Gale Racer / Rad Mobile Saturn import - first impressions.
Scott H
years, so I went ahead and picked it up for cheap to try it out. I loved
Rad Mobile, but playing this game it occurs to me that I haven't played Rad
Mobile since 91', and can't remember specific details about draw distance,
how cars looked when they passed me, etc. I also can't find any decent pics
of Rad Mobile online, so I'll just post my impressions, and hopefully
somebody can tell me/show me the differences.
The game has no demo mode, instead a fairly clear movie file plays about
why you're racing, and then shows your car driving on a bridge in CG. The
title screen, too, is a CG movie of your car rotating. Options include Hard
and Normal difficulty settings, control set up that lets you change your
brake and gas from A to B to C, Stereo and Mono sound and BGM/Sound Effects
volume levels.
Gameplay wise first and foremost, it lets you use the 3D controller, and
has analog steering, a very nice feature. Your car doesn't slide on curves,
and sometimes it seems to even start turning on its own, the main purpose of
the game seems to be not to hit other cars and not to hit the wall. Rivals
seem to be set on a time, and don't react to you much. You can damage your
car and have to be reset by hitting something too hard, some levels let you
fall off the track as well. There are also levels that have rain, that
require you to turn on headlights, varying size roads, roads with oncomming
traffic and intersections, dirt shoulders, no shoulder, and barriers on
overpasses, and you can even get knocked off the road onto a railroad track
and have to race a train to get off. I'd say that this game is like an
early 2D version of Cruisin' USA really, it plays and feels just like it to
me.
Graphically, the framerate seems rock solid at 30FPS to me, though it
may be lower in the levels with rain. The draw distance seems a bit short
to me, but again, I can't remember what it was like in the arcade. I can
recreate the picture at system16.com (
http://www.system16.com/sega/hrdw_system32.html ) with this version, but the
vanishing point is in the same place as it is in the picture of Rad Rally
right below the Rad Mobile pic. The car's cockpit rotates to the left and
right when you go up on a road that slants. Sonic, swings at the same speed
the entire game, and I thought for sure that the arcade version your
steering controlled his swing and his spin. I'll post movies of the game
sometime this weekend I think, if anybody's interested, I'd really like to
see some good screens of the arcade version, or even play it via emulation
if anybody knows where I can find a good System 32 emulator.
Scott H
"Scott H" <weapo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ccCab.7222$uF3....@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
OK, I just took a look at Rad Mobile via Modeler and found that the draw
distance of the arcade version is about twice as far as the Saturn game Gale
racer, which is good for the original, and obviously bad for the port.
Sonic doesn't move any differently in the arcade version. Also, Rad Mobile
has engine sounds for other cars and such, while Gale Racer only has a cheap
engine sound for your own car. Kinda dissapointing, but the game is still
fully playable as it is.
Scott H
>
> OK, I just took a look at Rad Mobile via Modeler and found that the
draw
> distance of the arcade version is about twice as far as the Saturn game
Gale
> racer, which is good for the original, and obviously bad for the port.
> Sonic doesn't move any differently in the arcade version. Also, Rad
Mobile
> has engine sounds for other cars and such, while Gale Racer only has a
cheap
> engine sound for your own car. Kinda dissapointing, but the game is still
> fully playable as it is.
>
Also, collision detection doesn't seem to be very good in the Saturn
version, and the other cars flicker a bit sometimes when they're close to
the screen, and tend to fall into the ground a bit when the road isn't flat.
Another dissapointing thing is that the track doesn't change in real time,
at the end of each zone it goes to a lap time screen and then to the next
level, wheras the arcade game has smooth transitions to the next level that
makes it seem more like one continuous track.
Phillip J. Fry
= Rad Mobile, and worst, I didn't know it existed on the Saturn!!!
OK.. I now must find this title... So what should I expect to pay for
this!? Is it rare!? Do you recommend it!!?!?!
Thanx for the enlightenment...
"Scott H" <weapo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<ccCab.7222$uF3....@nwrddc01.gnilink.net>...
> There's been a lot of smack talk about this game on Usenet over the
> years, so I went ahead and picked it up for cheap to try it out. I loved
> Rad Mobile, but playing this game it occurs to me that I haven't played Rad
> Mobile since 91', and can't remember specific details about draw distance,
> how cars looked when they passed me, etc. I also can't find any decent pics
> of Rad Mobile online, so I'll just post my impressions, and hopefully
> somebody can tell me/show me the differences.
[snip]
SewerFiss
message
news:3bbec384.03092...@posting.google.c
om...
> Wow! I love Rad Mobile.. and believe it or NOT I
never KNEW Gale Racer
> = Rad Mobile, and worst, I didn't know it
existed on the Saturn!!!
> OK.. I now must find this title... So what
should I expect to pay for
> this!? Is it rare!? Do you recommend it!!?!?!
>
> Thanx for the enlightenment...
>
I would seriously not recommend it. Scott H is
being way way way too lenient. Take everything he
said about pop-up (not to mention graphics that
are simply missing, revealing big ugly patches of
bare screen) and iffy sprite detection and lack of
a sense of speed (he *DID* mention that, didn't
he?) and lame to annoying sound effects and an
utter lack of challenge and multiply it 10x and
you'll have an idea how bad Gale Racer is. It's a
joke. It's a travesty. It's a hack job. It's a
steaming pile of feces. Sega clearly rushed to
get the game out the door (it was a Japanese
launch title, I believe) before the game was ready
and it more than shows. It's totally clear that
the game was not subjected to any kind of quality
control whatsoever, even by its programmers.
Really, I know you probably see people railing
against games like this on the Internet and Usenet
all the time, but this time it's not just
hysterics. The game sucks.
But now that I've built it up, I do have a copy
for sale if you want it. $10.
(Bet you weren't expecting that twist at the end
there.)
...word is bondage...
Scott H
"Phillip J. Fry" <magnu...@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:3bbec384.03092...@posting.google.com...
> = Rad Mobile, and worst, I didn't know it existed on the Saturn!!!
> OK.. I now must find this title... So what should I expect to pay for
> this!? Is it rare!? Do you recommend it!!?!?!
>
> Thanx for the enlightenment...
Well, it's the only home version of Rad Mobile, that made it worth
owning or me, but it's pretty sad how poorly it was ported. I do still
enjoy playing it, it does have a good framerate, it just hasn't got the draw
distance of the arcade version, or the sound effects for that matter. I got
mine for $10 at www.importgamesjapan.com .