Producer: US Gold
Retail Price: £7.99

Sega's best-selling arcade racing game has just been converted to the Spectrum by US Gold - which claims it sold over 200,000 copies in its first two weeks, breaking all records and setting it to beat Gauntlet on total sales.

The objective in Out Run is to race a Ferrari Testarossa to one of eight destinations within the time limit.

The screen shows a 3-D view of the track from above and behind the player's Testarossa. The car has two gears and an accelerator, which come into effect as soon as the starting lights go green.

A digital speedometer and rev counter inform the player of the car's current performance as it negotiates dips and curves and dodges other traffic. Should the car run into the back of another vehicle it loses speed, but driving into a large roadside feature throws the car off the track and leaves the driver and his girlfriend sitting in a dazed stupor till their vehicle is placed back on the road.

The action is played against a constantly decreasing time limit. Failure to reach the next checkpoint within the limit ends the game. When a checkpoint is reached one of two routes is chosen, and the next part of the course loaded from tape, and extra time is added to the total so the player can progress.

When the fifth course is completed the game ends.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: the individual vehicles are accurately drawn but jerky animation detracts
from this realism
Sound: superb 128K rendition of the arcade tunes, the 48K lacks such enhancements
Options: three levels of difficulty

This must have one of the worst multiloads in history! As soon as the checkpoint is reached the action instantly freezes and the next track loads, and as soon as it's in the action starts without warning. This wouldn't be too bad if you only had to spend a couple of seconds waiting, but sometimes the wait goes on for ages, and it's easy for your attention to wander, the action to restart and the car crash. The gameplay is very slow, and the graphics and sound are generally disappointing. Out Run isn't a great conversion.
BYM [63%]

Why are US Gold doing this to me? First California Games turns out to be a massive disappointment, and then Out Run - a classic machine - turns out to be another disappointment. Fair enough, the 128K version has an excellent tune which doesn't appear to slow the game down, but, I ask myself, is it possible to slow it down further than it already is? The traffic on the road is jerky and badly animated and the road itself isn't exactly the paragon of smoothness. US Gold have made the best job they could, but it just isn't enough - Out Run is a full-price, full-scale letdown.
MIKE [59%]

At last Out Run has arrived on the Spectrum! But all those of you that are expecting this to be just like the arcade version had better leave the room right now, because you're going to be so disappointed. The graphics are as well drawn as is possible on the Spectrum, and sound on the 128K is absolutely fantastic! The only thing that lets the game down is the lack of colour (which is usual for this type of race game). On the 48K you also have to load each track separately which is a mite frustrating, but the problem is resolved on the 128 because once you have loaded the track it stays in the memory. Out Run is an essential purchase for all you budding arcade gamesters - miss it and you'll regret it for the rest of your life!
NICK [93%]

Kixx
£2.99 re-release

Become a real speed demon and put yourself behind the wheel of a classy sports car in Out Run. Race through five stages (out of a possible fifteen) of tyre burning mayhem against trucks, maniac Volkswagens other road nutters! Your car has only the two gears, high and low, and careful use of these is needed to survive some of the bends and twists.

Luckily for the more amateur players there's an option to change the amount of traffic in the game. I just can't walk past an Out Run arcade machine without sticking 20p in. With this version though, you'll be lucky if you can stand having a second go. The graphics are not too bad but its things like speed, the multi-load and music that let it down.

US Gold
£8.99
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

After what must be of the longest and most nail-biting build-ups in the history of computer games, my most favouritest arcade game ever finally been crammed into our rubbery buddy's miniscule memory. Has it survived the operation intact? Read on and see folks...

Out Run the arcade machine, places you in the driving seat of an open-topped Ferrari Testarossa with a stunning blonde in the passenger seat (ladies have to pretend it's a right-hand-drive vehicle), the idea being to negotiate a series courses as quickly as possible.

As you probably already know the YS mega-preview a while ago, every effort has been made by the programmers, Probe Software, to reproduce the original in full. And by heck have they made a good job of it. Obviously the pneumatic bits 'n' pieces and the jiggling steering wheel have had to go, but graphically it's all there.

In fact, the graphics are excellently drawn and true to the original, if a little on the monochromatic side. There's even a copy of the arcade version's cool 'n' groovy soundtrack thrown in for you to listen to on your Walkman as you play (or, indeed, review).

Like most things these days, it's a multi-load job. Every time you complete a stage you'll have to load the next in, but the 128K seems to store them as they load in, so next time round they're still there. All the same, the enormous amounts of rewinding and fast forwarding do spoil the fun a bit.

The one big snag, though, is the speed. It's to be expected really, but everything moves at a pretty sedate pace, and when you get to the bit with the stone tunnels, the whole thing slows down to the speed of a Commodore owner's brain waves. This doesn't actually affect the gameplay too badly, but you're constantly aware that you're playing around with five and a half year-old technology.

In most respects this is a superb conversion, despite the fact that US Gold may have been trying to achieve a bit too much in the first place. It's a shame that even the awesome power of the Speccy wasn't quite enough to pull it off.

THE COMPLETE YS GUIDE TO DRIVING GAMES

It's strange but true - normally courteous YS readers tend to turn into homicidal maniacs once they get behind the wheel of a Spectrum. We sent JONATHAN DAVIES, who still hasn't managed to get that wretched helmet off, to find out why.

It's an expensive business, driving. Not only do you have to hand out piles of dosh to actually get a car, but there are loads of 'hidden costs' thrown into the bargain' too. For a start, you've got to get it insured (in case you crash), which means serious sponds for your average Spectrum owner Then there's road tax, servicing, MOTs, petrol, all sorts of things. And, if you want to keep up with the latest fashions, you'll want to purchase a few 'extras' as well, ranging from simple '-TURBO-' stickers for the back window to alloys, buckets and twin cams. And they all mean spending lots and lots of money.

So wouldn't it be nice if you could get your Spectrum to sort of 'pretend' was a car, allowing you to zoom about to your heart's content for minimal outlay instead? Well, actually you can! Yes, all you need to do is buy a suitable driving game, load it up and you've got yourself a set of wheels.

It'll be almost exactly the same as driving a real car except that you can crash as much as you like without having to worry about your no-claims bonus. And you'll be able to choose from all the latest posh sports cars like Porsches, Ferraris and Lotuses and drive them as far and as fast as you like without having to splash out on a drop of petrol! (In fact, because driving games are so much cheaper and more practical than real cars, it is predicted that by the year 2012 the motorcar will have become obsolete, replaced by the driving game.) The only trouble with all this is that it's a bit hard to pick up birds with a 48K Spectrum.

JUST WHAT, EXACTLY, IS A DRIVING GAME?

Mmm, knew we'd have to get round to this sometime. Well, I've had a think and come up with the following spec...

- It's got to have either a car, a motorbike or a lorry in it.

- That means no bicycles, boats, jet-skis, tanks or anything like that.

- And no skateboards either. They're crap.

Seems simple enough. It means we're including Grand Prix-type games (where you just race against other cars) and shooting ones (where you zap them) but not similar-looking ones that don't have cars, bikes or lorries in (like boat ones). Okay? Phew. I never thought it would be quite so easy.

SO HOW ABOUT THINGS LIKE ARMY MOVES?

Oh cripes. Look, just shurrup. will you, whoever you are. No, Army Moves is out, I'm afraid. It's rubbish anyway.

So let's take a look at a few examples, eh? It's worth noting that, where driving games are concerned, the ratio of crap ones to good ones is a lot higher than with other types of game (apart from football games, of course). So you can't be too careful.

RATINGS

The YS Ratings System? You don't want that old thing. No sir, over here we have the brand-new top-of-the-range 1990 model. It's turbo-charged, fuel-injected, 16-valve, super-cooled and has a full X-pack (with droop snoot). And spots. You'll be doing yourself a favour.

DRIVE
It's no good having a driving game that seems to be simulating an FSO or something. You want real power, a feeling of being at one with the road and all that sort of thing. Control responses, speed etc are all taken into account here.

VISIBILITY
Assuming you remember to clean all the dead leaves and bird turds off the windscreen before you set out, what's the view like? A thinly-veiled graphics category, in other words, but jolly important all the same.

ROADHOLDING
It may seem to have everything, but once you've set off, and you've been on the road for a while, do you relish every second that you're behind the wheel? Or do you want to keep stopping at the services? Or perhaps you'd rather just take the bus instead, eh?

FIRST-OFF-AT-THE-LIGHTS FACTOR
A competitive edge is most important where driving's concerned, both in real life and on the Speccy. So do the other cars put up a decent fight, or do they just seem to be part of the scenery (if, indeed, there is any)?

OUTRUN
US Gold

Here's a controversial one. When I reviewed it in YS ages ago I thought it was quite good, while everyone else thought it was utter tosh. In fact, it's quite surprising that I'm still doing reviews today. So let's be diplomatic, and say that it's 'aged' quite a lot. The idea, as you'll know if you've seen the arcade version, is to drive along a series of roads getting to the end of each one within a time limit. Not too thrilling, you might think. But the success of the coin-op lay in its corkingly fast graphics and hydraulic cabinet, neither of which have made it to the Spectrum. It looks okay in stills, sure, but everything moves horribly slowly, especially when you go into one of the tunnel things. And the multiload really doesn't help at all. There are some nice 128K tunes though.

It's not quite as bad as most people said, just a bit of a let-down after the fabby coin-op. The sequel, Turbo OutRun, is a bit better, so take a gander at that instead.

Label: US Gold
Author: Probe Software
Price: £8.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Hugely ambitious tasks that never quite came off:

- Raising the Titanic.

- Crossing the Atlantic really fast in a speedboat.

- Going out in not entirely blistering heat in the Antarctic when your name is Scott.

- Outrun? Well, though it's by no means a disaster, one feels that US Gold may have overstretched its programmers a little on this one.

Outrun in the arcades came in a number of forms. There was the ultimate version which jerked around in a hydraulic fashion as you sat in it, and various in/betweenies until you got down to the bog-standard cabinet version. It's main appeal, at least in the novelty stakes, was the way it lurched and bucked at every corner and dip in the road. OK, for a kick-off you have to scratch 30% of Overall Greatness - you're not going to get that on your Spectrum.

So what's left? Another 3D road-race? Well, not exactly. Outrun sits you in a Ferrari Testarossa - a shiny red slab capable of 185 mph, on an American interstate heading into an unspecified horizon. The road curves left and right in usual 3D fashion. And it also dips and rises very nicely.

Simply creating the style of graphics used in the coin-op on the Spectrum is clearly impossible, and moving them at the sort of speed necessary to give a feeling of exhilaration is asking for miracles.

All that considered. Probe - the programmers - hasn't done too badly. Your car is recognisable as a Ferrari, you can identify the other vehicles and the road twists and turns and rises and falls.

The biggest problem is the combination of speed and numbers of graphics. As you can see from the screens, there are some serious-sized objects around, and if they total more than about four, the poor old Z80 begins to cough and protest and slows down noticeably.

To remedy the problem a little, the numbers of objects have been trimmed, and the game generally moves at an acceptable, if not gob-smacking pace.

An interesting feature of Outrun is the way you can, at least to a certain extent, decide where you are going to drive. Every few kilometres you'll find a branch in the road. You've got to decide which way to go. Usually there's a route which is easier than the other, so it's a question of remembering to try each route to see which is the fastest.

If the game had been released as Sunday Driver, or something, everyone would have been bowled over by the graphics and the speed, which are pretty good for the Spectrum. Instead, everyone feels at a little bit diappointed that it's not closer to the original - impossible task though it was.

If you can manage to forget how great the original arcade version looked, vou may end up pretty impressed by Outrun though.

You're cool, the engine hot, the girl's gorgeous, the tank is full of gas and it's an open road - but have you remembered your sandwiches and are you wearing a clean vest?

This is the question no-one thinks to ask in Out Run, that most splendiferous of coin-op driving games. The Spectrum version is pretty good, incorporating the twisting, dipping road of the Sega original with fast-moving graphics.

Controls are simple; left/right, accelerate/decelerate and fire button to change gears. You don't have the automatic gear option found on the sequel Turbo Outrun, but I always thought this was a bit of a cheat. On-screen displays are limited to score, time, speed and time limit; you have to complete each course within a time limit or you'll be disqualified.

There are five different courses to complete, each with five scenes (though some of the scenes are shared - there are fifteen different backgrounds in all, including seaside, valley, autobahn, beach and wilderness). The constant tape loading is an unavoidable annoyance.

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £8.99
Sega Two-Mega Cartridge £24.95
Commodore 64/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: 11.99

TESTABUSTER

Mastertronic are marketing the Sega cartridge conversion from this very popular coin-op hit, while US Gold deal with the popular micro versions. US Gold claimed well before Christmas that Out Run was selling like hot cakes long before any reviews were written, for the copies were in the shops to meet the Christmas sales period before review copies were despatched. Was it worth the purchase? The main section of this review deals with the official Sega version.

Aren't you a lucky chap: a nice sunny afternoon, at the wheel of a Ferrari Testarossa, girlfriend at your side, out for a pleasant drive. Well actually you are about to participate in possibly the most gruelling race of your life, as you sit tensely at the starting line waiting for the chequered flag.

Hold on though, you forgot to switch on the radio and there are three in-game tunes to choose from, Magical Sound Shower, Passing Breeze and Splash Wave. Having selected music to drive by, you are presented with a view of your car at the starting point - the chequered flag drops, and you are off. Control is simple, pressing up on the direction button puts you in low gear, pressing down selects high gear, button one is the brake, button two the accelerator, and pressing left or right on the direction button steers the car.

As the race starts, it is wise to select low gear until you have gained sufficient speed to warrant the change to high (usually at around 170 kph). There are five landscapes to be raced through, each with its own check point. An 80-second time limit is allowed to reach the first, 65 seconds for the next and so on, decreasing as you go along: however, crossing a check point within the time limit adds those remaining precious seconds to the next stage's time allowance. Failing to reach the end of a route within the limit means disqualification and an end the game.

At various points along the track, forks in the road appear. These allow you to choose which of the goal lines you wish to pursue, and there are five in all: the Vinyard, Death Valley, Desolation Hill, Autobahn and Lakeside. But whichever path you choose to reach your goal, there are plenty of people on the road trying to stop you, so good luck, you will probably need it.

Of all the versions, the Sega cartridge comes closest to the original coon-op in appearance, feel and addictive qualities, but nonetheless, it does suffer in comparison. The home micro versions have all had to make their own compromises with memory size.