Staff Blog: Cruising with My Girl - Outrun

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Cruising with My Girl - Outrun

On 06/14/2019 at 04:03 PM by Matt Snee

I remember how awesome Outrun used to look in the arcade. Those were state of the art visuals back then. The arcade version also had a force feedback steering wheel which would rumble when you crashed. And of course, the great music. When you started the game, you could choose between three songs to play while you drove. Of course, once you did, it just repeated endlessly. However, since this was an arcade game, play wouldn't last that long anyway if you didn't plug in quarter after quarter.

I also got this for my Sega Master System when it came out (yes, I had one.) While the graphics weren't nearly as good, the gameplay was mostly the same. Ah, what am I saying, the graphics were terrible!

But I played it over and over. I never made it to the end. Did anyone? I doubt it. The Sega Master System was a place for poor ports of Sega's arcade hits. And this was one of them.

Comments

SanAndreas

06/14/2019 at 04:15 PM

Outrun was probably my favorite racing game of the 80s. Sega can do racing games with the best if them. My favorite little animation was hitting something but not hard enough to roll your car and watching the girl scream at the driver and probably calling him an asshole for almost getting her killed.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

06/14/2019 at 04:38 PM

Ha ha. I forgot to mention those animations above. I loved how when you flipped the car over they would fall out. Guess they weren't wearing their seatbelts!

Super Step Contributing Writer

06/14/2019 at 06:48 PM

Never got to the end, but I've made some pretty sweet scores in this and OutRun thanks to Shenmue and Yakuza.

In OutRun especially, you can tell the original "controller" was a motorcycle set up based on the movement in the game.

When I was growing up, Cruisin' USA would be in place of these games, but either way I miss those machines being everywhere.

SanAndreas

06/14/2019 at 07:43 PM

I still see various types of "Cruis'n" machines at pizza places and grocery stores every once in awhile. There was a new Cruis'n arcade game that came out a couple years ago,

My first game of this type was The Great American Cross-Country Road Race, which was made by Activision in 1984 or so.

Super Step Contributing Writer

06/14/2019 at 08:33 PM

I've seen one Crusin' cabinet at a Red Robin in Cedar Hill, TX and otherwise haven't often been into pizza places like Cici's where they'd have stuff like this.

In my current area (Nacogdoches, TX) there are not any arcades in grocery stores that I'm aware of.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

06/15/2019 at 01:22 PM

I forgot those old arcade games are in Shenmue. That's pretty hilarious.

Jamie Alston Staff Writer

06/14/2019 at 11:52 PM

Man, I loved Outrun on the Genesis. The soundtrack was awesome and it was fun driving down the road without being worried with winning first place. I have made it the end on quite a few occasions. Very good driving game.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

06/15/2019 at 12:37 AM

Damn, you made it to the end? You’ve got skills!

KnightDriver

06/15/2019 at 08:29 PM

I've played this many times whenever it appeared in a new collection. I never got to the end.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

06/15/2019 at 09:31 PM

It takes a lot of skill, I think. I never got close.

Cary Woodham

06/16/2019 at 01:35 PM

OutRun was a good game. Even my dad would plunk quarters tnto it in the arcade.

OutRun 2 or OutRun 2000 was a fantastic remake. I think it was even a better racing arcade game than Mario Kart Arcade GP, and that's a lot for me to say that.