Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: SEGA Corporation
Year: 1994
Virtua Racing is a home port of Sega's first ever 3D polygon-based racing game from the arcade. The game consists of racing Formula-1-looking cars around a beginner, intermediate or expert track competing against a second player or computer drivers. Despite having Formula-1 cars, the game controls feel very "arcadey" and you can see the leap they made from here to Daytona. The Megadrive/Genesis version of Virtua Racing is particularly interesting as it is the only game for the system which features the "SVP" or "Sega Virtua Processor". This is a 3D processor built into each cartridge (the console itself had no 3D capability) and is very similar to the SNES's SuperFX chips, used in games such as Starfox and Stunt Race FX. However at the time the cost was tremendous meaning that this game cost around 1.5 times as much as a regular game. It did not sell well making this game quite a rare collector's item. Also of note - AFAIK the SVP chip has not been emulated to date hence you will need a real console and cart to play this game!
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Virtua Racing (E)
Turbo Outrun (JE)
Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: SEGA Enterprises Ltd.
Year: 1992
The sequel to OutRun features similar basic gameplay to the original, with the action viewed from behind the car, and the challenge being to complete each stage within the time limit. Contact can cause the car to spin, slow down or even flip; in each case you will lose time. There are 16 stages set across the US, gradually moving from east to west, all depicted differently visually. After every 4 levels, you go into a shop screen, with a choice of upgrades. As the title implies, you now have a turbo booster installed, which speeds up the car, although over-use can cause the engine to overheat, and it is not recharged until each shop section. You have 5 continues, and failure to complete the course within the time limit costs you one.
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Top Gear 2 (U)
Genre: Action , Racing / Driving
Publisher: Kotobuki System Co., Ltd.
Year: 1994
This third-person racing game resembles Gremlin's earlier Lotus series, in terms of its general look and feel, right down to the text font used in the game. Your task is to race through 16 countries, each of which features four races, with many real-world circuits recreated in incongruous locations (such as the Monza layout in Ayers Rock, and the old Hockenheim in Vancouver). These four-race blocks each represent their own mini-championship, in which you race against 19 cars, needing to finish in the top 10 to continue, and with the top 6 scoring points 10-6-4-3-2-1, and the respective amount of money in thousands. This can be spent on various upgrades, ranging from engine to tires (wet and dry) and from shocks (front, side and rear) to gearboxes. The ideal approach is to buy the more expensive versions ASAP, as you get no saving when upgrading. If you win the four-race championship, you get the next password. You get a set amount of nitro boost to use during each race, although bonus nitros, money and instant speed-up token appear on many tracks. Hazards such as puddles, barriers and ramps are also frequent.
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Super Skidmarks (E) (J-Cart)
Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: Codemasters Software Company Limited, The
Year: 1995
A vague descendant of Super Sprint with a mass of features, and one of the last multi-format games to have roots on the Amiga. A multitude of cars are available, ranging from F1 cars and Sportscars to Minis and VWs were on offer, with the option to have up to 8 of these on more powerful machines - with up to 3 different models of car. You could link 2 Amiga 1200s (or faster) and use them to display the track across 2 separate screens. There were two novelty options of sorts as well - motorized cows, and the chance to have the cars pulling caravans as you race - using the caravan to push an opponent off-line was a skill worth mastering. 24 circuits are provided, all of them with walls around them to ensure crash-bang-wallop racing, and most of them have parts which cross with other parts, making collisions possible if you're much ahead of (or behind) other cars (fortunately there's no car damage). They can be raced forwards or backwards - perhaps the first game with this feature available. You could either run single races, or one of the in-built championships - one for each car, across a specially selected set of tracks. The customizable nature of the game goes even further - the number of laps can be set, as can the colour and power of the cars. As you repeatedly race a track, the markings on the course are eroded by the cars running over them.
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Super Hang-On (W) (REV00)
Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: SEGA Enterprises Ltd.
This is a conversion of Sega's popular motorcycle racing arcade game. In this game you race a motorcycle around the world, completing each section of track within a time limit. There are other bikes on the road, but beating this is not important, so they can be thought of as moving obstacles. Each continent is a different difficulty level: Africa is beginner, Asia is junior, the Americas are senior, and Europe is expert. This is a very simple and straightforward game, viewed from behind the bike in 2D (so the screen does not tilt with the bike). The right/left controls are steering, and up/down are gear changes. Your cycle is always moving, and your speed strictly depends on the gear you are in, although contact or running off the road slows the bike down.
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Street Racer (E)
Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: Ubi Soft Entertainment Software
Year: 1995
Street Racer is a fun racer like Super Mario Kart Up to four players can play by split-screen. If there are no human opponents you can drive against seven computer opponents in three leagues. If you win the first league you can play the second and so on. The game has eight different vehicles with different skills in speed, haste or resistance. There are also some power-ups on the tracks like bombs, nitro fuel or health packs.
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Skitchin' (UE)
Genre: Racing / Driving , Sports
Publisher: Electronic Arts, Inc.
Year: 1994
You rollerblade (inline skate) down the road, grabbing tows from passing cars. Grab weapons to beat back your opponents. Race from city to city to earn money. Buy better skates, weapons, and protection with your winnings. This game is clearly derived both in technology and in design from the hit Road Rash series, and was released during the great rollerblading boom of the early-to-mid nineties.
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Road Rash II (J)
Genre: Racing / Driving , Simulation
Publisher: Electronic Arts, Inc.
Year: 1992
A motorcycle racing game with an attitude. You race in varying environments for ever increasing sums of money. With that money you can buy faster and better bikes. There are many objects on the road to watch out for, from cars to rocks to signs, if you hit one you'll go flying and loose valuable time. If you crash too often your bike can get wrecked. You can also attack other racers. The default attack is a punch, but some racers have weapons, which you can steal and use against them. The police patrol the various courses, so if you're not careful you can get busted. Road Rash II is not just a racing game but also a fighting game.
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Road Rash 3 (UE)
Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: Electronic Arts, Inc.
Following the previous two Road Rash games , the player has conquered the US illegal motorcycle championship. But why settle for that when one can take over the World; racing in the peaceful streets of the UK, dodging the animals in Kenya, blaze through the night in Japan or jump in the hilly circuits in Italy? Keeping the same spirit of the previous two games, Road Rash 3 adds all new digitized sprites (based on the 32-bit remake released an year earlier), bike upgrades, more weapons and meaner police. Most other aspects of the game remain unchanged: the player starts on the lowest division with a small amount of cash and a slow, hard to handle bike. To get more money (and get a faster bike) the player must beat as many of the other 15 racers to the finish line, using all means possible, even kicking and punching them into knockout. By clearing (finishing on the top three spots) all five races on a level, the player advances to the next, where opponents are faster and tougher, the police is more active and a longer race. As for new gameplay elements in the final title in the series released for Sega's 16-bit console, bikes can also be improved by choosing cheaper upgrades (instead of simply buying new ones) such as tires (less skidding), engine (improves acceleration and top speed), suspension (allows better control while landing after jumps) and body (bike takes more hits before turning into smoking metal). Instead on relying on simple motorbike patrols, the police now has helicopters at their disposal (which try to land on the player) and patrol cars, which attempt to block the path of the bike, forcing it to stop or collide to get a bust. To make things easier (or harder), new weapons were added, some of which allow the carrier to stun an opponent for a few seconds, making him the perfect victim for an incoming vehicle. Also new, if the player finishes the race with a weapon, carries it to the next race. Each track has it's own features: in the UK, cars drive left on a rainy day, in Australia and Kenya animals wander into the road, in Brazil bikers can get themselves a close-encounter with a car on a crossing, in Italy the hills allow a lot of air-time for light and speedy bikes, Germany, where the icy roads and sharp turns make a deadly combination and finally in Japan the race goes during the night under the neon lights.
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Road Rash (UE)
Genre: Action , Racing / Driving , Simulation
Publisher: Electronic Arts, Inc.
Year: 1991
You are a biker who takes part in a series of illegal races across the U.S.A. You always start at the back of the pack and your objective is of course to become # 1. To achieve this goal you can either drive very well or play it dirty and knock your opponents of their bikes using clubs, crowbars or your bare hands. But watch out, the others racers are no sissies either. All the races take place on the regular road so watch out for the normal traffic (in both directions) and the cops, as well as occasional oil slicks and stray cows. By winning races you can get promoted to a stronger division and earn cash with which you can buy a better bike. Whenever you're knocked of your bike or hit something you'll have to run back to your bike and loose valuable time, plus your bike will suffer some damage. Like the whole Road Rash lineage, the game has arcade-like gameplay; it's definitely not a motorcycle simulation. While the game has a two-player mode, this is not simultaneous.
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Race Drivin' (U)
Genre: Racing / Driving , Simulation
Publisher: Tengen
Year: 1993
Race Drivin' is a sequel to the arcade driving simulator Hard Drivin'. Game play is similar to the first game. You must complete laps around the race track before a timer expires. There are several checkpoints around the track which increase your time as you pass. Race Drivin' has 3 courses, 1 of which is the track from Hard Drivin'. There is a new super-stunt track, and an autocross course. You also may choose from 3 types of cars.
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Power Drive (E) (M5)
Genre: Action , Racing / Driving
Publisher: U.S. Gold Ltd.
Year: 1994
Power Drive is an arcade racing game based around rally driving. Handbrake turns and lurid powerslides are both possible, and the steering is suitably loose. There are 3 types of stages - individual time-trials, head-to-head races against the computer, and some skill tests. There are 8 rounds of gameplay, set across countries ranging from Sweden to Kenya. You get prize money for winning races, and it costs money to repair damage.
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OutRun 2019 (Beta)
Genre: Action , Racing / Driving
Publisher: SEGA Corporation
Year: 1993
The basic Outrun game structure is reused in this, with the main differnece being that a futuristic setting has been used. The circuits have some spectacular inclines, and the cars do nearly 700km/h. There are four different track sequences on offer, and your aim is to complete each section of track within the time limit. As in the original OutRun game, near the end of each stage there are forks in the road, allowing you to choose different routes within the track sequences. There are other cars on the road to avoid as well.
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OutRun (J)
Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: SEGA Enterprises Ltd.
Year: 1991
Race across varied terrain in this conversion of one of the most famous arcade racing games. Your Ferrari is at the ready, complete with female passenger, over a series of short tracks. Gameplay is viewed form just above and behind the car, so you can see it. The roads are full of sharp bends and hazards, contact with which can cause the car to roll and lose you time. On each section of track there is a fork in the road, allowing you to choose which direction you go in. You have to complete 5 track sections in total, out of the 15 in the game.
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OutRunners (J)
Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: SEGA of America, Inc.
Year: 1994
OutRunners is a sequel to the classic arcade racer OutRun . It puts you behind the wheel of 8 different race cars with the aim being coming up first on a world-wide cross-country racing tournament. As mentioned you get to select from 8 differently tuned cars, each with different handling and speed specs. and then ride out in hopes of getting the trophy. At the end of each stage you get to select between different branching routes that determine what your next stage will be, and thus the different routes you take to the end game determine what ending you get (if you manage to beat the other players). OutRunners places a big emphasis on competitive gameplay as you are always racing against another car, be it an AI or human-controlled one in a perpetual split-screen multiplayer mode.
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Outlander (Beta)
Genre: Action , Adventure , Racing / Driving
Publisher: Mindscape International Ltd.
Year: 1992
Mindscape developed this game hoping to get it licensed as an official Mad Max game, however Warner Bros never made this happen. Anyway, the game closely resembles "The Road Warrior" (Mad Max 2). Your objective is to drive your car through the wasteland, trying to survive motorcycle gang members' attacks and to avoid running out of gas. The gameplay is a split of two genres: racing and side-scrolling. In the racing parts you have to destroy enemies like motorcycle gang members, gyro-copter captains, red trucks, etc. Your car has a machine-gun installed in its front, and if some guy drives along side of you, a little window pops up, allowing you to shoot them with your shotgun. Along the road there are several towns, and every time you pass through one of them, an alarm will warn you. As your gas run low, you have to stop on these towns and refuel your reserves of gas and ammo. When doing so, the game turns to a side-scrolling perspective, as you get out of your car, dealing with your enemies in hand-to-hand combats. In the cities you'll also find new equipment to your car, such as missile launchers, nitro, etc.
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Nigel Mansell's World Championship (E)
Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: Konami Corporation
Year: 1993
Timing smiled on Gremlin with this licensed Formula 1 simulation, as Nigel's long quest for a championship had finally come good. The game was pitched somewhere in between a full-blown simulation like F1 GP and action games like Continental Circus . Only 12 cars were in each race, which could last from between 3 and 20 laps. Before each race you can customize wing downforce, gear ratio, tyre selection and fuel load choices – pitstops are a standard feature of the longer races. The 16-bit versions include a unique 'Improve With Mansell' mode, in which a digitized version of Nigel's head appears in the top corner of the screen, offering instructions and praise.
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Micro Machines (C)
Genre: Racing / Driving
Publisher: Codemasters Software Company Limited, The
Year: 1993
If you're bored of racing Formula 1 cars, rally cars or MotoGP bikes in their natural habitats, this could be for you. It involves racing miniatures representing particular vehicle types across a particular terrain found around the house. The Sports Cars race on the desktop, 4x4s in the sandpit, Formula 1 cars on a snooker table, and so on. These levels were packed with variation. The Snooker tables had the track painted on, although this was open to deviation (as were most levels), and had you racing through the pockets and across the rim of the table. Tanks raced as well, with the chance of shooting out your opponent if they got directly in front of you. The desktop levels included binders to jump across, pencil-sharpeners to avoid, and lots of visual jokes in the open homework. Viewed from overhead with small graphics, the races include up to 4 cars. In one player challenge mode you race through the 21 tracks in a set order, selecting your 3 opponents as you go along (adding a fair amount of strategy - ideally you should aim to eliminate the better CPU cars early on), eliminating one after every third race (assuming that you can finish in the top 2 of a race within your 3 lives). If you win 3 races in a row without using a continue you get a time-trial race which can earn you an extra life. The real innovation of the game was in the multiplayer modes. You started level on a sliding scale, each in position 4. When one car got far enough ahead to force the other car off-screen, the slider moved in their favour. Once it reached the end (which involved beating them 4 times more than they beat you) you won the level, although if 3 laps were completed, the person leading at that point is declared the winner. 9 of the tracks were available in this mode, although you could also play it as a 1-player game across all the tracks.
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Mega Games 3 (E)
Genre: Action , Racing / Driving
Publisher: SEGA Enterprises Ltd.
Year: 1993
This pack of three was included with some Megadrive consoles and comprises the following games: Alien Storm Super Thunder Blade Super Monaco GP
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