I suck at Virtua Racing Deluxe, please help!

[Blades]

The origin of the tracks is something I'm always interested in. If I had the chance to ask one question of the VR developers, I would ask what the three tracks were based on. Acropolis does seem like a U.S. Rockies-like area.

I agree that Bay Bridge can be infuriating, if you mess up on one thing and can't stop hitting whatever it is on your subsequent plays. I usually have to leave it and come back a few weeks later to fully flush it out of the system.

I love that VRD has a replay option. I recorded my glorious 1st place runs on VHS for future generations.

I think I only could finish first in the stock car rather than the F1 car on that course.

Me too! At least on hard.

There is also a secret "unwinnable" difficulty setting in Virtua Racing, custom designed for self-hating masochists. Most people know it as "Virtua Racing for Sega Saturn."

[Ecco]

I'm glad to hear from some other people who appreciate VRD. I think it's probably easily overlooked by many people because the graphics might not really sell it, or indicate how advanced the gameplay really is (that is, I think gameplay is more advanced than it looks like, by the simplistic polygon graphics).

I agree that it's interesting to wonder about the origins of the tracks:

I think Highland seems based on Estes Park, Colorado, which even has the zig-zagging streets, if you look at an overhead shot (though it's normally slow traffic, of course). I made a thread about that...

Acropolis MIGHT be based on the Rockies, too, Idk. I never looked into whether there's such a racetrack, running straight with a loop at the end, like that. It would be a pretty crazy real-life track, if it were real!

Bay Bridge seems obvious that it's the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Really I think this and Highland are the only two real-life places, but I could be wrong.

Big Forest seems like any forest drive... and Sand Park seems a made-up place. But I'd love to learn they all have a real inspiration.





Also I've been using the F1 car. I thought it was fastest, isn't it?

Plus the Stock has very hyper sensitive turning IIRC so it would be a whole different gameplay to get used to...

[moon]

Also I've been using the F1 car. I thought it was fastest, isn't it?

The "Prototype" car is the fastest by quite a margin.

	Automatic	Manual
Formula	328 km/h	330 km/h
Stock	286 km/h	291 km/h
Prototype	381 km/h	387 km/h

[Ecco]

The "Prototype" car is the fastest by quite a margin.

	Automatic	Manual
Formula	328 km/h	330 km/h
Stock	286 km/h	291 km/h
Prototype	381 km/h	387 km/h

Wow, OK thanks, I've been playing under the wrong impression of the F-1 being fastest. I've beaten 4 of the 5 stages with F-1.

Ironically I used to play with Prototype because I used to believe it was fastest... and then I switched to F-1 under a wrong idea from somewhere.

Anyway thanks for the clarity.

[Blades]

The prototype sucks, it's very difficult to handle. I would suggest to start with the Formula or Stock first, then try Prototype.

[Ecco]

The prototype sucks, it's very difficult to handle. I would suggest to start with the Formula or Stock first, then try Prototype.

^Thanks, I must have heard something like that, describing the F-1 as the overall best handling, or something along those lines. Because I got the impression that the F-1 was the best choice, at some point.

Plus, now I have the F-1 gameplay down, and I want to complete the game this way, now that I'm so far along.




I used to rock the Prototype as the fastest, but yeah I must have stopped because of steering / handling problems, as I'd occasionally be losing control and crash or whatever.

I've also tried Stock like I said, but the steering is so extremely sharp that it becomes a whole different gameplay...

[Ecco]

By the way, a while ago, I did beat all 5 tracks in 1st place, and unlocked mirror mode. It's kind of automatically disappointing. But the core gameplay of VRD is awesome and it's not really visible without going for 1st in each track, then it becomes white knuckle action, and tons of repeated races to get there.

I'm not really sure what I want to do next, however. VRD is the only 3D racing game that I've put time into. I'm not sure if I want to go for 1st in the mirror tracks.





The Genesis version is also an interesting comparison, since both versions share the same 3 core tracks. Genesis cars AI is noticeably different, but the 3D graphics are close, and specifically Bay Bridge background is much better on Genesis than on 32x.

Gen soundtrack can also be a nice jam alternative because... 32x audio can get annoying sometimes, while Gen version lacks the title shouting, for example, so Gen audio seems more calm altogether.






There's also the actual arcade Virtua Racing, which would probably be awesome if I could get that running in MAME. I remember seeing that Bay Bridge had seagulls starting on the road and flying off.







I'm also going to glance at Kawasaki SuperBike Challenge on Genesis because I've enjoyed that in the past, including real 3D polygon graphics without a special chip, it's quite interesting. It has a ton of different tracks, with diff. 3D polygon buildings etc.

However it's not quite full 3D like Virtua Racing, as Kawasaki has flat sprites for the bikers, with nice scaling, and I don't think it's really building the environment out of polys, I think it's just a really well done version of the classic line scrolling, but there are even hills and dips in the tracks.

It's been a while since I played but I don't think these games are really equivalent, but Kawasaki remains interesting anyway. I used to find certain polygonal buildings that I could drive behind and try to mess up the gameplay...

[Ecco]

Also I just got 1st in a mirror track and there is no trophy, I think I see now what people were referring to earlier... because apparently in the US version, mirror mode just doesn't record times, or give trophies etc.

And so apparently it's the JP version which will record times and give trophies in mirror mode, if I have the correct impression?

It's really weird and disappointing to play the mirror tracks, without any times getting recorded, etc.



This is all so strange to think about. But if the JP 32x version is the only one with battery saves... then I wonder if the other versions, have their mirror-mode gimped, just because there's no battery saves? And so they wanted to de-emphasize the extra mirror mode, in context of no saving?



What is so bizarre is that while it would obviously cut SOME cost, to not have batteries in the international versions... it seems such a SMALL price difference. It's just a watch-battery...

...then plus, there was presumably some EXTRA cost, that went into that extra process, of revising the US/international version... so it's hard to imagine that it really even saved any $$ overall.

And then for the sake of respecting the title itself, then ALL versions should have had save batteries and full mirror-mode functionality, imo.




It's such a strange predicament though, because aside from everything else... Sega was actually correct that MOST people wouldn't actually MISS a save battery. So that's true but like I said, it's such a negligible price difference, I think, and plus the extra time & $$ that went into revising the non-JP versions, I bet it's hardly any real savings, and they lost the full potential of the JP version.

...



So now I might be interested in getting thru the mirror tracks but it's just pointless with the game not saving my times. So maybe I'll start new on the JP version...