OutRun - Arcade Colors Hack (Mega Drive/Genesis) Goal A

Channel:

MrThunderwing

Subscribers:

22,800

Published on September 22, 2019 8:00:05 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRNIaw4nWs8

Game:

Out Run (1986)

Duration: 9:49

2,397 views

52

(Gameplay starts at 02:02)
When I made my '30 Years of Outrun' video a few years back https://youtu.be/zJ0462V9cao I mentioned that something's just always looked a bit off about about the Megadrive port to me and that despite being a MD owner and huge Sega fanboy back in the day, I actually thought the PC engine port looked more faithful to the arcade. Thanks to a YouTube video by Sega Lord X (a channel well worth checking out BTW), I found out what's wrong - the colours in the MD version are too dark, both the stages themselves and your Testarossa. Also, in some instances, background colours were totally wrong altogether, like the 2nd stage stage (if you go right in the Western track layout), having a blue sky instead of orange. Fortunately, someone created a patch to correct this. The patch actually came out in 2018, created by a gentleman named Tor, but I only just found out about it recently through the aforementioned video.

So I decided to upload a couple of quick playthroughs on the Mega Drive version of the game using it. I start the video with a quick side-by-side demonstration to highlight the difference it makes, using the game's attract mode with and without it. The difference is instantly noticeable and makes MD Outrun look far more arcade accurate. This port was handled by an outside team and not Sega themselves, a Japanese developer called Hertz. It makes you curious as to why Hertz didn't correct this themselves before the game was released, and were seemingly content to release a graphically sub-optimal Outrun port in the first place. Lack of time? Didn't notice? Just couldn't be arsed to fix it?

Presumably it wouldn't have taken a huge amount of effort to swap a few colours around and get the game looking closer to the arcade original (or just getting them right in the first place...?). I've always thought this was a port that felt like a bit of an afterthought on Sega's part, owing to the fact It didn't come out until 1991 three years after the the MD's initial release and was handled by a 3rd party developer. Outrun was big deal in the 80's and I always thought it should've been a MD launch title.

As much as I love OutRun, I was never particularly tempted to get the Mega Drive version back in the day, specifically because something subconsciously was telling me it just didn't look right, and as a cash strapped teenager back then I was very selective about what I shelled out for. I suspect that had it looked more like the patched version though, I definitely would've been more tempted.

In reality though, it's not actually a bad port and all things considered I feel I may have previously judged it a bit too harshly. The scrolling is smooth and speedy with lots of undulating hills and decent looking road side scenery that does a reasonable MD approximation of the Super-Scaler original's 3D. CPU vehicles look adequate and varied and the handling is pretty spot on for a digital joypad. There's also some fairly meaty sounding Mega Drive-ified versions of the original Outrun tunes, including a brand new one called 'Step On Beat', which is a nice touch. On the in game sound side of things though, one curious omission is the lack of any engine SFX in the game. The aforementioned PC Engine version managed to include them, but that particular engine SFX was less like the arcade machine's pleasant thrum and more like an irritating high pitched buzzing sound, the console equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard to me. So maybe the lack of engine sounds in the MD version was secretly a blessing in disguise...? The game feels a bit bare without ANY kind of engine sound there though. In the arcade version it was a useful audio cue as to when you'd need to shift up or down. Would it really have been that difficult to make a decent approximation of the arcade machine's engine sound on the Megadrive? The good old 8-bit Sega Master System'v version of Hang-On managed it. As did the MD's own version of Super Hang-On - https://youtu.be/bP3XxrVpDz8 and the slightly less impressive sounding, but not terrible, MD Chase HQ 2 - https://youtu.be/shd6Ka_uTQw did an OK engine sound too.

So yeah, all in all this is a great patch that turns a not bad MD port of OutRun into a far better one (and I guess we should be grateful the Mega Drive port turned out the way it did and not like the audiovisual abominations that were the Atari ST and Amiga ports. Shudder).

It's available to download here:

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3940/

There's a tutorial on the website that explains how to patch your ROM. I'm using a Japanese one, hence why the track layout looks different to normal (if you're used to the Western arrangement).

As a final thought, I've always thought it weird that the 32X never got a version of Outrun, seeing as how both After Burner and Space Harrier did... It could've been the ultimate home version of Outrun (at least until the Saturn version came along....)

#Outrun #OutRunners #Sega#

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