Sega Touring Car 'almost playable' shock!

[rossi46]

I don't know what happened yesterday, but I had my usual 6-monthly attempt at playing STC on my Saturn and actually got on quite well with it.

I chose the Toyota Supra, the tuned options, selected soft tires, hard suspension (3) front and rear, hard braking, made the steering as quick and responsive as poss and, what do you know? 3rd over all in championship (Saturn Side) mode.

That's go to be considered a result, as prior to that, I couldn't manage more than automobile pinball up and down the track until the timer ran out.

I did use the 3D pad for a change (I usually just stick with the original controller out of laziness) and I was in quite a forgiving mood, generally, but this is still a positive step forward

On the flipside, the game is still waaaay too fast and looks about as ugly as a rapists ass, but I'm going to persevere until I either win the championship mode or give up forever.

Anyone played this recently?

[Kibbles]

I recently have been giving the Arcade version a whirl on the Model 2 emulator...

The Saturn and PC version may be not-so-perfect ports, but I can't say the original arcade game is all that great either...
It also suffers from being considerably worse looking than Sega Rally 1995...

[rossi46]

That's a fair comment. I played the arcade version a bit on holiday a few years back and I liked it, but not nearly as much as Daytona or Ridge Racer.

[infernalcombustion]

I must admit that I initially hated the game too. After the delights of Rally and even Manx TT, it always seemed that there was something fundamentally 'broken' with Touring Car.

It almost felt like the cars were driving away from me, like being on the back of a wild stallion, without enough control to keep them in line. It's unfortunate, that to get the best out of the game you HAVE to use either the analogue pad or the Arcade Racer - otherwise you're fighting against the car the whole time (That pinball analogy is the best I've heard yet rossi!!).

Anyway, I'm still not a fan of the game but it's an enjoyable rush to play now and again. Well done for finishing 3rd in the championship too!!

[Aydan]

I can play the game easily with the 3d pad. when you use the dpad is where it all goes to hell. the analogue pad works perfectly and makes the game easily playable for me at least...

[bison2uk]

Feb 27, 2011 23:26:45 GMT Aydan said:

I can play the game easily with the 3d pad. when you use the dpad is where it all goes to hell. the analogue pad works perfectly and makes the game easily playable for me at least...

I have to agree with this I do find it more playable with the 3D controller pad

[LJay]

I always play with the 3d pad,it plays waay better

i drive the Alfa 155 all the time,but i played it and played it till i got the handling set up as good as i could keeping an eye on my lap times-you'l soon see the results get better

what is it about this game that we all just want it to be great?i mean i like it but its just not quite as good as i want to be,is it because of rally?

[bison2uk]

Mar 1, 2011 17:19:06 GMT LJay said:

I always play with the 3d pad,it plays waay better

i drive the Alfa 155 all the time,but i played it and played it till i got the handling set up as good as i could keeping an eye on my lap times-you'l soon see the results get better

what is it about this game that we all just want it to be great?i mean i like it but its just not quite as good as i want to be,is it because of rally?

It's because it's a test to see how much Patience we have with a pretty low average game before it's chucked out the window with rage because we crash into walls 99.9% of the time

[Anthaemia.]

The contents of this message are going to be occasionally off-topic, though in advance I'm hoping you'll enjoy the journey I'm about to embark on with you all. So, here goes:

I've always loved racing games, which probably started when I first played the Amstrad CPC 464 version of OutRun back in the day (yes, I'm that old). Anyway, late '97 was a great period for me with Touring Car and Sonic R both hitting the Saturn around the same time. Also, I was still enjoying Daytona CCE plus the driving section of Die Hard Trilogy... and then there was WipEout 2097 that had only just come out as well.

I can still remember playing WipEout 2097, as the last few tracks were an absolute nightmare - and I'd just recently come off the back of finishing the original WipEout, which is certainly no walk in the park with the Silverstream and Firestar courses in particular giving me a really hard time! In fact, the only way I could finish Odessa Keys was by literally sitting right up to my 14-inch portable in the dark (I always felt a little hypocritical for owning a Sony television back in my Saturn fanboy days, hence the Sega sticker plastered over its front logo).

I found the 2097 experience quite immersive, and with no other Saturn racers on the horizon - apart from the occasionally rumoured Scud Race, which I often ventured down to my local arcade for a quick go on - the only real option was to hold out for the upcoming one-two that was Sonic R and Touring Car. The former was a relative breeze to finish, and even now I'll often find myself annoying the missus by insisting on enabling "that bloody singing" much to her nuisance.

As for Touring Car, I'd read the reviews and knew from the coin-op it was no Sega Rally in the handling department. However, the combination of a low frame rate and ultra-high speed proved rather challenging, although I persevered and went right into '98 trying my best to unlock all the extras without simply plugging in my Arcade Racer and doing it the easy way.

While all that effort did pay off in the end, I found that just a few months later during high school IT and English lessons (later continued into college) something wasn't right. Has anyone else been told they appear to be in a trance-like state when concentrating on playing games? A friend even went as far as to take pictures of me when in this zone, and even today I can find the same place - usually when emulating the arcade version of Daytona USA on the laptop. Of course, the one key ingredient that helps me achieve this state of wide-eyed staring now is taking off my glasses!

These days I look back and would love to blame Touring Car directly for screwing up my eyesight for good, though I guess it could very easily have been sitting up until the early hours half-asleep (with school the next morning low on my priority list) browing the 'net on a truly sluggish 56k connection waiting for those early Dreamcast preview videos to download from such long-gone sites as SegaWeb, SegaNet and Sega 2000.

I still have a lot of those files saved on discs that incredibly still work, but I've gone way off giving you just my recollections about Touring Car now. All the same, sweet memories, indeed...

P.S. Surely I can't be the only person who found the handling in Sega Rally 2 far worse than that of Sega Touring Car? Thankfully the powers that be stopped following Jun Taniguchi's direction in recent years, as his influence was far removed from the lineage that had seen classics such as OutRun, Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, Sega Rally and then Scud Race form one heck of a winning streak for Sega.

[LJay]

lol yeah you have to get into that state to get a clean lap on stcc!

i dont like how the cars seem turn tighter on the corners on stcc and dont like the way sega rally 2 on DC cars seem to just twist on there axis rather than steer,both still fun games though

[Anthaemia.]

Isn't the handling system of Touring Car actually context sensitive? I get that impression from my experience with this game, and while I've knocked Sega Rally 2 in the past a lot of my issues stem from the overall conversion quality rather than any serious flaws with its design - even the arcade version didn't feel quite as good as the original to me, though I do find the later PC edition has some minor improvements to at least the visual side of things compared with the Dreamcast port (and it is a port, having being created around the PC build that was delayed so work on the console could take priority). Back on the subject of Touring Car again for a moment, regardless of its faults and the nagging sense it's done me considerable harm over the years I still find it quite enjoyable somehow. Maybe it's just because of the sheer pace in combination with the fact I'm something of a speed demon!

[LJay]

yes i think it is and until you"learn" it,it drives you wild!well it did me anyway

i didnt know sega rally 2 was a pc port,that explains the slow down also i thought the arcade rally 2 version handled alot better than the home version,which after the quality of sega rally on the saturn was a slight dissapointment

ive never seen sega touring car arcade machine to compare the 2 versions-on what ive seen from videos of it looks like they did well to get all the detail and speed in at the expense of the frame rate,quite sure a little bit development more time could have ironed that out-when i get my pc done up i'll go hunting and get the model 2 emu on the go and try the stcc arcade version

anyway rossi46,hows ur copy?not out the window yet

[rossi46]

Lol, I'm still plugging away at it, but haven't managed to beat my score.

There's something about the game that keeps dragging me back. I guess I'm eternally optimistic that it may magically transform into something resembling a decent racing game. I have a sense of unfinished business with it. I remember all the features and previews in the Saturn press at the time saying that it was to be the Next Big Thing. Ironically, SSM and Sega (Saturn) Power actually agreed for once that it was shaping up to be something special.

Oh, the disappointment upon booting STC for the first time, after rushing home with my copy from Comet.

[Anthaemia.]

I still feel sorry for all those magazines that gushed enthusiastically about the Saturn conversion of Sega Touring Car, because for a while it really did appear to be the next big thing. For those who can't remember, here's a recap of what happened and how things went so wrong so quickly...

The first public build of STC was just 5% complete, and despite the lack of enemy cars it looked rather impressive. While the overall track detail was rather close to that of the Model 2 arcade original, CRI insisted they had plenty of time to fix such issues as the slightly low resolution and frame rate, not to mention the rather scrappy polygon texture warping.

Fast-fowards just a few weeks, and the likes of SSM were now showcasing a 40% version with enemy vehicles present and correct plus the essential rear-view mirror - a feature that had only been left out of Sega Rally because its conversion team felt it was more a luxury than a necessity. In fact, a video from this point (and included on Sega Flash Vol. 5) reveals that the frame rate was still far from being improved.

Now passing 60%, this promising Saturn game for the late '97 wave of software had console exclusive bonus modes and unlockables, yet the warping issue was still present along with the slightly lower-than-expected refresh rate. Still, with even more detail being packed in than ever before, it seemed CRI would be producing a worthy follow-up to its last project.

Virtual On might not have matched its arcade counterpart for looks, but in terms of playability the end result definitely held up, and hopes were definitely being pinned on STC being another great title. However, it was around this time things started going badly wrong, with the frame rate no longer a concern as management at Sega of Japan insisted that online functions were to take priority.

I'm not exactly sure what else apart from the global ranking system and time-delayed challenges were added during the last 40% of production work, though as with the later House Of The Dead conversion, it's clear much of the earlier potential would not be fulfilled. Instead, the powers that be stopped caring and went all-out to ensure there would be no delays, as Sega couldn't really afford to lose a key title when few alternatives were in the works.

As it stands, Touring Car launched around the same time as Worldwide Soccer '98, Sonic R and the long-awaited Saturn port of Resident Evil and was quickly lost in the public's eye due to reviewers having to confess their over-enthusiasm. Besides, it wouldn't be long until the last great wave of games arrived starting in early '98, with Steep Slope Sliders, Panzer Dragoon Saga, World League Soccer '98, Burning Rangers and Shining Force III stealing any remaining limelight from STC's rapidly-fading profile on the radar of many Saturn owners.

Although others from this late period have their fans, I'll spare giving much attention to Deep Fear, The House Of The Dead or even Courier Crisis right now as their similar levels of failure can be attributed to far different reasons than why STC didn't ignite the passion of racing fans in a way Daytona USA and Sega Rally had not so long before.

One thing I haven't seen much mention of over the years that I do feel deserves more discussion is the sheer difficulty of those time-unlocked bonus tracks in STC - did anyone else find the cone challenge in particular near impossible to complete without resorting to a snail's pace? One day I'll hopefully go back and master these, just as I did with the main game. Finally, I should also point out that I've managed to crack this notorious title without even considering the fact I could modify the controls and car setup from their default profiles!

[syn]

Anthaemia. you either need to write a book or blog about what you've heard/seen/read and the rest of your thoughts.

I really enjoy your posts!

I really haven't spent much time playing STC since there are other racing games I enjoy.