Outrunners (by Sega) - Arcade Vs Megadrive
3,262 views · Published 21 September 2016 · 12:40 · Indexed 10 November 2026
Channel: MrThunderwing · 2016 · Gaming
Ok, so before I get to the video description itself... I've just surpassed 1000 subs! Boom!!! Thank you one and all who've supported me with your subscriptions both new and old, it's greatly appreciated! So onto the video itself: Here's an extended look at something I touched on briefly in my recent 30 years of Outrun Tribute video - The arcade version of Outrunners versus the Megadrive version. I've used new Megadrive video capture this time around to actually match the routes that we follow in the arcade version (being played on MAME - I think it was version 160). The arcade footage is from a previous upload of mine against an actual human opponent (my friend James or 'Lights' as you'd know him if you live in Bristol...). I'm on the left he's on the right. The Megadrive footage is against the CPU. In the little bit of bonus Virtua Racing footage at the end of the video I'm player two in the blue car, he's player one in the red car. One of the weird things about the Megadrive version of Outrunners is that it was ported over to the Megadrive by Data East rather than Sega themselves. Whilst having a third party port one of their games isn't in itself all that strange, Data East seemed like a peculiar choice to me as they were a fellow arcade game producer (albeit one with an established back catalogue of home ports under their belt). Meh, maybe it's just me. Something else that was a bit curious with the MD port was the decision to only allow the game to be played in split-screen. Whilst there was a big emphasis on multi-player in the arcade, not including a full-screen one player mode for a home version just seems daft. It's a shame, as the game seems to play pretty well and moves at a reasonable pace. The Japanese version of the game even got a hidden bonus in the form of the car from Virtua Racing being an unlockable, complete with some bonus bits of VR music to go with it. This was weirdly removed from the US version, and I cannot fathom why. But hey, at least they got a version of the game at all, not like us poor saps in the UK/Europe, where it was never released at all...
