OutRun: Charting The Genesis Of The Beautiful Journey

Since the glory days of the 1980′s some genres have been synonymous with certain titles. I say platform titles, you think Mario Brothers. For fighting titles, Street Fighter. With driving games, for me anyway, it’s always been about OutRun.

Originally unleashed upon arcades in 1986, OutRun was Sega’s biggest hit up until that point! When you consider that the original release is older than the targeted ‘modern gamer’, OutRun truly is a title that has stood the test of time.

When Yu Suzuki joined Sega Enterprises in 1983 his first project was a little known boxing title called ‘Champion Boxing’. It was enough of a success to have been ported to the Sega ‘SG-1000‘ system, the first console from the company who would, in later years, bring us the Dreamcast. His work on his debut title completed, Suzuki then begun work on what would become the world’s first full-body-experience video game. The name of that revolutionary title? No, it wasn’t OutRun, it was its immediate predecessor – ‘Hang-On’!

‘Hang-On’, in many ways was the template for which Suzuki based OutRun, not only in terms of hardware but also within the experience itself! The aforementioned ‘full-body experience’ came from the arcade cabinet itself, which was designed to simulate a real motorcycle racing experience. To play, the user would sit on what essentially was a motorcycle chassis, leaning to tilt which then steered the in game bike. To improve the user immersion factor there was even a monitor built into the windshield section of the bike! At the time there was no stopping the success of Sega, and indeed Suzuki himself as the popularity of ‘Hang-On’ allowed him to create what would become one of his defining works, the endearing arcade classic – ‘OutRun.’

You might be fooled into thinking that OutRun is a racing title, sure it’s competitive alright but the defining aspect of Out Run has always been its strong theme of luxury and relaxation. The ‘beautiful journey’, as it’s referred to, from the very beginning has in many ways influenced both driving and racing titles across the board.  The lessons, and success, of ‘Hang-On’ also inspired the team to take their ingenuity one step further with ‘OutRun‘. Instead of a motorcycle, this time gamers had a car shaped sit-in cabinet which used a hydraulics system to simulate motion by moving the cabinet based upon your steering. In another first, Suzuki’s team also implemented the first ever usage of force feedback within an arcade driving game. So when combined with the premium sit-down units produced for the arcade version, the steering wheel and enclosure were capable of artificially simulating a realistic driving experience like no other outside of, you know, driving a real car.

Back in it’s time of release, the game was unique in that the player was allowed to choose their route, or stages, through which their journey took place. Of course the initial one was always the same, but driving through Coconut Beach was always a pleasure in any version of the game. Making usage of the checkpoint system via a fork in the road, the game allowed the player to enter one of two different environments based upon difficulty; the left fork always providing the easier challenge of the two. In some ways you can see how this mechanic developed further over the years, manifesting in other driving titles such as Burnout Paradise as a free-roaming capability – able to choose your route any way you see fit. Sure it may not have been the originator of the ‘fork’ mechanic that people associated with the series, that particular element started with ‘TX-1‘, but it took that component and ran with it to great success. When the gaming publication ‘Retro UK’ sat down with Yu Suzuki for an interview he explained somewhat his thoughts, and the inspirations he had during the design process. If I were to say that a Burt Reynolds film was a key inspiration for the game I’m sure you would have a hard time believing that. It’s true though. The classic film ‘The Cannonball Run’, released in 1981, was that inspiration as the following quote lifted from the aforementioned interview shows;

“The main impetus behind OutRun’s creation was my love of a film called ‘The Cannonball Run’. I thought it would be good to make a game like that. The film crosses America, so I made a plan to follow the same course and collect data as I went.”

I understand your confusion at that statement as most of the stages in the original game, barring Coconut Beach, resemble scenes you would find on the continent of Europe as opposed to the United States. After planning his trip he realised he had made an error of judgement as “..the scenery along the course actually doesn’t change very much..” thereby meaning that he would need to travel to Europe in order to get the perfect mix of visually stimulating locales for the title.

“I wanted to make a game where you could enjoy magnificent changing scenery and landscapes while driving, and really get a nice sensation from playing it… I wanted to make stages where you could smell the fresh fragrance of new leaves and flowers, like in the green meadows of Switzerland”

So when you are playing your next game of OutRun, remember that Suzuki braved the dangerous roads of Europe in the 80′s in order to bring you a title which in many ways would have been uninspired – that is had he not attached a video camera to his rental car and took off. In the mind of Yu Suzuki OutRun was never about just a straight race to the finish, beating your opponent at the post to finish first – rather the opposite. The ethos – or state of being – for the player was to enjoy driving through exotic locales, driving a luxurious car with a beautiful woman at your side and winning the race by a large margin. This, he claims, is the ‘beautiful journey.’ By describing OutRun in this manner Sega were on to a winner, but as you would expect there were some missteps along the way….

Sometimes when you have a good thing you kind of miss what makes it special, and on your follow up attempt you just can’t capture the magic of the original. After OutRun, Sega released a game for the Master System called Battle OutRun which seemed to play as more of an action title in the vein of Spy Hunter and Chase HQ. In this version your objective is to ram the cars of specified criminals…a slight deviation from the core gameplay of its predecessor. You might say that this game wasn’t what the critics, and fans of the original wanted, as Sega took steps back in the right direction with the next entry in the series.

The next game, or unofficial sequel according to Yu Suzuki, was Turbo OutRun in which the player takes control of a Ferrari F40 in a race across the United States with the obligatory girlfriend in the passenger seat. Set in a race against the clock, as well as an AI directed Porsche 959, the goal is to reach Los Angeles from the starting point of New York City. It sounds like Out Run, but this one however features no branching pathways between levels…just a continous path across the ‘deserts’ of Dallas and the snowfield of Atlanta. Not realistic, but still I’d rather consider this as the basis for a feature that would sneak into Out Run again years later – 15 Stage Continous racing.

OutRunners is the fourth game in the series, and a return to form of sorts after two entries that failed to elicit the response and success of the original. Returning to its roots by bringing back the ability to take different paths through forks in the road, Outrunners also introduced the concept of selectable cars for the first time in the series. Strangely though the levels themselves take place in the strangest route patterns, starting in San Francisco will put your final location in either Europe or Africa. And all on one tank of gas too. Seriously though, if Outrunners was everything that fans of the original felt was missing from the previous two entries – then the next one would probably have made them ask ‘what the hell.

OutRun 2019 was a pseudo-sequel developed for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis and released in 1994 towards the end of the hardwares lifecycle. Your task is to race against time in a rocket-boosted car, with a top speed of 682mph, across five different stages with minimal fun. It kept the fork mechanic but the stage layout would take the unorthodox form of giving you only occasional forking options, directing you along a specific path en route to the goal. For some reason it started life under development for the Mega CD as Cyber Road, before becoming Junker’s High and finally OutRun 2019. Can you imagine Junker’s High selling well? Now you see, it was just a poorly rebranded racer tagged as an OutRun title and unfortunately it would be the last we saw of the venerable series for a while.

The next time an OutRun title would appear would be in the 21st century as fate would have it. By then Sega were already out of the hardware business and focusing more on publishing for the remaining hardware manufacturers Sony, Microsoft and long time rival Nintendo. As well as their software business, which afforded them the finances to stay afloat, Sega released the next installment of the series to critical acclaim directly onto custom built arcade hardware. After a long hiatus, and over fifteen years since its debut, OutRun had its first official sequel in Out Run 2. Built upon Sega Chihiro hardware, it was also the first title to have officially licensed Ferrari cars in the game – in contrast to the original which relied on the implication of official vehicles disguised by limited graphics. Resurrecting the pure gameplay of the original, fifteen stages selectable via a route of your choosing, OutRun 2 addressed every single issue that gamers had with previous installments; from the music, to the graphics and even the girl by your side – OR2 was the complete package. Visually it was an impressive accomplishment, a true successor to the original, but that’s not to say it was just an updated clone. It also brought new fare to the table in the form of two modes called Heart Attack and Time Attack. Whilst Time Attack is fairly straight forward in its explanation, Heart Attack mode is virtually a challenge mode where you must perform tasks to impress your lady friend whilst racing the clock. Whilst it’s not the most difficult thing to achieve a result, it is hard to get a great one. It didn’t stop people trying though, and when the game arrived on Xbox it was one of the most enjoyed exclusives on that platform. Well not until the OutRun 2 SP edition hit the arcades a year later at least.

OutRun 2 SP was more than just an update. It felt like a whole new game as Sega decided to replace the stages of the original release with fifteen new ones, all of which were American or Canadian themed. Of course you could play the original OR2 stages, but really – that’s not why you’re here is it? For the first time in the series slipstreaming was introduced as an in-game mechanic allowing the player to pick up speed by alternating between the lanes, riding the wake of the traffic ahead. The Y-Junctions before checkpoints also received animated flyovers depending on the stage you were currently racing on which whilst cosmetic, added detail which wasn’t there before. Whilst there is more to the Special Tours edition of OR2 much of it can also be found in the console follow up entitled OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast. In this edition, which was made available for PlayStation 2, Xbox, PSP, PC there were numerous features that indeed were new to the series. The benefits of a console version allowed gamers, for the first time, to play against gamers across the Internet – a feature that is now implemented on almost every title released. ‘OutRun Miles’ were also introduced as a form of in=game currency which you recieved for participating in challenges and races, these would be used to unlock new variations on courses, cars and in-game music. Starting OR2:C2C for the first time you notice that you have an extremely limited collection of assets available to you, the best thing about OutRun Miles is that you don’t need to actually finish a race to recieve them – although if you do the reward payoff is surely bigger. Smaller inclusions, though equally important, included the new ‘OutRun’ class of vehicle which essentially were highly tuned vehicles capable of higher speeds with special decals and paintwork. Essentially it was added, not for the amateur racer, but for the arcade aficionado who Sega hoped to lure into the living room to practise and hone their skills for the arcade version. The final new feature included with the Coast 2 Coast edition came exclusively tied to the PlayStation platform. By linking the PSP version of the game to your PS2 edition via USB cable you were able to unlock new content exclusively for that platform and port it to the home console version effectively rewarding folks who wanted a portable copy to play on the go! I must say that whilst the feature complete version of OutRun here was well recieved problems with the following, and current, generation of hardware meant that most folks were unable to play the title unless they kept their 6th Generation machines. Until now.

The most advanced generation thus far, and on par with the incredible technology found within arcade cabinets, OutRun made its way to the home consoles once more in April 2009. Featuring what essentially amounts to a stripped down, arcade racing experience OutRun Online Arcade took what was integral to the original title and updated it by choosing the best elements from the installments released over the past twenty plus years.

Of course it would be a crime not to discuss one more critical element of OutRun – the music. Both Splash Wave and Magical Sound Shower, as much as any of the elements that make up the game, are recognized as staples of the series and appear in every major installment. The original arcade cabinet allowed you to choose your in-game driving music and every title following afforded you the same option. The visual of the drivers hand manually tuning the radio to the obviously fake F.M. stations was always enjoyable, and what’s even better is that you did it with the steering wheel! In a time when button presses was all you had, using a steering wheel and accelerator pedal to select your music was an inspired decision. You might say that the work which Hiroshi Miyauchi performed on OutRun’s soundtrack was some of his very best and certainly remains popular today.

When you consider the age of the franchise, the number of installments and the varying quality of those titles it’s more impressive that Sega – and Yu Suzuki – have managed to keep a game which really has no story, no emotional investment and no real competition so enjoyable and popular. From watching others play, you can see players who never had the opportunity to before, fall in love with the journey as OutRun. It has never been about passing other cars or finishing first, rather it’s about challenging your previous time, setting a goal for yourself and enjoying the experience. The ‘beautiful journey,’ as it is known, is exactly what it claims to be. Beautiful.

This article was written with help from the excellent OutRun.org to fill the blanks in my memory. Thanks guys!