Sega Touring Car Championship/Global Net Events

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The Sega Saturn version of Sega Touring Car Championship features three special "Global Net Events" (グローバルネットイベント) that originally occurred between December 1997 and April 1998.

Sega created a system for players of the Model 2, Saturn and Windows PC versions to submit their best times through a form on the internet (and in the Saturn and PC's case, a copy of the form exists on the disc itself as "RANKING.HTM" (with /RESOURCE containing images)). The idea was that the details would be sent to Sega, who in turn would update a leaderboard which could be viewed online. The system was similar to modern day leaderboards, but without a guarantee that the games could connect to the internet, an extra step was necessary. In addition to keeping a record of standard lap times, Sega orchestrated three one-off special events for Saturn owners, where players would compete with different rules.

On first boot, the Saturn Sega Touring Car Championship asks the user to confirm both their system time (as dictated by the Saturn's internal clock), and select a longitude on a map of the world, so that the game has a rough knowledge about the player's current time zone. A nationality selector is also available, and while it defaults to the system's region (JPN for NTSC-J, USA for NTSC-U and GBR for PAL), the player can select from a larger array of countries, all in the aid of providing this mode with some more data.

On the day of an event, a "Global Net Event" option would appear on the Saturn side of the game, and if selected would begin that day's event. When completed, the game would generate a code to be copied and then sent to Sega, although Sega Saturn Modem users in Japan and NetLink subscribers in North America could automate this process and send the data directly. Once the event was over, Sega published global records.

If the Saturn's clock is set to before the events taking place, Sega Touring Car Championship will remind its users of the next scheduled Global Net Event during the boot-up sequence of the game. If the clock is set after the third event however, all traces of the system will be disabled.

Events

Have a nice Winter Holiday!

A simple race with a winter theme.

Hit & Run!

Three rounds where the objective is to both set a fast time and knock over as many cones as possible.

April Fool Everybody turn around!

A two lap race where you drive in the opposite direction of your opponents and try and set the fastest time.

Legacy

As the Global Net Events only occurred within five months of launch, it is like that much of its userbase was unaware of this feature, only encountering it after the console's internal battery has run out (and thus defaults to a date in 1994). In-game codes exist, however, to allow users to access either of the three events at any time (although the means of submitting a code no longer function).

External links

• Global Ranking (archived)