Drift Stage: Another SEGA Fan Game!!! My Opinions

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.

Things Are Looking Up For 90's Arcade Racer/Arcade Games

A recent update from the guys over at The 90's Arcade Racer.

At this point some of you may feel like we’ve been working on ‘90s Arcade Racer since the ‘90s. That’s not entirely true, while Antonis and I were indeed playing Scud Race (Super GT in the US) and Daytona USA some 20 years--that was just preparation for the game we’re developing now.

Here’s what’s been happening the last couple of months with ‘90s Arcade Racer.

Physics, physics and more physics!

In the 100+ hours I’ve spent on racetracks combined with the thousands of hours logged playing racing video games, there’s something that feels quite counterintuitive to the genre. You would think super realistic racing games would have super accurate and lifelike physics -- but that doesn't necessarily always make a better product. To really give the sensation of speed, gravity, lateral gravity, as a designer you end up removing many functions that make a vehicle simulation “real”, in the theoretical sense. A driving simulator, more often than not feels like a floaty, unresponsive boat. Part of that is because you can’t feel yourself slinking around a bucket seat, you don’t have the sensation of a vehicle’s weight shift between the four corners; there’s an entirely missing dimension in racing games.

Antonis and I are going for a fun and arcade racing feel, we’ve said that from the start. Those two descriptors are equally important to the project. Getting to the balance of an arcade feel while offering a challenging experience and still giving the car some complex real-world behaviors is where our own challenge begins.

Once you start playing a racing game, especially an arcade-style one, terminology like camber, caster, differentials, toe, torque and drivetrain are quickly forgotten. Initially I spent a lot of time trying to get an arcade feel out of a real vehicle simulation. After extensive experimentation what Antonis and I found was that it just wasn’t working.

In this case it’s much easier to build something from zero and create an experience that perfectly recreates the perception and expectation we all have of a typical arcade racer. Version 2.0 of ‘90s Arcade Racer physics is built within the expressed intention of creating a real arcade racing game. What that means is that the game is really feeling like should. The car reacts in a way that is indicative of an arcade racer, it moves and accelerates properly and now we have a really fun grip and drift mechanic within the game. Although it’s been challenging having to build physics from nothing, this has allowed us to really build the vehicles exactly how we want and how they should feel.

I’m pretty confident that we’re very much in the right direction with the physics and you’ll probably agree once you have an opportunity to play it. Antonis, has been doing great work on creating the world of ‘90s Arcade Racer. But I’ll let him do that update.

Recently, I was concerned about the progress that was made towards the car handling in the game.  I even sent them a note beforehand asking "are you going to post a new video of the car handling?  what's it going to be like?" to which they replied "we're working on it."  I get a good vibe from this recent post--that their heart's in the right place and they aren't going to half-ass the most important part of a racing game.  Visuals are great and all but if I putter around in a car that feels like something spawned from a Unity tutorial, then the whole thing is for naught!

I bolded part of the post above because it's really damn important.  I talked about it before--sense of speed in racing games.  Sense of speed is almost incompatible with realism.  As long as you're in your living room sitting on a couch, you're not going to get a sense of speed by looking at realistic car physics on screen--the "floaty, unresponsive boat" feeling--unless you're willing to break some rules and go unrealistic in some aspects (i.e. excessive vibration of the suspension at high speeds).  I'm glad they recognize this golden rule!

You know, I've programmed vehicle handling over different mediums--Unity, Unreal, and stupid OpenGL car sprites.  With Unity and Unreal, you make these "wheel colliders" that you attach to the vehicle and do all the nitty gritty physics work for you--you set the torque, braking, suspension, skidpad, etc. and let the "realistic" car handling take over.  Yet I don't think it's possible to recreate a Daytona, Scud Race, or OutRun using built-in tire physics--the power comes from the entire car itself, not the four wheels.  Since these are 15-20 year old games, I doubt they were so advanced as to use realistic tire physics anyway.

If you're confused, imagine the car is pushed forward by one big invisible wheel instead of four tiny visible wheels.  By not using wheel physics, you're simplifying the vehicle handling but it allows you to precisely program the car handling the way you want, hence giving the car some predictable effects--like being able to slide at a fixed angle or accelerate/steer normally with your tires shredded up from a wreck.   In other words, you look at the handling of a 2D game like Super Sprint that technically doesn't "recognize" wheel torque and whatnot--it's just a block sliding on the screen--nowhere in the code does it mention "suspension" or other real-life handling terms.  The tire effects are dictated by the car, not the other way around, so when the tires kick up smoke and whatnot, the tires aren't really doing "anything," it's just for show.

I really want to see how they pull it off code-wise because I'm a nerd like that, heh.  If Super Sprint has taught me anything, it's that car handling takes a LOT of iteration to get it right--you can't just skimp on it.  Sadly, me passing on realistic car handling is why I'm often confused by real-life tuning like in GT and Forza.  Oh well, it's a fair trade--would rather make fun racing games than realistic ones! :)

There's still more to do.  They really need to implement manual transmission into the game (which I don't doubt they will), plus get some great audio too.  I want to hear roaring engines and a kickass soundtrack.  Good luck trying to do so without Takenobu Mitsuyoshi or Dennis St. James.  If in doubt, then just emulate AC/DC since that's not bad at all. :)

Just an aside while we're on the topic of realistic vs. non-realstic games.  I stumbled upon a very interesting Grand Theft Auto 5 GameFAQs topic and read a very intriguing post.  Yes, something good that came out of GameFAQs, it's a miracle.  But here's a post from NeonYoshi11:

Just played san andreas 3 months ago.

It looks like crap.

any game going for "realism" will eventually looks like crap.

This is why Art Style matters more than realism.

This is why Wind Waker still looks better than most games today, even the GC version.

IF you look closely, to disguise the old tech in the PS3/Xbox360 they use art that resembles realistm mixed with cel shading.

So it's got a bit of Street Fighter 4 in it, but in a realistic way, this allows them to improve "graphics" while not taking away performance of the game.

That's dead on.  Realism is basically an always-moving bullseye.  Even if you hit it, the bullseye keeps moving without you.  It's why a lot of games which sell off realistic graphics (Forza, Madden, etc.) often go through numerous iterations and why games like Daytona USA and OutRun 2, while super-old, still stand out and look fun to play.  Sadly, I wonder if the gaming gods get the memo since they're fine and dandy with destroying console backwards compatibility and DRMs that shred old games.  Just make sure to give your game differentiators so that your game won't become GameStop used game filler ten years down the road.  Antonis and The 90's Arcade Racer have a firm understanding of this!  Okay, you get the idea, I'm done for now.

New Updates To Sonic All-Stars Racing, 90's Arcade Racer, And My Optimism

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.

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...................

And Another (Good) Announcement About This Blog

Well guys, I should say that the last post I made about the blog closing down is simply not true.  It was a horrendous April Fool's joke I didn't take much pleasure out of and sorry if anyone was hurt by reading that.  I didn't do this to get pity out of you guys or to really bail cause I was on the fence or some nonsense like that--it was a joke from beginning to end.

Unfortunately, though it was a joke, there were some things that were true about it.  The reason it seemed so genuine is because those things I mentioned are true fears of mine--that you'll show up to work at Sumo Digital or wherever and suddenly go stupid and get fired, that your favorite game company or companies will stop making good games, that the things you used to love you won't anymore, and so on and so forth.  I've been in a funk for the last few months, that's obvious.  But this blog will always have a purpose and I won't ever shut it down unless it's for some really good reason, better than "I feel bad, I don't want to post anymore" or some crap like that.

The blog is the only place left I have to vent about games.  It's the only place where I can still remember the Sega racers.  Hey, on the flip side of the coin, Sega, as stupid as they are, has made great strides in the last decade!  Who would've thought that in the last 6 or 7 years, we'd get mounds of new Sega racing footage in the form of pictures, videos, and player testimonials, we'd get Daytona 1 and 2 emulators, that Daytona would get a home port, that OutRun 2, Crazy Taxi, and Sega Rally 3 would get on XBL/PSN, that we'd get not one but two Sega All-Stars Racing games, that the Hornet would appear in two new racing games (Ridge Racer and Sega All-Stars Racing), and that we'd get a serious fan-made racing game called "The 90's Arcade Racer"!!!

The way I see it, this is an American Football game and Sega is advancing the ball down the field.  He's running down the field as his teammates throw blocks to help him advance.  Well he's down to the 10 or 5 yard line and he's still got one more man to beat.  Who's going to block that guy???  I would certainly like to be that guy who throws the block and gets jacked up (but helps Sega reach the end zone).

The main two problems I'm facing right now is that I'm preoccupied with other things and that I need to get motivated once again.  I need to go back to a NASCAR race or an actual arcade again.  I need to get excited again about driving!!!  And I don't give a damn what's going on with the game industry or websites cause I sure as hell am not going to let "evil forces" like Electronic Arts, Activision, Microsoft, etc. try to persuade me otherwise.

Besides, let's face it.  If I were to suddenly quit on Sega and this blog, what else would I be doing with my life?  Where would I go?  Would I be content working at the same job being a "yes-man programmer" my entire life?  Hell no.  And if I get fired for some controversial things I said on this blog, well...good, who wants to work there anyway.

Unfortunately, I will probably not be posting as much as I did before but I will be saying good things about Sega and racing games some more.  I can't let that passion get away from me because without it, I'm a corpse who's assumed room temperature--I'm done for--so it's Sega or bust, dammit. Leave comments, I read every one of 'em, guaranteed, even if I have posted in a while.

Bye guys.  *hops in conveniently placed Ferrari and drives off*

SEGA NEEEEEEEWWWZZZZZZ

Now, about old-ass Sega news that I didn't bring up until now, rofl.

First of all, The 90's Arcade Racer has met its goal of £10,000 ($15,521)!!!  WE DID IT!!!  The Kickstarter raised a grand total of £16,309 ($25313).  By its release in Dec. 2013, it should have:

* A total of eight cars--2 stock cars, 2 F1 cars, 2 McLarens, and 2 "bonus cars".
* Three tracks each with two different layout variations, forward/reverse, and day/night features.
* A drift scoring system.
* Arcade and championship modes for each car type.
* Leaderboards.
* Available on PC, Linux, iOS, Android, and Wii U.
* Possibly more features to be announced in the future...

This list was "confirmed" by an e-mail update I got for donating the £90 ($140) to the project.

Now, when I made whatever limited communication with the guy, I brought up a few things.  I inquired about manual transmission.  I really hope he's able to get that in but with the 6-gear shifter, it might be particularly hard (Daytona USA and Scud Race both used 4-gears).  And then there's the car audio which I think he needs to kick up the bass volume if he can.  Also have the car lean more in the turns and emit more tire smoke.  Basically stuff from Need for the Sense of Speed post...how to get great sense of speed in your game.  And no, I didn't link him to this blog, that would just be stupid of me.

Also I might add that today I'm a lot poorer.  And a lot more depressed because woe is me, all I can do is sit here and watch everyone make Sega racing games besides me.

But I got interesting news...if you happen to be a real-life race car driver AND a playable character in Sega All-Stars Racing (I'm talking about Danica Patrick), then you're happy dancin today.  Cause you qualified on the pole (1st place) for the first time in the history of ANY NASCAR Cup Race (the Daytona 500).

Well, shit.  If Danica actually wins this race and/or many others, I'm going to be kicking my own ass all the way back to Florida knowing that if Danica had only gotten better JUST A BIT SOONER, she could've won the Texas Nationwide race in the Sega Sonic car.  I have nothing against Danica and I actually kind of like her (as a driver, idiots) but her suddenly becoming good post-Sega is just one big WHY???

EDIT: Well to go over more Danica stuff.  Yes, she still has a "Sonic" sticker on her GoDaddy car.  Yes, she just appeared in another Sega All-Stars Racing commercial.  Yes, I would be "happy" for her if she won (though I don't think she will...starting position means next to nothing in NASCAR besides to intimidate the competition).  But talking before about the difference between racing aficionados and gamers who simply like racing games, I don't think Danica (or any real life driver, really) would do a good job promoting Sega All-Stars Racing.  So if she won in the GoDaddy car, well...I don't think Sega has much to gain anyway.

Now for news actually pertaining to Sega.

The big story for all Sega fans...Microsoft admits not buying out Sega post-Dreamcast era due to "lack of muscle."  Okay, I'm not really surprised or offended by this.  Am I supposed to be mad that Microsoft didn't deem Sega worthy of being bought and basically left them to die in the post-Dreamcast era?  Basically, Microsoft got what they wanted out of their Sega partnership and that is the launching of their own console (the Xbox).  Plus they got ex-Sega of America CEO Scumbag Peter Moore (who now works for EA Sports).  Sega has some of the greatest IPs under their belt (Sonic, arcade racers, Genesis/Saturn/Dreamcast stars, etc.) but why Microsoft passed up on them, I don't know.  Because they're not gritty FPSes like Halo, yeah that makes sense.  Besides, judging from where MS is now, was that really a good thing?  Look at Rare, a smaller company bought out by MS but aside from Viva Pinata, they've just sucked recently.  Good riddance, Microsoft.

Speaking of company cannibalism, I remember a while back how Kotaku said that Sega planned to buy out Disney.  DISNEY.  Quick lookup on Wikipedia and right now, Disney's assets equal $75 billion.  I really don't know what Sega's are but after this whole 2012 restructuring, I bet it's less than 10% of that.  What was Kotaku smoking...

And then there's Aliens: Colonial Marines!  Gearbox, what...a...disgrace.  Frankly, I don't give a crap about the game at all--it looks like another linear sci-fi shooter, I'm not too keen on the Aliens franchise, and it doesn't have ANYTHING to do with traditional "Sega-go-lucky-blue-skies" theme (other than the Sega logo on the box).  The only reason I really care is because this is supposed to be one of Sega's big moneymakers for the year and now I hear the game is so bad that people are canceling preorders by the thousands!  Anytime Sega fails, I die a little on the inside.

Right now, there's rumors being spread about how Gearbox dropped the ball on Aliens and this is the best TLDR version I got.  If I'm wrong on some things, feel free to correct me since the situation is rather nonsensical:

* Sega and Gearbox agree to a new Aliens game starting in 2006.
* Gearbox works on Aliens (under the project name "Pecan") for four years.  Game looks "good" but Gearbox is working on other projects at the time such as Borderlands so there's a lot of feet-dragging going on (list of Gearbox games by year here).  Sega is obviously annoyed.
* Gearbox, now preoccupied by the GOTY Borderlands 2, outsources parts of the game to smaller studios, most notably TimeGate which'll handle the game's campaign mode.
* However, TimeGate falls way behind and even removes a bunch of features that Gearbox added previously.  The s*** hits the fan for Gearbox.
* Sega, pissed off that the game has taken over 5+ years, demands it be finished soon.  Gearbox then hastily spits out a final product held together by duct tape and Elmer's glue.
* Reviewers bash Aliens: Colonial Marines to no end.
* Gearbox developer goes on defensive explaining what we know here.  Sega employee teases a lawsuit against Gearbox because they "spent" all the money on Borderlands 1/2 development.

I don't hold Sega culpable for this mess.  Gearbox butchers Duke Nukem Forever, let it slide, now they butcher Aliens: Colonial Marines and that's strikes two & three, you're out.  But Sega IMO really has to cut out these movie IP games.  First it was Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, now Aliens.  None of these games were that good in the first place.  STOP IT SEGA, GO BACK TO DOING WHAT YOU DO BEST AND CHANNEL YOUR OLD CONSOLE-ERA SELVES.  SUPPORT UNIQUE VIDEO GAMES BESIDES THESE GRITTY FPSES THAT DON'T STAND A CHANCE TO THE TEN-TON PURPLE GORILLAS IN THE ROOM.  End of this nonsense.

Was going to talk a bit more about the new video game consoles but this post has gone on long enough.  More pettiness coming your way in about five days, sixteen hours, forty-five minutes, and two seconds (get a stopwatch, I might be off by a few days tho).

Have I Made A Difference?

One of the things I aim to do in this blog is to keep from turning it into a journal. It's great to talk about how I feel or what I've done lately. But the last thing I want to do is turn this into a LiveJournal where I talk about my reoccuring depression every other post. No one's into that, we're here to talk about the games. But I have to bring this up.

From the announcement post of The 90's Arcade Racer, John Marine leaves a comment:

You (and/or the developer(s) of this project) would reach hero status if this project ever materialized. I certainly applaud your desires for this one. SEGA Super GT/SCUD Race sucked my coin wallet dry. I've played that more than Daytona USA, and MANY more than Indy 500. I like Daytona USA though I've played Super GT more than Daytona USA and Indy 500 combined. Best of luck to you with this deal.

Truthfully, I don't feel I deserve credit for the creation and persistence of The 90's Arcade Racer.  I upped the donation to 90 quid ($143) which gets me a logo on one of the cars.  Yet there are at least two people who donated 750 quid ($1189) which is a hell of a lot more than I did so if we're assigning a person's value by how much they donated to the project, then I'm not terribly important.

So how about working on the game?  Well, I got in touch with the guy, exchanged a few words and I threw out some ideas.  I also offered to help work on the game, even for free.  Yet the guy politely said no.  Money-wise, he's going to get the 10K pounds he needs.  He's currently in touch with a publisher and the game has a great chance of being on PC and Wii U (Unity engine is now Wii U compatible, oh joy).  It's understandable because A. it's his baby and I don't think he wants someone else messing up what he's done so far and B. he lives in Greece, I live in the USA...kind of hard to coordinate game development with people on the other side of the globe.  So The 90's Arcade Racer is out of my hands, even though it never was in my hands...you just hope for the game's best now.

It's just discouraging to me to see all this Sega racer stuff fly by me...  Look, they ported Daytona USA to XBL/PSN.  Look, El Semi and Bart made Model 2/3 emulators.  Look, Sumo Digital makes two Sega All-Stars Racing games (puts the Hornet in the second one).  Look someone made The 90's Arcade Racer.  But all I could do was play cheerleader in a small Blogspot and say "yeah that's awesome, I'm stoked."  But I had no say in any of these things.  The fact I became a fan of this Sega "franchise" so late and how it suddenly flourished in the last few years really is pure coincidence.  At least I think so.

Geez, I wanted to help Sega but most every time I tried to make a move, I miss my chance or I get shut out.  The only things that come to mind were the Daytona USA 2 image compilation on Photobucket and first soundtrack uploads to YouTube.  The Daytona 2 Forza 4 cars were great but were practically busts in terms of actual downloads.  Back then, these things were exclusive, now it's common knowledge amongst Sega fans.  Maybe these things were part of a Butterfly Effect but I'm not sure.

Then I moved on to this blog which I thought would be a great venue to get ideas about Sega racers and game design on paper.  Over the past three years, I don't know how many regulars I really get because my stats are so botched from these Google spambots and image searches.  But there have been a couple of times in past few months that I looked at the blog and thought "Damn, this is really stupid."  Am I posting things that move Sega racers in a POSITIVE direction and not just preaching to the choir?  Doesn't help that the one racing game I worked on so much in the last year was not even a Sega racer...it was Super Sprint and even still, it wasn't THAT well-received and I still hover in and out of wanting to work on it again.

I feel like I was born at the wrong time.  I also feel I wasted so much energy on frivolous things that don't mean anything now or in the near future, like Counter-Strike maps, Rock Band, and Xbox Live achievement points.  There's no telling if I did a good job trying to promote Sega racers.  I hope I did.  I'm not asking for pity messages but that's what I've been thinking the last few days and I'll move on to more fun-tastic racing game posts.  I'm trying guys...until then, now you know how I feel and I'll be back real soon.

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!!!