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.

MSR VMU Hacks (Google Groups/Usenet topic)

Oh - and the first 'Global Challenge' (London) ends January 15th so you might want to enter that first - not that you'll beat my time of course l-)!

What is your time ?

It's whatever I want it to be my friend - as I've worked out how to edit the times in the VMU  :))  How does 1:06 grab you - 'believable' but I don't think it's achievable.  Seriously though, it took me less than 5 mins to change this as the programmers (obviously too busy fixing bugs) have put NO protection in there WHATSOEVER - not even a checksum which most gamesaves have!

Any times you see posted on the (Dreamarena ranking) site could well be fraudulent therefore and
I'm not inclined to waste my time any longer...

But for the record - my best 'real' time was a low 1:14 - which is slow, I know and hence my 'curiousity' to see if others could well have cheated...

Original Google Groups/Usenet topic link 

MSR Bugs (Updated 2023)

The PAL version of MSR was released three times in total. In order to meet a November 2000 deadline in the UK, the first release had a number of major bugs. Sega Europe subsequently recalled this first batch and released a second PAL version that eliminated most of the major bugs, but not all (see below). They also offered replacements disks free of charge to those who had purchased a bugged copy. The North American release and the final PAL version were both free of major bugs, although some minor ones remained.

• Completing Street Race challenges without the required number of Kudos or target finish position will still be considered successful (first PAL version).  This is more likely to occur if you race 'badly' (crash throughout the event, set low finish positions).  

• The game would sometimes corrupt VMUs (first PAL version);

• After some time of playing, Tokyo races would always be at night (first PAL version);

• When using a keyboard to enter names etc., the keys were mapped incorrectly. Pressing C would give B, pressing B would give A etc. (first PAL version);

• The "Quick Race" screen in the multiplayer mode would be blank and thus impossible to play (first and second PAL version);

• The Alfa Romeo GTV cannot be gained legitimately as the 'time to beat' was set too low at 31 seconds (first and second PAL version);

• The Street Race in Chapter 17, Challenge 8 cannot be beaten legitimately as it was mistakenly set to infinite laps (first and second PAL version).  Workaround: get your target finish position and complete the first lap.  Once you begin the second lap, press Start and quit the event.

• Special Events could be completed without the required car or clock time (first and second PAL version);

• You can create a Time Trial with 'random' weather.  However playing it will cause the screen to become 'ash grey' with no lighting.  When you press start to quit the trial, the game may either crash or reset (first and second PAL version - the random weather option for Time Trials was removed in the final PAL and US version.  See my 'Apocalypse Street Racer' post for more info);

• If you insert the MSR disc, turn on the Dreamcast and are then presented with the clock screen (internal battery had faded/died), the game will not load after setting the time.  The revised PAL pressing (disc ring code ending SB) gives an error message that the 'softdec movie cannot be not found' (all PAL versions).  Workaround: when you are presented with the clock screen, open the lid so the game stops spinning.  Set the clock and let the Dreamcast go to the main menu.  Then close the lid.

• During wet conditions, it still rains inside tunnels and under bridges (all versions);

• Ghost cars loaded from a VMU can become corrupt and crash into the sides, sometimes without reason. This includes ghosts saved within Time Trials. It happens more often if you create ghost cars on early PAL versions and then race them on the final PAL/US version, or vice versa (all versions);

• The game screen goes blank and the speedometer gives a 'minus warp light speed' reading. Thankfully this is extremely rare. (all versions);

• Creating a Time Trial with 'misty' or 'foggy' weather will default to 'clear' weather once a ghost car is saved (all versions);

• Two Time Attack records (Asakusa Eki-Iruguchi and Koen Minami) are pre-set to 0.000 (all versions);

• Records for one-on-one challenges in Street Race mode always show a '0.0s' head start, even if one was given.  If you give yourself a head start, the record will always show as '-0.0s' head start.  The only way to tell if a head start was actually given to the other car is by looking at the skill points awarded (all versions);

• When travelling at high speed on straight sections (namely London St James' Park), the camera position/frame suddenly shifts momentarily (all versions);

• In Street Race / Quick Race events, the game awards CPU cars unrealistic best lap times (all versions);

• When selecting a personal music playlist as the default choice, MSR reverts to its own preset list [Overdrive / Time / Heartlands / Am I Only Dreaming] when resuming a game (all versions).  Workaround: after resuming a game and before playing, go into the CD/Radio option from the main menu and quickly flick through your music selection using the forward button on the radio.  When you start playing, your personal playlist will work as normal.

You can only tell what PAL version you have by looking at the ringcode on the back of the GD-ROM:

• MK-51022-0146SS: v1.001 (10/10/2000 - First PAL version)

• MK-51022-0146SA: v1.002 (20/10/2000 - Second PAL version)

• MK-51022-0146SB: v1.009 (21/11/2000 - Final PAL version)

Link: Sega-DC.de (MSR page)

I have numerous SS versions and only 1 SB version.  I have never had any severe save problems or kudos issues on my SS pressings so maybe some SA pressings were pressed as SS??  I have never come across a SA pressing in the wild.