tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87565154988170958612024-03-13T23:16:48.462-07:00MSR....it's not about how fast you drive...or even how you drive fast....it's about the...Dreamcast!My exploits and interesting info about Metropolis Street RacerUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-10034203020529704602023-08-11T15:34:00.003-07:002023-08-14T13:46:20.517-07:00MSR at Sports Reviewer (February 2001)<p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is an interesting MSR review from the old 'Sports Reviewer' website. While they gave the game 'top marks', they did raise some valid criticisms about the Kudos system and lack of night lighting. It was written in February 2001. <br /><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>"While the Kudos system is innovative, it is slightly flawed, but not to the point of hampering the game. MSR heavily favors Style points (i.e. power sliding) over skill points. You can cheat and open up all the chapters, but I do not really see the point in cheating. Just because you cheat does not mean that MSR is any easier. Sure, you can prematurely open up all the chapters, but you will not be able to win very many races unless you complete each chapter and open up better cars.</i></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>In short, MSR’s developers made an excellent first attempt with the Kudos system. It is not perfect, but I really enjoy the concept. I hope that MSR’s sequel or another developer carries the promise to fruition. An easy adjustment would be to require Skill or Style in certain races. Another adjustment would allow players to tailor their driving style towards Skill or Style. This would allow simulation style players to rack up plenty of Skill points without relying on and abusing powerslides."<br /><br /></i></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>"If MSR has a real negative it is the lack of ample lighting during some of the night races. The races in Tokyo usually have enough light to navigate successfully. I found San Francisco hit or miss, but London is usually a total pain in the rump for me during night sessions.</i></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>I do not really know how to put my finger on the problem, but night races seem to have poor lighting and actual view distance is just not long enough to provide adequate reaction time for turns. London seems to be the worst offender, especially tracks that make use of parks and other low light areas.</i></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>The problem is not crippling, instead the "night light" issue is really just another opportunity (manager speak for a challenge). I have spoken to other MSR owners about this issue and the camp seems to be evenly divided between poor night lighting effects and sucky, whiny players. It should be obvious to Sports Reviewers’ readers that I actually fan into both camps!"</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />You can read the full review at the following archived weblink: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010816154252/http://www.sportsreviewers.com/reviews/msr/msr.htm">Sports Reviewer's MSR Review (Archived Website) </a></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-52884975319416763792023-08-07T08:36:00.005-07:002023-08-13T04:17:09.056-07:00My Speed Challenge quest<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have always been fascinated by this mode, mainly because Dreamarena players managed such fast times while being forced to use automatic gears with ABS on. It is very easy to assume that cheating must have been involved, especially as it was quite easy to hack an MSR gamesave or use a Action Replay/Xploder DC device. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I managed to beat the Dreamarena competition times just over 12 years ago, however I used manual gears and switched ABS off. I did this by creating Time Trial VMU files for each Speed Challenge course. However this year, I decided to try and beat those times under the same conditions - automatic gears and ABS on. After a lot of time and effort, I finally managed to beat them (just)! It's not all good news though; the London course involved hitting the railings so that could have been the strategy used during the competition. While I try to race as cleanly as possible, 'playing dirty' is sometimes the only way. I'll keep trying for a faster, cleaner London time.<br /><br />Here are the original Dreamarena competition winning times:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6hDsHAxZeyPTwCalsDIxkR9LcTlVOgeNa7art2iMTaTNyqI8gS2dVJrL9m6fLM7vp0PfP6o1cy8Ac4SCRPte8CGTkpv19Ty0bL1d5q-Z-ikarEQj26S-9Eb3doYSfPYGD9J25jprHoyUMkPE9Dlq8iqql5Rvjwz_ySr756yAm-swH-OYAqgjvMMj-8WY/s491/msrspeedchallengewinners.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="491" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6hDsHAxZeyPTwCalsDIxkR9LcTlVOgeNa7art2iMTaTNyqI8gS2dVJrL9m6fLM7vp0PfP6o1cy8Ac4SCRPte8CGTkpv19Ty0bL1d5q-Z-ikarEQj26S-9Eb3doYSfPYGD9J25jprHoyUMkPE9Dlq8iqql5Rvjwz_ySr756yAm-swH-OYAqgjvMMj-8WY/w356-h257/msrspeedchallengewinners.PNG" width="356" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Here are my results:</span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioe_NrvYoafH6c69xzWMfzjRgG5zvRV0nABZ83TjWSgEKjygPkS8V-kyQylfHCCbms6xEfU5iUgCiuD-kI3-takqgxOo2RtmNpglAhwaA8hbK3_RfXMxucCP41k-9AjQsiJvSv3VgYc3PZEeks7za1oCkjaXxDsgRb3SmHUGE62wKmQSU2t2KbyktYbe8/s719/speedchallenge.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="719" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioe_NrvYoafH6c69xzWMfzjRgG5zvRV0nABZ83TjWSgEKjygPkS8V-kyQylfHCCbms6xEfU5iUgCiuD-kI3-takqgxOo2RtmNpglAhwaA8hbK3_RfXMxucCP41k-9AjQsiJvSv3VgYc3PZEeks7za1oCkjaXxDsgRb3SmHUGE62wKmQSU2t2KbyktYbe8/w398-h261/speedchallenge.png" width="398" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>...and here are the videos for each course, including a bonus 'best corner' collection. </span><span>All runs were done in 60hz mode; 50hz mode has not been optimised and runs significantly slower. </span>It took a while getting used to the automatic gears and the 'unwanted downshifts' when you lose speed during certain turns.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="240" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n9x-CIFbGWQ" width="316" youtube-src-id="n9x-CIFbGWQ"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="240" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m6sB5-ZpfAA" width="310" youtube-src-id="m6sB5-ZpfAA"></iframe></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="221" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/84_JP7kzSQY" width="314" youtube-src-id="84_JP7kzSQY"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="221" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xIObOyLobfc" width="310" youtube-src-id="xIObOyLobfc"></iframe></div></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It's a shame that the best Dreamcast racing players (who competed in the Ferrari F355 Challenge and Sega Rally 2 internet rankings) were not involved. If they were, I believe we would have seen some genuine unbeatable lap times!</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />For more information on the Speed Challenge mode & its Dreamarena competition, please see my blogpost at: <a href="https://msrdreamcast.blogspot.com/2013/04/speed-challenge-competition_3.html">https://msrdreamcast.blogspot.com/2013/04/speed-challenge-competition_3.html</a></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-91289995185467033462023-08-05T20:43:00.006-07:002023-08-14T13:46:38.397-07:00Project Gotham: World Street Racer (Japanese name for PGR1)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I have just discovered that Project Gotham Racing (PGR1) was called 'Project Gotham: World Street Racer' in Japan. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx3u-yM0gQ8yud0Ff8NXFxgisXiljMe68ekCE8UROpUSmJ_G6mH9BhFeigC4033o-6TLZHncYUPT-krm3X8jqkJ5mgecgk6xrLHwjIVlfOdNAW0XRNyfz8p3PC67pKYXJX_WOTBC6BdVoLpvQmWr_KbX_Qw3v5n9zgFbIK0XatcKXbcXO8IwEEsXYvRuU/s649/pgr1jap2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="649" data-original-width="471" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx3u-yM0gQ8yud0Ff8NXFxgisXiljMe68ekCE8UROpUSmJ_G6mH9BhFeigC4033o-6TLZHncYUPT-krm3X8jqkJ5mgecgk6xrLHwjIVlfOdNAW0XRNyfz8p3PC67pKYXJX_WOTBC6BdVoLpvQmWr_KbX_Qw3v5n9zgFbIK0XatcKXbcXO8IwEEsXYvRuU/s320/pgr1jap2.png" width="232" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Japanese release of MSR was cancelled so maybe Microsoft/Bizarre were trying to establish a clear link between the two titles and make Japanese Dreamcast fans assume that MSR had been moved onto XBOX. Who knows?</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-11161322500596722962023-08-02T13:56:00.008-07:002023-08-03T09:16:08.205-07:00Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220 Charity Auction<p><span style="font-family: arial;">This has a very tenuous link to Metropolis Street Racer, however Sega Europe themselves put out this press release on 25 October 2000. </span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;">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 <strike>www.qxl.com/speedster</strike> </span><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: arial;">(<i>auction company now closed. Subsequently renamed 'Tradus' and then acquired by a large conglomerate in 2008</i>)</span><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;">.</span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;">Leading European internet auction house <strike>QXL.com</strike> </span><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: arial;">(closed 2008)</span><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"> 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.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">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 </span><strike style="color: #fcff01;">www.sos-kd.org</strike><span style="color: #fcff01;"> </span><span style="color: #ffd966;">(</span><span><span style="color: #ffd966;">now </span><span style="color: #ffd966;"><a href="https://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/"><span>https://www.sos-childrensvillages.org</span><span>/</span></a></span></span><span style="color: #ffd966;">)</span><span style="color: #fcff01;">.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;">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 <strike>www.opel.com</strike> </span><span style="color: #ffd966; font-family: arial;">(<i>link still works but contains no info about this car anymore. Just google 'Opel Speedster' or 'Vauxhall VX220' instead</i>)</span><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;">.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The auction website has been archived <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010626133459/http://www.qxl.com/isroot/html/uk/speedster/">here</a>. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">The winning <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010708222446/http://www.qxl.com/cgi-bin/qxlhome.cgi/EN/QXL/PR/MRK01/_10701209">bid</a> was £23,511 from a Swiss buyer on 5 November 2000. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010626213339/http://www.dreamcast-europe.com/english/press/000006/000006.php ">Original Sega Europe press release archive</a></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-6375806157461999962023-07-17T07:18:00.011-07:002023-07-31T05:42:46.824-07:00Gaming Age & Daily Radar interviews with Richard Jacques<p><span style="font-family: arial;">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.<br /><br /><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010409162247/http://cgi.gaming-age.com/gaming/specials/special.pl?spec=msr&pagenum=1">Richard Jacque's Gaming Age Interview (Part 1)</a> </span></p><p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010427121029/http://cgi.gaming-age.com/gaming/specials/page2.pl?spec=msr&pagenum=2&pages=2"><span style="font-family: arial;">Richard Jacque's Gaming Age Interview (Part 2)</span></a></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As Gaming Age is still an active website, I can only post links to the interview (only now accessible via Wayback). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Dai</span><span style="font-family: arial;">ly Radar UK also did a shorter interview conducted after the game's release (late 2000/early 2001).</span></p><p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010224112532/http://www.dailyradar.co.uk/published/features/game_feature_page_276_1.html"><span style="font-family: arial;">Richard Jacques Daily Radar UK Interview</span></a><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-242885119509912912023-07-14T19:06:00.005-07:002023-08-26T06:43:46.379-07:00MSR TV Adverts & Trailers<p><span style="font-family: arial;">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:</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyHV3PEgjunMAgHjjxwYwrqrTMYIG1fcGXwvoXnc5WxyeoxZk8ZMEMfatOdXjNPeVDJYSpp7BHBctC2RO7ZuzxTQgi9I3ndlPW2rYb_I-aFD7t5Bk_I72EPqkG-_FCbcWumCdbBDYcD_3-941B6qOrdXwmYtykyXUNFxjE7fbtp1ldp2lbAOKR4Z6yj98/s587/msrtv.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="494" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyHV3PEgjunMAgHjjxwYwrqrTMYIG1fcGXwvoXnc5WxyeoxZk8ZMEMfatOdXjNPeVDJYSpp7BHBctC2RO7ZuzxTQgi9I3ndlPW2rYb_I-aFD7t5Bk_I72EPqkG-_FCbcWumCdbBDYcD_3-941B6qOrdXwmYtykyXUNFxjE7fbtp1ldp2lbAOKR4Z6yj98/w339-h403/msrtv.PNG" width="339" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="232" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FpXMjCYnjuw" width="279" youtube-src-id="FpXMjCYnjuw"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="232" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wKhCnDzzuQo" width="279" youtube-src-id="wKhCnDzzuQo"></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Update:</b> I've also just found a German TV advert on Youtube (see below)! Completely different to the ones above. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1VJbQxO3rmA" width="320" youtube-src-id="1VJbQxO3rmA"></iframe></div><br /> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/al2zd8ZalmI" width="320" youtube-src-id="al2zd8ZalmI"></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The final one (below) is just a longer version of the introduction found on the game disc.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p0OzDfR63d0" width="320" youtube-src-id="p0OzDfR63d0"></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div></div></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-50121925223289409882023-07-11T15:38:00.002-07:002023-07-30T20:38:47.310-07:00Bad Driving = More Kudos!<p><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LbbNp75_Nmw" width="320" youtube-src-id="LbbNp75_Nmw"></iframe></span></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Chapter 17 - Event 6 (one-on-one challenge vs. Mitsubishi Eclipse '99)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">Course: London - St James's Park - Medium - Birdcage Walk East II (St James' M-5)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">My car: Nissan Skyline GTR (Manual Gears / No ABS)</span></div></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><u>Skilled and careful driving total. 25 second head start to opponent</u> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Kudos score: <b>1281.8 </b>(Skill: 112.9, Style: 368, No Penalties: 160. Joker played so score doubled).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><u>Reckless power sliding. 60 second head start to myself</u></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Kudos score: <b>3792 </b>(Skill: 0, Style: 2216, Penalties: -320. Joker played so score doubled).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">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).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">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)</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-43945938514576041572023-06-23T22:22:00.003-07:002023-06-23T22:26:03.954-07:00Multiplayer mode video<p><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DQXJ8NMYmxA" width="320" youtube-src-id="DQXJ8NMYmxA"></iframe></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-55744283860071596242023-06-19T18:03:00.006-07:002023-06-19T18:09:20.083-07:00The MSR fan sites that never were<p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Following on from my 2015 </span><a href="https://msrdreamcast.blogspot.com/2015/10/original-msr-fan-sites.html" style="font-family: arial;">post</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> about MSR fan sites, here are two that were never completed.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">MSR.PT.VU / MSR.HOME.SAPO.PT</span></h3><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15oE0timJTS9vYJUurdX50XuOukDf2VYLozf2iNp8A8jbat0crSn4K_dpJh8yRiTrDTag60SZDO9GNL763XKNsxub7DZRwHheD0txCX9cwDBJgDbgUdXzcxydzFOqFZOa_vwNj2RE-jJSmi-pDh4g9DwkTpGeXpbRNQFZ8P8zflFN2P84EB-6TD1JtZY/s900/msrptvu.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="710" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj15oE0timJTS9vYJUurdX50XuOukDf2VYLozf2iNp8A8jbat0crSn4K_dpJh8yRiTrDTag60SZDO9GNL763XKNsxub7DZRwHheD0txCX9cwDBJgDbgUdXzcxydzFOqFZOa_vwNj2RE-jJSmi-pDh4g9DwkTpGeXpbRNQFZ8P8zflFN2P84EB-6TD1JtZY/w351-h508/msrptvu.PNG" width="351" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I saw this advertised on an old </span><a href="https://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=274" style="font-family: arial;">topic</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> at dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Wayback link: <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20050207223648/http://www.msr.pt.vu/">http://web.archive.org/web/20050207223648/http://www.msr.pt.vu</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">MSR.B0X.COM</span></h3><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUku7CWKrGufFoVhD2GpOCFdJamnPZFpYJRZ1Ke4T19KH3sHfchH78KiSThiYWR_MStTjtzD4SDmxuSqeT7fOWhtPFu_faznctmooaXnCZKnr1oOr5Gz_LPfu6g_f_K4IeTm1s9conKwJuyap3hZbQrO_oQURsDWFUaEX6JmdVANaQMTlzzVbesPdPyo/s346/msrboxcom.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="346" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUku7CWKrGufFoVhD2GpOCFdJamnPZFpYJRZ1Ke4T19KH3sHfchH78KiSThiYWR_MStTjtzD4SDmxuSqeT7fOWhtPFu_faznctmooaXnCZKnr1oOr5Gz_LPfu6g_f_K4IeTm1s9conKwJuyap3hZbQrO_oQURsDWFUaEX6JmdVANaQMTlzzVbesPdPyo/w384-h249/msrboxcom.PNG" width="384" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This was advertised on a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010507063629/http://pub40.ezboard.com/fbizarrecreationsfrm2.showMessage?topicID=95.topic">topic</a> 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. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Wayback link: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010509141257/http://msr.b0x.com/">https://web.archive.org/web/20010509141257/http://msr.b0x.com/</a></span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-85317402932175442982023-06-12T10:17:00.009-07:002023-07-29T19:41:30.120-07:00Critical Reviews<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">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.</span></p><p><i><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><br />"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."</span></i></p><p><i><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><b>NSTC-UK Rating: 6/10</b></span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Link to full review: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20021010062848/http://ntsc-uk.com/MainContent/Dreamcast/MetropolisStreetRacer/MSR.htm">NTSC-UK MSR Review</a><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><i><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;">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." </span></i></p><p><i><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><b>Planet-Sega.de Rating: 86%</b></span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Link to full review: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010223111656/http://www.planet-sega.de:80/dreamcastpal/msr.shtml">Planet-Sega.de MSR Review (translated from German)</a></span></p><p><br /></p><p><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #fcff01;">"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!</span><span style="color: #fcff01;">"</span></span></i></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Link to full review: <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030715132156/http://www.elecplay.com/review.html?article=5182&full=1#mr_toppy">Electric Playground Review</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;">"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)!</span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><b>DC-Swirl Review: 3.5 / 5</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Link to full review: </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20020506204840/http://www.dcswirl.com/reviews/rev_msr.shtml" style="font-family: arial;">DC Swirl Review</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-2979857418922821332023-06-06T21:40:00.006-07:002023-06-06T21:48:55.323-07:00Defunct homebrew MSR Ranking 2006 - 2018 (Matching Service from dcarena.de)<p><span style="font-family: arial;">When I first began researching MSR in-depth back in 2010-2012, I came across this German fan page.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_eL9HFlsvjekna_FAex7XCNfdyPoAWUbqMzvdfu97H2FAYIun9FbsK1WHFdh69NHwHO53GFGsvskh8MrI-9ObI7AbUSCO8BrBOSfwwC7DN6qUGkvRvA0hEeI5tVyYA5zFTSlwU4_G9GXjoSwAOe3Uhowf2cmwiJW4qLkYbRKP0FGk0Zw_r0EToWd9/s628/dcarena2.PNG" style="clear: left; font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="628" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_eL9HFlsvjekna_FAex7XCNfdyPoAWUbqMzvdfu97H2FAYIun9FbsK1WHFdh69NHwHO53GFGsvskh8MrI-9ObI7AbUSCO8BrBOSfwwC7DN6qUGkvRvA0hEeI5tVyYA5zFTSlwU4_G9GXjoSwAOe3Uhowf2cmwiJW4qLkYbRKP0FGk0Zw_r0EToWd9/w349-h259/dcarena2.PNG" width="349" /></span></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This ranking was initially set up back in 2006. Unfortunately by the time I found it, the facility had more or less been abandoned; the upload/login feature was broken as membership was closed, and you could only download existing ghosts. I made a video 13 years ago showing some of MSR's Dreamarena homepages on my Dreamcast (via the Wayback Machine) and I included this ranking within it to demonstrate downloads.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_MqfZPGhuGU" width="320" youtube-src-id="_MqfZPGhuGU"></iframe></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sadly the whole site went offline back in 2018. For more information on dcarena.de, please see the following link: </span><a href="https://www.sega-dc.de/dreamcast/DCArena.de" style="font-family: arial;">https://www.sega-dc.de/dreamcast/DCArena.de</a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-37810371804599624602023-05-25T17:14:00.002-07:002023-05-26T05:34:49.587-07:00Old MSR player's Speed Challenge internet rankings<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Just over a decade ago, I found a player who kept a record of his internet rankings for the Speed Challenge. No footage of Dreamarena and times aren't spectacular, but nice to have come across an MSR player from the 2000-2001 time period. This particular webpage is no longer online but has been archived (link below). </span></p><center style="color: green;"><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>"Now for my MSR Netrankings:</i></span></p><table bgcolor="Black" border="" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="4" cols="3" hspace="10" vspace="10"><tbody><tr><th bgcolor="blue" colspan="3"><span style="color: cyan;">Metropolis Street Racer<br />World Speed Challenge: London</span></th></tr><tr><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Date</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Ranking</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Time</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">08/04/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">227</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">1:17"170</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">30/05/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">231</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">25/09/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">239</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">23/02/2002</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">245</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Date</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Ranking</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Time</span></th></tr></tbody></table><br /><table bgcolor="Black" border="" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="4" cols="3" hspace="10" vspace="10"><tbody><tr><th bgcolor="blue" colspan="3"><span style="color: cyan;">Metropolis Street Racer<br />World Speed Challenge: San Francisco</span></th></tr><tr><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Date</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Ranking</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Time</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">08/04/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">141</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">1:08"060</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">30/05/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">146</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">25/09/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">156</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">23/02/2002</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">160</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Date</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Ranking</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Time</span></th></tr></tbody></table><br /><table bgcolor="Black" border="" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="4" cols="3" hspace="10" vspace="10"><tbody><tr><th bgcolor="blue" colspan="3"><span style="color: cyan;">Metropolis Street Racer<br />World Speed Challenge: Tokyo</span></th></tr><tr><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Date</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Ranking</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Time</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">08/04/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">198</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">1:04"603</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">30/05/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">137!?</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">25/09/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">222</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">23/02/2002</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">615!!</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Date</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Ranking</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Time</span></th></tr></tbody></table><br /><table bgcolor="Black" border="" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="4" cols="3" hspace="10" vspace="10"><tbody><tr><th bgcolor="blue" colspan="3"><span style="color: cyan;">Metropolis Street Racer<br />World Speed Challenge: Total Of All 3 Circuits</span></th></tr><tr><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Date</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Ranking</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Time</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">08/04/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">96!!</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">3:29"833</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">30/05/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">100</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">25/09/2001</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">109</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">23/02/2002</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">117</span></th><th><span style="color: #6aa84f;">As Above</span></th></tr><tr><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Date</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Ranking</span></th><th bgcolor="red"><span style="color: black;">Time</span></th></tr></tbody></table></center><p style="color: green;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Not bad eh? 96th on the time of all 3 circuits combined!! Now down to 117th, which ain't bad considering I haven't played MSR in months."</i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Original link:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20081015015951/http://www.geocities.com/aliensrcooluk/mysite/mynetrankings.html" style="text-align: left;">https://web.archive.org/web/20081015015951/http://www.geocities.com/aliensrcooluk/mysite/mynetrankings.html</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-64785085104280996572023-05-22T17:43:00.000-07:002023-05-22T17:43:01.187-07:00Sega Europe October 2000 Press Release<p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It's definitely not a 'choose-your-car, chose your-circuit' racer, completing track after track in a repetitive championship. Metropolis Street Racer is the ultimate test of skill, style and precision, with an ever-expanding series of exciting driving challenges - it's all about Kudos.</span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Kudos is earned from winning, being an impressive driver to watch and the personal kudos of knowing you're the fastest, most stylish and exciting racer. Kudos is the ultimate style and dexterity and success rating in MSR, it's how you progress through the game. Your kudos rating is used to earn the chance to challenge for new cars and to unlock the later stages of the game and is achieved through: -</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Speed - winning, beating the best times, etc.</span></li><li><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Style - clean laps, powerslides, 'showy' driving etc.</span></span></li><li><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Gambling - set your own goals to beat, on your own or against other cars</span></li><li><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">However any sloppy, dangerous or clumsily driving and you lose kudos.</span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">London, Tokyo and San Francisco are the city backdrops. Modelled down to accurate and intricate detail everything is there, major landmarks to the bushes in people's gardens. The Dreamcast's built in clock is used to provide Real Time so as you race you visually notice the change between dawn and dusk. As you begin only 3 simple routes will be open, one in each city but as the game progresses, you will unlock routes which increase in length, complexity and pace.</span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">MSR is divided into a number of chapters, with the ultimate goal of each chapter being to win the car on offer. Each Chapter contains a range of different driving and racing Stages. You can repeat a stage at anytime and with any car you own to try to beat your kudos. But the kudos recorded is that of the last race, so it's for the drivers who can take risks and gamble. Each chapter offers special races, events and challenges. These are only available at certain times (e.g. night races) or for those with particular cars.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Each of the game's 25 Chapters comprises ten stages of various types and offers you the potential to unlock a new car as a goal for completion. Unlocking the car makes it available for you in the games Car Showroom - available for a 'no obligation' test drive. If you like it you can them challenge to own it, customise it and add it to your personal garage. Each stage is designed to test every area of the driver's ability - from racing skills through to manoeuvring competence.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">From a choice of over 40 cars from some of the world's leading car manufacturers. Cars have been accurately modelled both visually, dynamically and sounds specifically recorded to give you a true driving experience. You can be one of the first to drive a virtual VX220, Vauxhall's exciting new sports car or in conjunction with Dreamarena, Sega's internet portal who have teamed up with Vauxhall, win a VX220 through an exclusive online MSR competition.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The essential car stereo blasts out a range of tunes, from dance to jazz to J-pop offering a choice of radio stations or virtual CDs. Each city has three radio stations tuned in; London listeners have a choice of Capital Jazz, Underground (dance) and West Central One (general pop). Each station has jingles, adverts and DJ's - in Japanese for Tokyo!</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Multiplayer battles allow up to eight players to compete for kudos. Players can either bring along their own personal garage on VM, or can 'borrow' cars from other players' garages.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">League tables will be collated on Dreamarena from scores uploaded from around the world. The Opel / Vauxhall Internet Challenge, the ultimate test of skill is recorded via the VM and Internet. This challenge takes you to three of the most difficult circuits - one in each city - to race in the prestigious VX220. Racing tips can be picked up by using the VM to download the actual lap, learn how they do it and better their performance.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">"The realism that MSR achieves is a combination of intricate detail, sound and realtime. The experience is a break through for racing games; the focus is not just on speed but style. MSR gives endless replay value and rewards the player constantly." - Alison Turner Director of UK Marketing</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Metropolis Street racer will be in stores November 2000.</span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-33113886164029212042023-05-15T20:14:00.001-07:002023-05-15T20:14:29.363-07:00Angry MSR player email to EDGE Magazine<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDkDwAbBpAPMTgb2GoGnX8o2fVlt3I6k--4uN_kBHRThcRBlRAuoyyOJxysj-avAaD3-tKWU35ANGk5oFKvZKDB12KQGZm7gU4lZyLbWwBRXQBBWcGCEgVqVKkXO7M2zgQws419h4WYkVfF1Fm4FMNEkutT27MD4aU7U2ohBSmJTQ1hOUVRlyP8m-/s913/edge93letteredit.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="913" data-original-width="227" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDkDwAbBpAPMTgb2GoGnX8o2fVlt3I6k--4uN_kBHRThcRBlRAuoyyOJxysj-avAaD3-tKWU35ANGk5oFKvZKDB12KQGZm7gU4lZyLbWwBRXQBBWcGCEgVqVKkXO7M2zgQws419h4WYkVfF1Fm4FMNEkutT27MD4aU7U2ohBSmJTQ1hOUVRlyP8m-/s320/edge93letteredit.PNG" width="80" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Taken from UK Edge Magazine - Issue 93 (January 2001).</span></div><p></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-41713935048848632572023-05-09T20:51:00.000-07:002023-05-09T20:51:26.860-07:00MSR Developer Chat (from 2011)<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In 2011, Bizarre Creations closed down along with their website and forum. Shortly after, a new forum called 'Strange Developments' was created where ex-Bizarre Creations staff and fans hung out briefly. The new forum wasn't around for long, probably due to the ex-staff finding new jobs and people just going their separate ways. It was on this particular forum forum that I asked a question about MSR physics and ended up having correspondence with a staff member. I haven't released it publicly until now (I've sent it to a few people privately over the years) however it's now a good time to do so. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">My questions/responses are in light blue and the staff replies are in yellow. Nothing said is 'industry sensitive'.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Firstly I'd like to give my condolences regarding the closure of Bizarre Creations. As I'm basically a retro gamer, I never experienced their later work (PGR3 onwards) but games like MSR, Fur Fighters and PGR1/2 were great titles and I'm glad to have played them. I hope everyone involved with Bizarre finds happiness in their new careers.</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Here is an old Japanese promotional video for MSR: </span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ynYAorU-LLw" width="320" youtube-src-id="ynYAorU-LLw"></iframe></div><span style="color: #01ffff;">The last 5 seconds are the most interesting. Although this is an early version, the car gets serious air climbing the San Francisco hill! If any of the developers are watching, why were the cars grounded in the final version? It doesn't make MSR any less fun for me but it would be interesting to know the reasons why.</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Finally I've know I've asked this before on Bizarre's own forum but did anybody take a copy of the old MSR rankings hosted on Dreamarena. I know it's a longshot as this service closed over 9 years ago but it would be great to see what lap times the best players achieved. I have already asked Sega but they are unable to help.</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Many thanks in advance.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">it kept us from having to solve various physics/collision problems at the time,e.g. what to do when the cars overturn..</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">The physics model used exaggerated moments of inertia to stylize the sliding behaviour. I figured it was a game about cornering,laptimes, driving on flat surfaces, not a stunt driving game with jumps etc so I approximated appropriately .. S.F. wasn't something I accounted for. Needed to ensure that physics/collision/AI update was always negligable CPU load compared to graphics, back on those machines the cpu spent most of its time transforming & clipping geometry..</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Hi all, as I hadn't received a reply in nearly 3 months I thought no-one was able to answer my question. Just returned here now on the off-chance it had. :)</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">I appreciate the response, I always thought the reason for the lack of airbourne cars was down to the car manufacturers themselves. I guess you had responsibilty for the physics in MSR? If so I'd like to thank you as MSR has one of the most fun Time Attack modes I've ever played! I know it's probably not what you intended - after all MSR was meant to be all about the Kudos - however stripping the game down to just a fast car and course unlocks the games enduring appeal. It's the reason I'm still playing the game in 2011!</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">On a sidenote I think the handling in the demo version of MSR (found on the disk with the Official DC magazine) has more in common with PGR 1/2 than MSR itself!</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">MSR was also the reason I got my Dreamcast back online last year to upload/download ghost cars. I've written an FAQ, made some Youtube videos and even made a webpage that DC users can download my ghosts from. If you are interested the links are below:</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/197914-metropolis-street-racer/faqs/60758">http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/197914-metropolis-street-racer/faqs/60758</a> (some info outdated)</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soKJIF7FEsA&playnext=1&list=PL24E648DEB802C6F6">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soKJIF7FEsA&playnext=1&list=PL24E648DEB802C6F6</a></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">http://msr.netii.net/ (Now Offline). </span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">PS I still have a working MSR watch that came with my first copy in November 2000:</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="color: #01ffff;">RJAY63 wrote:</span></i></div><div><i><span style="color: #01ffff;">always thought the reason for the lack of airbourne cars was down to the car manufacturers themselves.</span></i></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Now that you mention it, that was indeed the case. Justifies why I approximated it.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">But san-fransisco came as a suprise and we didn't have time to change the game system - the game was already delayed. we could have done it (we had airborne in f197 and in a 3DFX tech demo we did after F1) but any change late on is bad.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="color: #01ffff;">RJAY63 wrote:</span></i></div><div><i><span style="color: #01ffff;">I guess you had responsibilty for the physics in MSR?...</span></i></div><div><i><span style="color: #01ffff;">I know it's probably not what you intended - after all MSR was meant to be all about the Kudos - however stripping the game down to just a fast car and course unlocks the games enduring appeal.</span></i></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">on the contrary, to me Kudos was an afterthought,</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I got into doing driving games back in 1995 for 2 reasons [1] the fun physics of car handling and [2] the graphics engines on the then new 3d consoles & the associated tools for building tracks/scenery ... so thanks for appreciating the game boiled down just to the bits I did & that mattered to me :)</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">All old hat now. An arcadey-driving sim wont set the world alight in 2011 but I was coincidently doing another car physics model as part of my new experiments.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Hence the coincidence in seeing the old nostalgic posts. I dont remember all the numbers but I remember the formulas exactly and the reasoning behind it. But my focus remains on the search for new ideas ...<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Thank you for your message. MSR's handling has a 'coin-op racer' feel and as a fan of titles like Daytona, Wangan Midnight MT and Outrun 2 SP it is something I appreciate. It's a lot more fun to drift in MSR than it is in the PGR games although PGR 1/2 had much better Kudos systems.</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">I still have the playable demo of MSR that came with the official DC magazine and think the handling here had more in common with PGR than the final version of MSR itself! For example in the demo, drifting could be instigated by releasing the accelerator; something you couldn't do in the final version of MSR but could do in the later PGR games. Do you know why this change happened?</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Finally this is a longshot but do you have an archive of the old Dreamarena rankings for MSR, specifically Time Attack? I know it was possible to hack the VMU and alter times (so any ranking may be distorted) but it would be interesting to see what the best players achieved. I have already approached Sega but they said they are unable to help.</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Thanks once again for a great game!</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">nope, dont have ANY old materials. all owned by others and lost.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I wish I had my old sourcecode, but by the letter of the law i can't. sold my soul there. Just memories of bits in my head</span>.</div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="color: #01ffff;">>>"For example in the demo, drifting could be instigated by releasing the accelerator; something you couldn't do in the final version of MSR but could do in the later PGR games. Do you know why this change happened? "</span></i></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">now I dont remember specifically, but you're describing trailing throttle oversteer & load-transfer, i.e. the way the pitching affects grip front & back.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">When i started with it realistic- producing the effect you describe - i usually got the feedback that it was too hard (or numerically unstable) :) so you put assists / clamps / tweeks in to make it easier (and more stable).</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I might have endstopped it? i.e set an artificial limit between front & rear grip.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">what i DO remember is that with load transfer in 3d physics the car could become quite unstable i.e. going over polygon bumps could de-stabilize it by throwing sudden shocks through the springs, spinning the car out because the front dug in or the back lifted off.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">It changed alot regularly, fine line between 'too hard' 'too realistic' 'too fake' and 'fun'.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">it was difficult to balance it so that it could both slide AND be controllable / catchable.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">With F1, I had load transfer (&grip affected by wings) but NOT calculated though the actual 3d springs; with MSR it was true 3D physics, which i first did in a demo for 3dfx.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">In later xbox/360 games, the world mesh could be smoother, and 60fps update=better springs. DC was just 200mhz with CPU moving every polygon so only a tiny fraction of that cpu is left for physics.. then 700mhz xbox with hardware TnL - much easier. then 3ghz xbox 360 'steamroller'. pgr 4 even moved physics onto spare cores. spoilt compared to the early days.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Even though more realistic there are still some weird effects in both games, the actual physics model did change, with different approximations</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><i>>>"MSR's handling has a 'coin-op racer' feel and as a fan of titles like Daytona, Wangan Midnight MT and Outrun 2 SP it is something I appreciate.</i> "</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">MSR is still based on slightly more realistic physics model but with stylized numbers, compared to daytona etc. sega games & other coin ops games often used 'pivot steering' (ridge racer =worst offender!) I think whereas mine were based on per-wheel forces. (i wouldn't criticize those amazing pioneering Sega coin-ops though! don't get me wrong there).</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">The so called 'coinop feel' was down to the car holding maximum grip past the limit & other assists over the real physics, wheras a real car loses grip when you slide, a greater tendancy to just spin out when you make a mistake.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I'm just dealing with this again this very minute, messing with the self-aligning-torque by a different method to try and make slides more holdable.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">It is very nostalgic looking at the old videos, thanks for the uploads :)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Firstly thanks again for your interest in our old work . :)</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I was looking at one of your comments "no more braking sliding more" and my memory might not be as good as I think, I seem to remember I might have actually INCREASED GRIP WHEN BRAKING, jogged by your comments.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">My question is , could you confirm this for me ? hard to tell how. Let me know if you think thats the case from how you drive it, do you get a different cornering radius.. one might be able to measure it in video footage - horizon turn rate vs speedometer, accelerating vs braking</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">[i'd always wanted to leave physics-debug in with grip arrows etc as ingame option:) but there was no interest ]</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">In my postbizarre physics model, my rough values "by eye alone" gave me 2.5g cornering*(!!!) and I've just reduced it to 1.7 after actually looking at numbers.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">But I'm thinking I have an instinctive preference for cars with >2g cornering and it wouldn't suprise me if thats what MSR was actually doing when you brake.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Why not increase grip ALL THE TIME? - because it gives you mad 0-60 times. my current virtual car is doing 0-60 in about 2 seconds. :)</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I remember the amazing f355 having a feel of being able to hardly turn.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I came from the F1 game where cars can have 4g cornering due to downforce typically, so I was 'spoilt' :) and remember being shocked by realistic simple road cars that manage mere 1-1.3g cornering. boring..</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Now with you talking about 'arcadey feel' that might be what did it more so than the 'extended peak grip'... its' a gratuitous Hack that enables people who dont like braking to get round corners.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I would like to be able to get an arcadey feel without needing such extreme measures as grip scale with braking .. I prefer increased grip all the time or adding virtual downforce.. ( a downforce that you preseve when going sideways)</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I did get nostalgic after acti closure and looked at the whole of bizarre as one continuous act F1 onward. (its' so scary to see peeps calling F1,MSR 'retro games' - which they are now - because the whole 15 years was just one continous 'blur' for me)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Thanks for your reply. In the playable demo the normal brake has a limited role when cornering; it's really just used to slow your car beforehand. In the final version however, the best way to take a corner is to turn and brake together while alternating the throttle; if it's a sharp turn you may need to add a touch of handbrake or release the accelerator completely. The final version is certainly a lot easy to drive than the demo; you can compare the two videos for the same course below taking into account different cars were used in each:</span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><b>Demo:</b> </span></div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QM7FUEtN8iA" width="320" youtube-src-id="QM7FUEtN8iA"></iframe></div><div><br /><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><b>Final (Retail Version):</b></span></div><div><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mD2oKQTUn9c" width="320" youtube-src-id="mD2oKQTUn9c"></iframe></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Hope this helps... :)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Thanks for the info - that confirms it.</span></div><div><i><span style="color: #01ffff;">>>"the best way to take a corner is to turn and brake together while alternating the throttle"</span></i></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">- that 's the unintended consequence discovered by players of my increasing grip while you brake.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">I did that to avoid that 'unable to turn' feeling that you get when you go from an F1 car to say an MX5 (which is what i'd basically done, F1->MSR). I'm still shocked by it when i play other 'realistic' style racers.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Alternating throttle&brake is really messy .. thats' not what I intended :(</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Perhaps I should have put in mild F1 style downforce instead, exaggerated to kick in at low speeds.</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">Damn where's that time machine so I can go back and fix it!</span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #fcff01;">1.5-2g cornering is still not as mad as 4g F1 but much more fun than reality. Reality is a bit crap usually, which is why we have games to escape with :)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #01ffff;">Thanks for your response, glad I could help. On a side note you may wish to check out these links showing Bizarre doing some French TV spots for MSR (see my old blogpost 'MSR Early Videos' to view these).</span></div></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-55058276477864216102023-04-29T15:09:00.003-07:002023-04-29T15:18:01.130-07:00MSR Widescreen Argument (Google Groups/Usenet Archive)<h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://groups.google.com/g/uk.games.video.dreamcast/c/Qf1Nt_eJvp8/m/_bZURwII508J">Original Google Groups/Usenet topic</a> <br />Staff comment in bold. Main reply in yellow</h3><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">Just a curious observation.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">In the options screen for the multiplayer mode there is an option to set the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">screen to a widescreen mode. This works well enough, giving the cars the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">correct proportions when viewed on a widescreen tv.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Question is, why is this option not available in the single player mode?? As<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">it is you either have to have squat cars in widescreen mode or force the tv<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">into 4:3 ratio - what a waste!!</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I guess that's a minor gripe considering all the stuff that this game does<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">do well, but it would have been nice, a la F355.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">----<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Messing around with the in-game camera options appears to change the field of<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">view, perhaps somewhere in there you can find a bodge that looks better in 16:9.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">----<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Bizzare Creations probably forgot to put it in around about the same<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">time they forgot to take out all the bugs that f*****g ruin the game.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">----<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There is a wide screen mode in there if you beat one of the special<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">races(cant remember which one sorry) you get widescreen option in the cheat<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">modes menu see Dave you instant gratification freak its in there you just<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">have to earn it also in the cheat menu (but unlocked seperatly) is the</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">sickening bubble mode and the very funny silly cheat</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">----<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">No, that's a joke, right? You have to earn widescreen? F**k me, do you have </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;">to earn sound?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm still laughing after reading your message :)</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Its in there right after adjust camera in the cheat modes menu along with<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">force time and silly cheat.I am not the idiot who made it like that I am<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">just the guy who posted to tell that poor sod who can't figure it out where<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">it is complete the second special btw</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I don't think he was having a go at you, just at the fact that you have to<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">'earn' something which should be standars in games. i.e. widescreen mode.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I have a widescreen TV and didn't see a WS mode and so assumed it didn't<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">have one.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Putting it in as a cheat seems a bit strange.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Good game all the same.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">You access widescreen mode by doing the challenge which requires the mustang<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">car. The car can be accessed on a special challenge, I think it`s the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">chapter with the vauxhall vx220 under the cover. Let me say that the ratio<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">looks right on a widescreen tv but it doesn`t show any more picture either<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">side, but cuts off quite abit top and bottom which defeats the point of<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen really.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Damn that. Just like that crap widescreen mode in fur fighters(same<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">creators).<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">MSR would look great in anamorphic widescreen :(<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Ah well. The dc is not connected to my widescreen anyway...<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">That sony(!) 4:3 tv gives a much better image.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">F.Y.I. the widescreen mode in Fur Fighters is true 16:9 widescreen with a<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">much wider viewing angle and not just cut off top and bottom.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Get your facts right next time.</span></b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It is anamorphic but just doesn`t look right with how much it has took of</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">the top and bottom</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm sorry but it is not anamorphic widescreen.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">It loses a lot of the resolution in fur fighters. Anamorphic widescreen is<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">without borders.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Get your facts right...</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In 60Hz and widescreen settings on my Toshiba it's [Fur Fighters] certainly full 16:9<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen and without borders. Whether it's anamorphic or not, it looks<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">great. The real advantage of widescreen mode is for Fluffmatch where for 2<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">players the split screen is a vertical split, which I find much easier than<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">the non-widescreen mode horizontal split.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: arial;">The Widescreen mode keeps everything at the same perspective, the screen<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">shows the same visuals height wise but there is extra width and a much wider<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">viewing angle with far more information at the side of the screen. And<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">anamorphic widescreen does have borders top and bottom on all standard TV's<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">and even (dependant on aspect ratio) small borders on Widescreen TV's. The<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen mode in Fur Fighters was added whilst checking it on a Sony<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Widescreen TV to keep the aspect ratio as close as possible to widescreen<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">movies. The vertical resolution has to drop to do this as you have a maximum<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">horizontal resolution of 640, so the vertical dropped from 480 to 357 to<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">create the borders required to achieve a letterbox effect.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">If you require any further information on this please contact me at this<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">address [email redacted]</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Nick Wiswell<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Associate Producer<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Bizarre Creations</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: arial;">----</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Wah ?! This is just nonsense, and shows they have no understanding of<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen TV standards or even what `anamorphic' means.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">"The Widescreen mode keeps everything at the same perspective, the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">screen shows the same visuals height wise but there is extra<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">width and a much wider viewing angle with far more information at<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">the side of the screen."</span></i><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Fair enough. All OK so far.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"And anamorphic widescreen does have borders top and bottom on all<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">standard TV's and even (dependant on aspect ratio) small borders<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">on Widescreen TV's"</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">And now the confusion starts. He's muddled up widescreen movies with<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen TV. Wide TV has an aspect ratio of 16:9 (or 1.77:1).<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Movies are typically either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1, so of course you're<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">going to get black borders somewhere (at the sides if you're watching<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">an old academy ratio film or 4:3 TV broadcast). 16:9 is a compromise.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">He should be comparing with 16:9 TV broadcasts, which do exactly fill<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">the screen. (And watch out for those stupid 14:9 broadcasts which UK<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">broadcasters sometimes use to annoy everyone).</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">And the comment about anamorphic pictures having borders on a 4:3 TV<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">is just nonsense. The picture will fill the screen, but everything<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">will look tall and skinny as it has not been stretched out wide<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">enough when displayed.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-family: arial;">"The widescreen mode in Fur Fighters was added whilst checking it<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">on a Sony Widescreen TV"</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">OK.</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>"to keep the aspect ratio as close as possible to widescreen movies."</i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Now why do they have to do that?</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><i><span style="font-family: arial;">"The vertical resolution has to drop to do this as you have a<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">maximum horizontal resolution of 640, so the vertical dropped<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">from 480 to 357 to create the borders required to achieve a letterbox <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">effect."</span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Aha. Here's why. They're using letterboxed 4:3 output and *not*<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">anamorphic. An anamorphic picture has exactly the same number of<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">lines as a standard 4:3 picture, but they are intended to be stretched <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">further apart on a 16:9 display. The `pixels' (there aren't really any in <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">an analogue broadcast) are *wider*, so your 640 pixels in each line are <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">rectangular instead of square.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Sounds like they've been doing their testing with the TV's zoom mode<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">instead of stretch. Doh!</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">They should take a look at a game that does it properly (ie Wacky<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Races, Rayman 2), or set up a DVD player by telling it that the TV is<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen and seeing what happens when they connect it to a 4:3 TV<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">(everything looks tall and skinny - or rather squashed in from the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">sides), then maybe they'll understand what anamorphic means.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><i><span style="font-family: arial;">"If you require any further information on this please contact me at this<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">address [email redacted]<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Nick Wiswell<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Associate Producer<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Bizarre Creations"</span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>I can't be bothered.</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Try starting here: http://www.dvdweb.co.uk/information/anamorphic.htm<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">(though they've assumed that 1.85:1 is the same as 1.77:1 - most wide<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">TVs have so much overscan you never see the black bars with a 1.85:1<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">movie).</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">There are other (better) descriptions of what anamorphic means on the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">net. Why don't you try asking in news:uk.media.dvd ? A subject line<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">such as ``What does anamorphic mean?'' should have the desired<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">results. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><b>Sound of me running quickly away:-)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">--</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Thanks for that and congratulations on a great game, I'm really enjoying Fur<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Fighters.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Looks like MSR will be my next purchase as well. Back to the original<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">qustion though: why is the widescreen mode apparently in the cheat menu for<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">MSR?</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">----</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><i><span style="font-family: arial;">"Nick Wiswell<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Associate Producer<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Bizarre Creations"</span></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Aha, the guilty man - now you're for it ;) Why is the Widescreen setting<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">in MSR something you have to play half the game to win?!?!?! This is er,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">strange.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I would really have liked their to be a widescreen option to have been<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">available from the beginning 8(</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Still, ace game ;)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">First I should say that I *love* Fur Fighters. It's a great game.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Playing the fluffmatch in the demo in a Toys 'R' Us months and months<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">ago convinced me I wanted a DC.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">But the ``widescreen'' option is a regrettable mis-feature. It makes<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">nobody happy. And by the sounds of it it's because widescreen is<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widely misunderstood. And that's perhaps to be expected as<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">broadcasters, TV manufacturers and DVD publishers have conspired to<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">make it as confusing as possible.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For example:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">* Dreadful ``smart stretching'' modes on wide TVs (there are probably<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">hundreds if not thousands of people out there watching stretched<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">4:3 analogue broadcasts who are now convinced they are watching<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen TV).<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">* Wrongly labelled DVDs (that say enhanced for 16:9, but are not)<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">* 14:9 compromise broadcasts that don't fill *any* TV screen<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">* Nobody making it clear that the only source of (anamorphic)<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen material is DVD or digital TV (despite only a handful of<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen TVs having an integrated digital tuner)<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">* Widescreen meaning either letterboxed or anamorphic (or both)<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">* Legacy letterboxed widescreen material on VHS and analogue TV<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">broadcasts that mean your wide TV needs a `zoom' mode as well as<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">stretch.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">* The irrational dislike of black bars (either at the top and bottom<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">or at the sides) when the aspect ratio of the material you are<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">watching does not match your display, leading to the above<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">mentioned `smart' stretch modes.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">It's not widely understood that if you have a DVD player attached to<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">a 4:3 TV then your DVD player actually has to throw away nearly 25%<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">of the lines and fake up black borders at the top and bottom of the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">screen if you watch an anamorphic disk. Some players do a good job<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">and interpolate a new set of lines, others just throw away every<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">fourth line and you get jaggy squashed looking pictures. I bet some<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">people have their DVD set up like that and then are using the zoom<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">mode on their wide TV and wondering why everyone says DVD is great<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">when it looks dreadful on their TV.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So I accept that the `widescreen' mis-feature in Fur Fighters (and by<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">the sounds of it MSR too) came about through lack of good information<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">about what anamorphic means and was an honest misunderstanding.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Damn. Someone handed me a coffee half way through that.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">----</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Geez. We are talking about anamorphic widescreen here.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In your widescreen modes you have to set your tv to 16:9 zoom mode. You'll<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">lose resolution as you just stated. In an anamorphic widescreen games the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">resolution is still 640*480 but the image is squized. So the owners of the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">widescreen tv's set their tv's stretch the image horizontally and you'll<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">have a full screen 16:9 game.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">It's the same with dvd.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Try playing f355, toy commander or any other wide game on widescreen mode.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">You won't have borders.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">It's more processor intensive that way but certainly possible.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Looking forward to your reply on the matter.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">----</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">I too then must apologise, as I am not 100% sure what the definition of<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">anamorphic Widescreen really is, maybe we should have called it "letterbox"<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">mode instead. (at least we did make the picture wider unlike some games we<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">could mention who do just either squish the picture or cut stuff off top and<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">bottom). The DC doesn't support widescreen per se so this is the only way we<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">could do it, and I got a bit pissed off because we had to spend ages<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">optimising the code to make it run smoothly with extra polys now visible at<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">the sides. The TV we tested it on did have a couple of annoying zoom modes,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">but we only used the setting that didn't stretch the picture, just actually<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">cut off the top and bottom of the screen therefore removing the borders from<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">view.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Sorry for any ranting, glad you liked the game</b></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">----</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Here is a good "visual demo" of the whole widescreen/anamorphic thing,<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">after watching it most people go "ahhhhhhhh, I get it now". :)</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">http://www.dvdweb.co.uk/information/anamorphic.htm</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Widescreen isn't something a console can support. It's in the games. And the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">squishing you mention in some games is far better than the option in msr.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The squising (strange word) is anamorphic. You stretch it out on a widescreen<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">tv to get the correct ratio.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">---</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Having finally obtained this cheat, I thought that I'd be able to enjoy<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">correct ratios, even if there is a little cropped top and bottom , but<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">there's still a problem.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In my experience, the cheat is only active for one race - if you set it<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">to ON, do a race (where it is indeed widescreen), then return to the<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">cheat screen, the option is OFF again.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I can't believe this!! Do Bizarre really expect people to want to race<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">once in widescreen mode, just for fun, then return to normal play?</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">If anyone has had other experiences, let me know, but as it stands I<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">think it's ridiculous to have such a feature only available in this<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">way. As someone else says in this thread, ar</span><span style="font-family: arial;">e we expected to unlock<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">sound in a game using a cheat mode!!</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-27686807464838423692023-04-20T17:32:00.003-07:002023-04-20T17:32:40.054-07:00The Making Of Metropolis Street Racer at timeextension.com<p><a href="https://www.timeextension.com/features/the-making-of-metropolis-street-racer-the-origin-of-the-project-gotham-series">https://www.timeextension.com/features/the-making-of-metropolis-street-racer-the-origin-of-the-project-gotham-series</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-91974805573566799772023-04-20T16:49:00.003-07:002023-04-20T16:50:58.528-07:00Bizarre confirming that Porsche, Honda & Quest Mode cheats are fake (Original ezboard topic 'Fact or Fiction': created on 1 February 2001. Original ezboard topic 'Please': created on 26 November 2001)<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Staff postings are in bold</span></p><p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010506183343/http://pub40.ezboard.com:80/fbizarrecreationsfrm2.showAddReplyScreenFromWeb?topicID=48.topic"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Original Archive.org link</span></a><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Is the awesome roadster Honda S2000 really in the game?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I’ve just finished Street Racing mode—unlocked all cars and cheats—and I don’t see it... :(</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">It's not there :D</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Would have liked it though... Damn nice car...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I'm sure it is...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">That’s strange... The largest cheat site in North America is reporting that Honda S2000 and Porsche 911 are hidden in the game.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Quote:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Honda S2000: Successfully complete the game once in quest mode.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Porsche 911: Successfully complete the game twice in quest mode.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Source: GameWinners.com</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Uuhh.... What's that?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Some exclusive for the US version perhaps?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">“Huh... What’s [quest mode]? Some exclusive for the US version perhaps?” </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">You’ve got me. Quest mode sounds like something from an RPG. ;)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">But this is intriguing. Although I’ve unlocked the cars and cheats in Street Race mode, six tracks in each city are still locked! Maybe there’s a hidden chapter or mode...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">or it could be another dreaded bug ;-)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hehe, I also had some tracks left after completing the game. But I used the "Open all" cheat to unlock them, and did time trials so I got times on them. Then they stay unlocked when you're not using the cheat.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I basically did this only to get a total time ^_^</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Honda S2000 (i love this car) in MSR ??</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">YES!, here is a screenshot:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Here's another one:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>I'm afraid that in the final version of the game, it became fiction.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>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.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>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.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Sorry :(</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Stubbette</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Mmm... and the other one, the Porsche 911?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">By the way, what's 'quest mode'?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>That's fiction too, I'm afraid. I don't know who made up this 'quest mode' cheat, as it's been circulating for a while. But it is wrong - it says on some sites that you can 'buy' the car when you restart - which as you know, isn't the case in MSR.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Sorry again, folks!</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Stubbette</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Stubbette;</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I find it very weird that such many restrictions were put on you in order to gain the car licenses... I mean, another certain series of car racing games on the PSX (oh damn am I discrete :D ) is crawling with Hondas, and that has them flying over crests like ever so many Wipeout ships.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Isn't that kind of contradictory?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Are the PR people at Honda recieving fat Sony kickback checks?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Doesn't anyone like to be mentioned together with "Sega"?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Is the earth really banana-shaped?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">So many questions. Can they ever be answered?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">*shock horror* Sony giving out bribes?! What's the world coming to?!!?! Hehe. I would of loved to have seen cars like the Robin Reliant or the Mitsubishi Midget. A comedy car league would of been brilliant on MSR. Missed opportunity. Actually, the New Beetle would of been great on MSR too...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">One of these days all car manufactuers won't give a toss about damage to their cars and we can have MSR2 complete with damage zones! Debris on the road from crashes! Car bonnets being flung and damaging shop windows!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">That reminds me of a cool game idea I once had - "F1 Apocolypse" - basically, F1 but set in the future where all those bloody courses are all knackered and decayed and damaged. All the drivers could drive around in F1 cars with Mad Max customisations... imagine Michael Schumacer with a tommy gun in his converted F1. Aw, I'm in the wrong job here... :P</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Just as a matter of interest, you mentioned elsewhere that you are working on a game. Are you an amateur developer working on a MOD or a fully fledged, full time, this-is-my- job developer? :-)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Stubbette</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">AFAIK, he's a real life game developer! Probably either in Liverpool or North Wales, if I'm guessing correctly ;-)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Of course!! You notice my baggy eyes from late nights and my boiling enthusiasm... and I'm from the North Wales division of the "illustrious" Jester Interactive! I'm working with a team named "Horny Dog" on a game for Dreamcast called Hellgate at the moment, and it's my first title and I'm loving it!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I'm an artist, and although it's a cool job, there's one word of warning - you will have very little time to play games, hence my MSR weekend last week, which was ace! Our website will be online on Feb 28th - www.hornydog.co.uk/ = there's a new Jester site too, but it's been touched by the nastines which is corporate pants, so I'm hoping our developer website will be anything but!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Oh, and I heard some of the guys at Bizarre were invited to the Music party a while back - you do realise Music 3 is on the horizon? Go on, hound [redacted] "I did the music to Wipeout, guv" Wright..! It's the least you can do, seeming he enjoys scaring the heck out of me in his fast yellow sports car. :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">All the best,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Glad to see you're hard at it late at night - no rest for the wicked! It's amazing how big Jester's grown - we're still a little diddy 'amateur' developer ;-)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">The Music party co-incided with Jez and the lads from Argonaut popping up to our offices. Tim sorted us out with a load of tickets and we turned up already steaming, after a grappa drinking contest at Est!Est!Est!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">My long-standing memory of that party was sitting on the loo holding onto both sides of the cubicle to stop it spinning....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">So how is [redacted]? Send him our love and wet sloppy kisses...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Mmmmmm, anyway, somebody's got more comments on the gameplay?!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">----</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Sorry, msrfreak - eeer. Oh, I found out that if you go r-e-a-l-l-y fast and then brake, then handbrake, turn right then immediately turn left, you'll do a 360! And that's truth, no lie :P</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Back to developer chat... [redacted]'s okay, he's just weary of all the Music incarnations at the moment. He's managed to scare the crap out of me on several occasions with his stupidly fast sports car, even to the point where we argued with a 10 ton bin lorry... :P</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Jester's scarily grown - there's too many people in the Liverpool office to recognise, let alone remember! Mold here is a nice friendly place where we all realise our common goal is overwork and underlove... I'm hoping our game will be out on Dreamcast, but I've just seen the new DC set top box and I'm scared..! Nooo! Keep it awaaay!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I think [redacted] misses the smallish-ness which used to be Jester... we're slowly turning into Sony. Not good at all. Back to moving dots and lines on a monitor for me... :P</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Keep up the ace work,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Please...</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Okay, I know I probably suck at this, and what I am about to ask it very sad but, does anyone have or know of cheats? Please ANYTHING will do, maybe a cheat car? Or the tracks... come on, some one MUST know something - MUST! I know I'm sad and spare me the lecture on fair gameplay and all that $hit, but PLEASE!!! I NEED CHEATS FOR CARS AND TRACKS AND $HIT!!! - I know I am sad :(</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Anything will help - ANYTHING!!! BOO HOO :\</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">:evil :evil :evil :evil :evil :evil :evil :evil :evil :evil</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Well, i'm sorry to tell you, but you are on your own!...</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">The only cheats in MSR are ones that you must earn. And the truth is, you become a better driver to be able to finish the game...........in turn...your get the cheats. But, the cheats are not what you may think. They are some new cars......not exotic ones......3 taxies, 3 buses and a lawnmower. there are someother cheats, like a new camera options, time of day option, bubble cheat....weird!.....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">So start learing how to drive better and enjoy some of the great cars that await you.<br /><br /></span></p><p>Also another posting confirming the same thing</p><p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030717095447/http://pub40.ezboard.com/fbizarrecreationsfrm2.showMessage?topicID=164.topic">Original Archive.org link</a><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">To get all the tracks, Hold down .START. Durring the Intro...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">to get two bonues cars .. Press , durring the intro . A ,B ,A ,UP ,DOWN ,Y ,LEFT ,X</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">That cheat is utter moot.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Ive heard it before but the START at intro and all that, WTF.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I'm just trying to work my way through the game. I assume everyone knows the good ol' get millions of Kudos on FASTEST TIME Hotlap races?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">----</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Hey, that's sounds like a great cheat... I'd like to say it works but... we never actually put anything like that it into MSR... unfortunately you have to earn all the extras you get... sorry... :rolleyes</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Yeah... we've found out about the millions of Kudos stuff fairly soon after MSR was out... some things slip through test, especially when your up against tight release deadlines at the end of a project... bet ya can't do it on Gotham though... :smokin</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Trent</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>PGR2</b></span></p><div><br /></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-62024159670192959102023-04-20T16:34:00.000-07:002023-04-20T16:34:00.159-07:00MSR Graphics (Original ezboard topic 'Graphics'. Created on 25 April 2001)<p>Staff posts are in bold</p><p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030717093408/http://pub40.ezboard.com/fbizarrecreationsfrm2.showMessage?topicID=131.topic">Original Archive.org Link</a><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I got MSR the other day, why I didn't get it before puzzles me now. It looks amazing. What surprised me a bit, though I now remember having noticed it in screenshots, was the absence of MIP-mapping. Although it does cause some pixellation it is no worse than blurring and keeps the details in the distance. My question is, was it an artistic or technical decision not to use MIP-mapping?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I must give kudos (pun intended of course) to you guys for the visual appearence of the game, because the buildings and scenery feel HUGE. The skyscrapers in Tokyo really feel like scyscrapers and not like hollow matchboxes as in many other racing games. Racing in Tokyo at night was a very powerful experience, the sense of presence in this game is absolutely stellar.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">----</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hi Ho!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Belive it, there are mip maps!!! There must be... :) Ervery game use and NEED mip mapping, you don't have enough power to live without!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I never saw the mip maps (from msr) outside the game, bu I guess they done with love! First resize, and a litle paintshop (to redraw the importent details)...finsih!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">----</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">or i'm wrong</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">tell me if I'm on the wrong way :) thnx</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">----</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hi,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">on a cold January afternoon did we have a fireplace chat about that topic:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">If you search a little more you should find also the thread about mipmapping. I don't think that BC will make another reply to yours...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">oki alright :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">btw. Know somebody the Car Polycount?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I guess about 1500?!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">----</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Further findings</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Well, I couldn't actually find the thread on MIP-mapping...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Anyway, I have noticed upon further examination that MSR does use MIP-mapping, but only for the most critical textures, such as gravel and the tiling of a tunnel wall in Tokyo. I guess they did indeed skip it for most textures so to preserve detail.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Howdy doodly do,</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>I'll try and not ramble... too much to do for E3 and all that... anyway....</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Yes... things are mip-mapped.... not everything though... and this was a combination of technical and artistic reasons... on the technical front... mip-mapping the tree textures were a real speed win for us based on the hardware architecture, so they were a must. The railings and fences on the other hand(which is where most of the problems occur) were tried... and the mip-mapping just made them look even worse... quite close into the distance they'd turn into horrible messes... it's a case of where it works... use it... where it doesn't... don't...</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>The other side of the coin was we didn't have enough video ram to mip-map everything either... if you let the artists go mad and build cities with that many textures... they're gonna fill up what precious memory you have pretty quickly... there's loads of unique textures on buildings... such is modelling real life... :(</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Hope this answers your questions... and hopefully post-E3 we'll be able to respond to other stuff a little quicker than we currently do... it's just we're a tad busy at the moment... :)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Cheers,</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Trent</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Senior Programmer</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Project Gotham (and MSR)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">It is amazing how much faster the frame rate does increase with mipmapping - on Hellgate we mipmapped a lot, and we did get a pretty dramatic increase in speed. Of course, video RAM gets decidedly low but that's the trade off you get.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I don't think the pavement barriers around the course on MSR are mipmapped - hence the "strobing" effect you get. Saying that, if they were mipmapped, you'd probably get a bit of a blurry mess halfway down the course. In some areas of San Francisco as well, you can tell many textures aren't mipmapped because of some strobing effects on brickwork and some of the skyscrapers.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Oh, I'm reading in many PS2 mags about the possibility of a PS2 MSR. Is this true? It certainly is the right genre for PS2 being a driving game and all... ^_^</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Would you just do a straight port and limit the texture space, or chuck more polies in the cars, ooorrrr maybe use some of the city geometry from Project Gotham? The basic rule of thumb for DC and PS2 development is that Dreamcast has more textures to chuck around but less polies, but PS2 has more polies to chuck around and less textures.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hope my wealth of development information gained from stress, pain and other such delights helps.. :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">The cool thing is, you can well compensate for lower poly counts through good use of texturing, but you can never make up for N64-ish textures... Innit, Steve? :D</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Much as it pains me to think about MSR on PS2... *urk* I mean, Quake III Revolution on PS2 is also texture intensive. Oooh, look. Blurry N64 textures. Just like Mr. Sony said - "Graphics like Toy Story" ^_^</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I'll think I'll watch some non-blurry DVDs.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Is anybody wondering why MSR doesnt have full headlight effects? The headlights in the game only shine in front of the cars about 2 feet! I wonder why the headlights dont shine far into the distance, and onto objects? Maybe the Dreamcast couldnt handle it, although I dont see why it couldnt, since a lot of psx games used it! Or maybe the developers didnt have time to fine tune the effect! Thats the only thing I didnt like about the game, during the night races, I couldnt see a damn thing! Other than that, everything else was spectacular! Well, at least I get what I want on the X-Box version! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Take care all.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-85332147250283876362023-04-20T16:28:00.002-07:002023-04-20T16:28:35.714-07:00MSR Modelling (Original ezboard topic 'MSR Modelling. Started on 17 January 2001)<p>Bizarre Creations's staff posts are in bold.</p><p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030717103725/http://pub40.ezboard.com:80/fbizarrecreationsfrm2.showMessageRange?topicID=28.topic&start=1&stop=20">Original Archive.org Link</a></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">In reply to the question in the 'Meet the Bizarre Guys' thread, the modelling in MSR was done using SoftImage, with Photoshop used for the textures. The additional data for the game was done in our own package, MetGP, which allowed us to add in start/finish/split lines, cameras, AI data, start grids, etc...</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Merci Merci Stubette</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">So you DO use more SoftImage than 3DS Max...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hello!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">What LOW POLY MODELING with SI? Or LOW POLY with 3DsMax *g*</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I believe LW are better for this work! I use it every day, it's fast and great :) !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Try it!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">We've generally used SoftImage for most of our modelling and animation, but do evaluate other packages at regular intervals. We do also have our own in-house packages which can be used for large scale modelling, such as a complete game-creation system used to model Fur Fighter levels (known as 'tubby custard'!).</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">What we have to weigh up in changing to a new package is the time saved by the other packages versus the time it would take for all the artists to relearn the new software.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Thanks for the tipoff though - we'll get the artists onto it ;-)</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Modeling :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Yeah, the time!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Do it fast and dirty or good and slow!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I know this. But work ervery gfx artist at BC with SI?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Whats are if a gfx-artist want a other programm (si, maya, 3dsmax.....)???</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Can you tell me how much polygons one MSR car have, please?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Once started - I'll never stop! S. started me up!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Yes -- but how did the team model the cars? I guess they have to follow strictly car manufacter guidelines (as stated in the license?).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">The dashboard/in car textures and external badges are also done with great care... It's a product of quality!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Thanks in advance for your reply, and a great x to Stubbette!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">You can model a low poly car (for realtime games) very fast, about 2days for one car. Depends on the Poly Count! (I believe the other guys will tell you the same!)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I've read in the msr credits that only one guy modelt the car's!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">But I must criticism that some cars not looks like the real one, sorry!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">ok thtas enough. :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I'll get an artist to post about the 'how it's done', etc.!</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">As for why ALL SoftImage, imagine the nightmare of 10-15 artists on a team all working on different packages to each other - it would be a logistical nightmare! Not only do the programmers need to import the data in the same format from the artists (each program has a different data format which would need to be decoded), but the artists all swap around and help each other out too.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">We work in the same was as the other games companies we know - generally they take a policy decision via their senior artists as to what package is being used across the team. So if someone looking for a job ONLY wants to use Max, for example, then they'd have to find a company that uses Max, I suppose. Most of our guys had no SI experience when they came to us, but are more than happy to use it now....</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">HTH, Stubbette</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I had also the feeling that the game industry was dropping 3DS, and using more SI. Their support for the programming world is better too.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">But it's still painful for 3DS, 5 years ago I had a passion: 3DSR4 - those days are gone now. Thanks God! Without the evolution of these softs, we should'nt have a MSR! I'm lucky ;)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Don't forget to reply to my 'how it's done' post - I'm very interested!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Please, don't use Max. I use it every day and it's a PAIN. Bugged to heck, etc. etc. Check out [redacted] to see what our entire Max-using office make of it! We're hoping to drift into Maya but that's never going to happen. Max is nice and cheap. :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">One thing I'm fascinated by is the fact the poly counts of the cars in MSR are roughly the same as the poly counts in GT3 on PS2, except, of course, GT3 cheats by having blackened windows and no drivers to produce as well.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hmmm. I think I need to hint again..</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">*cough* MSR 2 *cough*</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Keep up the ace work, gang!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hey [redacted]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">that's quite a list of complaints!! Once again, I'm very sorry for mentioning 3DS - I think that Autodesk is still surviving because of AutoCAD.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Don't ask me how the PS2 will do!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Re: MSR Modelling....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hiya.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I noticed that some of the later car models in my MSR ("buggy" first PAL master) seem to be thrown together in a bit of a rush. Like the Celica GT Four, where the driver only has one arm (or was that some other car? my memory is slipping) and some other cars with missing polys on the driver... Was this a matter of deadline induced slips or are they (highly unlikely) 3Dengine draw bugs?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Also, did the "glowing brake discs" function get dumped entirely? I have yet to see it in the game... It must have been a late call anyway, since it's visible in the intro movie...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">One last question. How do you guys feel about the CRI software Mpeg decoder that the DC uses? I mean, it basically makes all the DC FMV look like shite, since you have to compress it more to make it run better. I'm usually an FMV basher, since I think realtime intros and cutscenes are more suitable to display the machine's power and the coders abilities (I mean, even the MegaCD could show FMV), but sometimes when FMV is a better or cooler option, I think they should at least look good.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Re: MSR Modelling....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Like we're talking in a realtime chat ;) Perhaps bizarre can start an official MSR IRC channel?!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Well, I'm driving the Clio V6 (my fav - a REAL race bomb - with REAL physics) with the steering wheel fixed in the passenger's airbag...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hi guys,</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Just thought I'd give you some info on how we modelled some of our stuff. I worked on MSR for about 18 months and during my time on that team I got to model just about everything from buildings/cities to cars to statues to drivers. The cars were mainly the work of one guy but all told there was about 8 of us that built them, with one guy doing the textures. Initially, we rotascoped splines from schematic drawings provided by the manufacturers (in Softimage). We then had to turn these 2D splines of each view (side, front, back and top) into 3D splines. This was done by, for example, taking a spline from the front view, viewing it from the top view, and moving its points to make it line up with the corresponding spline in that view. We only work on half a car and then mirror it when its finished. The result is a 3D spline shape of the car, which then acts as a template for stitching in polys. Naturally, a lot of tweaking is involved and constant use of research photos to achieve the finished model. That's it for the high detail model. Then the other levels of detail are derived from that one by removing edges and vertices until the model falls under the relevant poly limit. Screenshots and renders of the high detail wireframe models were used to match the textures up perfectly. We also duplicated the car body so that the programmers could use that to render the specular highlights.</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>So now you know. I've just given away all our secrets. Well, maybe not all of them</b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Car modeling!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">What!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">You have model High poly cars for the textures!?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I guess you can finish a Car model faster if you create the car textures with a 2d paint programme (like photo shop!)!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Sorry but I would do it so!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">But why can I nowhere read anything about the poly count, are this a secret?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">regards, [redacted]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hello,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Im not sure if this has been said already,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">But the textures on the cars where in fact hand drawn.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">No high res model was constructed (other than for the front-end - using the same textures as the in-game cars)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">The splines traced from the schematics were merely used as a guide for constructing the in-game meshes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">So you did get a little help (in 2D) from the manufacturers - of course in SI format.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Again, you (and the team) modelled the cars with such precision. Anyway, the Clio V6 (which isn't an easy one to model) is simply gorgeus (read: better than the model used in GT).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hey, what happened with the high detail renderings?! Desktop wallpapers? Can I have one? ;)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Thx Max - keep posting</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Yes, indeed, the front-end models are great. Better than the in-game cars... ;)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I've forgotten...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">... to give alot of Kudos to Stubbette, she's great!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hey, Stubbette are you a member of the oh so popular IRC channel (don't wonna name it - you know what I mean)?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Re: I've forgotten...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Dang! Found out again!! Yes, I must admit I do pop in there sometimes when time permits....;)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">IRC channel</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Ahaha... Seems like Stubbette's busted.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">What IRC Network btw? =DDD</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">See ya later in IRC chat... Don't name it, it's between you and me ;)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Thanks for your (and the BC team's) sympathy!</span></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-85959502920217308302023-04-20T16:10:00.006-07:002023-04-20T16:52:27.715-07:00MSR Criticism (ezboard forum topic: 'Bizarre Creations We Salute You'. Created on 19 December 2000)<p><b>The critic's posts are in bold</b></p><p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010507120621/http://pub40.ezboard.com/fbizarrecreationsfrm2.showMessage?topicID=8.topic" style="font-family: arial;">Original Archive.org Link</a></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">This is for all the team at bizarre creations who worked on MSR. You guys and gals know what real gamers want and MSR proves that you people are the best at what you do and thats making brilliant games !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">MSR this is a brilliant game and i've only bought it yesterday and i'm hooked ! the realism, graphics and gameplay is out of this world. This puts my faith back in the Dreamcast, i bought it when it arrived on the scene and since R2R [Ready To Rumble] came out i thought that was it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">PS2 around the corner and that the DC would be dead in the water, and now MSR have placed my faith back in the Dreamcast i'll be playing this game everyday throughout the holidays and after !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Just like to take my hat off to you guys at bizarre creations and let you know that someone really thanks you for your great skill and expertise in gaming, at least someone out there knows what we want !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">bizarre creations for me is a symbol of great gaming ! Where ever i see your symbol behind game boxes i'll be willing to part with my money without question !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Cheers guys have a great christmas and new year and may your future games have the realism, clarity and proffesionalism as MSR !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">over and Out !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Oh by the way guys i forgot any chance MSR2 on the books ? I know you guys work on projects asap so is it likely to say we DC fans will be seeing for next christmas MSR2 ?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I hope we do bizarre creations know when they're on a winner besides SEGA will be handing BUCKET loads of cash to you guys for REVAMP of MSR like it needs it !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I was playing MSR today as usual and found what i think is a rare bug !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">On chapter 6 i think with the track where you have to overtake 11 cars in under 4mins. I was going around a corner with brake/handbrake movement and the screen went black with the timer still ticking down but the mph read and wait for it -2147483648 ! wow back in time ! and the cars on the map were stood still !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Wondering if you guys at bizarre creations found a similar bug ? any testing jobs going on ?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Still getting cramp in me hands/fingers dam DC controller not designed with the human hands, to many straight box lines, PS has the best gaming pad !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Oh had trouble going online couldnt detect modem !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I had that bug, but I have many more fun features with my version of the game...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Toyko is night time all the time. No daylight ever shines its beautiful bright ambience on the bright neon. Ever.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Championship bug - come any position in Championships, and you'll be congratulated for coming first. Yikes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Disappearing cars - very handy, actually. I was playing a San Francisco course (the one with the huge hill which goes on for MILES) and all the cars except my car disappeared and I came first. Coo.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Still, at least the game itself is gorgeous - first class stuff, and everything else about the title shines - superb music (except the Country and Western.. :) ), beautiful graphics, incredible handling. The non-buggy MSR should be out now. But I'm keeping my buggy copy just for the memories... *sob*</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Here's hoping for MSR 2 :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">i got a bugged copy DOH</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">[redacted] my man ! hello how are you! remember me? i had a bugged copy twice! i took the first one back and got another bugged one, but it is sorted now.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hiya, Mr. [redacted] </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Been good, still working at Jester Interactive on Hellgate for Dreamcast which should be out... at this rate... Summer 2005!! Only kidding. We're hoping for an Easter 2001 release, but if the game goes online - hooo, boy! Haven't seen you about for ages - you don't write, call or chat!! I'm still hanging around Yahoo Chat like a drunken bum, by the way...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Good to hear from you again!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Happppy Neew Year!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">------</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">cool man! i have had a lot of college work to do recently, still computergames1 ? i'll be there throughout the evenings 10-12 pm next week, jan1-8th. drunken bum lol! is it snowing where you are?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">MSR is Bugged to @#%$..very dissapointing....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">how the hell it got so rated is unbeleivable..</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">the graphics are third rate compared to some of the more stellar efforts..</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">the car models reak of @#%$</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">and above all, what good is the game, when the most fundamentla aspect of the gameplay(the kudos system) doesn't work....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">overal, i'm extremely dissapointed at how Bizzare managed this whole thing</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Quite how it sold so many copies is beyond me. Sega reckon the new "bug free" copies are ready to role.....but seeing as the USA version still ain't out....the question is..how bug free is it?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">The game just stinks in my opinion..any credibility it may have had, has long been flushed downb the toilet for me...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">and 3 years in development?..hahahahahahahaha</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">what utter crap.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">so what if it isn't out in the USA yet? thats a good thing. then. i am assuming that all you have seen is the poor rolling version, where the cars did look a bit poor(dont tell em i said that) but since then, they cars have been given a more realistic look.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"> i have the game and i had a bugged copy, but it was no biggie, i took it back and got a fixed one.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">whats this..." the graphics are third rate compared to some of the more stellar efforts.." what stellar efforts are these? GT3? seen the backgrounds and locations in that??? good???!!! don't make me laugh, they are the same as in GT1+2, MSR is one of the most complete racing games i have played ever. the Kudos system is a great way of making you drive on the grey stuff instead of bouncing around the edges. and all the challenges and stuff make you want to play it more and more!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">car models reak of @#%$??? the only bad thing is they have Opels instead of Vauxhalls</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">----</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I am no fanboy...never have been....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">i rate every console by its own merits...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">The dreamcast has some amazing games, and is the best console have ever owned..period.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">oh i had the full version....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">let us make no mistake. GT3 will piss all over MSR in terms of visuals...even the backgrounds are looking top in the latest biuld..</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">in comparison MSR's car models look like playstation efforts</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">MSR is probably an amazing driving game...but the 10000 of us who got a fucked copy..are still pissed...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">you have a bug free copy?....just keep telling yourself that</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I rang up sega europe....they only started sending out "bug free" copies last week or so..</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">for me Bizzares credibility has just taken a massive nose dive</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">what happened?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">i did have a bugged copy twice. but i have got a good copy i exchanged this week.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>I have a bugged copy too (they all are - SEGA still haven't despatched any of the new "bug-free" batch to anybody that sent their bugged version to them to be exchanged)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Bugs or not, I think MSR has been hysterically overrated by all and sundry.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>For me, it doesn't have 128bit quality. The graphics appear nice at first, but after you play it for a short while you notice some alarming discrepencies (apart from the dull car modls) - the way the cars look when it's foggy or misty is almost embarrasing, and there is severe slowdown (particularly on night-time races) when there's a lot of cars onscreen at once. Rainy weather & tyre smoke slow it even further.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Another thing, the night races are far too dark - you can hardly see where the hell you're going!</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>This might be realistic..I dont know, because I don't live in London, San Fransico or Tokyo..but the gameplay shouldn't suffer at the cost of being realistic.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Even when playing MSR in daylight races, it appears very DULL - is there no sunshine in these cities for god's sake?!</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Although MSR as a game, is quite playable, there is very little depth to it - because of the simplified physics employed in the handling routines, there are only a few ways to take a corner in the game.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>That, coupled with the fact that all of MSR's roads are perfectly flat - there's no height variations, small bumps, or undulations - these are the sort of things (and realistic handling physics) that were introduced three years ago (on a 32bit console, not a 128bit one) in Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>After playing GT/GT2, MSR comes across as being a rather shallow game by comparison, and seems as if it was developed with "casuals" in mind.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Only the fact that there are hundreds of "tracks" and lots of races to take part in, saves MSR from total disaster in my opinion.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>To play the real "Best Racer Ever", you still need a Dreamcast, but you need to buy a game that was made in Japan. Namely, AM2's Ferrari F355 Challenge.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>This is everything that MSR is not. Gorgeous to look at - rock-solid 60fps with no slowdown WHATSOEVER, beautiful weather effects, stunning car models... And a dream to play - accurate models of some of the world's finest tracks, realistic physics and handling characteristics which allow almost limitless depth to the gameplay, network race mode...F355 is a true 128bit game, and one which MSR will never live up to.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">What the...?! So, obviously you've never driven down any of the tracks in San Francisco. Plus, there's plenty of small undulations in the St James Park areas of London including the bridge. Pah. Sour grapes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">GT3 may be looking all gorgeous and all that jazz, but don't forget the fact that a game like MSR which is incredibly texture heavy will be difficult to do on PS2. Evidence of this is the piss-poor Midnight Club (Street Racing - yuk, yuk) which car models are hilariously bad.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Also, where are the human drivers in GT3? MSR has humans driving the cars, which adds a lot to the game. And poly count wise, GT3 and MSR have more or less the same amount of polys per car, just that Bizarre had to model the interiors as well. GT3 cheats with windows which are pretty untransparent so you can't see other details.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Sure, the bugged version of MSR being released was a bit of an upset but it's been rectified now. You can't criticise the cities in MSR because they're all absolutely gorgeous to look at - 3 years development, yeah, but look at where it's gone into. I keep looking, but I haven't found a single texture balls-up in any of the cities.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">PS2 relies too heavily on it's superb particle abilities and heat haze, and I have played GT3 and it was a surreal experience playing courses I knew on the PSOne version rendered in PS2 quality. But you take away all those nice effects, strip down the game to it's fundamentals, and it's still GT2. Only with nicer graphics.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Besides, the handling in MSR is superb - slick, responsive and although not as realistic as GT3, it's FUN!!!! For crying out loud!!! F355 may be great and all that, but you give a copy to Mr. Causal Gamer and watch him cry as his lovely Ferrari spins out for the 120th time...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">i have already read this today and i couldn't be arsed to write all that lol! also, the only pop up i can find is either a) in your mirror, or b) in multiplayer!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">ok Mr [redacted]. lol</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>I wasn't talking about slopes or hills like the SF races - I'm talking about small bumps in the road surface.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Gran Turismo & F355 both have this, and because they do, they are more demanding & rewarding to play.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>eg: in MSR, there's no "driver involvement" - the roads are perfectly flat, with no small bumps or banked corners to throw your car off-line.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>But, playing both F355 and GT requires you to constantly correct your steering and fight to keep the car under control - even on some of the straight sections. :)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>That is why I like those games so much, and why I find MSR to be a bit of a sterile experience. ;)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Regarding GT3 - yes, it dissappoints me to see those "blacked-out" windows on the car models yet again.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>But, if making them transparent meant the inclusion of a "human driver" that looked like the one in MSR...then, I'd prefer just to keep those windows blacked-out! :lol</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">i supose everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but, lets not forget that the tracks are modeled down to the park benches and when driving around picadilly you dont have to wrestle with the steering wheel do you? remember this isn't a GT3 of 355 it is MSR. which does things in a different and refreshing way. not GT1 with tarted up visuals.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I suppose Bizarre could always shoe-horn a rally section into MSR 2, like Sony did with GT2 :) Oh, and there were going to be drag racing sections in GT2 too, hence the stupidly fast drag cars you get which are only playable on the Test Track.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Play some of the tracks, feel the bumps in the roads! I reckon Tokyo has more bumpy roads personally :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">P.S. Sod it. Need to fix steering wheel. Broke during MSR play. Me unhappy :(</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">off road rallying you can! in st james's park!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>This [drag racing sections ] was included in the Japanese version of GT2, but was removed from the US & PAL versions. ;)</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>It's removal from the US version caused the game to have a "100%" bug - you could win every single race in the game, and still only have a 98.XX complete rating...because the other (Drag) races were missing! :lol</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;"><b>Hey, fair enough, you guys obviously like MSR more than I do, so I won't try and convince you otherwise!</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">and don't forget me!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">i like it more than you :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">.... but I'm starting to play more and more f355</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hehe</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Oh, fancy seeing you here! :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I think you're forgetting that MSR is set in REAL cities, unlike Gran Turismo, and that means that if there aren't any lumps and bumps in the roads of the city, there aren't going to be any in the game either! Think about it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Anyhow, no-one can deny that MSR isn't one of the funkiest racing games ever, if not for it's graphics, but for it's great handling, or for the novel kudos system or because it's gonna take you ages to complete!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">That's my two cents :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I think anyone who says MSR is crap is crap at it. My dad is exactly that. He gets all pissy with the game and says the points system doesn't work. :rolleyes He also says "Ooh, there shouldn't be so much of the game locked away". Yeah, like, you are actually meant to play it. He never got past Chapter 1! Doh!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">But, me and my mum are a lot more patient than he is, we got down to playing it, and we both love it to bits! So I think you guys deserve kudos yourselves for creating such a kick ass game! :D</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Just thought I had to add 'em...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">So, some of us have not been playing the same game then?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">In my US version, the cars are beautiful, there are height variations in the courses (was just playing the Tokyo tracks this morning, plenty of it - love that Shibuya Kita).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">The ONLY bug I noticed, and I have been playing the game like an obsessed mofo, is related to the "Custom CD" you can create. In 1P mode, I have to enter and re-exit the CD Player option to "boot(?)" it properly; else, the "custom CD" that'll be playing will be one I didn't create, w/ tracks all mixed up (for the ones I put in there) or tracks I didn't even include. There's one about it in 2P mode too, but enough bugs, some people here are very good at reporting them. Slowdown? Only in 2P mode, only sometimes. Why? Because it is the only racer I've played which retains EVERY graphical element for that mode, every other game cutting down everything to just the track and borders.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I was just thinking, MSR is the best racer I've played, and I was a GT fan in the PS era...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Thank you Bizarre for the freshness, and please give us MSR2 cause I can't get enough. :)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Don't listen to that 'mingle-mangle', just turn it off.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">You should listen with good headphones to the effects produced by the car and enviroment! Like the reflections - genious...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Now, that's music!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Yeh, I noticed that personal CD bug as well... I have to enter the CD player upon the first booting of the game and go into the "create CD" thingy and press "Store" again. All my selected tracks are still correct in there...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">And [redacted], about that "All the roads are flat"-shite. Obviously, you have never played the Asakusa or Shibuya courses. So I think you should get a better overview of things before you start bashing the game.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Pah!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Yep, the only bug in my non bugged copy which I got back from sega, is the personal CD. Its not that much of a prob, but it is annoying. Class game though.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hi Dudes i'm on the last level and its getting on my rubys big time. All i have is the 4.2 celica and i'm racing 3 5.0 litre monsters in rain ! this celica has the best traction out the lot but i cant beat them speed 5.0 freaks.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Anyone clocked it ? or know any tricks ? Another thing i still have the buggered copy and why is it that all the fast small cars have useless traction in the rain.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Making it impossible to control/steer the vehicle in wet never mind heavy rain !</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Hey [redacted].</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">I cleared it using the Celica GT Four. Wasn't exactly easy, but it's definitely not the hardest race in the game. I beat it after like 3 tries.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">My best tip is to use manual transmission and switch off ABS.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">It's also imperative to learn good blocking techniques using the rear view (maybe the most underestimated technique in the game), since the GTR's are much faster on the straightaways. If you block them good enough, they will either bump into your arse and lose speed, or spin out trying to avoid you. It's a win-win situation...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Good luck mate! ^_^</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">---</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">The first of those three champ races is definatly the hardest. I beat it in bout 3 goes as well. Little tip -if your ahead of the others in that tricky bit in the park (zig zag), then youve got the lap. If they try to overtake just block em.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-5485216209474268552023-04-20T15:47:00.007-07:002023-07-13T11:56:21.343-07:00Bizarre Creations's original 'ezboard' forum available again to view at Archive.org<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivJZ1kPt-L40PMbs-8tPPHaY6Xl0ncs9JveHQdJtkysA0I1qdDhiWrs5R8emkwhqsLDdDYtGNYZhwaCXLnylW3OltlyhSDvcDv_mhPY6pSCom7oFkNlxpIH3B2jrbJxWwmZIvH8Fw3ODGmSGjREYHi8C4USlp5gl2yrNmBF6IR69IZuF8zQ-aFUnT_/s1737/msrezboard.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="1737" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivJZ1kPt-L40PMbs-8tPPHaY6Xl0ncs9JveHQdJtkysA0I1qdDhiWrs5R8emkwhqsLDdDYtGNYZhwaCXLnylW3OltlyhSDvcDv_mhPY6pSCom7oFkNlxpIH3B2jrbJxWwmZIvH8Fw3ODGmSGjREYHi8C4USlp5gl2yrNmBF6IR69IZuF8zQ-aFUnT_/w452-h256/msrezboard.PNG" width="452" /></a></div><br /><p>Bizarre Creations' original MSR message board (circa late 2000-early 2002) was hosted on the now defunct 'ezboard' service. While it had been preserved at archive.org, it was sadly not viewable in recent years. This probably due to legal/commercial issues with ezboards' successor companies (Yuku and now Tapatalk). </p><p>However it seems this message board is now available again for viewing! While it doesn't contain any information that isn't already widely known, there are some interesting topics that I have archived here. One is the full thread from where I obtained the 'critical MSR review' and others contained comments from Bizarre Creations' programmers about the modelling and graphics. With the exception of staff members, I have excluded poster names however you can view the original message board topics in the links provided (see the topics in question for more - you can see these listed under the All Posts column on the right).</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-89975080047417013252022-03-29T18:03:00.002-07:002022-03-29T18:11:23.440-07:00MSR 'Hard Rock Cafe' promotion in Madrid, Spain<p><span><span style="font-family: arial;">This promotion took place on 5 October 2000, about 1 month before retail release. It seems the event used the pre-release 'Opel Challenge/Special Version'.<span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEX6CQmc6OOJYrXycIfCXlcnJR-em0EZWaWR5_8KCuhsorU9WB96jXDSgxrkqWnieyKl9wcSvzU_q37_XfBPb5ls2vTLSF3ovX9-gmLU1jjhEI1Fe1LQbkeV64rxWdbXtgfcC768NvnShXNw6-QwQ95vONw8f8-8mF9lYlycLc1DjuJQ4QdcgDwzNO/s413/msr%20hard%20rock%20spanish%203.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="413" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEX6CQmc6OOJYrXycIfCXlcnJR-em0EZWaWR5_8KCuhsorU9WB96jXDSgxrkqWnieyKl9wcSvzU_q37_XfBPb5ls2vTLSF3ovX9-gmLU1jjhEI1Fe1LQbkeV64rxWdbXtgfcC768NvnShXNw6-QwQ95vONw8f8-8mF9lYlycLc1DjuJQ4QdcgDwzNO/s320/msr%20hard%20rock%20spanish%203.PNG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4F7GL83tZquCc6SjGUynbPg_QZDv89pj1xZFDgGPzuktYikMC4dEVh9e-Pa9KSZ_Gw0KCVEQfPkQYcR7yFDiYpZX6mbGIeshR5xoUwbBaCKkYgLQvj-vnDV5NJO096y3-rmFE80wuMwWXtn5B-Jm645TRksNDQ6Rhl59Bi-YM3MX8QQEjpIy47tv/s653/msr%20hard%20rock%20spanish%202.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="653" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK4F7GL83tZquCc6SjGUynbPg_QZDv89pj1xZFDgGPzuktYikMC4dEVh9e-Pa9KSZ_Gw0KCVEQfPkQYcR7yFDiYpZX6mbGIeshR5xoUwbBaCKkYgLQvj-vnDV5NJO096y3-rmFE80wuMwWXtn5B-Jm645TRksNDQ6Rhl59Bi-YM3MX8QQEjpIy47tv/s320/msr%20hard%20rock%20spanish%202.PNG" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span><span style="font-family: arial;">Above pictures taken from the following forum: </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://dcemulation.org/dumpcast/viewtopic.php?t=1359">https://dcemulation.org/dumpcast/viewtopic.php?t=1359</a></span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyRT8J5Rg759ARVehcpkIezJ4NDLNUnAycfePLl2mvvLrJ82xi8p5U0JvUus6SLiQK1B_v3JuXmk_9VfyHAB7CehISTdqlnv2GM2ti-IXRBYw_TsHFNTEId2ZNrAfy5n9oPyRJHMUV5_T9rgsw9cKNlp7tRW4y0TCYQpo0S-XNwtjAnDNTlRImoiO/s485/msr%20hard%20rock%20spanish.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="467" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisyRT8J5Rg759ARVehcpkIezJ4NDLNUnAycfePLl2mvvLrJ82xi8p5U0JvUus6SLiQK1B_v3JuXmk_9VfyHAB7CehISTdqlnv2GM2ti-IXRBYw_TsHFNTEId2ZNrAfy5n9oPyRJHMUV5_T9rgsw9cKNlp7tRW4y0TCYQpo0S-XNwtjAnDNTlRImoiO/w327-h362/msr%20hard%20rock%20spanish.PNG" width="327" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Above picture taken from the Spanish Official Dreamcast Magazine (Issue 11 / November 2000 - Page 10).</span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-57844098549672299572022-02-26T15:40:00.009-08:002023-06-07T17:37:36.991-07:00MSR T-Shirt found again!<p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Never thought I'd see this again! The only time I ever saw this t-shirt in person was at Southampton Sega Park back in August/September 2001 </span>(the guy wearing it went to play the Gun Survivor: Code Veronica coin-op after me...funny the things you remember!). Never saw it again, not even a small thumbnail picture online.....until now! Just over 20 years later, an Ebay seller is advertising one for £30.00....</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEShIvWJX40_ADlTh9-hcLgH8OhBUU0QMWLFYYUWMREqJ7vLtfs5Sg8qyhUo8hx0jzdPl04-GFEQdQVAASa_YWWa_lmBH_9ALDLD0EH6tpAVByjP6trJBoUZiouP-V2KDGuRTXYbaxNzMGXT9Cg8vLVwBaJ_KfShF8WuyBtPBmkImgfvqaA5Vyx1Ok=s320" width="320" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">FRONT</span></b></div><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2z0iZ6FyKCdRSlS9kb_YJsEEo42zalC8btXF90ekxSt9lodUqTswk5p1ljhXr3SAsOB9lWEeQvNDBFwbAw2JCGSQbTbcfK4LX2SRF9lioJZN33qqY38VrhJ6Xs-3ND5ViPX13khWe0M62Qo0AdH4Lqf3_Mcl8QO3ajYHVMKI3fQcFohDpBJbo6Qo3=s1600" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2z0iZ6FyKCdRSlS9kb_YJsEEo42zalC8btXF90ekxSt9lodUqTswk5p1ljhXr3SAsOB9lWEeQvNDBFwbAw2JCGSQbTbcfK4LX2SRF9lioJZN33qqY38VrhJ6Xs-3ND5ViPX13khWe0M62Qo0AdH4Lqf3_Mcl8QO3ajYHVMKI3fQcFohDpBJbo6Qo3=s320" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">BACK</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164550345663?hash=item264ff703bf:g:uP4AAOSwO~lfxiUk">https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164550345663?hash=item264ff703bf:g:uP4AAOSwO~lfxiUk</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The t-shirt is exactly as <a href="https://groups.google.com/g/uk.games.video.dreamcast/c/kdwgM5yG32I/m/8UIEwPW6PkUJ" target="_blank">described</a> by posters in an amusing exchange from the old 'uk.games.video.dreamcast' Usenet group back in late 2000:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>"<span>Hi,</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>I bought MSR today and got a cool MSR T shirt.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>I really like it. It's got MSR on the front, the Dreamcast logo on the</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>sleeve, and a city skyline on the back.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>I like the game too!"</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Response 1:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>"<span>Be careful, that T shirt may have bugs in it</span></i><span>.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>You may find that the sleeve falls off. You can check with SEGA to see</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>if you have a T-Shirt from a bugged batch."</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Response 2:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><i>"And also receive a 'patch' for it." </i>😄</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="color: #fcff01; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And in case you're wondering....no, I will not be buying it. The size is XL and that's just way too big for me!</span></div></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8756515498817095861.post-25972250287335519182020-10-07T11:08:00.004-07:002020-10-07T14:12:48.079-07:00PGR 1 REVIEW DRAFT<p>Being a fan of Metropolis Street Racer (MSR), it made sense to research and complete a playthrough of that game's much more successful offspring: Project Gotham Racing (PGR1). And I'm glad I did because I learned more about MSR itself and the transition period between the two games. I can also state the following with conviction: PGR1 IS NOT A REHASH OF MSR! Rather, it's a worthy successor that, unlike MSR, made good on Bizarre Creation's vision of a kudos-based racer. </p><p>Before you read this review, please take a look at my old Metropolis Street Racer review topic from way back when: <a href="https://www.dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3880">https://www.dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3880</a></p><p>First things first: the only thing MSR and PGR1 have in common is that they share some of the same London, San Francisco and Tokyo courses. That's it....that is where the similarity ends! PGR is a very different game from MSR in terms of kudos scoring and car handling. Not surprising as PGR1 was more or less reprogrammed from scratch. </p><p><b>BACKGROUND </b></p><p>Just weeks after MSR has been released in PAL territories, Bizarre Creations announced they were working on something new under the tentative title of "Project Swingers"! As that particular name brings to mind visions of "car keys in glass bowls", they decided to change it to something a little less controversial, "Project Gotham". Around the same time MSR was released in the USA (January 2001), rumours began circulating about a follow-up being in development, firstly on the PS2 and then Microsoft's forthcoming XBOX console. PGR1 was officially announced on 13 March 2001, at the XBOX "Gamestock 2001" event as an exclusive launch title for that console. </p><p>Also in March 2001, we received the sad news that Sega had officially discontinued the Dreamcast console and then later on, the Japanese release of MSR was cancelled. The latter, while sad, made business sense going by MSR's poor sales in Europe/US and the fact Bizarre Creations were devoting their efforts to PGR1. </p><p><b>PRESENTATION / MENUS</b></p><p>The presentation of PGR1 is done well (although who are those people on the front menu screen??). The intro video makes it clear you are expected to "be aggressive" when playing this game and the menu screen's "metallic jungle/drum& bass" music reinforces this. Menu options are better laid out and much more user-friendly compared to MSR's cumbersome screens. The only big criticism here is that you have to change the time attack options (weather/time of day) in the "game options" menu rather than within the time attack mode itself; no, I don't understand it either! We also seems to be lacking a "view records" option; you can only see your best results at the end of each event. I miss this feature from MSR and I see no reason it couldn't have been implemented here. </p><p><b>GRAPHICS</b></p><p>While the majority of the course assets have been brought over from MSR, there is a definite upgrade in graphical quality. Car models are much more detailed (due to higher polygon accounts), and show reflections as you race. There are sunlight, water, and wind effects (leaves blowing) on each course. The new stage, New York, even has water vapour rising from its manholes! The real time day/night cycle found in MSR has been banished from PGR1; while this sounded great in theory, if you only played MSR at a certain time each day, you would never see certain cities in the daylight or night time (that's why MSR players used to change their Dreamcast clock or use the in-built Cheat mode to bypass this). However the only downside is that some courses are either set at sunset/sunrise or night; it would have been nice if PGR had MSR's morning/afternoon/evening/nighttime skies too. Finally the frame rate has been doubled, now running at a smooth 60fps. All in all, an excellent showcase for the XBOX's capabilities, especially for a launch day title. </p><p>Incidentally this would be the only title in the MSR/PGR series to run at this frame rate; all the other games were 30fps. </p><p>However not everything is perfect. Night racing can still be too dark even though cars have more powerful headlights (compared to MSR). Some of the night lighting effects (from buildings/street lights) also seem a little plain and lack subtlety; MSR's night lighting is sometimes better when compared side by side! </p><p><b>SOUND</b></p><p>The biggest sound upgrade in PGR1 is in the music and radio department. PGR1 has "real life" radio stations (Hot 97, Capital Radio, Live 105, InterFM) along with ficticious counterparts. There are some actual DJs presenting, such as Paul "Trouble" Anderson on London's XFM and Angie Martinez on New York's Hot 97, with well written scripts to match. We also have a licensed music soundtrack featuring hits and lesser known songs from the 2000-2001 time period. Well-known acts include Gorillaz ("19-2000"), Iggy Pop ("Beat Em Up"), Timbaland & Magoo ("Roll Out") and Chemical Brothers ("Galaxy Bounce"). It's also good to hear Japanese language tracks in Tokyo! As a result the overall presentation in this area is much more professional and realistic compared to MSR; you can really feel Microsoft's influence here. </p><p>If there are criticisms to be had here, then it would down to the music itself. While there is a nice variety of Punk/Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop and Big Beat Dance, the majority of them do not really suit the gameplay. Granted, you could also apply this to the majority of MSR's soundtrack but at least there we had some uptempo numbers (Club Paris, Passion & Heartlands) that made you want to race and do well. PGR1's soundtrack seems more suited to a skating game and while the new kudos system gives the game a "Tony Hawk's" vibe, the music doesn't always compliment the action. Perhaps the licensing bods at Microsoft were more interested in compiling a "cool and credible" soundtrack rather than suitable driving music. However if you don't like the soundtrack, you always have the ability to rip your own tracks to the XBOX hardrive and have the DJ's "present" them before they play, which is a very nice touch. Sadly the console seems to play ripped tracks at a VERY low volume, although this applies to most original XBOX games that allow custom soundtracks. Therefore I "amplify" my music before encoding it, and send it directly to the console's hard drive (yes, I have a modded original XBOX). </p><p>I am not an expert on car sounds (engine sounds, break, skid effects) but they do their job accordingly. They do sound more different compared to MSR though; somewhat more high pitched and "hoovery". One thing I must point out are the excellent sound effects that play when you gain kudos. There is a nice "clicky" sound when you accumulate kudos and a "swoosh" sound when they are added to your total score. </p><p><b>DRIVING PHYSICS </b></p><p>Car handling has also been drastically overhauled and while certainly not realistic, it's a lot more complex and nuanced than the physics found in MSR. The biggest change is that cars now leave the ground on sloped sections. In MSR, certain car manufacturers had insisted their vehicles remained "grounded" but in PGR1 they relented on this, probably thanks to Microsoft's muscle. The cars also now have significant weight transfer, resulting in a lot of skidding/drifting during a turn, and this works extremely well with PGR1's overhauled kudos system. However as cars now go airbourne and drift more easily, it means courses like San Francisco are a lot tougher than they used to be in MSR. Where in MSR, it was easy to take a sharp corner onto the downhill section, PGR1 is a lot tougher. It should be also noted that driving on the gravel surfaces in London St James Park (and the new Central Park location) now have a significant impact on your car's grip. Expect quite a few spin-outs and crashes on these sections before you get the hang of it! </p><p>Another very important change is the way you take corners in PGR1 when compared to MSR. In MSR, you could get away with holding the break while accelerating into the turning and using the kerb to bounce off from the sides when you understeer. If you try that in PGR1, you will lock the car wheels and spin out (similar to most other racing games). Now you need to brake/handbrake before the turn while applying the right amount of acceleration to get through the corner itself (although you can get away with braking while turning in some scenarios). Also, as the kerbs have either been flattened or replaced with crash barriers, you can no longer get away with understeer or too much speed during a turn. Add in the aforementioned weight transfer/airbourne physics and PGR1 becomes a much harder and less forgiving drive than MSR. As a result, a good PGR1 player will always be better than a good MSR player. </p><p>For me, car handling is the most important difference between MSR and PGR1. Overall though, the change in driving physics makes sense as it really compliments PGR1's rebooted kudos system. However, I personally miss MSR's unique handling. While PGR1 certainly has arcadey style driving, the way you take turns in this game could be replicated in most other racing titles. Incidentally, the handling in the "DreamOn Demo" version of MSR had more in common with PGR1 than it did with the released version of MSR itself! </p><p>Finally, the cars in PGR1 can take damage showing broken tail-lights and bent bodywork if you crash or collide with other vehicles. Although car damage is purely aesthetic and does not affect the driving physics, it was quite an achievement persuading car manufacturers to allow it in PGR1; most other racers at the time (including MSR) had to keep vehicles in pristine condition at all times.</p><p><b>GAMEPLAY </b></p><p>A lot of reviewers at the time compared PGR1's kudos system to the scoring/combo system found in Tony Hawk titles and I can see why. Basically, PGR1 improves on MSR's kudos system in every conceivable way! The original system in MSR was flawed due to its reliance on hard powerslides to gain the best scores, plus the lack of time limits. As a result, any player (regardless of skill) could rack up massive kudos scores by simply driving up and down, performing endless 180 powerslides. You were also not aware of your kudos score until after an event had finished. In PGR1, everything has been improved. Now you can now see how many kudos you are awarded in realtime and what feats you are awarded kudos for (powersliding, overtaking, riding on two wheels etc). You can also perform kudos "combos" by pulling off feats in quick succession. Expert players can even keep combos going from the very start of an event to the very finish, racking up some crazy scores! Put simply. comparing the kudos system between MSR and PGR1 is likely comparing Street Fighter 1 to Street Fighter 2; it's that big an upgrade!</p><p>The main mode is, of course, the Kudos Challenge, with over 100 events to complete (divided in 13 chapters). While the same event types make their way over from MSR (Street Racer, Hot Laps, Overtake Challenge), there is a new event in the form of Style Challenges. Basically these are "slalom" events that involve driving through certain cone gates while avoiding the normal red cones on the track. Cone events in racing games may not be new (I remember the Gymkhana section on Racing Jam, an old Konami coin-op from the late 90s) however they are probably the highlight of PGR1 and really compliment the new kudos system (see below). They are also the cause for much frustration particularly in the later levels, but we will come to that later! Similar to MSR, you can also adjust the difficulty before each race which affects the number of bonus kudos you are awarded. For example, if you select your finishing position in a Street Racer as 3rd place (the lowest position allowed) you will get a minimal bonus while conversely selecting 1st place awards the maximum bonus. There is also return of the Joker card that doubles your points if you win, however this can only used once in each chapter. We also have "quick race" mode that's basically a succession of street races (finish in the highest position while driving stylishly) and "arcade" mode which involve a series of Style Challenge cone events. There is also Medal Pursuit, a gloried time attack mode that awards new car colours for beating set lap times. </p><p>Each event in PGR has a kudos/lap time target for either a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal. While you must complete each event with at least a Bronze medal to succeed, more rewards can be gained if you go for a Silver or Gold medal. As you progress, you unlock new cars and courses either by gaining the appropriate medals or by clocking up a target play time. Unlike MSR though, you need to complete ALL the events in a chapter in order to progress to the next stage. Although I understand the reasoning behind this, it does make completing PGR1 very time consuming! Just like MSR, it's unlikely the majority of XBOX owners who bought PGR1 played it to the very end. PGR1 also seriously ramps up the difficulty in the later levels; getting a Gold (or even sometimes a Silver) medal on these sections is VERY TOUGH! Even MSR veterans such as myself struggled in this area; I even had to use a Joker during one event as I just couldn't work out how to get the necessary points. Thankfully PGR1 has a quick restart option and believe me, you will need it!! Also, a much welcome addition in PGR1 is the ability to watch and save replays of your completed events. You can view your best runs from a variety of different angles, along with the ability to fast-forward (but not rewind). It's a little basic but it serves its purpose well. Unfortunately this feature is not available in Time Attack mode.</p><p>Now let's talk about the cars themselves and it's clear that Microsoft/Bizarre Creations wanted to shift the emphasis away from conventional cars and into the shifting the of luxury sportcars. Gone are the everyday European models from Fiat, Peugeot and Renault that were found in MSR. In PGR1, we now have exotic vehicles from the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, Dodge Viper, Aston Martin and Lotus. PGR1's box art is even emblazoned with the game's top vehicle; the Ferrari F50! MSR's once mighty Nissan Skyline and that game's headline car, the Opel Speedster/VX220, make a return but are now relegated to a lower tier when compared to the supercars. Other cars from MSR are also present (sometimes updated with a later model) however they also play second fiddle to the big boys. In fact the only "normal" cars present in PGR1 are the Mini Cooper and Volkswagen Beetle. Overall though, more people want to drive Ferraris than they want to drive Opel Astra's so I understand Microsoft/Bizarre Creations' thinking on this. You also get to keep all cars you unlock unlike MSR's restrictive garage. My only big criticisms here are the lack of fast 4WD cars (more on this later) and that the Ferrari F50 resounding trounces all the other cars in PGR1, however at least that car's not available until the latter part of the game. </p><p>I should also point out that the CPU cars are very docile at the start but get become very aggressive in later stages. While you no longer docked any kudos points for colliding with them, they can force you into the wall with ease; something to think about when going for Gold on the final chapters!</p><p>Onto the courses now and it's safe to say that all of the London, Tokyo and San Francisco courses in PGR1 originated from MSR. Not all 262 tracks from MSR are present though; only around 150 made the journey across. It's amusing to see the same courses in MSR have different names in PGR1; for example, Tokyo's "Nishi Sumida-Gawa" course from MSR (made famous in the DreamOn demo version) is now called "Beer-Biru Mea" in PGR1. The biggest change however is the addition of a new city, New York. The Time Square courses are very narrow and filled with numerous sharp turns, Central Park has a long gravel surface section that makes using high speed RWD cars very challenging and Wall Street is a faster course with a mixture of chicanes, tunnels and tight corners. While some more straight sections would have been welcome, New York is a worthy city to stand alongside the MSR originals. It wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft had a hand in choosing another American city for PGR1! Another big change is that all the railings from MSR have been replaced with crash barriers, and some of the road furniture (such as traffic islands in London) has been removed entirely. MSR's turn signs are replaced in PGR1 by well-lit giant LED versions so there is less chance of "missing" a upcoming turn. While all this does make courses more suitable for racing, it does feel like you're driving on a race track rather than the city streets.</p><p>Finally I should point out that PGR1 has NO online functionality. Being a launch title, it was a little too early to be part of the XBOX LIVE collection (although this would be rectified later on with the subsequent sequels) Besides, very few people used MSR's online functions so PGR1 being completely "offline" is no big surprise. </p><p><b>TIME ATTACK </b></p><p>Unfortunately PGR1's Time Attack mode is very underwhelming compared to MSR's Time Attack/Time Trials options. For example, PGR1 saves the best ghosts cars for all weather conditions and time of day on each track (so 8 different ghost cars are possible). However they is only ONE record board for each course and nothing to differentiate what ghost/record raced under what condition. There is also only one car in PGR1 you can use for the best times: the Ferrari F50. This car is just too dominant and once you unlock it in PGR1, there's point using any other vehicle. While MSR's Nissan Skyline was the best overall car, there were ocassions where the Toyota Supra, Toyota Celcia GT-4 or Lancer Evo VI ended up being the fastest choice. There is also distinct lack of fast 4WD cars in PGR1: the game really needed something like a Lamborghini Diablo VT or Murcielag to go alongside the wild RWD handling of the F50 (although licensing issues at the time would have made this impossible). At it stands, the best 4WD cars are the Nissan Skyline or the prototype Delphino Feroce. If the developers had included best time boards for each car, this would have gone some way to alleviate the problem.</p><p>One positive addition in PGR's Time Attack mode occurs on the Free Roam courses. You now have the option to drive around, knocking down a set number of cones in the quickest time possible. This gives an extra purpose to these courses rather than just driving around and taking in the sights.</p><p>Fundamentally though, PGR's handling and car selection are here to compliment the game's kudos system and high speed/time attack racing is really an afterthought! While time attacking in PGR1 can still be fun, it doesn't have the "close to the code" feel that makes time attacking in MSR so special in this area. </p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b></p><p>So what are my final thoughts? Well, Project Gotham 1 basically succeeded where it should have succeeded: providing a great kudos driving experience, atoning for MSR's poor sales and becoming a smash hit launch title on the XBOX's selling well over 1m copies. However for me, MSR succeeded in an area that ironically both it and PGR1 were trying to get away from: time attack racing. MSR's handling and time attack options give the game an infinite replay value; PGR1, while a great game, just doesn't have this hook.</p><p>It's very difficult to discuss PGR1 without comparing the game to MSR, even though in reality they are two very different titles. It's a shame that in PGR1's credits there is no mention of MSR, Dreamcast or even Sega (although MSR's producer Kats Sato does get a mention) but as MSR was a commercial failure on Dreamcast and Sega refused to port the game, perhaps I can understand why. People have stated rather crudely that "PGR1 was the game MSR should have been in the first place", but this is wrong: MSR was a necessary step on the road to the Project Gotham games. In an IGN Xbox interview, Bizarre Creations Martyn & Sarah Chudley confirmed why PGR1 could not have existed with MSR:</p><p><i>IGN Xbox: What was the number one thing you wanted to accomplish with Project Gotham that you feel didn't come through in MSR? </i></p><p><i>Martin and Sarah Chudley: I think it's probably the whole idea of the Kudos system. In our previous game (MSR), we had the idea for Kudos, but to get something like that 100% right, it needs a lot of tuning and usability testing, which just wasn't available to us then. We hoped we'd come up with something that was going to be playable, but until it got on the shelves, we'd got no idea to what extent and that's when the flaws were found. Luckily, Microsoft have an excellent and extensive playtest and usability group, which we're making the most of in order to get the Kudos system and game balance just right in Gotham [PGR1]. </i> </p><p>Project Gotham is the name that will be remembered by most gamers. It was after all a huge success for Microsoft and Bizarre Creations (although never reaching the dizzy heights of the Gran Turismo series), spawned 3 more sequels and its legacy can be found in Microsoft's own Forza brand and various other modern racers. What was Microsoft's and Bizarre Creations' gain however was Sega Europe's loss as they were left with nothing more than a loss-making project and the rights to the Metropolis Street Racer name. </p><p>To the masses, MSR is probably considered nothing more than a glorified PGR tech demo. And in some ways it is. However MSR will always be special to both Dreamcast & Bizarre Creations fans (the latter closing down for good in 2011). They take pride in the game's legacy and revel in the knowledge that the MSR/PGR story started here, on Sega's magical white box!</p><p><b>FINAL SCORE FOR PROJECT GOTHAM RACING: 8 OUT OF 10. </b> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0