OutRun (Mindscape)
Out Run (NTSC Version) for the Commodore 64 developed by Amazing Products and published by Mindscape in 1987.
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Player's Review
"Speed! Power! The road's all yours. Hot car. Hot music. Sensational scenery. It's all part of the home computer version of one of the hottest games ever to hit the arcade circuit. Slip inside one of the fastest machines on four wheels. Then step on it. Cruise past the beaches of southern France, California's Death Valley, cities, mountains, and much more. And leave the others in the dust. Get a good grip on the wheel. Because this baby is pure power. And she could try to get away from you."
Outrun is an Original Sega arcade game that was converted to most Home Computers of the time by various developers. None of them turned out that great and you had to wait for the Genesis version before getting a near arcade quality version in the home. While the Amiga and Spectrum version attempt to recreate the look of the original, the C64 just does its own thing so you get a race game with a red car and call it Outrun and see if you can get away with it. About the only thing Outrun is the music which is well done. The game would also come with a cassette tape which contained recordings of the Arcade music which you could play along side of the game. This was probably more useful for the Spectrum 48k owner that didn't have any in game music.
The C64 version doesn't let you take forks in the route to decide your ultimate route across the map. Instead you choose a route at the start and the game takes you across in the optimal way. Your goal is to maintain top speed, dodge cars, stay on the road and beat the time limit. I think the endings were all the same no matter which route was taken. Difficulty is on another level. The time limit is really tight and with little if any tolerance for crashes. Course C is probably the easier route to complete.
Differences with the US release include Choosing your route at the start. You no longer have to fast forward the tape or choose which version to load to take a particular route as in the EU/UK release. Notice that the two on screen timers are not in sync with each other with the main timer counting down at breakneck speed! Another difference is the player car itself. The US car contains a little more colour but is half the height of the EU/UK release which looks odd next to the full height of the ai race cars. The road is also rendered different with different colours used for the scenery. The traffic is also more varied with lorries included in this version.
Overall, whist looking barely like the arcade original it is a good C64 racing game with the pumping outrun music and probably closer to the original than the PAL release.
00:00:00 Course A - Vine Yard
00:06:00 Course B - Death Valley
00:11:35 Course C - Desolation Hill
00:17:00 Course D - Autobahn
00:22:25 Course E - Lakeside
Outrun is an Original Sega arcade game that was converted to most Home Computers of the time by various developers. None of them turned out that great and you had to wait for the Genesis version before getting a near arcade quality version in the home. While the Amiga and Spectrum version attempt to recreate the look of the original, the C64 just does its own thing so you get a race game with a red car and call it Outrun and see if you can get away with it. About the only thing Outrun is the music which is well done. The game would also come with a cassette tape which contained recordings of the Arcade music which you could play along side of the game. This was probably more useful for the Spectrum 48k owner that didn't have any in game music.
The C64 version doesn't let you take forks in the route to decide your ultimate route across the map. Instead you choose a route at the start and the game takes you across in the optimal way. Your goal is to maintain top speed, dodge cars, stay on the road and beat the time limit. I think the endings were all the same no matter which route was taken. Difficulty is on another level. The time limit is really tight and with little if any tolerance for crashes. Course C is probably the easier route to complete.
Differences with the US release include Choosing your route at the start. You no longer have to fast forward the tape or choose which version to load to take a particular route as in the EU/UK release. Notice that the two on screen timers are not in sync with each other with the main timer counting down at breakneck speed! Another difference is the player car itself. The US car contains a little more colour but is half the height of the EU/UK release which looks odd next to the full height of the ai race cars. The road is also rendered different with different colours used for the scenery. The traffic is also more varied with lorries included in this version.
Overall, whist looking barely like the arcade original it is a good C64 racing game with the pumping outrun music and probably closer to the original than the PAL release.
00:00:00 Course A - Vine Yard
00:06:00 Course B - Death Valley
00:11:35 Course C - Desolation Hill
00:17:00 Course D - Autobahn
00:22:25 Course E - Lakeside
1 comment
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MadMatty- February 20 2022 21:41:06
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