Retro|Spective 147: Virtua Racing

[Dogg Thang]

Played the Switch version of this last night and was able to control it. No idea why it wouldn't work the other night. Anyway, it's hard to know how to judge this because it feels like my memory of the game and yet I have no doubt they did a lot of polishing on it. Is it mostly frame rate? I don't know. But it's pretty gorgeous on the Switch. Funny that the look has stood the test of time and is actually really nice aside from the front end stuff - I hated all the AM2 front end stuff around that time. The tracks look lovely and really get across what everything is meant to be.

But the biggest surprise, and this is where I wonder if there have been changes made for the Switch version, is how it handles. I have quite a low tolerance for older racing games due to the handling. And even did back in the day (Ridge Racer really didn't work for me until we got to about Type4 because I found it twitchy and awkward). This handles like it was made today. It requires no adjustment and I just got to grips with it right away. It feels really good.

[JazzFunk]

What about the Shubibinman games? Did you pick up the new one for SNES released a coupla years back?

Shubby Binman, you say?! Sounds right up my bin-hold, will check it out!!!

I did used to love TRASHMAN on the Speccy back in the day, ironically.

[Leon Retro]

STUNT CAR RACER. Let's face it, that thing ran OK even on a C64, it could've been grrrrrrreeeeeat on MD!

I've also thought about how Stunt Car Racer could have been something special on the Mega Drive. As you say -- it even runs well on the C64, so the MD could have ran it similar to the Amiga or ST. Maybe sprucing up the presentaion for a console audience would have been a good idea.

I'm still gutted that Geoff Crammond was working on an Xbox version of Stunt Car Racer but it got scrapped when the publisher went out of business.

full of SEGA Arcade magic

SEGA were such a prominent part of '90s arcade gaming, so I have great memories of all their classic coin-ops, such as Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, Sega Rally, Manx TT, Scud Race, Crazy Taxi etc.... Such an exciting era to be a gamer.

[Team Andromeda]

I'm still gutted that Geoff Crammond was working on an Xbox version of Stunt Car Racer but it got scrapped when the publisher went out of business.
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Yeah that and the almost finished XBox version of F1 GP3.

[vanpeebles]

Shubby Binman, you say?! Sounds right up my bin-hold, will check it out!!!

I did used to love TRASHMAN on the Speccy back in the day, ironically.

Give me a zx81 and I’ll rule the world!

[CAPCOM]

Yeah that and the almost finished XBox version of F1 GP3.

Has there ever been a crowdfunding project to bring a new title to a platform? The last game he worked on was in 2002 with Grand Prix 4. I would think in this climate it would be a popular revival.

https://www.grandprixgames.org/read.php?4,1014449

[Team Andromeda]

Has there ever been a crowdfunding project to bring a new title to a platform? The last game he worked on was in 2002 with Grand Prix 4. I would think in this climate it would be a popular revival.

I don't like crowdfunding, but it's a shame that Geoff no longer works on games .

[Leon Retro]

I don't like crowdfunding, but it's a shame that Geoff no longer works on games .

I wonder how old Geoff is? I guess he's around 60? It would be great if he could make a new version of Stunt Car Racer for digital stores.



This is extremely impressive for a 2002 racer.