Thursday, 3 September 2020

Metropolis Street Racer: Opel Challenge/Special Version Demo


CARS: Vauxhall VX220 (red)/ Opel Speedster (grey).  Automatic gears only
RACE THE CLOCK COURSE: Tokyo - Asakusa - Long - Nishi Sumida-Gawa (same course as DreamOn Vol. 13)
RACE AN OPPONENT COURSE: London - St James' Park - Short - St James' Park Bridge North
TWO PLAYER ONLY COURSE: San Francisco - Pacific Heights - Short - Buchanan North

Notable features

* Cars leave the ground on the San Francisco hills!  Not as high as Project Gotham 1 though and has no affect on the driving physics.

* Sega/Sonic, Sprite, "Perfect Blue", Dreamcast Yukawa, cigarette & alcohol adverts in Tokyo (non-playable rolling demos).

* Slightly better lighting (yellow tinted streetlights at night).

* Drift dynamic not present.


Description

This "white label" version was released around Summer 2000 and predates the demo found on DreamOn Vol. 13.  It lacks any drift dynamic and so handling is more simplistic; simply break/handbreak before turning or just hard steer into corners.  MSR Opel Challenge/Special Version was used at trade shows, publicity events and possibly even DC demo units within video game stores.  This version makes an appearance on Volume 11 of the US Official Dreamcast Magazine's playable demo disk (February 2001 edition).  Going by comments found on the old Usenet archive at groups.google.com, it may also have been included with pre-ordered PAL copies of Virtua Tennis 1 (that was released on September 8 2000). 

If you want to obtain a lawful copy of MSR Opel Challenge/Special Version, it is available as a PAL "white label" or on the US demo disk mentioned above.


Related links

https://dcemulation.org/dumpcast/viewtopic.php?t=1359 (pictures of Spanish inserts alongside this version advertising a forthcoming promotion event at Hard Rock Cafe, Madrid in October 2000).

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/uk.games.video.dreamcast/haoS0ZpXWOw/BNTpUfUp0pIJ (player impressions of MSR Opel Challenge/Special Version- early September 2000).

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/uk.games.video.dreamcast/F4WgYeKxNyU/v19cmUwxOD4J (player mentioned MSR Opel Challenge/Special Version included within pre-orders of PAL Virtua Tennis 1).