Out Run, Driving in Style

There was a time in the eighties when nothing was cooler than the Ferrari Testarossa and people wore pastel colors and t-shirts with suits. Miami Vice was the most popular thing on television and the game that seemed to capture the whole mood was the driving classic Out Run.

When Out Run first appeared in the arcades in 1986 it was an event, not only did the game feature stunning graphics and great game-play but it was one of the first arcade machines that actually moved in response to the on screen action. People queued to get onto this game and the deluxe cabinet had a moulded seat with a gear stick, acceleration and brake pedals and a steering wheel with force feedback. The entire cabinet would shake, bank and turn as you raced desperately for the next checkpoint. It may have cost a little more than the other machines but it was awesome. Developers, Sega also released a more basic sit down version and two upright cabinets all with the same controls but the moving sit down version was by far the biggest draw.

The game-play was simple enough, each of the five stages had a number of checkpoints you had to reach within a time limit in order to extend the game and at the end of each stage you had a choice of routes which gave it great replay value. The roads were filled with other cars to avoid including trucks, VW Beetles, Corvettes, Porsches and BMWs. You sat in the driver’s seat with a blonde girlfriend riding shotgun and if you hit another car or crashed off the road your vehicle would spin into the air and tip you both out.

If you managed to make it through all five stages you would be rewarded with one of five comical endings. Goal A resulted in you being thrown into the air by an adoring crowd only to fall to the ground when they all got distracted by a bikini clad bimbo. B led to the car falling to pieces as you nonchalantly shrugged, C rewarded you with a magic lantern and when you rubbed it a harem of beauties surrounded you causing your girlfriend to scowl angrily, D led to your girlfriend being given a Gold cup and with E you got the Gold cup but she tried to steal it.

The environments were all great starting off on the coastal road and taking you through mountains and deserts. Out Run represented a jump forward in graphics at the time with colourfully detailed backdrops, characters and great animations. It used Super Scaler technology to push sprites around at speed and give you a real feeling of burning rubber as you zoomed along.

Another cool innovation in Out Run was the ability to select your music via the car stereo by tuning in to different mock radio stations and you could choose from three tunes, Magical Sound Shower, Passing Breeze and Splash Wave.

Out Run definitely advanced the driving genre and it was ported to everything in sight. It also spawned a few sequels but none of them had the same impact as the original.