Amiga Games - Outrun - Classic Commodore Amiga Game

Out Run Amiga
Ahhh now this is one the most iconic arcade games of all times. Who else can remember the thrill of sitting in the Out Run cabinet, the 3D graphics racing towards you, hydraulics lurching you in all directions and the sterio-tastic Magical Sound Shower pumping in your ears?

Out Run (by Sega) was a fantastic beat the clock arcade racing game, and a conversion to the Commodore Amiga was always on the cards.

But could such a large and graphically intensive game be converted to the Amiga?

Well, yes is could have been converted quite well in the hands of talented developers- but what we got from US Gold (and Probe software) was only Out Run in name, not in playability.

The loading screen to Out Run - the best part of the game

Out Run was released for the Amiga by US Gold in 1989 and was met with a mostly negative reception.

I'll get this out of the way first; the Spectrum 128 (or +2 and +3) versions were actually superior to the Amiga offering despite it coming out two years earlier and of course only having 8-bits of processing power and 128K of RAM to play with.

Even the AY music was better than the approximation to the arcade music we were given on our favourite 16-bit beaut, I'm getting angry all these years later (again) just thinking about it...


Crashed and burned huh Mav.....

Gameplay
This game (the original arcade game anyway) placed you in the driving seat of a Ferrari Testarossa convertible with a stunning blonde in the passenger seat (female players had to pretend it was a right-hand-drive vehicle ;-)), to race around a series of tracks at breakneck speed.

As you neared the end of a track (assuming you did not run out of time) then you would take the left or right fork to move onto the next track - each one branching into a different area. This continued until you either ran out of time or you reached the end of the whole 'race'.

What really p1ssed me off about this version is that it completely fails to capture the spirit or feel of the original Sega game - the graphics are flat, the 3D effect poor and the sense of speed.... Well there is no sense of speed.

The Amiga is capable of so much more and this version here smacks of a quick and lazy port over. We never expected it to match the arcade game perfectly, but the Amiga was capable of getting pretty close to it.

Even when it's moving you don't feel the wind in your hair

This was a major disappointment for Amiga gamers back in '89 and was yet another quick and crappy conversion of a good arcade original.

We recommend getting hold of the real Amiga hardware - but if not then download an Amiga emulator but do not bother to download this game. Alternatively you could try and play it online, but seriously, just fire it up on MAME or even play the Speccy version.

Please see our other Amiga retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game (3D Racing)
RELEASE DATE: 1989
RELEASED BY: US Gold
DEVELOPER(S): Probe Software
PRICE: £19.99 (UK)

A very poor conversion of a classic arcade game:


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