not a Dreamcast 2 but it'll do for now.
Hey, what's up guys! Typical Call of Duty/"Let's Play" Youtuber intro. So I want to talk about Sonic the Hedgehog. Anyway, I'm on deviantArt looking at furry porn fan art and whoop, what do ya know--I run into some Sonic flash movies. This is from a guy named Roger aka "Rogerregorroger" from the Netherlands, home of windmills, the Nintendo 64 champs and marijuana legalization before it was cool. All of his "Sanic Gaem in X minutes" videos are already on YouTube:
Well, maybe you find them hilarious, maybe not. But there's more! I suggest you check out Roger's "Dissecting Sonic" series of Flash movies. To my knowledge, they're only on deviantArt. Each one only takes 5 or 6 minutes to watch but you should watch all eight eleven in order.
The reason I bring these up is because it makes you think about Sonic games in a much different light. Most of what is mentioned has to do with the story & characters as opposed to gameplay. But here's a few things I learned that I basically agree with:
* You talk about Sonic characters and you will always get a bunch of haters, "no more of Sonic's friends," so to speak. But most every video game series has a huge cast of characters (see Mario for instance) and they always get away with it. So what is Sonic doing wrong? Because Sonic was a character with weaknesses. Sonic is fast, Tails is smart, Knuckles is strong, Amy is sociable. They just worked together. But post Sonic Adventure 2 (when most agree the series took a huge dip), they turned Sonic into a character with no weaknesses whatsoever. Sonic shows up, kills everything, and cracks a stupid joke. Eggman is never on par with Sonic as he has become the gag villain for too long. All other characters are tacked on just for fan service. People aren't complaining about the characters--they're complaining about the characters being used incorrectly. Cheesy voice acting & dialogue doesn't help either.
versus...
* Sonic Adventure 2 debateably has the best Sonic story for the 3D games. Even if it's in cheesy "stuff just happens" Sonic fashion, I agree with this. The game's excitement peaks and drops like a good movie should as new information is revealed at regular intervals. Sonic needs help and shows emotions besides "cocky and in control." The characters are actually doing stuff and events pay off in the future and make for a satisfying story. Meanwhile, a lot of modern Sonic games like Secret Rings, Unleashed, and Colors usually have the characters stand around exchanging time-wasting dialogue and the action only peaks near the end when you fight a boss that you saw at the beginning of the game, spoiling the surprise and making it less exciting.
* As for gameplay, this is addressed in Part 8. Some people compare Sonic to Mario and say "if Mario can do 3D platforming, why can't Sonic?" Well Sonic has always gone a step above Mario in terms of obstacles such as the loops, the City Escape truck chase, the Final Chase rails, etc. Meanwhile, all Mario has to do is have Mario run around the world jumping off stuff. Not that what Mario does is bad or that bad Sonic gameplay is excusable, but it makes you think twice about why Sonic Team chose to program their games the way they did.
Go ahead and watch the videos if you haven't already.
Here on this site, we like Sega games. But we also like racing games. Question is you had to pick between the two, which would you go with? Would you take a SEGA game or a RACING game??? To reiterate, a Sega non-racing game or a non-Sega racing game. It's like Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail, the 50-50 on Millionaire, or Facemash from The Social Network, just pick whichever frickin one you like more. You MUST pick one, not two, not zero. Here are the two quality games to choose from, choose wisely. Seriously, just pick one.
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A. The SEGA game.
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B. The RACING game.
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Wow, what an riveting psychological question...which is more important to you: SEGA games or RACING games. WHICH SIDE OF THE FENCE ARE YOU ON??? WHERE DOES YOUR ALLEGIANCE LIE??? And I just blew it with such a shallow post and two lousy games. Man, I am a lousy blogger.
"...He said with each game in the series he strives to have each part of the game equally polished: enthralling and well-performed drama, satisfying exploration and interaction in the adventure sections and a combat system that’s challenging while accessible." TLDR: He works his ass off on these games.
It's become a running gag over the years to call out Nagoshi-San for his wacky antics. Like this or this. But I cannot be angry at Toshihiro Nagoshi anymore.
Why???
First of all, what if judging by his dedication to the Yakuza franchise, isn't that what his true passion is? Yakuza games? To me, I love racing games. But to him, he loves Yakuza. And it's his dream come true to make many of these games. So who am I to interfere? After many years of service to SEGA, he is basically the Chief Creative Officer now and he makes games that make Sega money. And when Sega makes money, it's good for ALL of us.
And another thing. Hasn't he done enough already? He made Daytona USA 1, Daytona USA 2, Scud Race, and even F-Zero GX. Why should I beat up on him for not doing more? He basically brought them into existence and without him, we'd probably be in a much worse position. OutRun and Virtua Racing were great but Nagoshi advanced the ball further down the field for us. If he didn't who else would?
I'm reminded of a conversation I had with my dad. We were talking about Drew Brees, quarterback for the New Orleans Saints NFL team. One of the best QB's in NFL history, he brought a Superbowl victory to New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. After 43 years of the Saints being perennial losers, they finally won the Lombardi and lifted the spirits of the entire city (read my recap of the season here). In other words, Drew Brees = Gulf Coast Hero & Class Act.
But last year, he held out for a bigger contract and basically hindered the team from signing better players like Pro Bowl offensive lineman Carl Nicks. This hurt & distracted our team in the long run. This I talked about before. Drew would settle for a $100 million contract over 5 years. My dad said something interesting in response and that is, "He could never play another snap and that $100 million would be worth it. He's done more than enough for the city." And that's true. The fact Drew is still playing is just a bonus.
So you know what. If Nagoshi wants to make Yakuza games, hit the tanning booths, drink alcohol, and have nice little conversations with Japanese mistresses then fine. I can't hate on the guy. He's deserved it. He's my hero. There, I said it and I mean it.
So, what about Daytona USA? I'll tell you what for the 100th time, it's down to the FANS to get that s*** back up and running. Assuming there is a new Daytona (or Sega racer in general), there's no guarantee Toshihiro Nagoshi will be involved as well as includes Yu Suzuki, Tetsuya Mitzuguchi, Makoto Osaki, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, the whole crew. So you GET ACTIVE, talk about racing games, learn about game design, favorite all the Sega racer YouTube vids and fan art, just do whatever you can to promote this stuff. Cause that's what Sega fans have done for the last 20 years, promote the heck out of a garbage company known as Service Games for no reason at all other than that they've moved us in some way. Like a stupid little arcade game like Daytona USA with 3 tracks and only one car. Or a Mario "clone" called Sonic the Hedgehog. Or Space Harrier, OutRun, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Fighter, Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, even for the most miniscule reasons like "I think the music's cool." So GET MOTIVATED!!!! Cause Sega does what Nintendon't. Or what Microsoft don't. Or Sony don't. Or Namco don't. Or all those other wannabe game devs.
I propose that September 29th (Saturday) is official "Talk About Sega Racers Day". You have two days to get ready so if you're reading this on Friday, you're given the heads up. It's on a Saturday so it's the weekend and you should be feeling it then. Just go to a message board, chat room, or meet someone in actual real life and say "Hey, you know about Sega? You like racing games? You ever played OutRun or Daytona USA?" NOT THAT HARD. Let's start doing this cause I'm getting sick and tired of the Sega fanbase drying up all around me like a dying oasis in the desert. So talk, talk, talk about Sega and don't be scared. Trust me, I already look like a bigger fool on this stupid blog than you could possibly be in real life so go do it. THE END.
Listen to them all at once and there's your 5 Hour Energy for the day.
This isn't meant to be a wordy post but you learn something new everyday so check it out.
Learned about a new mod today for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on the PC. It's called "Multi Theft Auto." It's supposed to be like Garry's Mod for GTA in that you can mess around with many other players in a single GTA world. Obviously, the main hook for me is the massively-multiplayer racing modes. Here's some vids and I have to tell ya, I'm stunned how much you can do:
European Pro Gamers...no doubt there are guys from The Netherlands practicing 18 hours a day. Anyway, there's a huge amount of stunt tracks like out of San Francisco Rush. And the OJ Simpson "chase the pink car" mode is f'n gold.
Just a traditional race. I'm not a fan of the glowy node things but it looks great.
Another race mode with incredibly annoying music and changing vehicles (you mean like Sonic All-Stars Racing 2??? Sumo Digital are SLACKERS).
Deathmatch mode--cops vs gangsters.
Stunt movie. OSHI--IS THAT GUNS n' ROSES???
A better version of DiCE/evil EA's Battlefield 3.
Rage face mod and some weird demolition derby/stunt map.
Driving on Rainbow Road...I still hate this music (sorry guys).
EDIT: This is just a handful of gameplay videos I found out. It just scratches the surface. So there's a lot more to do with this mod.
I remember playing online GTA for Vice City years ago...you picked from a couple different characters (a cop, Tommy Vercetti's gang, a bank robber, etc) who had different weapons and you ran around town shooting each other. You could also have car races but there were no in-game rules for that--the other players had to coordinate to do this. And yet this mod has greatly evolved since then. I like this because it proves A. that fan mods/creations are awesome, maybe even better than the multi-million dollar studios and B. that "old" games like GTA:SA, Half-Life 1, and so forth are not down and out.
Guess it's worth checking out if you're into this sort of thing. The community is still alive but for how long, I don't know:
Could it be? A Sonic restaurant/drive-in commercial. That's an ode to a Sega franchise. That is NOT SONIC THE HEDGEHOG???
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!!!
Cool commercial, bro. If this gets aired on TV and I actually see it, I'm buying 100 chocolate shakes, they're good. Sorry, but all I watch is Speed Channel which is too busy airing commercials about General Insurance and the Scottish guy with the lawn stuff.
Also while you're at it, check out this wacky OutRun contraption:
EDIT: One more thing since I've had this adorable pic for a while and I don't know when or where to post it. It's Virtua Fighter being played by our huggable, loveable, little fuzzball:
Oh and one more cause I can't help it:
Haw haw Sawnik, go get that actual Sonic drive-in chillie dog
TGS as in "Toulouse Game Show," not "Tokyo Game Show." This was in November 2011 so this is quite recent! It's always great to hear from Yu Suzuki and this time it's nothing short of emotional. Thanks to the Shenmue Master guys who were so loyal to ask Yu the tough questions and make videos like this. There's two parts to the conference: one on Shenmue, the other on everything else. Here's the super-quick recaps since the videos are quite long.
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Part 1 (Shenmue) recap:
Intro: Standing ovation for Suzuki-San! EDIT: It's really worth saying I'm moved by his reaction to the applause. Yu still seems genuinely surprised that he's admired as much as he is. He seems so humble and quiet up there unlike others who go up there to gloat and suck up as much attention as possible. I really gotta give him props.
Making an RPG: Sega was working on the Dreamcast and they needed a killer title. No one wanted to make the RPG so Yu did it himself.
Shenmue on Saturn: It was a prototype for the Dreamcast version. The rendering, development of characters, cities, and quests were just tests for the real thing.
XBL/PSN Ports: Are they possible some day? Yu nods his head and doesn't say anything.
Martial Arts: Does Yu practice martial arts? He want to China and learned a lot. Went to the Shaolin Temple and got beat up. He's not very strong but he just wanted to see it for himself.
QTE's: He likes that other games are using QTE's. Not much to say.
Shenmue Gai (Town): It was developed for Japanese mobile phones. It's possible to Westernize it.
Title: Why the title "Shenmue"? It's the name of a tree. "Mue" means "tree." "Shenfa" means "flowers that grow on the tree." Very old story about the Shenfa.
Shenmue III again: Yu says he wants to work on Shenmue III again, ha. People want to donate money for him to finish Shenmue III. Yu says thank you and everyone cheers.
Jokes: Yesterday, have you seen a black car? Takes a while for him to get it.
Popularity: Shenmue was a catastrophic commercial failure (jeers from audience). What do you think of the difference between the excellent quality of your games versus their low popularity? Because of his enthusiastic audience, he denies there is no lack of popularity (cheers from audience).
French words: What do you think of French translation of Shenmue II? Yu is confused and cannot answer. Fans begin a sing-along for the Happy Birthday of Shenmue II's European release. These people are nuts passionate!
Shenmue III yet again: Despite opposition to Shenmue III questions, people still asked 'em anyway. Is it still possible to see Shenmue III someday? "If I can have the opportunity, the chance, really, I would make it. Like today, to be requested by so many people on 'Please bring us Shenmue III!', I think that I really must do it!"
Favorite game he made: Shenmue. Naw, really?
Wow, I don't know how big of a crowd this was, but just these thousand or so fans really moved him. Great show so far.
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Part 2 (everything else) recap:
Hang-On: Rode a lot of off-road bikes in the past. Had an urge to make a bike game but thought an "off-road" game wouldn't sell well (say that to Trials HD) so he created an "on-road" game.
OutRun: He wanted to create a "driving game," not a "racing game." Driving with the radio on, girl in the seat, checking out the view, it's just cool.
Look, it's a radio.
Cars: We love all cars, even small ones! Drifting is a lot of fun.
Ports: Watched over the arcade ports. Had to work hard since console technology was inferior to his superb arcade technology.
Virtua Racing: First 3D Sega game. Could only get 300 polygons at first. But because Yu is such a racing game pro, that's no problem. Wanted to model 3D living beings but that was too complicated hence a car game instead. Player models in Virtua Racing were the basic models for Virtua Fighter. Looking back, it looks more like robots or walking boxes!!!
Arcades: Some of his best memories. Going to 3D was most exciting. Release new technology early but not too early.
Social Games: Interested in them, particularly smart phones which is the "future."
Development Tools: He had to create his own. Yeah...
Virtua Fighter 6: Since Virtua Fighter 5, he's entrusted the series to AM2.
Japanese Creativity Crisis: Doesn't think there is one. Many original games have come out of America & Europe so it's all good.
Psy-Phi: Designed in 2005 but canceled. Was too ahead of its time. Used a touch screen like Tom Cruise from Minority Report (his words). Would be more suitable now. When asked about it, he teased releasing the game for iPhone (for obvious reasons). Learn more about the game here.
If this game came out for the Kinect, I'd kick my own ass.
Sega: Can't speak of what he's doing there--it's confidential. He does give advice in arcade games' production. Still maintains a good relationship with Sega and mentions if he had the Shenmue license, he could do something with it...!!!
Nintendo: Has worked with Nintendo before! Doesn't mention anything else.
Future Plans: In Yu's words, "It is certain that I would make Shenmue III if I had the chance." Also thinking of other projects include one in which "monsters and other animals fight together." Raise your monsters and send them to fight. Wait--what??? Is he talking about Monster Rancher??? That's it--we take over Tecmo and pool our efforts into a Monster Rancher fighting/RPG game. We have Virtua Fighter/Dead or Alive expertise under our belt. If Capcom and Namco want to play footsies then so can Sega and Tecmo.
Then hhows a picture of a cat kicking a dog and everyone laughs. No one knows if he's joking or serious. These things draw inspiration for new games.
What's your favorite game???: Easy games. Effortless games that you can play with kids. Like Animal Crossing from Nintendo. Yes, he actually says "Animal Crossing."
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Anyway, it's super-encouraging right now to see Yu Suzuki speaking to the fans. He looks humbled by his standing ovation. He's a good man looking out for his games. He also has a contagious smile. Wish we had more game devs like him nowadays.
About a week ago, during my "Spring Break," I added some more stuff to Super Sprint. Nowadays any programming I do is aimed towards schoolwork. All my future Super Sprint endeavors will be dedicated towards online gamplay. So rather than leave traces of useless online source code in the build, I'll give you all the stuff I got for now to hold you off. I've already made some progress with the online UDP code but nothing cross-computer yet. Just be patient.
Click on the words "Click here to start download from sendspace." Watch for ads that say "Download."
There is hardly anything new in terms of gameplay. However, there are severalBIG CHANGES:
* Tire smokes and skidmarks. Both fade away after a certain amount of time. Apparently, on the laptop with the source code, the above lines are see-through. On another computer (the one I snapped the pics), the lines are thick like permanent markers. You can thank OpenGL for being incredibly consistent. I hope the lines are translucent on your computer--I only tested this on two comps so far. If the skidmarks are distracting, then press F2 at any time to enable/disable them.
* Press F1 at any time to toggle the game volume--high, low, mute. In case it's too loud.
* Much improved sound effects! More realistic engine sounds with "gear changes." If you retain 100% speed over time, the engine reaches a staggering pitch. Also incorporated more cleaner SFX from the actual Super Sprint game.
* Classic colors if you want to play 4 cars with the old red-yellow-blue-green combo. While in a 4P car select screen, press the left/right arrow keys to change between "original" and "all" colors.
* Fireballs when you crash. No choppers yet...
* You can pause the game before the green flag/gunshot. It is mildly annoying when racing games won't let you pause until the race has actually begun. I'm looking at you, Forza.
* Other minor bug fixes you wouldn't notice.
Throw your suggestions into the bin. Better keyboard configs and collision detection come to mind but it's going to take a while.
