Guide Out Run

Already Playing Out Run ? Outrun, for those who don't know, is a driving game against the clock. There are 15 stages in the game, although only 5 have to be completed in order to finish the game. At the end of each individual stage there is a fork in the road, and the direction you take depends on which stage you encounter next. The driving experience on the master system is good. Unlike a lot of the home computer conversions the way the car corners and skids is quite faithfully to the original. The fact that you can hit other cars and not grind to a complete standstill keeps the action moving. The lines in the road and the number of track-side objects help give the game an excellent feeling of speed. Inevitably there are a few things missing from the original. There are no lorries on the roads. When you flip the car it's passengers don't end up on the floor. However there are also things included that you might not have expected to make the 8 bit version such as hills in the road, the overhead 'gateway' in stage 2 and the music select screen.

The original OutRun game (the sega arcade version) was the first arcade game ever to allow the player to choose the background music. As with the home computer versions, it featured a man and his girlfriend driving a Ferrari. It was first ported to the Sega Master System in 1987, quickly followed by the C64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum and MSX. In 1988 the Amiga version was released and in 1989 the Atari ST and PC Dos versions were released.

You might wonder if maybe because I'm such a big fan of the original arcade game this review is biased. All I can say is that where possible I've bought Outrun for every home computer or console I've had and I've played some stinking versions. I remember being so excited about the prospect of the game on the Commodore Amiga only to find out it was very poor. I've recently bought the 'jazzed up' version on the Sega Classics Collection for the PS2 and that too is absolute drivel. When done right this game felt so good to play. It was a major, major challenge for Sega to convert it to the SMS and they pulled it off. They knew the limits of the system and managed to push the game to the edge of them limits without forsaking what makes Outrun special in the first place.

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