Metropolis Street Racer

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Metropolis Street Racer
System(s): Sega Dreamcast
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Licensor: Alfa Romeo, Audi, Fiat, Ford, Jensen, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota, TVR
Peripherals supported: Jump Pack, Dreamcast Modem, Race Controller, Visual Memory Unit, Dreamcast VGA Box
Genre: Racing
Number of players: 1-2
Official in-game languages: English Français Deutsch Español
Release Date RRP Code US 2001-01-16 $44.9944.99 51012 EU 2000-11-03 MK-51022-50 EU (White Label) 2000 DE 2000-11-02 DM 9999 MK-51022-50 ES 2000-10-26 MK-51022-50 FR 2000-11-02 MK-51022-50 PT 2000-11-03 STJS22399 UK 2000-11-03 £39.9939.99 MK-51022-50 AU 2000-10-24 $89.9589.95

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Metropolis Street Racer, known as Metropolis during development and frequently listed simply as MSR, is a racing game developed by Bizarre Creations for the Sega Dreamcast. Highly praised at the time of release, MSR was often considered to be the Dreamcast's answer to the PlayStation's Gran Turismo racing series, as it has over 250 circuits (set in real-world locations) and numerous officially licensed cars.

Gameplay

Metropolis Street Racer is a racing game set in a urban environment with slight open-world elements, playable with either 1 or 2 players. MSR includes many features, such as using the Dreamcast's real time clock for calculating the present time in each of the 3 cities, online functionality via Seganet or Dreamarena, and most importantly, the "Kudos" system. The game is divided into three game modes: Street Racing, Time Attack, and Quick Race.

Game modes

Street Racing

Street Racing is MSR's main game mode, where the player drives their cars in a number of "challenges" in an attempt to score "Kudos", the game's credit system. Depending on the player's driving style, Kudos can be earned in three different categories: skill by winning and performing well in races, beating the fastest times set for the lap; style, which involves driving "stylishly", such as skidding, doing huge powerslides and driving clean and stylish laps; and lastly, gambling, which can be done when retrying an already completed race.

There are several types of challenges:

• Hotlap (HL): Complete a lap within a specified time
• Timed Run (TR): Complete all laps within a specified time
• Challenge (CH): Miscellaneous "challenges" that need to be completed in a specified time, either
  • Overtake a set number of cars
  • Achieve a set speed
  • Lap an opponent
• One on One (OO): Race against a single opponent vehicle
• Street Race (SR): Race against a field of up to five other racers
• Championship (CS): A series of 2-5 street races, with points awarded on the place finished per race

Challenges are grouped into "chapters". Once all 25 chapters are completed, the game ends.

Vehicles

MSR contains over 50 officially licensed cars (and some secret cars) from a variety of manufacturers, including Alfa Romeo, Audi, Fiat, Ford, Jensen, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota and TVR. Each car has its own Car Performance Factor — abbreviated as CPF — which is used for measuring the overall performance of the car, and for calculating the Kudos earned with it.

Paint colours, window tints and the style of the license plate can be changed by the user, and in the case of convertibles, whether the roof is retracted.

Every new save file starts with the first three cars already unlocked. New cars are unlocked in MSR by completing chapters or special events.

	Fiat Barchetta
	Mazda MX-5
	MGF
	Opel Astra Coupe
	Renault Megane
	Opel OPC
	Alfa Romeo Spider
	Peugeot 206
	Peugeot 306 cabriolet
	Peugeot 406 Coupe
	Toyota MR2
	Toyota MR-S
	Peugeot 306
	Mercedes Benz SLK
	Mercedes Benz SL320
	Alfa Romeo 156
	Audi S3
	Audi TT Roadster
	Alfa Romeo Gtv
	Audi TT Coupe
	Renault Sport Spider
	Toyota Celica 99
	Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo
	Toyota Celica
	Mitsubishi FTO
	Mitsubishi Eclipse
	Mitsubishi Eclipse 99
	Opel Speedster
	Mitsubishi 3000GT
	Ford Mustang
	Toyota Supra
	Nissan Fairlady Z
	MG RV8
	Nissan Silvia
	Renault Clio V6
	Toyota Celica GT-Four
	Mazda RX7
	TVR Chimaera
	Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VI
	Jensen S-V8
	Nissan Skyline GT-R
	London Taxi
	San Francisco Yellow Cab
	Tokyo Takushe
	Lawnmower
	Red London Bus
	San Francisco City Bus
	Tokyo Basu

Locations

As the name suggests, racing in Metropolis Street Racer takes place in the streets of three metropolises; San Francisco (United States), London (United Kingdom) and Tokyo (Japan), with layouts that mimic their real-world counterparts (albeit with some creative liberties).

However, rather than map vast areas of land, the cities are sub-divided into key locations, which are then used to map a variety of course configurations. This method means that although configurations will often share streets, there is enough variation to ensure no two challenges use the same layout (at least, driving in the same direction).

In addition, MSR incorporates time of day changes and weather effects, which can affect visibility or handling. The time of day is determined by the Dreamcast's clock; players are asked for their time zone at the beginning of the game, and the position of the sun in the three cities is adjusted accordingly.

San Francisco

	Pacific Heights
	Fisherman's Wharf
	Financial District

London

	Trafalgar
	St. James' Park
	Westminster
	Big Ben will also show the correct time, and will bong on the hour.

Tokyo

	Shibuya
	Asakusa
	Shinjuku

History

Development

Main article: Metropolis Street Racer/Development.

Release

Metropolis Street Racer originally launched in PAL regions with a number of bugs, so much so that the game was recalled and Sega felt the need to issue replacement discs. A third revision of the game (which the North American version is based on) fixes further bugs, although many still remain.

Despite initially high expectations, MSR sold 101,757 units in the U.S. through January 2003 according to NPD Group. In the UK 13,297 were sold in the week ending November 4th, 2000 according to Chart-Track. In Germany it debuted at number one in Media Control's November 2000 Dreamcast chart. Martyn Chudley described releasing the game exclusively on the Dreamcast at this time was like "The Beatles exclusively selling The White Album on Mars". £1 million of Bizarre Creations' own money went into the project, and although the team was happy to port the game to the PlayStation 2, management at Sega declined the offer.

Bizarre Creations would use what they learned through Metropolis Street Racer to create their line of Project Gotham Racing games for the Xbox and Xbox 360. The original Project Gotham Racing in particular, which would debut in November 2001, is extremely similar to Metropolis Street Racer, sharing many of the same cars and tracks, but updating assets and adding more content. It is also the more forgiving game (for example, while the concept of "Kudos" remains, there is no means of "losing" it in PGR).

2003's Project Gotham Racing 2, however, is a cleaner departure with a new set of locations, as would be the case for future sequels.

Production credits

Bizarre Creations Ltd.

Management

• Managing Director: Martyn Chudley
• Business Director: Sarah Dixon
• Technical Director: Walter Lynsdale

Programming

• Design, Structure and Frontend: Martyn Chudley
• Technical Coding: Roger Perkins
• Engine and Dynamics Coding: Walter Lynsdale
• Tools and Effects Coding: Phil Snape
• AI Coding: Dave Al-Daini
• Sound Coding: Jonathan Amor

Artwork

• 3D modelling and Textures (Tokyo): Jon Dugdale, Paul Spencer
• 3D modelling and Textures (San Francisco): Matt Sharatt, Glen Griffiths
• 3D modelling and Textures (Tokyo): Julie McGurren, Derek Chapman
• Car Modelling: Steve Heaney
• Car and City Textures: Lee Carter
• Frontend Artwork and City Textures: Gren Atherton

Production

• Senior Producer: Brian Woodhouse
• Associate Producer: Peter Wallace
• Production Support: Glynn Williams
• Bizarre PR: Sarah Dixon
• Office Management: Michelle Langton

Quality Assurance

• QA Manager: Ged Talbot
• QA: Kevin Reilly

Sega Europe, Ltd.

Product Department

• Director of Product Development: Naohiko Hoshino
• Executive Producer: Kats Sato
• Sound Producer: Richard Jacques
• Associate Producer: Jose Aller
• Test Manager: Jason Cumberbatch
• Lead Tester: Pete O'Brien
• Technical Support Manager: Serge Plagnol
• Hardware Engineer: Tamer Tahsin
• Support Engineer: Sandeep Bisla
• Spanish Translator: Roberto Párraga-Sánchez
• German Translator: Angelika Michitsch
• French Translator: Caroline Ruiz

Marketing Support

• European Product Marketing Manager: Jim Pride
• European Product Marketing Executive: Mathew Quaeck
• UK: Tunde Orelaja

Sega Of America Product Development

• Localization Producer: Howard Gipson
• Supervising Producer: Jason Kuo
• Lead Tester: Benji Galvez
• Assistant Lead Testers: Shawn Dobbins, Robert Reich
• Localization Manager: Osamu Shibamiya
• Testers: Gabrielle Brown, Jason Jensen, Steven Jee, Devin Tomcik, Jason Mercer, Todd Slepian, Rafael Meza, John Saito, Eric Ling, Joseph Amper, Derek Wong, Aaron Poser, Walter Kim, Daniel Airey, Shaheed Khan, JR Villatuya, Raymond Kwan, David Taleg, Chester Lee, Michael Jones, Joseph Mora

Marketing

• Product Manager: Rob Alvarez
• Associate Product Manager: Dennis Lee
• Director Product Marketing: John Golden
• Public Relations: Heather Hawkins, Gwen Marker

• Creative Services: Robert Schonfisch, Angela Santos

• Special Thanks: Peter Moore, Chris Gilbert, Charles Bellfield, Karen Brown, Terri Higgins, Molly Fitzpatrick, Kathleen Joyce, John Amirkhan, Todd Slepian, Paulita Escalona, Sandy Castagnola

Source:

US manual

Uncredited

• Vocals: T.J. Davis

Magazine articles

Main article: Metropolis Street Racer/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

FR print advert

Print advert in (YU) #7: "7/2000" (2000-09-25)
also published in:

• (YU) #8: "8/2000" (2000-10-25)
• (YU) #9: "9/2000" (2000-12-25)
• (YU) #10: "1/2001" (2001-02-25)
• (YU) #11: "2/2001" (2001-03-25)
• (YU) #12: "3/2001" (2001-04-25)
• (YU) #13: "4/2001" (2001-05-25)
• (YU) #14: "5/2001" (2001-06-25)
• (YU) #15: "6/2001" (2001-07-25)

Print advert in (US) #10: "Holiday 2000" (2000-11-28)
also published in:

• (US) #12: "March 2001" (2001-01-28)

Print advert in (UK) #12: "October 2000" (2000-09-07)

Print advert in (DE) #2000-12: "12/2000" (2000-11-02)

Print advert in (PL) #30: "Marzec 2001" (2001-xx-xx)
also published in:

• (PL) #31: "Kwiecień 2001" (2001-xx-xx)
• (PL) #32: "Maj 2001" (2001-xx-xx)
• (PL) #33: "Czerwiec 2001" (2001-xx-xx)
• (PL) #34: "Lipiec-Sierpień 2001" (2001-xx-xx)
• (PL) #35: "Wrzesień 2001" (2001-xx-xx)

Artwork

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Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score (HU) 98 (BR) 65 (YU) PAL 95 (PL) 60 (FR) PAL 94 (UK) 100 (UK) PAL 90 (UK) PAL 96 (UK) PAL 90 (US) NTSC-U 70 (RU) 91 (DE) PAL 86 (US) NTSC-U 88 (UK) 100 (US) NTSC-U 89 (US) NTSC-U 100 (AU) 92 (DE) PAL 91 (DE) PAL 91 (PL) 90 (US) NTSC-U 100 (UK) PAL 90 (US) NTSC-U 90 (FR) 86 Play (PL) 94 (PL) 93 (NL) 98 (DE) PAL 93 (RU) 95 (UK) 80 (DE) PAL 82

	90
Based on 31 reviews

Metropolis Street Racer

Dreamcast, US
Cover
Disc Manual Inlay

Dreamcast, EU
Cover
Disc File:MSR-DC-EU-Manual.pdf Manual

Dreamcast, EU (White Label)
Disc

Dreamcast, PT
Cover
Disc Manual

Dreamcast, PL
Cover
Disc

Dreamcast, AU
Cover
Disc

Technical information

Main article: Metropolis Street Racer/Technical information.

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	1,188,776,064	2000-11-30	GD-ROM (US)	51012 V1.010 (Rev A)
✔	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	1,201,533,312	2000-10-10	GD-ROM (EU)	952-0042-50, MK-51022-50 V1.001
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	1,201,533,312	2000-10-20	GD-ROM (EU)	MK-51022-50 V1.002 (Rev A)
✔	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1	1,201,533,312	2000-11-21	GD-ROM (EU)	MK-51022-50 V1.009 (Rev B)
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1		2000-10-10	GD-R				Page
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1		2000-05-09	GD-R				Page
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1		1999-11-10	GD-R				Page

External links

• Sega of America webpage: Dreamcast