OutRun (C64)
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OutRun is a car race against time, converted from the 1986 Sega coin-op to the Commodore 64 8-bit home computer.
The C64 game still gets mixed reviews: It is fast, but also blocky, and the road has no forks; instead, you must select the entire course before playing.
Two versions exist:
- The European C64 version from U.S. Gold in late 1987 and their Kixx label in 1990, identifiable by the black-haired passenger. You select the course by positioning the tape (on the tape version), pressing a key (on the disk version), or be stuck with one course (on some pirated versions). To play another course, you must reboot the computer (and lose all high scores).
- The American C64 version from Mindscape around 1988. Chris Oberth and Lou Haehn added a graphical course menu, where you return to after every race. They also added an attract mode, a pause key, and turned your girlfriend blond again.
Contents
Screenshots
Music
Before every race, you can choose between C64 arrangements of Splash Wave, Magical Sound Shower, and "radio off". Sound effects are always on and temporarily mute percussion and chords. The 1987 releases included an additional audio cassette with recordings of the original arcade soundtrack (Passing Breeze, Splash Wave and Magical Sound Shower), so you could play with sound effects on your C64 and arcade music on your hi-fi.
The C64 audio was contracted to Jason Brooke, and at almost 5 KB, it's his biggest and most remixed C64 work. He mentioned that the company sent him an audio cassette of OutRun (ARC) running in a real arcade. His approach was likely just as usual: listen to the tape, type the heard notes on an Einstein computer, audition the typed notes on the Einstein's primitive AY-3-8910 sound chip, then upgrade all sounds for the SID chip, and audition everything on a C64 nearby.
Brooke arranged Passing Breeze later for 16-bit computers. Why it wasn't done for 8-bit is unknown, especially since both C64 versions still have 3–4 KB RAM free.
For the American version, someone changed five of Brooke's twelve sound effects and added a constant engine sound (outside Brooke's driver) when in-game music is off.
Recording
All songs were recorded from:
- the European version on a real C64C PAL with an 8580 R5 4091.
- the American version in VICE 3.6.1 with C64 NTSC. Old NTSC is considered too similar.
| # | Title | Composer | Arranger | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 101 | Splash Wave | Hiroshi Kawaguchi | Jason Brooke | 4:02 | Download | |
| 102 | Magical Sound Shower | Hiroshi Kawaguchi | Jason Brooke | 3:21 | Download |
| # | Title | Composer | Arranger | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 201 | Splash Wave | Hiroshi Kawaguchi | Jason Brooke | 4:03 | Download | |
| 202 | Magical Sound Shower | Hiroshi Kawaguchi | Jason Brooke | 3:22 | Download |
(Sources: Splash Wave, Magical Sound Shower.)
Credits
- Ripper: High Voltage SID Collection
- Recorder: Professor Chaos
- Game Credits:
- Music and FX By: Jason Brooke credited as Jas.Brooke
- Music & f/x by: Jason Brooke credited as Jas. Brooke
- Not Credited Composer: Hiroshi Kawaguchi
- Not Credited Foley Artist (American): Unknown
- Not Credited Programmer: Jason Brooke
(Sources: European music menu, second American loading page. Source for composer: OutRun (ARC). Source for programmer: code recognition.)
Game Rip
Audio Devices
This game uses the computer's built-in SID chip and sounds the same on every one of them.
On PAL C64s, Brooke's music driver was always tuned at 424 Hz. On NTSC C64s, everything is automatically 4% higher (resulting in standard 440 Hz) and would be 19% faster (22% on old NTSC), but Mindscape avoided that by programming a fitting slowdown.
Releases
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Links
- mobygames.com/game/c64/outrun - MobyGames.
- gamefaqs.gamespot.com/c64/577942-outrun - GameFAQs.
| OutRun | |
| OutRun |  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  • 
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| OutRun 3-D |
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| Turbo OutRun | • • • • •  • • •
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| Battle OutRun |
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| OutRun Europa | • • • • • •
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| OutRun 2019 |
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| OutRunners | •
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| OutRun 2 | • 
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| SEGA AGES 2500 Vol.13: OutRun | 
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| OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast | •  •  •
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| OutRun Online Arcade |  • 
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| Notable Songs | Magical Sound Shower • Passing Breeze • Splash Wave • Last Wave |
| Notable Personnel | Hiroshi Kawaguchi |
| Notable Companies | Sega |
