Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220 Charity Auction

This has a very tenuous link to Metropolis Street Racer, however Sega Europe themselves put out this press release on 25 October 2000.  

A real version of one of the cars that features in Metropolis Street Racer is to be auctioned on the Internet. The first Opel Speedster (the UK version is the Vauxhall VX220) carries a plaque with the serial number 0001 on the dashboard and has all the makings of a collector's car - especially since the silver roadster will not simply be sold but auctioned on the internet. The first Europe-wide online auction of an automobile takes place from October 27 to November 5 [2000] at www.qxl.com/speedster (auction company now closed.  Subsequently renamed 'Tradus' and then acquired by a large conglomerate in 2008).

Leading European internet auction house QXL.com (closed 2008) will present Opel's mid-engined sports car on its homepage as well as its national pages. Bidders can surf to their local QXL website in Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain to pick up information in their own language and bid in their country's currency. There is no minimum bid for Opel Speedster number 0001.

The real winner of the auction, however, is not necessarily the highest bidder. The cheque for the open-top, two-seater sports car will be donated in full to the SOS Children's Villages, an organization which takes care of orphans and destitute children. The charity helps a total of more than 300,000 individuals. More information on SOS Children's Villages is available at www.sos-kd.org (now https://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/).

The Speedster won the Cabrio of the Year award at this year's Geneva Motor Show. The 147-horsepower two-seater is Opel's first mid-engined sports car and the first Opel to use aluminum and composite materials for the body and chassis. The winner of the QXL auction will enjoy the Speedster's fast, sure-footed cornering, a zero-to-100 sprint in under six seconds and a top speed of 220 km/h. Customers can find out more about the Speedster at www.opel.com (link still works but contains no info about this car anymore.  Just google 'Opel Speedster' or 'Vauxhall VX220' instead).

The auction website has been archived here. The winning bid was £23,511 from a Swiss buyer on 5 November 2000. 

Original Sega Europe press release archive

Gaming Age & Daily Radar interviews with Richard Jacques

Gaming Age did this interview with Richard about the MSR soundtrack.  It was conducted in early March 2000, about 8 months before the game's European/PAL release.  The most notable part is the list of the equipment used to produce the music.

Richard Jacque's Gaming Age Interview (Part 1) 

Richard Jacque's Gaming Age Interview (Part 2)

As Gaming Age is still an active website, I can only post links to the interview (only now accessible via Wayback).  

Daily Radar UK also did a shorter interview conducted after the game's release (late 2000/early 2001).

Richard Jacques Daily Radar UK Interview

MSR TV Adverts & Trailers

Sega Europe really tried to push Metropolis Street Racer by creating TV adverts and purchasing prominent 'time slots' for their broadcast.   Here is a news article from the UK's Official Dreamcast Magazine about this:

The first advert is around 30 seconds long.  The English language version (left) has what sounds like a female vocal being put through a 'digital meatgrinder' - I sincerely hope that was an encoding error!  The French version (right) thankfully lacks this sound.

Update: I've also just found a German TV advert on Youtube (see below)!  Completely different to the ones above. 

 There were also trailers present on VHS promotional tapes.  I think the one below was displayed at the 'Dreamcast Premiere' event (Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London.  3 September 2000) although the Gary Numan "Cars" track has been replaced.

The final one (below) is just a longer version of the introduction found on the game disc.

Unfortunately none of this really worked out as Metropolis Street Racer sold less than 20,000 copies in Europe.  Far more copies were sold in the USA with less hype and a standard magazine advert/web advert campaign.

Bad Driving = More Kudos!

A video showing that reckless power sliding awards much higher Kudos than careful driving (non Hot Lap / Timed Run courses).  This is because Skill / No Penalty Kudos are 'fixed' and offer lower scores than Style Kudos.  Therefore any penalty deductions (for hitting the sides or other cars) are more than made up by the excess Style Kudos you earn.

Chapter 17 - Event 6 (one-on-one challenge vs. Mitsubishi Eclipse '99)

Course: London - St James's Park - Medium - Birdcage Walk East II (St James' M-5)

My car: Nissan Skyline GTR (Manual Gears / No ABS)

Skilled and careful driving total.  25 second head start to opponent 

Kudos score: 1281.8 (Skill: 112.9, Style: 368, No Penalties: 160.  Joker played so score doubled).

Reckless power sliding.  60 second head start to myself

Kudos score: 3792 (Skill: 0, Style: 2216, Penalties: -320.  Joker played so score doubled).

3792 vs 1281.8 is more than double so if you want record kudos scores, sadly this is the path you need to take.  However if you are disciplined and aim for skilled, careful driving with a touch of style, I believe you will enjoy the game much more (just don't expect many kudos records).

Please note, due to a bug in the game (all versions), the record display screen does not show the 'Head Start' seconds given to the CPU or yourself.  It will only display as 0.0s (no head start/head start given to  CPU) or -0.0s (head start given to yourself)

Multiplayer mode video

A short video showing the 'split match play' feature in multiplayer mode.  I firstly drove the whole race in the Clio and once I passed the finish line, the CPU took over the running of that car.  I then drove the RV8 while the CPU was driving the Clio around the course.

 

The MSR fan sites that never were

Following on from my 2015 post about MSR fan sites, here are two that were never completed.

MSR.PT.VU / MSR.HOME.SAPO.PT

I saw this advertised on an old topic at dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com.  This Portugese site was created at the end of April 2004 and promised rankings, ghost/time trials and tutorials.  However these features were still 'under construction' on early 2005 (according to Wayback) and no further updates ever occurred. It disappeared offline sometime in the 2010's.

Wayback link: http://web.archive.org/web/20050207223648/http://www.msr.pt.vu

MSR.B0X.COM

This was advertised on a topic from Bizarre Creations' old Ezboard forum.  Unfortunately just this homepage was made advertising the site was coming on 20 March 2001.  Nothing else happened sadly and disappeared offline shortly after. 

Wayback link: https://web.archive.org/web/20010509141257/http://msr.b0x.com/

Critical Reviews

I enjoy reading critical reviews for MSR as some of them raise valid points.  The game had a lot of hype in the UK Dreamcast press and some people were disappointed when it was eventually released.  Sadly these reviews are no longer online, however they have been preserved at Archive.org.

"While MSR is a welcome change in the identikit-driving genre, the game has some series flaws with its basic design, which unwind the whole experience. By relying so heavily on the original 'Kudos' scoring system, the simple problems are highlighted throughout the lengthy single player campaign and unfortunately the experience is ruined as a result."

NSTC-UK Rating: 6/10

Link to full review: NTSC-UK MSR Review

But not that everyone thinks I don't like MSR. MSR is a good racing game, but nothing more. In my opinion, it just didn't turn out to be the high-flyer I was hoping for. However, I recommend the game to every racing fan. Everyone else should borrow the game first and test it enough." 

Planet-Sega.de Rating: 86%

Link to full review: Planet-Sega.de MSR Review (translated from German)

"When MSR is good, it’s very good, and its innovations deserve a lot of credit for making the game so engaging, once you get over the initial hump. Sadly, there are too many little aggravations, too many flawed design decisions and too many visual annoyances disrupting the experience to keep it from being the perfect Dreamcast racing game that some players might have been expecting. To say nothing of MC H*m* and company. Wey hey!"

Link to full review: Electric Playground Review

"MSR" is a universe of drifting and cornering, accelerating and power-steering, peppy music and decent graphics that, while worth a visit from time to time via a rental ticket price, it's too unrewarding and punishing a formula for the hardest of the hardcore to plow the cash for. Test-drive before you buy... another Infogrames driving game that is (he, he, he)!

DC-Swirl Review: 3.5 / 5

Link to full review: DC Swirl Review