Turbo Outrun |
Copyright/Publisher: US Gold/Probe/Sega, Programmed By: Mark Kelly and Steve Crow,
Music By: Jeroen Tel,
Release Year: 1989, Genre: Racing Sports, Number Of Players: 1 or 2
Breaking Transamerican records with the loudest music, lousiest weather, and fastest cars!
The Ferrari F40 and the Porsche 959 are two of the world's fastest supercars,
both capable of 200mph plus. You own a beautiful red F40 and you know it's the
best car in the world; cruising around New York with your girlfriend in the
passenger seat is a great feeling.
But then some creep in a 959 mouths off about his car being the best, despite
having an engine with sewing machine hum rather than a Ferrari howl. You challenge
him to race across America, from New York to Los Angeles, Eash Coast to West. It's
strictly illegal and the cops are after you, but you're determined to show this
guy up.
Before you start the race you can choose between a manual gear change (hi/lo)
and automatic transmission. Then it's onto the streets of the Big Apple for a
tyre-screeching start. There's plenty of other traffic on the road, including
police cars which try and bump you off the road!
If the 959 somehow gets into the lead, press 'space' for turbo: the exhaust
flames and the car zooms forward faster than even the 'Overheat' gauge at the
bottom of the screen.
Each load is divided into four levels, each with its own time limit. When time
runs out you slowly come to a stop - game over. You have five continue plays however.
Complete a level with time to spare and it's added to your time limit for the next
level.
At the end of the level, time remaining is totalled up for a high score. Then
you can pop into the workshop to choose from hi-grip tyres (extra traction on snow
and grit), special turbo (faster acceleration), and hi-power engine (higher top speed).
All the extra speed will be needed if you haven't beaten the 959 - in a great
animated sequence he waves to your girlfriend at the checkpoint, and she gets
out to go for a ride with him!
The race to get her back takes you through deserts, forests (with logs to bounce
over), snowstorms, cities at night with oil on the road, and lots more besides.
16 levels make for one spectacular arcade game!
|
PHIL |
While Power Drift offers the ultimate in single-load arcade racing, Turbo has gone
for a multiload extravaganza that more than justifies itself with masses of variety
and high quality presentation.
The basic coin-op has so many good details, like the snowstorms, the aggressive
police cars and the burning oil that only a multi-load could hope to capture.
And as the great intro title indicates they've worked overtime (lots of it) to
cram each load with detail.
From the prancing horses and snappy flicking needles on the speedometer, to the
overwhelming speed of the graphics in Turbo mode, this is one classy product.
|
STU |
Mark Kelly and Steve Crow must now be counted true stars of the C64 scene. After
agreat conversion of Mr Heli, they've moved up to Turbo Outrun with deceptive ease.
Rather than just getting the gameplay right, they've gone after the whole look and
feel of the coin-op.
Never before has an arcade game's amazing presentation been so brilliantly
recreated. And the game itself is terrific. The nasty bends on the second load
really make you sweat, while the police cars towards the end of the game have
Ferrari engines to match your own and quickly turn an enjoyable bit of lawbreaking
into a nightmare chase.
All the race games we've seen so far have been good, if not excellent, but
Turbo stands out for its amazing ambition and achievement.
|
ROBIN |
Well, well, well - talk about squeezing a quart into a pint-pot and with no overflow
either!!! Being a sceptic of all things involving 3-D on the 64 I'm now facing
a double barrelled line-up of incredibly well done race games, namely Power Drift
and now Turbo Out Run.
The presentation in Turbo is first class wherever you look: static pictures, bonus
scenes, even the mal at the end of your game is brilliant. With some lengthy Maniacs
of Noise tunes to race to and some incredible samples this is the best presented
program I've seen all year. It's got all the trimmings that made the coin-op such
a fun game to play.
At last we have a decent horizon effect in a 64 race game and Probe have kept
the speed up all the way. There are also some excellent little touches like the
logs to jump over, oil, and barricades. On top of all this you get superb effects
like the parallax scrolling in the background and weather.
Undoubtedly the best C64 conversion of a Sega coin-op yet.
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