Cyber Speedway

n/a

NTSC-U/PAL
NTSC-J

Cyber Speedway

System(s): Sega Saturn

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Sega CS1, Nextech

Sound driver: SCSP/CD-DA (20 tracks)

Peripherals supported: Arcade Racer

Genre: Driving^[1], Racing^[2]

Number of players: 1-2

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1995-05-26^[2]	¥5,8005,800	GS-9022
US	1995-09-22^[3]	$69.9969.99^[4]	81205
EU	1996		MK-81205-50
DE	1996		MK-81205-50
PT	199x
UK	1995-12^[5]	£44.9944.99^[6]	MK-81205-50
PL	1996
AU	199x
BR	199x		191636

Cyber Speedway, called Gran Chaser (グランチェイサー) in Japan, is a 1995 racing game by Nextech under contract from Sega for the Sega Saturn.

The game's hovercraft were designed by Syd Mead, whose futuristic designs have been featured in films such as Blade Runner, Tron, and Aliens.

For its North American release, the game's original soundtrack, composed by Kouji Hayama, was replaced with works by the band Bygone Dogs.

Story

Sometime in the future, the civilizations of the universe have developed to such a point that war is no longer necessary for settling conflicts. However, some primitive civilizations continue the practice, such as the savage Kaladasia and the barbaric Earth, who have been engaged in conflict for countless generations. As these planets pose the last barriers to universal peace, the leaders of all the other civilized planets of the universe developed a means of settling the hostilities, called the Cyber Speedway. Instead of fighting in armed battles where millions will die, the belligerents will instead race high-tech sleds on cyber-race courses to decide their disputes.

Gameplay

The game is a science fiction, cyberpunk-themed racing game where players race futuristic hovercraft (called "sleds") on different planets.

The sled steers with or . It can "steering boost" by rotating sideways for tighter turns with or . Steering boosts are limited by the Boost meter (which replenishes quickly when it is not used). The sled accelerates with and brakes with . It fires its rockets with , which are limited in supply (but can be collected by driving over item pick-ups). Rockets explode in an area and damage and temporarily disable enemy racers that are caught in the blast radius. The game supports the Arcade Racer.

The sled takes damage if it is hit by an enemy rocket, from environmental hazards, or from colliding with terrain, obstacles, or other racers. Taking damage drains the Shield meter (which cannot be replenished during a race). Environmental hazards include large icicles on the ice planet and lava on the volcanic planet. Detector lines appear in a large circle in the center of the screen and flash red when the player is in danger because an enemy racer or an enemy rocket is close behind the player's sled. The player is retired from the race if the shield is depleted and the sled is destroyed.

Each race is five laps. Green sleds appear during races but act solely as obstructions and do not affect the player's ranking. Some courses contain hidden shortcuts.

Modes

Cutscene

Two-player split screen

There are two game modes. In the Story Mode, the player assumes the role of Clay Shaw, a racer who represents Earth in a series of races to determine the outcome of its conflicts with the Kaladasians and other war-mongering planets. Cutscenes with voice-acting and comic-style artwork appear in between each race to tell the story.

All of the courses are raced in order, and there are two difficulty levels, Standard and Advanced, which determines which version of each course is played. After the first race, the player must finish in at least the top three in Standard or first place in Advanced in order to proceed to the next race. The final course, Armasatelles, is only played on Advanced. Before each race, the player can make equipment selections for the sled.

The player starts the game with three continues and earns another for every 3,000 points earned. Points are earned for finishing each lap and the race in higher positions and for finishing the race with more rockets and shields remaining.

The Free Run Mode is a practice mode where players can choose any sled and any course (except Armasatelles). One player can race the clock in the Time Trial or race against four computer opponents in 1P vs CPU, and two players can go head-to-head in 1P vs 2P in a split-screen race (with no computer opponents).

Equipment

Equipment selection

Before every race in the Story Mode, the player can make adjustments to the sled's equipment:

Engine: Changes the engine between Power (faster acceleration but lower top speed), Neutral, and Speed (highest top speed but slower acceleration).
Steering: Changes the steering between Heavy, Neutral, and Light.
Brake: Changes the braking between Hard, Neutral, and Soft.
Special: Chooses special equipment between Boost (reduces the amount that the Boost meter is drained when using steering boosts), Shield (reduces the amount that the Shield meter is drained when taking damage), and Weapon (increases the blast radius of the player's rockets). This equipment is unlocked one piece at a time after completing races successfully.

Before each race, Nard Morgan, the player's chief mechanic, offers advice about the best equipment selections for each course.

Items

Items are found throughout the courses and collected by driving over them.

	Rocket
	Adds a rocket to the sled's inventory, up to 5. Every sled starts the race with no rockets.

Sleds

Only one sled, the Terra, is available in the Story Mode, while the others appear as competitors. In the Free Run Mode, players can choose any sled.

Sleds are rated on Acceleration, Max Speed, Steering, and Brake.

	Terra
	A well-rounded sled produced by Earth with moderate statistics in every category.
	Kaladasia
	A sled produced by Kaladasia, Earth's archenemy, which has the highest speed but the worst acceleration and braking.
	Alcmaeon
	A sled produced by Alcmaeons, a planet in military alliance with Earth, which has superior handling and braking.
	Drum
	A sled produced by the Drums, an ally of the Kaladasians, which has high acceleration and deceleration but low top speed.
	Cerebun
	A sled produced by the Cerebun, a neutral party in the war, which has excellent acceleration but poor statistics in every other category.

Views

The player can switch between three different perspectives at any point during the race.

Driver's View (

)

Normal View (

)

High View (

)

Courses

The Cyber Speedway arena spans six planets. Every location has a Standard and Advanced course, except for Armasatelles.

	Terra

	Glacies

	Vastitas

	Nubes

	Evoflammas

	Armasatelles
	This course is only available in the Story Mode and only when playing on the Advanced level.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as
Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Cyber Speedway	Cyber Speedway
English (US)	Cyber Speedway	Cyber Speedway
Japanese	グランチェイサー	Gran Chaser

Production credits

US version

Visual Concept Designers: Syd Mead, Nick Pausback
Programmers: Hiroaki Sano, Toshio Toyota, Satoshi Ohtake, Yukihiko Tani, Hiroshi Fukuda
Planning & Production: Hiroaki Sano, Tetsuya Maeda
Assistant Producers: Seiichi Sekine, Yoshitaka Maki
Object Modeling & Texture Mapping: Yoshihisa Shimizu, Kazushige Nagai
Course Modeling & Texture Mapping: Yoshihisa Shimizu, Masahiro Sato, Munemoto Matsushima
Assistant Design & Texture Mapping: Kazuhiro Nagata
CG Movie Works: Hitoshi Masuda, Hideyuki Kikuchi
Special Thanks: Yayoi Onda, Toshio Yamamoto, Eiichi Kitano, Yuji Tamaya, Ryousuke Tei
Music Composer: Kouji Hayama
Character Design: Yasuhiro Suzuki
Executive Producer: Katsuji Aoyama
Computer Design By: Nextech

Supervision — SEGA Side Staff

Executive Producer: Mamoru Shigeta
Producers: Yoji Ishii, Makoto Oshitani, Yutaka Sugano
Technical Director: Shuichi Katagi
Technical Support: Yoshiki Ooka, Hirokazu Takase

Source:

In-game credits^[7]

SEGA of America

Producer: Dante Anderson
Product Manager: Sarah Mason Richmond
Lead Tester: Steve Bourdet
Assistant Leads: David Paniagua, Todd Slepian
Testers: Lorne Ascuncion, Tracy Johnson, Aron Drayer, Nick Katakis, Tim Turner, Stan Weaver, Mark Dawson, Sako Bezdjian, Matt Prescott, Neil Musser
Away Team: Dante Anderson, Steve Apour, Eric Rawlins, Max Taylor, Steve Payne
CD Technical: Jef Feltman, Larry Loth
Manual: Neil Blacknell
Special Thanks: James Spahn, Steve Payne, Eric Rawlins, Spencer Nilsen, Dave Albert, Mark Miller, Adam Sevillia, Joyce Takakura, John Couch, J. Tony Smith, Max Taylor, Tim Dunley, Mike Williams, Sarah Wittmer, Sega Consumer Service, Dave Grohl

Music Credits

Going Blind, "Dayglo Blues", "Tabitha", "Call Me Crazy", "Da Jam" and "Why" composed and performed by bygone dogs. "I Will Not Take It" composed by Alvarez, Alan and Aknin.
Produced by: Spencer Nilsen and bygone dogs
Recorded by: Dave Young for Sega Music Group

bygone dogs are Joel Alvares, guitar and vocals; Time Alan, bass; and Brad Kaiser, drums.

Source:

US manual^[8]

Japanese version

Visual Concept Design: Syd Mead, Nick Pausback
Program: Hiroaki Sano, Toshio Toyota, Satoshi Ohtake, Yukihiko Tani, Hiroshi Fukuda
Planning & Produce: Hiroaki Sano, Tetsuya Maeda
Assist Produce: Seiichi Sekine, Yoshitaka Maki
Object Modeling & Texture Mapping: Yoshihisa Shimizu, Kazushige Nagai
Course Modeling & Texture Mapping: Yoshihisa Shimizu, Masahiro Sato, Munemoto Matsushima
Assist Design & Texture Mapping: Kazuhiro Nagata
CG Movie Works: Hitoshi Masuda, Hideyuki Kikuchi
Special Thanks: Yayoi Onda, Toshio Yamamoto, Eiichi Kitano, Yuji Tamaya, Ryousuke Tei
Music Compose: Kouji Hayama
Character Design: Yasuhiro Suzuki
Clay Shaw: Mitsuaki Madono
Nard Morgan: Yousuke Naka
Dobbs: Rokuroh Naya
Executive Produce: Katsuji Aoyama
Computer Designed By: Nextech

Supervise Sega Side Staff

Exective Producer: Mamoru Shigeta
Producers: Yoji Ishii, Makoto Oshitani, Yutaka Sugano
Technical Director: Shuichi Katagi
Technical Support: Yoshiki Ooka, Hirokazu Takase
Copyright: Sega Enterprises,Ltd,.1995

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Cyber Speedway/Magazine articles.

Artwork

EU prototype cover

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication

Version

Score

(FR)

52

^[9]

(FR)

91

^[10]

(FR)

89

^[11]

(UK)

NTSC-J

71

^[12]

(UK)

40

^[13]

(US)

NTSC-J

50

^[14]

(JP)

NTSC-J

55

^[15]

(US)

NTSC-U

63

^[16]

(US)

NTSC-U

82

^[4]

(US)

NTSC-U

75

^[17]

(DE)

47

^[18]

(UK)

66

^[19]

(ES)

NTSC-J

70

^[20]

(ES)

PAL

84

^[21]

(FR)

NTSC-J

74

^[22]

(FR)

92

^[23]

(DE)

NTSC-J

64

^[24]

(DE)

PAL

64

^[25]

(UK)

25

^[26]

(FR)

NTSC-J

80

^[27]

(FR)

PAL

75

^[28]

(DE)

NTSC-J

67

^[29]

(UK)

NTSC-J

59

^[30]

(UK)

PAL

53

^[6]

(FR)

79

^[31]

(JP)

NTSC-J

62

^[32]

(UK)

PAL

86

^[33]

(UK)

NTSC-J

92

^[34]

(UK)

NTSC-J

72

^[35]

(BR)

60

^[36]

(AU)

79

^[37]

(UK)

PAL

68

^[5]

(JP)

NTSC-J

47

^[38]

(JP)

NTSC-J

66

^[39]

(ES)

82

^[40]

(ES)

87

^[41]

(UK)

PAL

57

^[42]

(UK)

62

^[43]

(ES)

64

^[44]

(DE)

NTSC-J

51

^[45]

(US)

NTSC-U

40

^[46]

	67
Based on 41 reviews

Cyber Speedway

Saturn, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc

Saturn, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Saturn, EU
Cover
Disc

Saturn, FR (Blister pack)
Cover

Saturn, PT

Saturn, AU
Cover
Disc

Saturn, BR
Cover
Disc

Technical information

Main article: Cyber Speedway/Technical information.

External links

Sega of America webpage: Saturn
Sega of Japan catalogue page (Japanese): Saturn

References

Cyber Speedway

Main page | Magazine articles | Reception | Technical information

Music: (1995)

Prototypes: 1995-06-26

[:File:GranChaser_Saturn_JP_Box_Back.jpg_p-1] File:GranChaser Saturn JP Box Back.jpg

[https:.2F.2Fweb.archive.org.2Fweb.2F20200304081325.2Fhttps:.2F.2Fsega.jp.2Fhistory.2Fhard.2Fsegasaturn.2Fsoftware.html-2] 2.0 ^2.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/segasaturn/software.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-03-04 08:13)

[https:.2F.2Fgroups.google.com.2Fg.2Frec.games.video.sega.2Fc.2FNSR8cww3zSQ.2Fm.2FGSgTD_bniDcJ-3] ttps://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/NSR8cww3zSQ/m/GSgTD_bniDcJ

[:File:GamePlayers_US_0811.pdf_p54-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Game Players, "Vol. 8 No. 11 November 1995" (US; 1995-1x-xx), page 54

[:File:SSM_UK_02.pdf_p86-5] 5.0 ^5.1 Sega Saturn Magazine, "December 1995" (UK; 1995-11-24), page 86

[:File:MeanMachinesSega39UK.pdf_p92-6] 6.0 ^6.1 Mean Machines Sega, "January 1996" (UK; 1995-11-xx), page 92

[:File:Cyber_Speedway_Saturn_credits.pdf_p-7] File:Cyber Speedway Saturn credits.pdf

[:File:Cyberspeedway_sat_us_manual.pdf_p18-8] File:Cyberspeedway sat us manual.pdf, page 18

[:File:CDConsoles_FR_09.pdf_p126-9] CD Consoles, "Juillet/Août 1995" (FR; 1995-xx-xx), page 126

[:File:ConsolesPlus_FR_045.pdf_p144-10] Consoles +, "Juillet/Août 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 144

[:File:ConsolesPlus_FR_049.pdf_p173-11] Consoles +, "Décembre 1995" (FR; 1995-1x-xx), page 173

[:File:CVG_UK_165.pdf_p46-12] Computer & Video Games, "August 1995" (UK; 1995-07-12), page 46

[:File:Edge_UK_023.pdf_p74-13] Edge, "August 1995" (UK; 1995-06-29), page 74

[14] Electronic Entertainment, "September 1995" (US; 1995-0x-xx), page 81

[15] Famitsu, "1995-06-02" (JP; 1995-05-19), page 1

[:File:Fusion_US_0105.pdf_p120-16] Fusion, "Volume 1, Number 5: December 1995" (US; 1995-1x-xx), page 120

[:File:GamePro_US_075.pdf_p54-17] GamePro, "October 1995" (US; 1995-xx-xx), page 54

[:File:Gamers_DE_1995-11.pdf_p51-18] Gamers, "November 1995" (DE; 1995-10-11), page 51

[:File:Games_World_The_Magazine_UK_14.pdf_p60-19] Games World: The Magazine, "August 1995" (UK; 1995-06-29), page 60

[:File:Hitech_ES_05.pdf_p60-20] HiTech, "Julio/Agosto 1995" (ES; 1995-06-30), page 60

[:File:HobbyConsolas_ES_050.pdf_p106-21] Hobby Consolas, "Noviembre 1995" (ES; 1995-xx-xx), page 106

[:File:Joypad_FR_Supplement_044_International.pdf_p30-22] Joypad, "Juillet/Août 1995 (Joypad International supplement)" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 30

[:File:Joypad_FR_048.pdf_p44-23] Joypad, "Décembre 1995" (FR; 1995-1x-xx), page 44

[:File:MAN.21AC_DE_1995-08.pdf_p34-24] MAN!AC, "08/95" (DE; 1995-07-12), page 34

[:File:MAN.21AC_DE_1995-10.pdf_p65-25] MAN!AC, "10/95" (DE; 1995-09-13), page 65

[:File:MAXIMUM_UK_02.pdf_p147-26] Maximum, "November 1995" (UK; 1995-11-xx), page 147

[:File:MegaForce_FR_41.pdf_p94-27] Mega Force, "Été 1995" (FR; 1995-0x-xx), page 94

[:File:MegaForce_FR_45.pdf_p88-28] Mega Force, "Décembre 1995" (FR; 1995-1x-xx), page 88

[:File:MegaFun_DE_1995-09.pdf_p90-29] Mega Fun, "09/95" (DE; 1995-08-23), page 90

[:File:MeanMachinesSega34UK.pdf_p76-30] Mean Machines Sega, "August 1995" (UK; 1995-06-26), page 76

[:File:PlayerOne_FR_059.pdf_p150-31] Player One, "Décembre 1995" (FR; 1995-1x-xx), page 150

[:File:SaturnFan_JP_1995-08_19950815.pdf_p66-32] Saturn Fan, "1995 August" (JP; 1995-07-07), page 66

[:File:SaturnPlus_UK_01.pdf_p62-33] Saturn+, "Christmas 1995" (UK; 1995-12-14), page 62

[:File:SegaPower_UK_70.pdf_p52-34] Sega Power, "September 1995" (UK; 1995-07-20), page 52

[:File:SegaPro_UK_48.pdf_p60-35] Sega Pro, "August 1995" (UK; 1995-07-13), page 60

[:File:SuperGamePower_BR_017.pdf_p42-36] SuperGamePower, "Agosto 1995" (BR; 1995-0x-xx), page 42

[:File:Sega_MegaZone_55_Sep_95.pdf_p24-37] Sega Megazone, "September 1995" (AU; 1995-0x-xx), page 24

[:File:SSM_JP_19950601_1995-06.pdf_p114-38] Sega Saturn Magazine, "June 1995" (JP; 1995-05-08), page 114

[:File:SnGwSISDRZK_Book_JP.pdf_p15-39] Sega Saturn Magazine, "Readers rating final data" (JP; 2000-03), page 15

[:File:SuperJuegos_ES_042.pdf_p96-40] Super Juegos, "Octubre 1995" (ES; 1995-xx-xx), page 96

[:File:TodoSega_ES_33.pdf_p42-41] Todo Sega, "Diciembre 1995" (ES; 1995-1x-xx), page 42

[:File:TotalSaturn_UK_04.pdf_p18-42] Total Saturn, "Volume One Issue Four" (UK; 1996-12-29), page 18

[:File:UltimateFutureGames_UK_09.pdf_p72-43] Ultimate Future Games, "August 1995" (UK; 1995-07-01), page 72

[:File:UltimaGeneracion_ES_05.pdf_p62-44] Última Generación, "Julio/Agosto 1995" (ES; 1995-0x-xx), page 62

[:File:VideoGames_DE_1995-08.pdf_p63-45] Video Games, "8/95" (DE; 1995-07-26), page 63

[:File:VideoGames_US_82.pdf_p86-46] VideoGames, "November 1995" (US; 1995-10-24), page 86

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Cyber Speedway

From Sega Retro

Contents

Story

Gameplay

Modes

Equipment

Items

Sleds

Views

Courses

Versions

Localised names

Production credits

US version

Japanese version

Magazine articles

Artwork

Physical scans

Technical information

External links

References