In 1986 Sega released one of the greatest racers of our time, it just had to be Out Run. An Arcade racer designed by Yu Suzuki, that was not only a commercial success, but became one of the best selling games of its time. A game that featured incredible graphics, fantastic music and fast paced track racing. Thankfully other people remember this Arcade classic, as we've recently found out through the EAB forums, that agermose is still working on Outrun AGA: A vastly superior version of an Arcade classic, that some how ended up being (as one person puts it) "one of the nastiest Amiga arcade ports".
Here's what agermose had to say about the game when the first announcement was made in 2021 and the more recent post in 2024. "Back in January of 2021, DJ Metune shared a picture of an icy road, which sparked off a conversation in the 1942 dev team about driving games on the Amiga, and how bad the Amiga Outrun conversion was. Since then we have been looking into converting Outrun, and the announcement of the project. The conversion will be for AGA machines only. An OCS version may happen later if the AGA versions is successful, and we believe in delivering something playable on OCS. The team is the same as 1942, myself coding, Nightshft on assets/misc, and DJ METUNE on music".
"Running on WinUAE Amiga1200 chip mem only, no accelerators. WinUAE overestimates the CPU a bit. The number at the top is the framerate indicator. The number at the bottom right is the gear indicator. The game is playable, but no traffic yet as can be seen from the video. Only stage 1 has sprites and correct background gfx. Colours are washed out on Youtube. The clouds have 3 colours. There are still loads of challenges to overcome, and glitches to fix, but I will get there eventually. Don’t expect a release anytime soon".
And that's all we have on this game, but for further information make sure to check out the EAB forums linked (HERE).
The original port was pretty obviously the Atart ST version, wasn't it? Lazy ports were the bane of the Amiga. This looks fantastic, though.
ReplyDeleteYou have to take into account most computer game programmers didn't have access to the arcade code, or graphics and audio. The publishers should have done more to get these. So the Amiga and ST version were doomed anyway.
DeleteThe reason for lazy ST ports is not lack of access to arcade code. Out Run plays like similar arcade games.
DeleteIf the ST got a bad port, this is due to it not getting the same treatment as C64. However importantly, the ST couldn't scroll, draw sprites, or play great music to save its life, so many ST games were inferior, even to 8-bit. (Such was the experience of every ST buyer who had previously owned an 8-bit except Spectrum etc.)
The point is that after that fact, someone else (dev or suit) decided Amiga should get a lazy (meaning low-effort) port for free, without adaptation to its hardware, which could do much more than the C64 and be very close to arcade.
This is the brief history of all the bad games on Amiga. Out Run is a fruit that fell far from the tree - but not particularly. We got a lot of them, with few actual Amiga games.
Games being bad on ST is understandable from its lacks, but Amiga had none of them and we expected something at least like C64. Amiga owners were subsequently let down badly in the last half of the 1980s.
Sadly the reason wasn't due to platform specs, but due to most games being written for a platform spec that was bad for games, and then not changed to take advantage of the Amiga's platform specs. This was what was not understandable.
Tramiel was a survivor but then looked to destroy everyone. I don't like him. The ST is no games platform, and shouldn't be the template for Amiga games. The Amiga came from a kinder and more creative place, and deserved more. Unfortunately, there were cynical people around at this time.
I'm not even sure the argument of 'bad ST' ports to Amiga even holds. There are enough examples on the ST that also show the Atari was capable of far more. I think lack of source code and graphics, one man projects (sometimes kids as young as 17 or 18!) with insane deadlines (and of course after all that little to no effort for a special custom chip Amiga 'update') was the biggest problem. I think that was the reason console ports were so much better most of the time; they came from far more professional studios.
DeleteLooks like a self driving Telsa
ReplyDeletelol
DeleteYes and the real anonymous coder ist Elon Musk coding this stuff in his spare time
DeleteCan't be a Tesla, the self-driving is perfect!
DeleteLooks and sounds absolutely fantastic! 👍 I wonder, when once finished, is there powerfull 68k Amiga enough to run this on full speed? 🤔
ReplyDeleteMost of the nowdays Amiga users base has an accelerated aga machine. If this is done in a stock 1200, then any accelerated Amiga can easily play it!!!
DeleteDo you have a source for that about most Amiga users? I'm curious on the stats. I've only got a stock A1200. :P
DeleteIf a Sega Genesis can do it, then the OCS/ECS Amiga can do it even slightly better.
DeleteIf yοu still have a stock 1200 then....i must say that exception prooves the rule! :)
DeleteWe had a lazy port back in the day. Amiga could do much better than this! This one is fantastic! I hope that it will be completed!
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, the GFX so far looks nothing better than standard Amiga OCS/ECS and I would say even a standard Amiga 500 would have run a prettier OutRun version. The 68000 has enough power with this custom chips
ReplyDeleteYeah that's not how it's works, they are place holders. Refining comes latter, they have the engine working and accurate road/track. So far so good. But as he said lots of hurdles to over come and no promises .
DeleteI have weirdly only just now, in my 37 years of life, discovered the majesty of OutRun. Needless to say I welcome this wholeheartedly.
ReplyDeleteOutrun is my favourite game ever after playing at arcades and on mega drive. The PS2 port released a few years ago is fantastic
ReplyDeleteWhere is 1942 ?
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, but from what I remember, they put a demo on an amiga magazine, which you paid for. While they never offically updated us on this, I assume capcom told them to stop.
DeleteCapcom? ?? You mean Sega surely!
DeleteNo Capcom made the 1942 game and have the copyright on it.
DeleteInterested on the technicalities of this ? Is it dual play-filed with copper based road in one play-field?
ReplyDeleteSupport for RTG graphics cards and AHI audio?
ReplyDeleteLooking and running better than the original port is not the hardest part of doing this game justice on the Amiga. However, it is looking good so far though! Lotus showed what was possible and I agree with others who believe that a very decent version of Outrun should be possible on AGA.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a promising start. The music is a bit lacking, and the missing driver and passenger are concerning. Can’t wait to see the final results
ReplyDeleteYeah they might as well have taken the music from the original Amiga Outrun, that was the best part of the game anyway.
DeleteThis is the most fantastic thing I have seen since the 90's in the Amiga world... Period.
ReplyDeleteThe scroll looks good. Music and gfx are promising. Sfx must be good, point. ;) I just watched OutRun for A500 and it is quite good. But this AGA version will be better. I can't wait to see the ultimate release!
ReplyDelete