More Stuff On 90's Arcade Racer (With Crying)

A new video from yesterday.

"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...................

Someone Is Making Their Own Sega Racer!!!

I never created a Kickstarter account until now.  KICKSTART THIS.

"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!!!

TIME BONER!!!

Always Name Your Race Cars After Insects

I "watch" Speed Channel (as in leave it on in the background) and the show Hot Rod TV was on.  Hey, they are talking about old race cars.  This is the Marmon Wasp, the winner of the first ever Indianapolis 500 in 1911.

If it was the number 41 and had a red & blue paint job, I would've pinched myself.  Cause one of the most famous race cars in history is almost named after the same insect as the Hornet from Daytona USA.  Hornets are a subset of wasps so they're relatively the same.  Is that a coincidence or was Nagoshi-San onto something???

About the first Indianapolis 500, it is a funny story...  It was basically a soap box derby but more people got hurt.  Race cars back then drove an average of 75 mph (120 kph).  Bear in mind the race was always 500 miles so it took 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 8 seconds for Ray Harroun, driver of the #32 Marmon Wasp, to finish.  The track was laden with white sand to absorb the oil.  A car's tire came off.  One guy died and six others were injured.  There were pace cars, pit stops, and 80,000 fans in attendance so this was a "legit" event.

Nowadays, Indy Motor Speedway can seat 400,000 fans (largest sporting venue in the world) and the 500 is aired on ABC every year as everyone makes a big deal out of it despite the fact no one cares about Indy Car anymore, or something.  I care about Indy Car...if only someone on Speed Channel told me when the races come on cause they always happen when I'm NOT watching the TV...

Black & white footage doesn't help me see the sponsors...

What is that, Go Daddy and Red Bull sponsoring cars in 1911???  NOPE!!
Lovin' the shoutout to the "King of Speed" from Daytona...

And if this old timey news footage wasn't hectic enough, guess what--this is 1911 we're talking about. Do you think a bunch of judges could keep track of the positions of 40 cars over that time span? After 10 minutes, everyone lost track of the positions. Then about 200 miles in, a spin out near the judges' stand caused them to flee, throwing any record-keeping out the window.  So Ray Harroun "won" because he was such a swell guy who drove a car made in Indianapolis and was good friends with the president of the track. Hey, read this.

I like this picture from Ron Hoskins at Getty Images (from the previous link) cause we love cars and we need more old-school cars in our vidya games.  Oh wait...

We already do, thanks Amusement Vision, no thanks to you AM2!!!

EDIT: Oh yeah, you can't forget about the 1951 Hudson Hornet, made famous by Doc Hudson from the Cars movie.

Just so you know, Cars is THE BEST PIXAR MOVIE!  *readers rage*

Namco's Ace Driver: A Poor Man's Indy 500??

Oh, leave it up to Kotaku to write an article that barely references Daytona USA to spark interest in the game again.

The 1990s were a great time for arcade racing games. Daytona, Cruis'n USA, the original Ridge Racer...but for all the quality on offer there, my friends and I spent more time and money on one game than any other.


And that game was Namco's Ace Driver.

It's not a bad article.  It goes to mention the game's horrible rubber-banding is so bad that whoever was in last place was pretty much destined to win.  Therefore, everyone drove as slowly as possible without running out of time so they could slingshot into first at the end.  A concept so f***tarded that even Midway couldn't think it up.

Rubber-band AI or multiplayer ain't new.  Daytona USA has lots of rubber-banding but you can disable it if you like.  But Ace Driver sounds worse than any other rubber-band racer I've seen.

Is it just me or is Namco pretty much stealing Sega's ideas?  Or is it the other way around?  I'm looking at the list of Namco arcade games as well as Sega arcade games and they share many similarities.  I can only do so much research so if you find any more, feel free to add via comments:

Shiatload of Sega arcade games = Shiatload of Namco arcade games
Daytona USA = Ridge Racer
Virtua Fighter = Tekken
Virtua Cop = Time Crisis
Indy 500 = Ace Driver
Turbo = Pole Position
Super Monaco GP = Final Lap
Super Hang-On = Suzuka 8 Hours
Initial D Arcade Stage = Wangan Midnight Tune
Top Skater = Alpine Racer
Edit: Last Bronx = Soul Edge

Doesn't matter, if you take away Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig-Dug, etc., Sega whips Namco's ass any day of the week.  Which brings me to....



Daytona USA vs. Ridge Racer.  Ridge Racer ain't bad but it's not as "intricate" or skillful of a racer as Daytona.  That is, in Ridge Racer, the physics are even less realistic and you can ping-pong your way around the track like that.  But that's just me.  The game does a good job of differentiating itself from Daytona.  The only thing Ridge Racer really has over Daytona is that Namco is producing all sorts of new RR games while you have to twist Sega's arm just to get a basic XBL/PSN port.  Namco deserves props since they've been so prolific in the arcade era.

And now I present to you dudes the coolest song I've heard in the last 5 minutes:

Indianapolis 500 Day: Talking About Cars With Big Spoilers

Today is the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 race (despite the fact this is the 95th race).  Anyway, it's a pretty big deal because it's part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, also including the Monaco GP and the 24 Hour LeMans.  No Daytona 500 because no one likes NASCAR (except for rednecks).

Some funny observations from this race.  You see there's a golf course around and inside the track with go-karts around so...there's people golfing during the race?  They are also playing that Go-Daddy "naked commercial shoot" again, recycled from the Superbowl three months ago...  Then some guy popped a tire so he just cruised into the pits and they just swapped it out.  Very nice.

EDIT: Oh, forgot this one part--a guy enters the pit.  Guys change four tires.  He drives off and a second later his rear left tire just pops off into the air.  Pit crew forgot to screw in the nuts.  Car's still driving with just three wheels, AMAZING!

But there's two stupid things going on.  One, this is the fifth race of the IndyCar season when you'd think it was the first...because they advertised the heck out of this race like they did with the Daytona 500 which is the first race of that season.  Second, it's the same day as the Monaco Grand Prix?  What the hell--I missed that???  Why???

But anyway, there's an Indy 500 Sega Model2 arcade racer released in 1995.  Now this game is nowhere near as popular as the rest of the Sega racer lineup, but it's a rugged little racer--one that certainly deserves more credit.  It has a 0% chance of receiving a sequel which is actually kind of sad.



Alright, so let's talk about more than just IndyCar...there's also Formula 1 which is basically the European version of IndyCar.  Now I'll tell you about this old game I used to play for the PC--Microprose Formula 1 Grand Prix--also known as World Circuit.  This game was released in 1992 and it was actually pretty sweet at the time.  EDIT: No, it wasn't just sweet, it was THE SHIZNIT at the time and still is today.



And then there's Virtua Racing.  The original arcade version also came out in 1992, but this is the PS2 version, part of the Sega Classics Collection.  This game's pretty good--it has six tracks and cars and is arguably the only decent game on the whole disc.  There's no telling if this is supposed to be Formula 1, IndyCar, CART, who cares...Sega racers know no bounds.



------------

And finally, my opinions on Formula 1 and IndyCar...(I know nothing about CART other than that it merged with IndyCar in 2008).  Well, racing is racing so I like them all.  IndyCar can get boring because the loops.  Formula 1 has all technical courses, some legends like Spa-Francorchamps and Suzuka while IndyCar has a couple of street courses.  Anyway, I presume Indy cars have slightly higher top speeds but who knows...they're all the same to me.  If you want to learn more about IndyCar & Formula 1, you can check out this site.

But there's something about Formula 1 that's strange.  For the last couple of F1 seasons I've checked out, there's no American drivers or tracks.  I'm not sure if it's because they have a hate-on for America...I certainly hope not.  Maybe it's because we're a bunch of rednecks who watch NASCAR...gimme a break.  At least IndyCar is kind enough to have races in Brazil, Japan, and Canada as well as a diverse crowd of drivers.  But there have been drivers who have won in F1 and IndyCar so there can't be that big of a difference between the two after all.  No, please don't take this as "I hate F1," cause I don't.

Either way, NASCAR is more popular than the two and that's a fact.  There's many more races in the NASCAR season than in the other two.  Maybe that's where all the good American drivers are--driving stock cars.  Love it or hate it, that's the way it is.  And don't give me that "NASCAR takes no skill" nonsense because Tony Stewart won three IndyCar races before his NASCAR career so you can win at both of them.  They hardly play IndyCar or F1 on TV (in America) so that's the breaks.  Check out Versus and Speed channel.

One of my favorite things about Formula 1 is The Chain music...it's awesome.  One of my most favorite songs of all time.



I could talk more about F1 but I'm done, that's it for now.  I also watched some World Rally Championship in Italy (on HD Theater) and there's the Coca-Cola 600 later, so good day for racing!!