OutRunners

From Sega Retro

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Outrunners Title.png

OutRunners MD US TitleScreen.png

OutRunners MD JP TitleScreen.png

OutRunners
System(s): Sega System Multi 32, Sega Mega Drive
Publisher:
Arcade (System 32)
Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
Sega Mega Drive
Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (JP)
Sega Mega Drive
Data East USA (US)
Developer:
Distributor:
Sega Mega Drive
Samsung (KR)
Licensor:
Sega Mega Drive
Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (US)
Sound driver:
Sega Mega Drive
SMPS Z80 (modified) (SMPS 68000 port)
Genre: Racing[3][4]

















Number of players:
Arcade
1-4
Sega Mega Drive
1-2
Release Date RRP Code
Arcade (System 32)
JP		 ¥? ?
Arcade (System 32)
US		 $? ?
Arcade (System 32)
UK		 £? ?
Arcade (System 32)
DE		 DM ? ?
Arcade (System 32)
AU		 $? ?
Arcade (System 32)
PL		 6000[6]PLN ?





























Sega Mega Drive
JP 		¥7,8007,800 G-4119
Sega Mega Drive
US 		$69.9969.99[8] T-13096
Videogame Rating Council: GA
Sega Mega Drive
US ▼
(Sega Channel) 		SUBsub
Sega Mega Drive
KR 		GM94007JG

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OutRunners (アウトランナーズ) is a System 32 driving game developed by Sega AM1[2] and manufactured by Sega Enterprises, Ltd. The sequel to the classic 1986 arcade game OutRun, it was first released to Japanese arcades in May 1993[2], and like its predecessor, features extensive sprite scaling to simulate three-dimension scenery.

The following year, OutRunners was ported to the Mega Drive courtesy of Sega CS3, and is most notable for its downgraded presentation and forced splitscreen.

Gameplay

OutRunners follows a similar format to OutRun, in which the player is tasked with driving across the world within a specified amount of time. There are, however, twice as many areas as OutRun in OutRunners, as the world is divided into east and west (selectable after the first stage). Whereas OutRun took place in Europe and Turbo OutRun North America, OutRunners spans the entire globe.

The superior System 32 hardware allow for vastly improved graphics, eight selectable cars (a scrapped plan for the original OutRun) and more music tracks (including those featured in the original OutRun game). It was always distributed as a two player deluxe cabinet (hence the "System Multi 32" name), and it is possible to link two cabinets together to create a four-player racing experience. It was the first OutRun game to allow more than one player to compete at once.

Cars

Easy Handling
Smooth Operator
Bad Boy
Road Monster
Quick Reactor
Wild Chaser
Mad Power
Speed Buster
The Ferrari Testarossa from the original OutRun, albeit with any unlicensed Ferrari badges removed and some differences in bodywork.

Track Layout

Like the original OutRun, the journey in OutRunners contains many forks in the road, leading to one of ten possible endings. Players all begin at the same location, but are given a choice whether they want to take the eastern or the western routes. Some areas are repeated for both sides, though it is impossible to visit the same location twice in one outing.

Goal Stage Number Goal
5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5
A Northern Europe Russia F
Germany Germany
B Switzerland China Switzerland China G
France Hawaii Niagara Falls France
C Atlantic Ocean Underwater Tunnel Japan San Francisco Start Grand Canyon Atlantic Ocean Underwater Tunnel Japan H
Mediterranean Sea Pacific Ocean Crossway Bridge South America Mediterranean Sea
D Spain Hong Kong Spain Hong Kong I
Egypt Egypt
E Kenya Australia J

History

Development

System Multi 32 version

In the wake of Virtua Racing proving popular, Sega wanted to capitalize on this and double-down on the racing genre, instead of the space genre which was oversaturated at that point[9]. The idea came up to revive the OutRun franchise, but the series' previous developer Sega AM2 was not involved in this sequel, with development instead being handed over to Sega AM1, featuring developers responsible for previous System 32 games like Spider-Man: The Videogame, Stadium Cross and Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder.

Game design was handled by Makoto Sugawara, who had not played OutRun before and was very critical of the game, leading to many gameplay changes to reflect more modern tastes in 1992[9]. It was decided early on to focus on making 8-person multiplayer a prominent feature[9], inspired by Namco's Final Lap 2 from 1990[10].

Masaki Kondoh, a veteran graphic designer who had worked on Fantasy Zone and Galaxy Force, created background art for the game. Because references were less readily available at the time than in years to come, Kondoh had to gather photos from other developers who had travelled internationally so that he could accurately represent the various countries which appear in the game[10].

The soundtrack was developed by 3 people from the AM Sound team. Initially it was assigned only to Takayuki Nakamura, who previously did Stadium Cross for AM1. OutRunners reuses the program Nakamura created for Stadium Cross, which used MIDI instead of the more conventional MML of the time[11]. Nakamura felt it would not be possible to complete the entire soundtrack on his own[11], so enlisted his close co-workers Hiroshi Kawaguchi (the composer of OutRun and another person involved with Stadium Cross) and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (the composer of Virtua Racing who was concurrently working with AM1 on Puzzle & Action: Tant-R). Mitsuyoshi, who was also a member of Sega's live arrangement band the S.S.T.Band, created the new arrangements of the 3 songs that were options in the original OutRun: Magical Sound Shower, Passing Breeze and Splash Wave.

Legacy

OutRunners was first ported to the Sega Mega Drive by Sega CS3. The game was the third most highly-requested port for the Sega Saturn's Sega Ages line[12][13], but this never materialized. There would not be another OutRun game released until 2003, when OutRun 2 was brought to Sega Chihiro hardware.

OutRunners received a spiritual successor on the H1 Board, that being Cool Riders, which uses the same base gameplay and a mostly different visual style. It was created by some of the same developers like game designer Makoto Sugawara, programmers Kazunari Tsukamoto and Kazutomo Sanbongi, and artists Tetsu Nakajima and Keiichi Baba. Other members of the OutRunners development team transferred to the CS departments in 1993 to work on early Saturn games, those being Panzer Dragoon (by programmer Hidetoshi Takeshita) and Clockwork Knight (by artists Toshiyuki Mukaiyama and Katsuhisa Sato).

OutRunners is the first in a line of AM1 games to secretly include the song Jingle Bells, later appearing in Sega Ski Super-G and Harley-Davidson & L.A. Riders[14].

Sega Logistics Service announced it would end service on the arcade machines on March 31, 2017.[15][16]

Versions

Though it was the most popular game for Sega's Multi 32 hardware, unlike its predecessors OutRunners only received one home console port, to the Sega Mega Drive in 1994. In this port, the screen is split horizontally into two in an attempt to mimic the two screens of the System Multi 32 platform. This, along with the reduced graphics quality and scaled back special effects, meant this version of the game is often the subject to harsh criticism. For some reason, Data East published the game in the US; it was not released in Europe.

Comparisons

Main article: OutRunners/Comparisons.

Production credits

Main article: OutRunners/Production credits.

Digital manuals

  • Mega Drive Mini 2 US manual

Magazine articles

Main article: OutRunners/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: OutRunners/Promotional material.

Artwork

  • OutRunners MD US Art Cover.jpg

Photo gallery

  • Cabinet

Physical scans

System 32 version

Arcade, US
OutRunners System32 US Manual.pdf
Manual
Arcade, JP
Arcade, DE

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
{{{{{icon}}}|L}} Division by zero.
Based on
0 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J
58
[17]
Cool Gamer (RU)
60
[18]
Computer & Video Games (UK) NTSC
48
[19]
Digitiser (UK) NTSC
41
[20]
Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U
50
[21]
Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU)
60
[22]
Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J
50
[23]
Game Players (US) NTSC-U
41
[24]
GamePro (US) NTSC-U
78
[8]
Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J
40
[25]
Joypad (FR) NTSC-J
65
[26]
Mega (UK) NTSC-J
20
[27]
Mega Fun (DE) NTSC-U
28
[28]
MegaTech (UK) NTSC-J
52
[29]
Mean Machines Sega (UK) NTSC-J
50
[30]
Power Unlimited (NL)
43
[31]
Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J
76
[32]
Sega Zone (UK) NTSC-J
45
[33]
Sega Mega Drive Review (RU)
80
[34]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
61
[35]
Tricks 16 bit (RU)
73
[36]
Video Games (DE)
45
[37]
VideoGames (US) NTSC-U
40
[38]
Sega Mega Drive
 52
Based on
23 reviews

OutRunners

Mega Drive, JP
Outrunners md jp cover.jpg
Cover
OutRunners MD JP CartTop.jpg
Outrunners md jp cart.jpg
Cart
OutRunners MD JP Manual.pdf
Manual
Mega Drive, US
OutRunners MD US Box.jpg
Cover
OutRunners MD US Cart.JPG
Cart
Mega Drive, KR
OutRunners MD KR cover.jpg
Cover
Mega Drive, AS† (NTSC)

Technical information

Main article: OutRunners/Technical information.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 File:VirtuaRacingandOutRunners CD JP Booklet.pdf, page 13
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Sega Arcade History, Enterbrain, page 127
  3. ↑ File:Outrunners md jp cover.jpg
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/megadrive/software.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-07-20 09:51)
  5. ↑ https://archive.org/details/ArcadeGameList1971-2005/page/n133/mode/1up
  6. ↑ https://archive.org/details/gambler_magazine-1997-04/page/n39/mode/2up?view=theater
  7. ↑ Harmony, "1994 5-6" (JP; 1994-05-23), page 39
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 GamePro, "August 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 46
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 GamePro, "August 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 22
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 GamePro, "August 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 23
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 OutRun 20th Anniversary Box
  12. ↑ GamePro, "August 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 23
  13. ↑ https://ghostarchive.org/archive/giwvE
  14. ↑ @hyasuhi6 on Twitter (Wayback Machine: 2021-04-20 21:58)
  15. ↑ File:SegaProductsTerminationAnnouncement 2016-11 JP.pdf
  16. ↑ File:SegaProductsTerminationAnnouncement 2016-12.pdf
  17. ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "June 1994" (JP; 1994-05-07), page 18
  18. ↑ Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 150
  19. ↑ Computer & Video Games, "August 1994" (UK; 1994-07-15), page 97
  20. ↑ Digitiser (UK) (1994-07-21)
  21. ↑ Electronic Games (1992-1995), "July 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 70
  22. ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 346
  23. ↑ Famitsu, "1994-05-20" (JP; 1994-05-06), page 38
  24. ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 7 No. 8 August 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 50
  25. ↑ Hippon Super, "June 1994" (JP; 1994-04-30), page 62
  26. ↑ Joypad, "Septembre 1994" (FR; 1994-0x-xx), page 38
  27. ↑ Mega, "July 1994" (UK; 1994-06-16), page 47
  28. ↑ Mega Fun, "08/94" (DE; 1994-07-20), page 62
  29. ↑ MegaTech, "July 1994" (UK; 1994-06-16), page 48
  30. ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "August 1994" (UK; 1994-06-30), page 64
  31. ↑ Power Unlimited, "Jaagang 3, Jul/Aug 1995" (NL; 1995-06-28), page 54
  32. ↑ Sega Pro, "July 1994" (UK; 1994-06-16), page 44
  33. ↑ Sega Zone, "July 1994" (UK; 1994-06-xx), page 38
  34. ↑ Sega Mega Drive Review, "1" (RU; 1995-04-03), page 109
  35. ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 87
  36. ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 131
  37. ↑ Video Games, "11/94" (DE; 1994-10-26), page 116
  38. ↑ VideoGames, "October 1994" (US; 1994-xx-xx), page 74


OutRunners

Outrunners Title.png

Main page | Comparisons | Credits | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Video coverage | Reception | Promotional material | Region coding | Technical information | Bootlegs


Music: Virtua Racing & OutRunners (1993)

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OutRun series of games
Arcade
 OutRun (1986) | Turbo OutRun (1989) | OutRunners (1992) | OutRun 2 (2003) | OutRun 2 SP (2004) | OutRun 2 SP SDX (2006)
Sega Master System
 OutRun (1987) | OutRun 3D (1988) | Battle OutRun (1989) | OutRun Europa (1991)
Windows PC
 OutRun (1987) | Turbo OutRun (1989) | OutRun Europa (1991) | OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (2006)
MSX
 OutRun (1988)
FM Towns/FM Towns Marty
 Turbo OutRun (1989)
LCD handheld game
 OutRun (1989) | OutRun F-1 (19xx)
Sega Mega Drive
 OutRun (1991) | Turbo OutRun (1992) | OutRun 2019 (1993) | OutRunners (1994) | Arcade Legends OutRun 2019 (200x)
Sega Game Gear
 OutRun (1991) | OutRun Europa (1992)
Sega Saturn
 Sega Ages OutRun (1996)
i-mode 503i
 OutRun (2001)
Sony PlayStation 2
 Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 13: OutRun (2004) | OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (2006) | OutRun 2 SP (2007)
Xbox
 OutRun 2 (2004) | OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (2006)
Sony PlayStation Portable
 OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (2006)
Xbox 360
Sony PlayStation 3
 OutRun Online Arcade (2009)
Nintendo 3DS
 3D OutRun (2014)
Nintendo Switch
 Sega Ages OutRun (2018)
OutRun-related media
Music
 OutRun (1992) | Virtua Racing & OutRunners (1993) | Yu Suzuki Produce OutRun (1997) | Sega Presents OutRun 2: Music Through the Ages (2004) | OutRun 2 Sound Tracks (2004) | OutRun 2 Sound Tracks: Side B (2005) | OutRun Sound Tracks: Complement (2007) | OutRun 20th Anniversary Box (2007) | OutRun (2016) | Sega Ages OutRun: Music Collection (2019)
Film
 OutRun (1987) | OutRun (1988) | Super Monaco GP / Turbo OutRun (1989) | Out Run/Turbo Out Run Strategy Movie ＆ S.S.T. Band Live+1 (2007)
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