Best PSX racing games

[Thief]

Hey Theif, Aren't you the guy who professed to having difficulty with holding the PS1 controllers in that 20th Anniversary of Playstation thread? One thing with the being successful with the WipEout games is proper use of the airbrakes, therefore it is imperative that you hold the controller with the handles facing down so that access to the shoulder buttons is possible. If that doesn't help I might suggest you check out the Saturn version of the game as I know you've mentioned that you are such a huge Saturn Fanboy, I heard they toned down the craft handling characteristics in the Saturn version of the game and it features a slower frame rate for a slightly less intense and hard core experience. Might be worth checking out!

Yeah, I'm the same guy. I really hate the Sony gamepads. A blight on videogames. Argonomically they suck, and the D-Pad is an insult to videogame players. But lucky for the crappy D-Pad I use an overlay for it when I play games requiring more out of my D-Pad (Shmups and other 2D games). (Sadly overlay don't work so good with PS1 & 2. With PS3 it becomes a really great D-Pad).

I also play most games on emulator (since I don't have many PS1 & 2 games). And on an emulator I have a USB Japanese Sega Saturn gamepad for games without analog, and X-Box 360 gamepad for games requiring Analog control.

I talked to a big fan of Wipeout series & Saturn on the Sega Saturn forum once and he said the he played all the 32-Bit era Wipeout games, and he said the best versions were the PS1 versions. Besides, I usually prefer what's not the port to play and focus on mostly at the start. Things always go wrong with ports.


And lower frame = more intense, lol. Gives the illusion of greater speeds (ie. why the first Daytona USA on the Saturn looks to be moving faster. Ditto for Sega Touring Car).

And thanks for trying to help.

[Barone]

Yes! Crash Team Racing is a huge hit! He absolutely loves it! And it's a fantastic racer. Really really fun. We haven't even gotten to the other 3 games I got him yet.

It's great to see people making some good use of this thread. Cool stuff!

[OverDrone]

I've started on Wipeout XL: first impressions after not touching a Wipeout game since the '90s - still looks fantastic with amazing track detail and colour use, the glare from your craft's thrusters and the various luminous weapon effects are as good now as ever. On the down side visually, playing through component I now understand the full screen dithering thing I've seen mentioned.

I also dig it's unforgiving nature with some tight track sections I'll need to get a lot better at the airbrakes for. The harder tracks are defo not something you can just plow through haphazardly hitting walls, you need to have them down since there is no map in the HUD. Then again racers are not my strong suit

And I don't think I need to remind you guys just how dope the soundtrack is.

[OverDrone]

Rally Cross looks soooo good, and I've never even heard of the game before. The physics model looks out of this world.

Unfortunately it looks like a lot of the games on Barone's list never made it to Japan, so it looks like I'll have to pick 'em up in good 'ole NTSCU. I'm kind of surprised how essential access to the western region stuff is on PS1. So much great US/European stuff never got a Japanese release, yet it seems a fair chunk of the best/worthwhile Japanese games did get localized in the west.

Anyway, upon recommendation in this thread, I have my eye on Rollcage Stage 2, Rally Cross and Wipeout 3. I'm going to have to look at one of these analog controllers as well, although my current performance in Wipeout XL is certainly not suffering for digital only. Amazing game once you learn it.

[Barone]

I'm going to have to look at one of these analog controllers as well

This is the one to go with:


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Impact-...EAAOSwcdBWT0kA
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PS-One-Origi...UAAOSwZd1VY80o
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-INTERACT...oAAOSwT6pVuQV4
...

[Gogogadget]

I also play most games on emulator (since I don't have many PS1 & 2 games). And on an emulator I have a USB Japanese Sega Saturn gamepad for games without analog

Dunno why I never thought of that, PS1 has some excellent fighters.

[A Black Falcon]

The Mad Catz Street Fighter Anthology controllers for the "PS2" are a pretty good PS1 controller for dpad-only games as well, particularly for fighting games since it has 6 face buttons and only 2 triggers -- the upper pair of shoulder buttons are face buttons on this controller. I like it. And yes, it is actually a PS1 controller, also compatible with dpad-only PS2 games.

[Barone]

Let's give some credit where credit is due:


The scrolling speed difference is really noticeable IMO.