MSR Alpha Video at Dreamcast Junkyard

Footage from the 4.11.99 build

http://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2015/11/msr-alpha-gameplay-footage.html

Metropolis Street Racer at Digital Urban

http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2006/08/metropolis-street-racer-cities-in.html (Link updated 2023)

MSR Soundtrack: Pseudo Artists

We all know the man responsible for the music is Richard Jacques, however for each track the radio DJs quote the names of a pseudo-artist.  Here is the complete list:

Am I Only Dreaming
Undulator feat Kym Rogers

California Demon     
Zeffer

Club Paris             
Earthburn

Come On Baby                     
Otis Cook

Don't Wait                             
Fay Douglas

Fallen Angel     
Slipstream

Freeway     
Chakka

Heartlands                            
New Dawn

Holding On     
Sugar Cream

I Can Still Believe     
Helena Davidson

It Doesn't Really Matter     
Chantelle

Let's Get It On Tonight     
MC Momo

Live Your Life                         
Salford Quays

Long Long Road                     
Kurt Austin

Low Lights     
Clarence Mitchell Quartet

Outside In  
Defunct

Overdrive             
Dominator

Passion     
Infinity

Push             
Atomhead

Red Line            
Tomahawk

Show Me Your Love               
Capricorn

Sold Out                     
Elevation

State Of Mind     
Intuition

Think About It    
Black & White

Time             
Shanice Williams

When She Comes Back         
The Jacque Richards Band

You Can Love Me             
Gabriel Nelson

MSR Japanese Version (Test Pressing)

This has just come to light courtesy of the Dreamcast Junkyard.  I doubt there's anything different in this version (like replays or corrected kudos) but it nice to see it was at least pressed.

West Design Promotion

This was a set design for a Metropolis Street Racer promotional event.  It  was arranged by a company called West Design and Production who are no longer trading.  It seems Sega Europe also used this same company to design sets for Dreamcast promotional events. 

Archive website link: https://web.archive.org/web/20171222123417/http://west-design.co.uk/sega/msr.html

MSR at Birmingham International Motor Show October 2000

A promotion attempt by Sega

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Motor+show+2000-+The+Top+10+attractions+at+the+NEC.-a066100110

Press Release

MSR goes to Motor Show
Tue 10 Oct 2000

Sega is unveiling the fantastic Metropolis Street Racer at the Birmingham Motor Show. The Dreamcast stand also features Ferrari F355 Challenge, POD 2 and Speed Devils. Visitors to the show, which runs from October 18-29 [2000], will be able to test drive MSR's range of fabulous marques including the Nissan Skyline, Toyota Supra and Mitsubishi Lancer. The Dreamcast games are located at Stand 1100. The show opens daily between 9.30am and 7pm (closes 5.30pm on October 29 2000).

Final Overtake Challenge (Chapter 24, Stage 5)

A video I made back in 2011.  Notable as it's one of the few challenges where Kudos exploits do not work due to the minimum number of cars (6) and the strict 3 minute time limit.  Add in an extra car to squeeze past and only those who drive well can succeed;  you can see I only just made it!

Cars Overtaken: 7

Course: San Francisco - Long - Fisherman's Wharf - Jefferson West IV

Car: Nissan Skyline GTR (Manual Gears/ABS Off)

Weather: Misty

Refresh Rate: 60hz

Rosco TV: MSR Cover Photoshoot

The story behind the cover photos.

http://rosco.tv/Metropolis-Street-Racer

On a sidenote, I think I've found out who was driving the Vauxhall VX220 in the opening sequence.  Let's just say he went on to bigger and better things and found success in movie special effects!

MSR Developer Diaries

NB. The older of the Diaries refer to the time when the game was called Crimson......

[18.11.2000]
Well, the project was finally mastered, passed Sega approval, and sent off to manufacture, and so we all slept for a week.
Then when more bugs got reported, we mastered it again a couple of times, and then slept again. And, considering the hours of sleep we lost at the end of the project, we really should sleep some more!

Then it was holiday time. And that's where it's at now, really - people are either still asleep, or on holiday! Or recovering from getting married. Or counting their bruises from the drinking sessions. MSR is finally out there, on the shelves (albeit with a few early hiccups). The US version is also finished, and the Japanese one well underway too....

We enjoyed making it (well, some of the time!) and we hope that you'll enjoy playing it too!

The MSR team

[29.1.1999]
Well, an update! What an extraordinary move! Yes, it's been a while, but we have had Christmas in the middle...

So what's been happening on Metropolis then? It's actually beginning to come together nicely.......and it really is starting to feel like a game, rather than a pre-alpha. For those who aren't all that au fait with gaming technology, a pre-alpha is like a very very early version of a game, showing an idea of where it's going, but far off the real thing.

We've been hard at work on all aspects of the game, and I suppose it's a good idea to give a quick run-down of what's been going on, continuing, of course, with the Sega policy of not giving any details at all for now! (Sorry, guys!!)

Artwork - the final research is rolling in, and Brian (the Producer) has been off on a little visit to get some more information for one of the artists. There's now so much in the way of research materials that the artists are working hidden away behind piles of boxes! Lee, who has been doing a lot of the texture work, is going to start to learn the complexities of SoftImage, the 3D modelling package we're using for Metropolis, so watch out for him losing even more of his hair than before!

Programming - there's been a little shuffling of tasks to make sure that we can get it all done in time. It's getting to look more and more of a game, with little gameplay touches being added every day, and special effects going in too. The front end isn't properly attached yet, which means it has problems going to the toilet!

Last week was the week of the big telly. We have to demo the game to some Sega VIPs next week, and showing it on a little 15" monitor or a 14" portable TV wasn't really showing it at its full potential. So we went out and got a HUGE 29" TV, which really makes it look cool! Matt (the Lead Coder) has it weighing down his desk and giving him eyestrain at the moment!

And now, the serious news from the Metropolis office - the mystery of 'THE FERTILITY CHAIR'!!!

It all started about 9 months ago, when one of the Senior Artists on the team announced that he was expecting a baby. (OK, his girlfriend was, we're not miracle workers!) This was quickly followed by one of the Programmers. Shortly after, someone from the Furballs team announced the same thing..... ahh, we thought, it's not just the Metropolis team! But now there's another Senior Artist who's expecting and we've worked it out!

It's the Fertility chair! Somewhere in the Metropolis office is a chair which is causing this. Sit too long on the chair and you'll be next in line! The programmer from Furballs had obviously gone in to get some advice from the Metropolis programmers and sat too long on that very chair! So now the sweepstake is on - who is going to be next? Watch this space..........

Interesting fact: Our spies inform us that No Cliche have had the same effect on their Dreamcast team. Could they have a fertility chair there too? Perhaps there is more to this mystery, involving prolonged exposure to Dreamcast Development kits? Only time will tell.......!!!

More news on the chair and other totally irrelevant wafflings next week...................

[4.12.1998]
Well, it's been a while, I know, but we're at one of those 'middle' stages of development where everything is busy busy behind the scenes, but no real exciting breakthroughs get made. The last couple of weeks have been really hectic, getting a demo ready for a Sega internal meeting. It's always difficult to put demos together when the game is in 'mid-flow' as some things aren't ready, and the programmers often need to hack temporary code in to make things work for the demo. However, it all came together well, and we hope Sega will be pleased with it.

A cool event since the last update was the Argonaut 'Red Dog' Team came up to play (!) a couple of weeks ago. It was really good to swap notes with another 1.5 party developer - it looks like Argonaut go about development the same way as us! The Artists all compared how things were being done, and the changes you have to make when working for a new and unknown platform. Evidently, we'd both had to explore similar avenues in the early stages.... which is reassuring to know! The Programmers got to swap Dreamcast coding tips, which was useful too.

After a useful day, we headed off to the local Est!Est!Est! Italian Restaurant, which provided the usual fantastic food. The Bizarre guys all settled down to the task of getting Jez and the guys as drunk as we could!!! This involved huge amounts of Italian wine and Grappa, an Italian liqueur, which is probably the best thing ever to give you a stonking hangover next day. Of course, we all talked about serious Dreamcast development issues all evening, honest!

When the restaurant finally got round to scraping us off the tables, we headed off to the Codemaster's 'Music' Launch Party in Liverpool city centre. The guys at Jester Interactive (the ones who came up with the idea and developed the game) were brilliant, and gave us VIP entry tickets for us and the Argonaut troop! The party had some brilliant DJ's, firedancers on 6 foot stilts (actually dancing!!), and free beer - always a popular addition!

The party was a real success, we all had fun playing 'Music' (give it a go, you'll love it!), drinking beer, dancing and saying hi to loads of game developers from the NW UK. Honourable drunken mentions go to Studio 33 (still standing but not quite coherent!), 'Game' Liverpool (definitely wobbling, and very late for work next day!), Philip Morris (a beer and a big grin), Curly Monsters (far too sober when we saw them!), Jenny??? (Martyn's only Wiz 'n' Liz fan!!!), and of course Codemasters and Jester Interactive (whose musician had to leave to stop his house exploding due to a gas leak!)

Happily for some, I'm not going to mention anything about plans for strip clubs, Walter's Pec's, or anyone getting really drunk (as we all went to bed with a cup of cocoa at 10pm, following the shining example that Nick always sets). OK?

Well, sorry it's not been the most informative of update regarding the game, but as we're still only mid-development, there is nothing really exciting to report. The cities are gradually getting modelled (a long and detailed process!), the game's gradually being coded, and when there's more concrete progress that we can talk about in detail, we'll let you know!

[18.9.1998]
Well, it's now post ECTS, with the standard aching legs and free t-shirts, but the pressure's still on!!

ECTS was cool as usual, and it was really great to see glimpses of the other Dreamcast titles, and a longer look at Sonic Adventure. The quality of all the titles was high, and it really looks like Sega are going to have an awesome line-up at both Japanese and European launch. We've many months of development left on our game, but there's obviously still lots to do before European launch! Looking at the near-finished Japanese titles is certainly an inspiration!

We have an internal demo deadline looming now, which should get us to a set stage in development by the 29th of this month. ECTS provided a brief respite for the team, but it's back to work in earnest now. For example, we're starting to get engine optimisations in place to take advantage of the later development kits, and to get some of the early 'driving' effects in.

The artists are all concentrating on a set goal, which is hard to describe without giving too much of the game away (I hear you say 'darn it'!) The texturing is proving to be the most time-consuming task for all the artists, as we're trying to get a high level of detail in both modelling and texturing terms.

So it's busy, busy, busy for now!

[21.8.1998]
Time for another update, I suppose!

Things have been building up pace in the last month or so, especially on the art side of things. Some of the Artists have been out of the office on research trips for the game, and there's plenty of research material cluttering up the Metropolis end of the office. We're having to get another 4 bookcases, just to cope with this batch of materials!!

On the programming side, the editor is nearly sorted, and the artists are using it to get the initial layouts in place. It's difficult at this stage, because you're developing the editors alongside the layouts themselves, and also alongside the need to have something playable for the gameplay side of things. It's an iterative process (big word for a Friday, I know) - everyone starts with something basic, and then you all build on it in stages, until you achieve the desired result.

As an aside, there's a nice little development community building up around Dreamcast over here in Europe already. The 1.5 party developers have been joined (in a development sense) by other key developers from around Europe. These newer developers are just finding their feet, and we're realising we can help them out, having gone through this stage ourselves. We met up a couple of weeks ago with another UK development team, who were just getting going on the kits (sorry, no names, but hello to them, they know who they are ;-) It's great to see loads of developers over here getting involved, and we wish them all well with their ideas.

[31.7.1998]
OK, here's the REAL update! Things are progressing fine, if a little slower on the artwork side - as there are 2 artists currently off somewhere secret on a research trip. We have a new texture artist starting on Monday to help all of the 3D artists out - but he's from the N-E of England, so we have to use a translator!

The programming is coming along well too, with the next revision of the 3D engine being started on now. 3D engines are always an iterative process - you do a bit, then do some more, then scrap some and re-do it, then add some more, then revise that, etc. etc.....

A bit of a worry this week has been the rabbits. We have had an outbreak of rabbits in a Metropolis city, which has caused many problems...... A programmer who shall remain nameless found an old cartoony animation of a rabbit and inserted loads of the little buggers into the city. It looked totally hilarious, especially when the cute little animals hopped bouncily up to and tried to jump off an overhanging bridge!!!

[5.6.1998]
An Introduction to Sega

Yippee! We can finally talk about Metropolis! It's been so difficult keeping this project secret, along with the fact that we've been Dreamcast developers for a long time now! We thought the game was up about a week or so before the Press Conference in Japan, when Game-Online said that they knew about a project codenamed 'Crimson' in development. Luckily, a hasty name change seemed to cover that one up, and we managed to keep the game quiet until the conference, which was Sega Europe's aim!

And from now we can be a little more open in the Diaries, and chart the progress of the project on the new platform, rather than avoiding the issue! Perhaps some of the earlier diaries make a little more sense now, especially when you know Sega is the publisher too!

In this diary, I want to bring you up to date with the cool we're working with (I'll leave the more nitty gritty project details for the next update). So now let me introduce you all to a few people from Sega, who have been mentioned under codenames in previous diaries:

Kats 'Kylie' Sato: Kats is our Senior Producer, who looks after us, works with us on game design issues, and doesn't make the tea - but we're working on that! You may have heard his name before from his work on Sonic R (Producer), Clockwork Knight (Character and game Designer) and if you're really old (!), Outrunners (Artist). Kats is Japanese, as you might have guessed, and used to work in Sega AM and CS departments, before being sent to Europe to persecute European developers. Our current quest with Kats is to teach him the English art of sarcasm!

Jose 'Josephine' Aller: Jose is also working on the project, as our Assistant Producer. Jose has worked at Sega Europe since the distant days of the Megadrive (Genesis for our American cousins) in the 3rd Party support group. And now - perhaps as a punishment for some hideous crime? - he has been paired up with Kats to work in Development on our Metropolis Project. Jose is a very good Producer, mainly down to the fact that he's ACTUALLY MADE THE TEA - hint, hint, Kats! Our current quest with Jose is to find out his 2 very secret middle names which he won't tell us!

Mark Maslowicz: Mark is the cool dude who now manages Third Party Licensing and Acquisitions. He generally looks after us little developers, and is probably the first port of call for any developers interested in Dreamcast development. Mark carries some interesting photos in his wallet (scanner at the ready!), and has been known to use one of them as an excellent chat-up line - 'Would you like to see my Ferrari?'

'Hoshy' Hoshino: Mr Hoshino has recently moved over from Japan to head up the Third Party division of Sega Europe, and deals mainly with business issues. He's been helping the Bizarre bunch out in many ways, including teaching us some useful Japanese phrases, and introducing us to Grappa, an Italian liqueur, which is well recommended if you want an excellent hangover!

Colin Carter: Colin is in charge of European Technical Support department in London, and therefore speaks many languages - C, C++, binary..... Although the story of Colin's karaoke rendition of 'Anarchy in the UK' has reached the far corners of the development community, Colin has another deep dark secret which we won't mention. Honest. Nope, not at all.

There are, of course, many other people we have been working with in both Sega Europe and Japan, but those mentioned are the people who have to put up with us on a day-to-day basis. We'd like to say a big hello and thank you to them all!

Metropolis itself is progressing well - the progress report on the project will follow in the next update.

[24.4.1998]
This occurred as someone found out that a game called Crimson was in development for Dreamcast. It was important that we kept our Dreamcast involvement secret until the press conference in Japan, hence the swift denials and hurried name change!

[4.4.1998]
Well, the demo is finished and done and sent off! It seems to be well received, which is alright with us!

We've learnt quite a bit in doing the demo. It was a great testing ground for the tools, and also the methods the artists are using for modelling. The artists are planning how to take the next stage further, and doing some test pieces to see if the current theories are correct.

Playability is such a major part of any game, and the planning of the playing environment is the latest issue we're working on. It's difficult to describe without actually explaining the game, so I'm afraid you'll have to bear with us on this one for the time being.

However, our new Publishers have provided us with some brilliant people to support the development, so they've been helping out where-ever they can. Hello to them - they know who they are!!!

Still don't know when the game is going to be announced, especially as its so early on in development. All the PR and marketing for a new game always has to be carefully planned and scheduled, so you have to keep things under wraps until it's all ready to go. But you can be sure we'll let you know what it is as soon as we can!

[6.3.1998]
Working towards another demo, which is designed to show us how well all our tools and methods are working for constructing the game. No 'day-by-day' account, I'm afraid, as the webmaster was on holiday and therefore not there to witness the progress in person!

The last demo done was playable, but still had the test engine and no AI at all. This is the first time that the beginnings of the real engine, and early AI are actually in the game, so it will be interesting to see how it all fits together.

The artists are working on bringing together the modular work they have been doing, and seeing how well it all works, especially with the editor.

So tune in next week for a blow-by-blow account of how it's gone!!

[13.2.1998]
It's a busy time for the Crimson team, with an internal demo deadline at the end of the month. And so, with the law of sod, this week has been as hectic as they come.

Monday: Some Austrian Journalists and Competition winners come to play. Matt scares them, and the Artists show them the F1 tracks and stuff. People have trouble remembering how F1 and F1 '97 were made! Well, it was months and months ago! Big respect due from all of us to the guy from Red Bull who visited. He doesn't realise how his product kept everyone going through the long nights putting the games together! We swap him a huge F1 '97 Jean Alesi for some Red Bull - sounds like a good deal!

Tuesday: The Crimson team invite their friends, Kylie and Josephine, over to play. Kylie beats her high score at Nemesis. Pizza for lunch - Steve from Psygnosis offers us all eating lessons.

Wednesday: Dave sulks all day as Nemesis - his favourite - has been replaced in the office arcade machine by Robocop. Everyone else tries to get top of the Robocop league.

Thursday: Not even the new machines arriving could stop the despondency felt by the team when a friend of theirs didn't come over. Boo Hoo! Keef was so upset, he went to Paris for the week-end.

Friday: A big meeting to check the progress of the project. All seems to go smoothly - the programmers didn't need the straight jackets much. Everyone's happy with progress, and so celebrations are in order! We all go to the bowling alley after work for a few shandies, to take over the pool tables, and to try and beat the high score on 'House of the Dead'!

Happy 15th Anniversary MSR

Here's a short article from Eurogamer Spain.  Nice to see someone else remembers the day! :)

http://www.eurogamer.es/articles/metropolis-street-racer-articulo-15-aniversario

And here's a review from a US game show called Xtended Play.

MSR Early Videos (earliest video first - descending order)

The earliest ones.  2 identical videos dating from late 1998-early 1999.  One was from the old Game Fan website and the other refers to the game under its earlier name, Project Metropolis.

A little later into 1999 now with an interview spot on French TV.  The show was called Game Play.

This is from the same time frame as the previous video.  A spot on a Spanish show called DOF6. A bit more footage from within Bizarre Creation's studios.

Late '99 now and the original head coder has left Bizarre Creations at this point.  The game begins to resemble the final version, although the "gang mode" car colours are still present.

MSR Game Credits

Design, Coding and Artwork
Bizarre Creations

Music, Sales, Marketing and PR
Sega Europe

Bizarre Staff Programming

Design, Structure and Frontend
Martyn CHUDLEY

Technical Coding
Roger PERKINS

Engine and Dynamics Coding
Walter LYNSDALE

Tools and Effects Coding
Phil SNAPE

AI Coding
Dave ALDAINI

Sound Coding
Jonathan AMOR

Additional Coding
Keith PICKFORD

Bizarre Staff Artwork

Shibuya and Shinjuku Modelling
Jon DUGDALE

Financial District and Pacific Heights Modelling
Mark SHARRATT

Trafalgar and Westminster Modelling
Julie MCGURREN

St James's and Westminster Modelling
Derek CHAPMAN

Frontend Artwork & City Textures
Gren ATHERTON

Asakusa Modelling
Paul SPENCER

Car & City Textures
Lee CARTER

Fishermans Modelling
Glen GRIFFITHS

Car Modelling
Steve HEANEY

Production

Senior Producer
Brian WOODHOUSE

Associate Producer
Pete WALLACE

Quality Assurance

QA Manager
Ged TALBOT

Quality Assurance
Glyn WILLIAMS
Kev REILLY

Bizarre Biz

Managing Director
Martyn CHUDLEY

Business Director
Sarah DIXON

Technical Director
Walter LYNSDALE

Business Manager
Michelle LANGTON

Sega Staff

Executive Producer
Kats SATO

Associate Producer
Jose ALLER

Lead Tester
Pete O'BRIEN

Music and Sound Effects
Richard JACQUES

Thanks for Playing
Metropolis Street Racer

Bizarre Creations Staff

Programming

Design, Structure and Frontend
Martyn Chudley

Technical Coding
Roger Perkins

Engine and Dynamics Coding
Walter Lynsdale

Tools, Effects, Additional Frontend Coding
Phil Snape

AI Coding
Dave AI-Daini

Sound Coding
Jonathan Amor

Additional Coding
Keith Pickford

2D/3D Artwork

Shibuya Modelling, Shinjuku Modelling,
Additional Asakusa Modelling,
Additional Car Modelling, City Textures
Jon Dugdale

Financial District Modelling, Pacific Heights Modelling,
Additional Fishermans Modelling,
Additional Car Modelling, City Textures
Mark Sharratt

Trafalgar Modelling, Westminster Modelling,
Additional Car Modelling, City Textures
Julie McGurren

St. James Modelling, Westminster Modelling,
Additional Car Modelling, City Textures
Derek Chapman

Asakusa Modelling,
Additional Car Modelling, City Textures
Paul Spencer

Fishermans Wharf Modelling,
Additional Car Modelling, City Textures
Glen Griffiths

Car Modelling
Steve Heaney

2D Artwork

Frontend Artwork, City Textures
Gren Atherton

Car Textures, City Textures
Lee Carter

Production

Senior Producer
Brian Woodhouse

Associate Producer
Pete Wallace

Public Relations
Sarah Dixon

Office Management
Michelle Langton

Quality Assurance

QA Manager
Ged Talbot

Production Support & QA
Glyn Williams

Quality Assurance
Kev Reilly

Research

San Francisco Researcher
Alison Marr

Tokyo Researcher
Taiko Higuchi

Cars and General Researcher
Michael Woodhouse

Liverpool Quality Assurance
Scott Denton, Paul Reevell, Richard Ryves,
Graham Buxton, Andy Yasities, Christopher Pickford,
Emma Pye, James Taylor, Richard Duggan, James Harrison,
David McCluskey, Joseph Murray, Ian Wilding, Simon Reevell

Sega Europe, Ltd.

Product Department

Director of Product Development
Naohiko Hoshino

Executive Producer
Kats Sato

Associate Producer
Jose Aller

Sound Producer
Richard Jacques

Test Manager
Jason Cumberbatch

Lead Tester
Pete O'Brien

Associate Lead Testers
Dan Stater, Nick Bennet, Mark Dearsley, Wayne Gardner

Technical Support Manager
Serge Plagnol

Hardware Engineer
Tamer Tahsin

Support Engineer
Sandeep Bisla

Spanish Translator
Roberto Párraga-Sánchez

German Translator
Angelika Michitsch

French Translator
Caroline Ruiz

Producer (Japan)
Katsuhiro Hasegawa

Producer (USA)
Howard Gipson

Marketing Support

Euro Product Marketing Manager
Jim Pride

Euro Product Marketing Executive
Mathew Quaeck

UK
Tunde Orelaja

France
Cedric Marechal, Benoit Bohet

Germany
Kim Shon, Tina Sakowsky

Spain
Begona Sanz, Esther Barral

Manual & Packaging

Senior Designer
Ross McLeish

Localisation/Design Co-Ordinator
Sarah Ward

Network Support & Marketing

Director - Network
Keizo Fukahori

European Promotions Manager
Neil Russell

European Promotions Executive
Rosle Newey

Online Game Server Engineer
Colin Carter

Online Editor
Steve Bradley

Operations & Manufacture

European Operations Director
Naoya Turumi

Product Planning Manager
Hitoshi Okuno

Sega Europe Management

Chief Executive Officer
Jean-François Cecillion

Chief Operating Officer
Kazutoshi Miyake

Music and Sound

Music and lyrics by Richard Jacques

Featured Artists

Vocals
Jason R. Campbell, Helana Davison, Gavin Skeggs,
Stephen Stapley, MC Stepz

Electric and Acoustic Guitars
Stuart Lee

Additional Guitars
Richard Jacques

Bass
Matthew Lee

Acoustic Piano, Percussion, Programming
Richard Jacques

Trumpet and Flugel
Gerard Presencer

Saxophones
Nigel Hitchcock

Trombone
Mark Nightingale

Horn section arranged by Mark Nightingale
and Richard Jacques

Horns recorded by Matt Howe and Neil Tucker
at Metropolis studios

All tracks engineered, mixed and produced
by Richard Jacques at Sega Digital Studio (Europe)

Voice Artists

Noriko Alda, Sophia Ashen, Tim Bentinck, Andrew Burt,
Elizabeth Conboy, Ben Fairman, Elly Fairman,
Stefan Ashton Frank, Steve Hope Wynne, Togo Igawa,
Naoko Mori, Larissa Murray, Akemi Otani, John Schwab,
Laura Shavin, Hiroyuki Tachimoto

Voice Overs recorded by Jonathan Cook at Hobsons

Sample CD's used in this soundtrack include
Miroslav Vitious Orchestra (Unisync)
Peter Siedlaczek's Advance Orchestra (Best Service)
Masterkit (Real Drum Company)
Datafile 3 (Zero G)

Intro Movie
Mathew Quaeck, Matthew Ashton

Special Thanks to:

Sam Hall, Dominic Evans (Ford), Paul Delderfield,
Peter Lait, Jyate Bacon, Jim Twigg, Thomas Szirtes,
David Nulty, Charlie Thomas, Yukifumi Makino, Orelaja,
Helen Ttofa, Atsuya Sato, Sam Toms, Mimi Morozumi,
Keith Anderson

All at MIRA, all at Jensen Motors, Richard Leadbetter,
Ron Dixon, Keith Stuart, Ed Lomas, Shigeru Okada,
Helen Ttofa, Teruo Yabumoto, Hitoshi Okuno,
Takuya Matsumoto

Alfa, Audi, Fiat, Ford, Jensen, Mazda, Mercedes,
Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Renault, Rover,
Toyota, TVR, Vauxhall

All manufacturers, cars, names, brands and associated
imagery featured in this game are trademarks and/or
copyrighted materials of their respective owners.
All rights reserved. Although the game features
the trademarks and the designs of the cars actually
produced and/or distributed by Toyota, Nissan,
Mitsubishi, Mazda in Japan, the trademarks and
the designs of the cars that appear in the game is
as those cars are produced and/or distributed in Japan.

Merci à Automobiles Peugeot pour son aimable collaboration.

Merci à Renault pour son aimable collaboration.

TGI Friday's is a trademark of TGI Friday's of Minnesota, Inc.

Produced under the authority of The Coca-Cola Company,
owner of the trademarks 'COKE' and 'COCA-COLA'.

(c) Bizarre Creations Ltd. 2000 All Rights Reserved.

(c) Sega Enterprises Ltd. 2000 All Rights Reserved.

Developed by Bizarre Creations Ltd.

PRESS RELEASE - 22/03/1999 (Metropolis)

Bizarre Creations and Sega are proud to release the very first, early screenshots of their Dreamcast title, codenamed Metropolis.

Even though the game is still midway through development, we feel that the time is now right to show people something of Metropolis. Therefore, we are proud to release these five early screenshots, taken from the pre-Alpha version of the game.

The game is currently known under the working title of Metropolis. It is a city-based racing game, which has been in development for just over a year. Metropolis was commissioned by Sega to figure exclusively as a key title for the European Launch of Dreamcast.

As a specially created title for the console, the game has been designed to show off the impressive features of the Dreamcast. It should appeal to a broad audience – providing arcade thrills for the hardcore gamer and a more complex, progressive mode for the in-depth player.

As you can see from these early shots, the environments and cars are highly detailed. Both are still far from completion, and there are also many visual effects that still have to be implemented. However, we feel that the shots – taken in-game from the TV camera perspective – should give you a representative idea of the style of the game.

Metropolis is anticipated to be a world-wide release, with European release planned for the Dreamcast’s launch in this territory. No schedules are available for American and Japanese release as yet. More game details will be released at Metropolis’s press unveiling, later this year.

Link: https://web.archive.org/web/19991005015306/http://www.bizarrecreations.com/metpr2.htm

Sega Europe Statement Regarding Bugged Retail Version (PAL)

**THE FOLLOWING WAS ADDED TO BIZARRE CREATIONS'S OLD WEBSITE ON 8 DECEMBER 2000**

Sega Europe have just released an official statement on MSR. This includes information for those who have found problems in the first retail version of the game, on how to go about getting a replacement disk. The statement is below:

Official Sega Europe Statement: 

The development of MSR has been an astonishing accomplishment and has since set new standards within the gaming industry - pure driving games will never be the same again. Thousands of calls have been received since launch, complementing on the sheer size and precision of the sound, visuals and game play, though undoubtedly, a game of this calibre will experience some difficulties. It has come to the attention of Sega that the first version of MSR, currently in retail, has shown some irregular, minor problems which may affect game play. Since discovering this issue, we have all have worked extremely hard to produce an updated version of the game for you, eliminating these problems.

Should you discover anything unusual then do not hesitate to call the Sega Customer Services number 08456 090 090 [NOW DEFUNCT], where helpful Sega staff will be on hand to process your details and replace your troubled disk. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope you enjoy the game everyone is talking about - Metropolis Street Racer.

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We, at Bizarre Creations, are also happy that those people who have experienced problems will have them solved by Sega's Customer Services, and are sure that they will be able to answer all your queries. We're sorry that we've not been able to put any more information up here on the website, or give out more by e-mail, but Sega have needed to focus customer support and the solution to the problems at their HQ.

Now there that the disk replacement operation is in place, Sega have assured us that they will be doing their utmost to help all of their customers as soon as possible - as a games publisher, they are already set up to provide swift and effective support for their products. And, of course, we hope you continue to enjoy the game.

Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20021025022207/http://www.bizarrecreations.com/msr2.html

Honda NSX In Early Version

Bizzare Creations statement explaining why Hondas were excluded:

....As you know, some car manufacturers imposed restrictions on the game - such as no pedestrians, no proper traffic, no one-way/no entry signs, the car not allowed to leave the ground, etc.   Sega were in discussion with Honda to include their cars in the game, but the additional restrictions they asked for would have compromised the game too much. Therefore it was with sadness that we had to remove all Honda cars from the game.

Original MSR Fan Sites

Here are two fans sites I've found from back in the day.  Both are now "offline" but can still be viewed via their archive links

MSR HIGH SPEED (UK fan site)

Contains a review, some nice pictures from the older versions of MSR and an unofficial Kudos ranking.

Link: http://www.geocities.ws/ibennetty9/msr/index2.html (WARNING: archived page now filed with bots and pop-ups!)

MSR FAN (French website)

This one is a bit more in-depth.  We have a review, comparisons with other games ie Gran Turismo 3 and Le Mans 24h, and some strategy guides for various chapters

Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20050208013401/http://msrfan.fr.fm/

The Car Winners (Updated 2023)

In order to promote Metropolis Street Racer, Sega Europe held a couple of competitions where you could win an actual Vauxhall VX220 (or Opel Speedster if you lived on the continent).  This first competition is the most well known:  Win Your Dream Car On Dreamarena!

Promotional leaflet found inside early PAL versions of MSR.

Article from Paragon Publishing Unofficial Dreamcast Magazine (UK) and archived press release from Sega Europe. 

This competition was basically a quiz where you answered a series of multi-choice questions in strict time limits.  Answer them correctly and you gained 'kilometers; you got even more kilometers if you answered correctly and quickly. There was also an 'all or nothing' option where you could stake your existing kilometers to gain even more.  This was very high risk but if you wanted to win, you had to gamble.  Here is the winner's story from the UK Official Dreamcast Magazine (issue 19 / May 2001):

I guess the Dreamarena phone charges would have been enough to cover the cost of this competition so that's probably why they did it.  Personally I think a competition where you win a car by actually playing MSR would have been more appropriate. And that's exactly what they did in France with the Micromania/Jeux Video Kudos Challenge.....

Micromania is a French game store and Jeux Video is a French gaming site.  Basically you had to race across set courses and rack up as many kudos as possible without using a joker.  Here are full rules if you are interested, however there was a change made at the finals.

Here are the results:

PRELIMINARY SELECTION: 08/01/2001 - 11/02/2001

Course: Street Race - Chapter 18 - Race 7 (Old Palace Yard North). 

Not sure what the best scores were but kudos scores of 4000+ were recorded.  Here are the results from the Toulouse branch (taken from French player PXD's website that's no longer online or archived).

     

1st) Player: PXD                       Kudos: 4214.20                Play date: Saturday 10 Feb 2001 

Prize: Dreamcast T-shirt and 2nd round qualification.

   

2nd) Player: CODONOPSYS     Kudos: 3782.40 (-431.8)  Play date: Sometime in Feb 2001   

Eliminated from competition.

SELECTION FOR THE FINAL: 24/02/2001 (1400 - 1600 pm)

Course: Street Race - Chapter 19 - Race 7 (Parliament Street South II).  The four best scores of these selections taking place in each Micromania will qualify for the Grand National Final. 

Top Score: 9458.40 Kudos!

Player: Oxxxxxxx         Kudos: 9458.40          Qualified for Final

Player: Fxxxxxxx Kudos: 9458.40         Qualified for Final

Player: Axxxxxxx Kudos: 9458.40         Qualified for Final

Player: Cxxxxxxx Kudos: 9286.20 (-172.2)         Qualified for Final

Player: PXD Kudos: 4141.00 (-5317.4) Eliminated from competition

Interesting that 3 players managed to get the same exact Kudos scores.  Perhaps the game maxes out at that level?  Considering the Kudos system is riddled with bugs, I'm wondering how these guys must have played?  I imagine a lot of sideways skidding and spinning in circles!  However with scores of 9000+ Kudos on a single course and with no joker allowed, that's definitely an achievement! 

GRAND NATIONAL FINAL: 17/03/2001

Course A: Street Race - Chapter 20 - Race 7 - Jefferson West IV - Target position 4 

Course B: Street Race - Chapter 20 - Race 8 - Nishi Shinjuku Restaurant - Target position 4

2023 update: I recently checked the May/June 2001 edition of the French Official Dreamcast Magazine (page 20) and saw their report on this competition.  It seems you had to get the best overall time on on the above courses using the Vauxhall VX220/Opel Speedster.  It's likely this change took place due to the Kudos bugs in early PAL versions (too many Kudos being awarded).  Here are the winning times. 

Course A Best Time: 7'15.764

Course B Best Time: 8'04.111

The Grand National Final took place at the Auto Passion Cafe in Paris.  Only 3 of the 4 best Kudos scorers (9458.40) competed.  The 2 runners up received a Dreamcast console and 5 games (wouldn't they have Dreamcasts already?!).  Here is a rough translation of the aforementioned report:

A contest was organized by Sega France with a chain of stores [Micromania] around the very good game Metropolis Street Racer on Dreamcast. During the first elimination phases, the objective was to achieve the highest number of Kudos on a circuit of the game: Street Race - Chapter 18 - Race 7 (Old Palace Yard North). To do this, you had to own a Dreamcast (with MSR), make a record by saving it to the VM (memory card) and then take it to one of the stores covering the operation. In a second round of eliminations, the top two players from each store went head-to-head. At the end of these confrontations, the 4 best scores (largest number of Kudos), all stores combined, were selected for the final taking place on Saturday March 17 [2001] in Paris.

2:30pm: start of the final. First observation, one of the 4 finalists is missing, too bad... especially when we know that the winner receives as a reward an Opel Speedster worth 210,000 F, the other two winners win a steering wheel + 5 games. Then, completely confused, the three finalists were surprised to find that this last phase of the championship takes place, not on the greatest number of Kudos, but indeed on the best times. Also, they weren't thinking of driving the Opel Speedster (in the MSR game) in the final. This took place on two circuits, the winner being the one who achieves the best time in the aggregate of the two races. The three competitors "literally" ate the cornering walls.

Are they finalists or not? Jokes aside, stress can be understood. Also MSR is not an easy game to master, but still. According to the winner, it was a good technique (hitting the walls to waste less time, it's better than applying the brakes...). He even advises all players wanting to improve their records in their favorite games (for their pleasure or for a contest) to consult lots of magazines, to surf the net via the Dream Arena (tips, discussion forum, etc.) and also to find out as much as possible from other players to have details on game techniques, car settings, where to brake or not. What a real winner!  

and here is the lucky winner of the Opel Speedster!  Wonder if they still have the car though?

Sadly as I've not been able to trace the winners, their faces/names will have to remain blanked out.