SEGA Touring Car Championship
SEGA Touring Car Championship, Developed by 'AM Annex' and published by Sega in 1998.
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Player's Review
"Realism is the key to this thrills and spills driving game based on the highly popular European Touring Car series. High-speed production cars include the Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI, AMG Mercedes C-Class, Opel Calibra V6 and Toyota Supra, all competing throughout a season of hard fought racing."
This PC conversion is not a great version with some ugly textures and low framerate and not even as good as the Sega Saturn version which itself isn't held to high acclaim. I'm playing in the default DirectDraw screen mode as Direct3D wont allow the higher res textures. I do show Direct3D at the end of the video though. The controls can feel too sensitive at time and barely responsive in others which can make for tricky gameplay. I have left game difficulty on Normal and default laps for arcade mode, add switched to three for pc mode. Even on normal, the opponents are relentless in their pursuit of the win but should you get the opportunity, you can knock them off there line and they may not recover, almost like it's a Scalextric.
The longplay completes arcade mode by winning the Championship, completing twenty laps in the Grand Prix, note that a pitstop is very likely required due to tyre damage, followed by completing the Expert Championship. PC Mode is not complete. I do complete the Championship, followed by the Expedition race to unlock the Sega prototype car, boomtown and vs AI mode. To fully complete this mode, you need to train the AI car to complete the Championship which is a huge undertaking as you need to lose each race many times before the driver will get through them and is soul destroying with how long it takes. You can see the result of building up the AI car in the Saturn longplay. The 'Global Net Event' tracks are activated by adding the dates to the command line options. The Sega Rally cars require full game completion to unlock and I haven't found a working cheat to override that.
Overall, not a great version, non of the Sega's ports were that great on pc really but although most of the Saturn game is here, it shows how dated the pc was at this point in time and it not until hardware 3d accelerators became popular at similar cost to a dedicated console would the pc be back in the fight. It might be higher resolution, but that comes at a cost of framerate and control.
A run though of what is in the video:-
00:00:00 Arcade Mode, Championship (Normal). A run through of championship mode. Completing it Unlocks Grand Prix mode.
00:09:02 Arcade Mode, Grand Prix Mode. You can race on any one of the four main tracks for 20 laps. You only need to race on one of them to Unlock Expert Mode.
00:18:55 Arcade Mode, Expert Mode. A run though of the expert Championship. The main change seems to be the traction. Either the car setup has changed or the tarmac has, as it is like driving on ice with the car sliding everywhere. The A.I cars only seem more aggressive as I am going slower due to lack of traction in some parts. 'Master of Arcade Mode'
00:27:45 PC Mode, Championship (Normal). I complete a run through of the Championship mode unlocking the Exhibition Race.
00:37:50 PC Mode, Exhibition race. A race on the unlocked Boomtown track. Coming in first unlocks the 'Sega Prototype Car' and you can now race against the Ai Car in VS mode.
00:41:42 PC Mode, Exhibition race. A race on the unlocked Boomtown track using the prototype car (Not needed for progression)
00:46:04 PC Mode, Championship Mode (Normal). Mainly to show off the Sega Prototype Car. This is not needed at all for game progression. I switched back to quick 2 lap race from here and Also Direct 3D mode.
00:52:54 PC Mode, Championship with Sega A.I Racer. He's just starting out and barely makes the qualifying lap. Just to show the feature. Followed by a couple of title videos.
00:56:44 PC Mode, Global Net Event 1 (Dec 25th 1997). This is the first of the games net Events. A drive around an icy track.
00:59:02 PC Mode, Global net Event 2 (Feb 13th 1998) The Second Net event. Hit all the cones!
01:02:39 PC Mode, Global net Event 3 (1st April 1998) The Third Net Event. Race backwards. Don't bump into oncoming cars and put in a good time.
This PC conversion is not a great version with some ugly textures and low framerate and not even as good as the Sega Saturn version which itself isn't held to high acclaim. I'm playing in the default DirectDraw screen mode as Direct3D wont allow the higher res textures. I do show Direct3D at the end of the video though. The controls can feel too sensitive at time and barely responsive in others which can make for tricky gameplay. I have left game difficulty on Normal and default laps for arcade mode, add switched to three for pc mode. Even on normal, the opponents are relentless in their pursuit of the win but should you get the opportunity, you can knock them off there line and they may not recover, almost like it's a Scalextric.
The longplay completes arcade mode by winning the Championship, completing twenty laps in the Grand Prix, note that a pitstop is very likely required due to tyre damage, followed by completing the Expert Championship. PC Mode is not complete. I do complete the Championship, followed by the Expedition race to unlock the Sega prototype car, boomtown and vs AI mode. To fully complete this mode, you need to train the AI car to complete the Championship which is a huge undertaking as you need to lose each race many times before the driver will get through them and is soul destroying with how long it takes. You can see the result of building up the AI car in the Saturn longplay. The 'Global Net Event' tracks are activated by adding the dates to the command line options. The Sega Rally cars require full game completion to unlock and I haven't found a working cheat to override that.
Overall, not a great version, non of the Sega's ports were that great on pc really but although most of the Saturn game is here, it shows how dated the pc was at this point in time and it not until hardware 3d accelerators became popular at similar cost to a dedicated console would the pc be back in the fight. It might be higher resolution, but that comes at a cost of framerate and control.
A run though of what is in the video:-
00:00:00 Arcade Mode, Championship (Normal). A run through of championship mode. Completing it Unlocks Grand Prix mode.
00:09:02 Arcade Mode, Grand Prix Mode. You can race on any one of the four main tracks for 20 laps. You only need to race on one of them to Unlock Expert Mode.
00:18:55 Arcade Mode, Expert Mode. A run though of the expert Championship. The main change seems to be the traction. Either the car setup has changed or the tarmac has, as it is like driving on ice with the car sliding everywhere. The A.I cars only seem more aggressive as I am going slower due to lack of traction in some parts. 'Master of Arcade Mode'
00:27:45 PC Mode, Championship (Normal). I complete a run through of the Championship mode unlocking the Exhibition Race.
00:37:50 PC Mode, Exhibition race. A race on the unlocked Boomtown track. Coming in first unlocks the 'Sega Prototype Car' and you can now race against the Ai Car in VS mode.
00:41:42 PC Mode, Exhibition race. A race on the unlocked Boomtown track using the prototype car (Not needed for progression)
00:46:04 PC Mode, Championship Mode (Normal). Mainly to show off the Sega Prototype Car. This is not needed at all for game progression. I switched back to quick 2 lap race from here and Also Direct 3D mode.
00:52:54 PC Mode, Championship with Sega A.I Racer. He's just starting out and barely makes the qualifying lap. Just to show the feature. Followed by a couple of title videos.
00:56:44 PC Mode, Global Net Event 1 (Dec 25th 1997). This is the first of the games net Events. A drive around an icy track.
00:59:02 PC Mode, Global net Event 2 (Feb 13th 1998) The Second Net event. Hit all the cones!
01:02:39 PC Mode, Global net Event 3 (1st April 1998) The Third Net Event. Race backwards. Don't bump into oncoming cars and put in a good time.
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