OutRun

From Sega Retro

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Out Run Title.png

OutRun
System(s): Sega OutRun Hardware, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, J2ME, MSX, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, TurboGrafx-16, ZX Spectrum
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
Genre: Racing

















Release Date RRP Code

OutRun (アウトラン) is a successful arcade driving game developed by Sega AM2 in 1986 on specially designed hardware. It was designed by Yu Suzuki, and went on to inspire numerous sequels and re-releases. Rather than be classed as a "racing game", Yu Suzuki classifies OutRun as a "driving game".

It is one of Sega's most iconic franchises as it was the first arcade game to deliver a sense of speed while making use of Super Scaler technology to create a pseudo-3D look and feel. It also contains multiple routes and multiple endings. Its music, composed by Hiroshi Miyauchi, was also extremely popular as well, as each of the three in-game music tracks were much longer and more varied than what other arcade games were offering at the time. It was also one of the first games to allow picking a music track to race with.

The player's car looks strikingly similar to a Ferrari Testarossa, so much so that the two companies would later have some court encounters over it. In later games, the car is either generic with no obvious ties to a company, or, in the most recent games, a real Ferrari. Other cars on the road appear to be a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, a 1971 Chevrolet Corvette, a 1985 Porsche 911, a 1985 BMW 325i Cabriolet E30 and a truck. The game's scenery is largely inspired by Europe, after a European trip Suzuki travelled on for inspiration. This would be explored in more detail in the sequel OutRun Europa.

OutRun came in four distinct styles of arcade cabinet, two upright and two sit-down. Each comes with a steering wheel and stick shift plus acceleration and brake pedals. Though steering wheels had appeared in countless Arcade games previous to Sega's game, OutRun was the first to have force feedback in order to simulate the road surface. The deluxe sit-down cabinet is also equipped with hydraulics which move the seat as the player turns.

Gameplay

OutRun Course.png

The goal of OutRun is to simply drive your sports car to one of the five goals, labeled a to e, without running out of time. Crashing into either other cars or scenery does not cause the player to lose lives, just time. After an area is cleared, checkpoints will allow the player to increase their time, and there will also be the option to select the next area through the form of a fork in the road. There are five possible endings, each with their own closing cinematic.

The car has two gears, high and low. When in the high gear, the car becomes harder to control, however the top speed of the vehicle is increased. To be successful in OutRun the player needs to switch between gears at the appropriate moments, e.g. switching to the lower gear while negotiating tricky roads, or if the player has just crashed.

The number of lanes of traffic also differs between stages. Although there is never a situation in OutRun where the cars travel in the opposite direction to yourself, the introductary level for example has six lanes of traffic.

Regional Differences

The names of the stages differ between the Japanese and overseas releases of the games:

Japanese Layout

Stage Number Goal name
1 2 3 4 5
Vineyard A
Wilderness
Desert Death Valley B
Wheat Field Old Capital
Coconut Beach Alps Desolation Hill C
Cloudy Mountain Gateway
Devil's Canyon Autobahn D
Seaside Town
Lakeside E

Overseas Layout

Stage Number Goal name
1 2 3 4 5
Vineyard A
Wilderness
Desert Death Valley B
Gateway Old Capital
Coconut Beach Alps Desolation Hill C
Devil's Canyon Wheat Field
Cloudy Mountain Autobahn D
Seaside Town
Lakeside E

Coconut beach was later used as a stage in Sega Superstars Tennis.

Sequels and Re-releases

Much was lost in the transition to home platforms in the late 1980s. This is the MSX port.

OutRun was a big success in Arcades, so it was inevitable that ports would be made to home platforms. At the time, these systems were seen to be vastly inferior to the hardware powering OutRun, and numerous cuts were made.

Various companies were contracted by U.S. Gold to produce Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX and ZX Spectrum ports, which were then distributed in North America and parts of Europe. Pony Canyon handled an MSX2 conversion which only saw release in Japan. There is also TurboGrafx-16 port, handled by NEC Interchannel.

Sega were also quick to port the game to their own systems. Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear ports were handled in-house by Sega, as was a Sega Mega Drive version, seen for a while to be the best home port of OutRun.

A Sega Saturn version of the game was only released as a stand alone title in Japan as part of their Sega Ages series. It was later bundled with Space Harrier and After Burner II to make the western title Sega Ages: Volume 1. Since then, the majority of home ports of the game have been almost identical to their original arcade counterpart, with the exception of mobile phone versions and the version included in the 2004 Sega Arcade Gallery Game Boy Advance compilation (whose resolution was changed to fit the console's smaller screen).

OutRun was also released as part of the Sega Ages 2500 PlayStation 2 series in Japan, and is fully playable within Shenmue and Shenmue II. It is also unlockable within the Xbox port of OutRun 2 SP.

The game saw many sequels, however the "true" sequel comes in the form of Turbo OutRun, a 1989 arcade release also by Sega AM2. By obtaining a kit from Sega, arcade owners were able to "upgrade" OutRun into Turbo OutRun, as the two games run on identical hardware. Turbo OutRun offers several new graphical features and a turbo button.

Gallery

Physical Scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
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Based on
11 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
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Based on
0 reviews

OutRun

Arcade Version

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Mega Drive Version

Mega Drive, US
OutRun MD US Box.jpg
Cover
OutRun MD US Cart.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive, EU
OutRun MD EU Box.jpg
Cover
Mega Drive, JP
Outrun md jp cover.jpg
Cover
Outrun md jp cart.jpg
Cart

Master System Version

Master System, US
OutRun SMS US cover.jpg
Cover
Master System, US
Rerelease
OutRun SMS US Box.jpg
Cover
OutRun SMS US Cart.jpg
Cart
Master System, EU
OutRun SMS EU Box.jpg
Cover
Master System, EU
"no limits" variant
OutRun SMS EU nolimits cover.jpg
Cover
Master System, EU
® variant
OutRun SMS EU R cover.jpg
Cover
Master System, JP
OutRun SMS JP Box Back.jpgNospine.pngOutRun SMS JP Box Front.jpg
Cover
Outrun sms jp cart.jpg
Cart
Master System, BR
OutRun SMS BR Box.jpg
Cover
Master System, BR (newer)
OutRun SMS BR Box Alt.jpg
Cover

Game Gear Version

Game Gear, EU
OutRun GG EU Box Front.jpg
Cover
Game Gear, JP
OutRun GG JP Box Back.jpgNospine-small.pngOutRun GG JP Box Front.jpg
Cover
Game Gear, JP (Meisaku Collection)
OutRun GG JP Box Front Meisaku.jpg
Cover

Amiga Version

Amiga, EU (Erbe Re-release)
OutRun Amiga EU Erbe Box Front.jpg
Cover
Amiga, EU (Klassix Re-release)
OutRun Amiga EU Klassix Box Front.jpg
Cover

Amstrad CPC Version

Amstrad CPC, EU

OutRun Amstrad EU Disk.jpg
Disk

Atari ST Version

Atari ST, EU
OutRun Atari ST EU Box Back.jpgNospine-small.pngOutRun Atari ST EU Box Front.jpg
Cover
OutRun Atari ST EU Disk.jpg
Disk

Commodore 64 Version

Commodore 64, US
OutRun C64 US Box Back.jpgNospine.pngOutRun C64 US Box Front.jpg
Cover
Commodore 64, EU
OutRun C64 EU Box Back.jpgOutRun C64 EU Box Front.jpg
Cover
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Cassette
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Audio Cassette

MSX Version

Due to the video game industry handing out licensing rights for different media types rather than entire systems at the time, OutRun received two ports to the MSX — a cassette tape port by Probe and a cartridge port by Pony Canyon.

MSX, JP (Cartridge)
OutRun MSX JP Cartridge Box Back.jpgNospine.pngOutRun MSX JP Cartridge Box Front.jpg
Cover

TurboGrafx-16 Version

TurboGrafx-16, JP
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Cover

ZX Spectrum Version

ZX Spectrum, EU (Cassette)
OutRun Spectrum EU Box.jpg
Cover
ZX Spectrum, EU (Disk)

OutRun Spectrum EU Disk.jpg
Disk



OutRun series of games
Arcade
OutRun (1986) | Turbo OutRun (1989) | OutRunners (1992) | OutRun 2 (2003) | OutRun 2 SP (2004) | OutRun 2 SP SDX (2006)
Sega Master System
OutRun (1987) | OutRun 3D (1988) | Battle OutRun (1989) | OutRun Europa (1991)
Windows PC
OutRun (1987) | Turbo OutRun (1989) | OutRun Europa (1991) | OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (2006)
MSX
OutRun (1988)
FM Towns/FM Towns Marty
Turbo OutRun (1989)
LCD handheld game
OutRun (1989) | OutRun F-1 (19xx)
Sega Mega Drive
OutRun (1991) | Turbo OutRun (1992) | OutRun 2019 (1993) | OutRunners (1994) | Arcade Legends OutRun 2019 (200x)
Sega Game Gear
OutRun (1991) | OutRun Europa (1992)
Sega Saturn
Sega Ages OutRun (1996)
i-mode 503i
OutRun (2001)
Sony PlayStation 2
Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 13: OutRun (2004) | OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (2006) | OutRun 2 SP (2007)
Xbox
OutRun 2 (2004) | OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (2006)
Sony PlayStation Portable
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast (2006)
Xbox 360
Sony PlayStation 3
OutRun Online Arcade (2009)
Nintendo 3DS
3D OutRun (2014)
Nintendo Switch
Sega Ages OutRun (2018)
OutRun-related media
Music
OutRun (1992) | Virtua Racing & OutRunners (1993) | Yu Suzuki Produce OutRun (1997) | Sega Presents OutRun 2: Music Through the Ages (2004) | OutRun 2 Sound Tracks (2004) | OutRun 2 Sound Tracks: Side B (2005) | OutRun 20th Anniversary Box (2007) | OutRun Sound Tracks: Complement (2007) | OutRun (2016) | Sega Ages OutRun: Music Collection (2019)
Film
OutRun (1987) | OutRun (1988) | Super Monaco GP / Turbo OutRun (1989) | Out Run/Turbo Out Run Strategy Movie & S.S.T. Band Live+1 (2007)