Kickstarter-funded 'The 90s Arcade Racer' for Wii U, PC, Mac - Inspiried by Daytona USA, Indy 500, Scud Race

[Greg2600]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/896834116/the-90s-arcade-racer

Dude is looking to create a new game that really seems to capture the spirit of those SEGA classics!

[kedawa]

The choice of cars is straight out of Virtua Racing Deluxe.
I'm skeptical of kickstarter projects, but I hope this gets to see the light of day.

[Greg2600]

Read he's had so much support he wants to release on Wii U store.

[GhostDog]

I wish SEGA would give one of their intellectual properties to Criterion to develop. Those guys know how to make a racing game. Burnout 3 reminded me of something SEGA would develop. It's just a shame OutRun Online was removed from the Playstation store due to Ferrari reasons. So chances are we'll never see SEGA Super GT aka Scud Race since there's a Ferrari in the game.

[parallaxscroll]

This isn't news but I've seen almost no mention of the game here.

I'd be happy if The 90s Arcade Racer releases this year, yet I'd be even happier if tweaking continues until next spring to get the "feel" and controls as *right* as possible.

Wii U trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6QsbTr3PKE

Interview with Antonis Pelekanos and Tyrone Rodriguez (Nicalis)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSJhEAiuv_c


Articles:
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/12/nicalis-picks-up-kickstarter-funded-the-90s-arcade-racer/
http://www.destructoid.com/nicalis-is-publishing-90s-arcade-racer-244709.phtml
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/390816/90s-arcade-racer-set-for-wii-u-with-help-from-nicalis/
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/02/the_90s_arcade_racer_confirmed_for_wii_u_eshop

project home:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/896834116/the-90s-arcade-racer


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Lets hope it also gets published on 360 XBLA and PS3 PSN.


BTW It's 60 FPS ^__^

[parallaxscroll]

Few more screens I couldn't fit in the 1st post:

http://imageshack.us/a/img33/2899/screen13tn.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img402/15/day01.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img571/6163/night01.jpg

http://www.racer445.com/90s/touring_ingame2.jpg

[SpaceHarrier]

Such a beautiful game, I've been waiting for its release for quite a while now. Perfectly recaptures that Sega spirit of the 90's, in my opinion. Also, this was developed by Pelikan13, the same guy who showed up Sonic 4 a couple years ago with his work on the gorgeous Sonic Fan Remix.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Ooh, this looks -

Nicalis

... fuck.

[Greg2600]

I actually posted about this earlier this year, so I merged the topics.

I am really looking forward to the finished game, it looks amazing.

[parallaxscroll]

Recently released video showing the environments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qieaaXHZALE#t=0

Just. Amazing.

The 90s Arcade Racer is probably the closest we'll ever get to having an unofficial Scud Race 2 / Sega Super GT 2 and Daytona USA 3.

It's still in development for Wii U - Windows - Linux - Android - iOS and due for release probably sometime in the first half of 2014.


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/896834116/the-90s-arcade-racer/posts/678470



Update#12: New Video, Environments

Hello everyone,
I wanted this update to be a gameplay video but unfortunately the car handling is not ready to show yet.
Instead I would like to share a video showing the latest developments for the race tracks. Excuse me for the quite bad youtube compression.

As many of you might have already figured out the game won't be out this year,
targeting more platforms as well as creating more cars and tracks than what was originally planned have led to a longer development cycle.

We are working hard to get the physics right and get rid of any bugs and unwanted behavior while also working on the AI and general game structure.
It's quite a challenge but every day we are getting closer.

Probably the biggest undertaking for this project, the art assets, tracks and cars are close to 90% done
which means there is enough time to polish and optimize in order to get the best possible results.

Thank you!

Antonis






Sure hope they eventually support PSN-PS3 and XBLA-Xbox 360, at some point, especially given their now massive userbases.

[Greg2600]

I cannot wait! Hopefully it's playable on OUYA.

[buzz_n64]

Wow! The only arcade racing game that I have to always play is Sega Super GT. I also can't believe they never ported it to consoles, but this is the next best thing! Looks like I'll be getting the Windows version.

[parallaxscroll]

Wow! The only arcade racing game that I have to always play is Sega Super GT. I also can't believe they never ported it to consoles, but this is the next best thing! Looks like I'll be getting the Windows version.

I'll be getting the Windows version myself.

Indeed it is a damn crying shame Scud Race / Sega Super GT never came home to consoles.

There were two Scud Race tech demos coded up around the end of 1997 for prototype Dreamcast hardware, on one of the non-final development revisions of Katana (maybe Set 2.1?)
using a Pentium II CPU instead of the Hitachi SH4 and an early PowerVR2 graphics chip that was not nearly as fast as what was in the final Dreamcast.

Here's the only remaining video of it I could find that's still online, the info in the video isn't exactly accurate though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irUqYGF0AG0

[Greg2600]

Indy 500 was my favorite, and the only home ports were on the shit-bag R-Zone and Game.com!

[FFStudios]

I wish SEGA would give one of their intellectual properties to Criterion to develop. Those guys know how to make a racing game. Burnout 3 reminded me of something SEGA would develop. It's just a shame OutRun Online was removed from the Playstation store due to Ferrari reasons. So chances are we'll never see SEGA Super GT aka Scud Race since there's a Ferrari in the game.

Burnout 3 to this day is my favorite "racing" game of all time. The only reason I put quotations around it is because I make a distinction between the Burnout style racing and, oh let's say the Gran Turismo style racing.

[jefis]

This game actually looks really good. I love those arcade racer's.

[Leo_A]

I hope this comes to XBLA since it looks great.

I prefer the 360's gamepad for racers and I don't much care for Wii U DLC being tied to the system instead of an account.

[Leo_A]

New trailer


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjHlBvTCck

[Niku-Sama]

kinda looks like if trackmania and out run had an illegitimate child

[Tanooki]

Still interested, but now it would be a superior PC version to consider. Shame this couldn't be thrown on a New3DS card. I'd be all over that above anything else.

I hope what we've seen going back to 2013 stays, still love seeing the off track art with the Saturn V booster.

[Leo_A]

While the music seems a bit better in that video, some criticisms people were noting from the last video a few months ago still stand. Still too much power sliding in every turn , still seems to be an abundance of wide open corners, and while I haven't seen anyone else complain, I still really don't like their camera.

I'm willing to let them add a little flair to it when power sliding to show off the angle of your car. But why isn't the camera more rigidly aligned to your vehicle when cornering normally? Doesn't look good, I think, and as someone very particular about how the camera is setup in chase views in racing games, I already know I'm not going to care for how this one operates.

I just hope that there's alternate views like a roof view.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3PlyYWhhZE

And their fake scanline effect from the last video for the Outrunners based desert track, is something I hope is gone for the release version. Looks as awful as what the XRGB Mini can do, which doesn't look anything like CRT scan lines.

And we need a Sega Rally based circuit. Seemingly every other iconic 90's Sega arcade racer has seen some attention here, but not that one, yet. :)

Any word on online multiplayer?

[Leo_A]

Just read about another game that may be of interest to many of you, called Horizon Chase.

http://images.nintendolife.com/news/2015/05/horizon_chase_pays_tribute_to_snes_classic_top_gea r_and_is_heading_to_consoles/attachment/0/630x.jpg

It's inspired by Top Gear, perhaps the greatest sprite scaling console racer of all time, that was developed by Gremlin Interactive in the early 1990's for the Super Nintendo. They even have the same music composer onboard, which is obviously key to the experience for anyone familiar with Top Gear.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/05/horizon_chase_pays_tribute_to_snes_classic_top_gea r_and_is_heading_to_consoles

Hopefully a Wii U version follows. Now if the Final Freeway guys would just add that one to the Wii U eShop (Another modern sprite scaling arcade racer inspired by classics like Top Gear and Outrun). Almost bought a Gamestick just for that one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-8-W_NEXYA

Plus, I really wish that Vectrex Regeneration, another mobile exclusive, would make it out there. But that's really straying off-topic...

[Tanooki]

Top Gear was a good game for the SNES so that is interesting. I skimmed it, but didn't see kickstarter mentioned so I guess this is just being done the normal way?

[Leo_A]

Now if the Final Freeway guys would just add that one to the Wii U eShop (Another modern sprite scaling arcade racer inspired by classics like Top Gear and Outrun). Almost bought a Gamestick just for that one.

Just had this video suggested to me by YouTube, and thought I'd post it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO4vpI0SEjM

Partly to show off another one of these "retro" style indie arcade racers, but also, to demonstrate a potential issue here that I've meant to mention before. The 90's Arcade Racer guys really need to be careful with the difficulty level and not ease things so much that it becomes a cakewalk when played with proper controls on a system like the Wii U.

Going to be very disappointing if it ends up devoid of challenge like Final Freeway, otherwise a fine looking throwback to games like Outrun, sure looks to be. And all these wide open turns we're seeing so much of in videos, isn't doing much to allay that concern...

An arcade racer without much of a challenge, isn't much of an arcade racer.

[Tanooki]

You're right about easiness. There has been traditionally a free to play version of Final Freeway out there on IOS and Android. I'm not all that good at racers as I once was as I gave up on them out of boredom, but it reminded me of Outrun, and the few times I played it, I killed it and got bored and eventually erased it. It wasn't the game was not well handled or fun, it just got rapidly boring after doing the same thing time and again with a challenge adequate for a 5 year old.

[Leo_A]

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/05/here_are_the_tracks_youll_be_driving_around_in_90s _arcade_racer

There's the list of tracks. Looks like the desert track that's very reminiscent of a course from Outrunners, didn't make the final cut.

Another area of concern here beyond the apparent ease of the driving and the generally wide open nature of the circuits that have been shown off so far, is the lack of any competitors. If they really want to make something special that is more than just a hollow nod to past classics, we need to be racing on more than just virtually empty roads.

I hope that like any good arcade racer, there's a reason to come back to this after the first hour or so...

[Leo_A]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auuYtx8627A

[SpaceHarrier]

I've been waiting so long for this to come out, I'm getting nostalgic about it. Now I need a 90's Arcade Racer Racer, that mimics this game but in glorious 4K. Actually, I think I already made this bad joke before.

So.... they have been working on improving the AI for months now, and yet that one car just slams into the outer railing at around 33 seconds.

[Leo_A]

I think everyone's enthusiasm is waning, but hopefully they successfully reach the finish line someday.

[Tanooki]

Perhaps to be retro and cool they're waiting on the 2090's to release the game.

[Leo_A]

Perhaps more interesting to me is Horizon Chase.

Looks like this 21st century homage to console and computer classics like Top Gear and Lotus Turbo Challenge gets it right.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cggbgZF_aFg

All I see wrong in videos is the silence of your competitors, which hopefully will be rectified with some engine sounds if they follow through with their plans to bring it to consoles (They recently announced a PS4 port). And pit stops like Top Gear included sadly seem to be absent. Hopefully their console releases at least include splitscreen support.

Here's a good review of it.

http://toucharcade.com/2015/08/26/horizon-chase-review/

[Tanooki]

I see it's iOS, now to see if it's Android too. I'd rather have it on my shield which I could ramp through the TV using a bluetooth gamepad. That looks even more fun than 90s Racer.

I still have no bloody reason why I don't own the original Top Gear on SNES as it's solid.

[Leo_A]

An Android release is in the works and is slated for 2015, so you'll be all set soon. :)

A Steam version is also underway, although further releases on dedicated consoles besides the PS4 seems to be unclear at this time. They've expressed desire though to bring this to other platforms, so hopefully some more systems will join the fun. The Vita, a haven for independent releases, would seem like a good match I think. And the Wii U isn't doing too shabby these days with indies, so hopefully this makes it to Nintendo's system (Particularly since the wait for 90's Arcade Racer doesn't seem set to be ending anytime soon).

Kind of doubt it will ever reach the 360/XB1 since Microsoft seems to be taking a difficult stance this generation with small developers/publishers, but maybe a PS3 version isn't out of reach given the commonality between it and the Vita and its still growing and sizable install base that will remain an active concern for quite sometime yet.

[kainemaxwell]

I gotta try this now.

[Leo_A]

Not news on the topic of this thread, but another retro inspired racer has been announced.

http://www.80soverdrive.com/

Judging by the screenshots, this one also shows some promise. I look forward to hearing more about it.

http://www.80soverdrive.com/img/console_screen02.jpg

[Tanooki]

Looks interesting but not likely to see a real release, just a download.