TESTABUSTER

OUT RUN

Mastertronic/Sega and US Gold

Mastertronic are marketing the Sega cartridge conversion from this very popular coin-op hit, while US Gold deal with the popular micro versions. US Gold claimed well before Christmas that Out Run was selling like hot cakes long before any reviews were written, for the copies were in the shops to meet the Christmas sales period before review copies were despatched. Was it worth the purchase? The main section of this review deals with the official Sega version.

Aren't you a lucky chap; a nice sunny afternoon, at the wheel of a Ferrari Testarossa, girlfriend at your side, out for a pleasant drive. Well actually you are about to participate in possibly the most gruelling race of your life, as you Sit tensely at the starting line waiting for the chequered flag.

Hold on though, you forgot to switch on the radio and there are three in-game tunes to choose from. Magical Sound Shower, Passing Breeze and Splash Wave. Having selected music to drive by, you are presented with a view of your car at the Starting point - the chequered flag drops, and you are off. Control is simple, pressing up on the direction button puts you in low gear, pressing down selects high gear, button one is the brake, button two the accelerator, and pressing left or right on the direction button steers the car.

As the race starts, it is wise to select low gear until you have gained sufficient speed to warrant the change to high (usually at around 170kph). There are five landscapes to be raced through, each with its own check point. An 80-second time limit is allowed to reach the first, 65 seconds for the next and so on, decreasing as you go along; however, crossing a check point within the time limit adds those remaining precious seconds to the next stage's time allowance. Failing to reach the end of a route within the limit means disqualification and an end to the game.

At various points along the track, forks in the road appear. These allow you to choose which of the goal lines you wish to pursue, and there are five in all: the Vinyard, Death Valley, Desolation Hill, Autobahn and Lakeside. But whichever path you choose to reach your goal, there are plenty of people on the road trying to stop you. so good luck, you will probably need it.

Of all the versions, the Sega cartridge comes closest to the original coin-op in appearance, feel and addictive qualities, but nonetheless, it does suffer in comparison. The home micro versions have all had to make their own compromises with memory size.

SEGA

Two-Mega Cartridge:

£24.95

Out Run is instantly very playable, with good sound - although the three tunes do rather resemble each other, they do add a nice atmosphere. The graphics, however, are a let down; the backgrounds are well drawn, but on the racetrack things are not all good. Passing rival cars often causes them to judder violently or disappear totally, and the same fate occasionally afflicts your own car when spinning or flipping in an accident. Equally, the overhead gantries fail to work and appear to jerk forwards and backwards rather than pass overhead as they should. But despite the tacky graphics it's not all that bad.

OVERALL 72%

Rating

72

Reviewer

The Games Machine magazine

Region

UK

Scans

TGM-Magazine-Issue03?gallerypage=60

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