48 replies to this topic

[ydcl]

98 laps! Nice! You must have some patience.

[Darrin9999]

38.0  and that took me forever to get it to that!! Man the controls are crazy!!

[ydcl]

Darrin9999, on Tue Jul 17, 2012 11:07 PM, said:

38.0  and that took me forever to get it to that!! Man the controls are crazy!!

I hit that wall on the 1st turn almost every time! I barely pressed the turn button. I need to do 1 lap without hitting something.
Good thing this has a 2 week time limit.

[Jagman]

yeah, but can you keep your sanity that long?

[Gunstar]

I want to love this game so much, that even though it sucks, it still has me wanting to love it! I love the Virtua Racing style polygon graphics, I love the sound track, I even love the backgrounds even if they are a bit pixilated. Then there is the terrible frame-rate and horrible control (which I think are directly tied to each other) and the pitiful Artificial Intelligence. If there was ever a reason for me to try a Jaguar emulator it would be for this game to get that better frame-rate. I think I may have to overclock a real Jaguar though...

If there was one game that really needs someone to get the source and revamp and optimize it, this is the game. I understand that Reboot did the patch, but that's what it is; a bandaid. I'd love to see a full optimization and some changes, maybe even release it under a new title.

Edited by Gunstar, Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:39 PM.

[sh3-rg]

Gunstar, on Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:35 PM, said:

If there was ever a reason for me to try a Jaguar emulator it would be for this game to get that better frame-rate.

I made a quick vid of the game in VJ if you want to take a look at how the steering/camera/etc look without dirtying your hands with actual emulator use

[Lentzquest]

I know what you mean Gunstar. I hate this game more than almost any other that I've ever owned for any system. But I think the reason I dislike it so much (and strangely the reason I keep it and sometimes revisit it), is mostly because of the waste of potential. This game should have been good, but sadly ranks amongst the worst ever made.

Edit: That emulated vid makes the gameplay look much more managable. Maybe most of the problems of the game are all tied to framerate afterall.

Edited by Lentzquest, Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:05 PM.

[ydcl]

sh3-rg, on Wed Jul 18, 2012 5:56 PM, said:

Gunstar, on Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:35 PM, said:

If there was ever a reason for me to try a Jaguar emulator it would be for this game to get that better frame-rate.

I made a quick vid of the game in VJ if you want to take a look at how the steering/camera/etc look without dirtying your hands with actual emulator use

After seeing the video I know what you guys are talking about. The frame rate is better than on my actual Jaguar. It is interesting to imagine it Atari had just taken a few more months or so to release their games, they would have been remembered better.

[ydcl]

Gave it another try. God bless those breaks!

Edited by ydcl, Thu Jul 19, 2012 6:45 PM.

[roadrunner]

0:28:7


You gotta admit, the music for this game is pretty good.

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[Gunstar]

Lentzquest, on Wed Jul 18, 2012 5:59 PM, said:

I know what you mean Gunstar. I hate this game more than almost any other that I've ever owned for any system. But I think the reason I dislike it so much (and strangely the reason I keep it and sometimes revisit it), is mostly because of the waste of potential. This game should have been good, but sadly ranks amongst the worst ever made.

Edit: That emulated vid makes the gameplay look much more managable. Maybe most of the problems of the game are all tied to framerate afterall.

The majority of the problems seem to be tied to the frame-rate, though while the frame rate boost on VJ makes it look like a steerable game, it looks like the controls are still difficult. It does look more like WTR's frame-rate/control scheme.

But, I had this game mastered at one time, with times that look more like the time from VJ, on the real thing. One thing I can tell you is that once you learn how to get around the tracks fast without crashing, you soon find out how terrible, boring, annoying and easily beatable the A.I. drone cars are, pitiful A.I. still make the game terrible gameplay-wise.

To fool myself into thinking I'm racing a competative race, I'll accelerate until just a few miles faster than the drone cars (about 140MPH), and hit the cruise-control button. that way I generally stay ahead of them, but if I do crash, they aren't so far behind that I can't be passed, then I full-throttle it until I take the lead, and return to cruise control at 140. While all this is happening, you find it's easier to steer the car at a mere 140MPH instead of full-throttle 200MPH.

There are some other tricks that help the frame-rate too, on a real Jag. Pick a foggy race (I think this works as good or better with night-time secret code), the shorter draw-distance due to the fog or rain effects improve the frame-rate about 1-2FPS. pick the cockpit view or the higher in the sky camera views as your car is drawn with less polygons and it improve the frame rate about 1-2FPS. Select only 2 or 3 drone cars to improve the frame rate another 1-2FPS. Just one or 2 drones for another 1-2FPS. With experience you can figure out which tracks actually have less polygons and give you another 1-3FPS on those tracks.

Edited by Gunstar, Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:40 PM.

[Jagman]

roadrunner, on Fri Jul 20, 2012 6:30 PM, said:

0:28:7


You gotta admit, the music for this game is pretty good.

yeah the menu music especially is pretty badass.

[Lentzquest]

Makes me wonder if they made the drone A.I. crap on purpose because they knew that the framerate and controls were broken.

[sh3-rg]

Gunstar, on Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:00 PM, said:

while the frame rate boost on VJ makes it look like a steerable game, it looks like the controls are still difficult. It does look more like WTR's frame-rate/control scheme.

No, my video isn't the best example of my CF playing

Set to NTSC, I can do lap after lap of 19 second laps without letting off the accelerator or pressing the brake, not touching a single thing on the way 'round. It's dead easy to play in VJ, and therefore loads more fun (fun of a less sadistic kind maybe

[Gunstar]

sh3-rg, on Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:07 AM, said:

Gunstar, on Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:00 PM, said:

while the frame rate boost on VJ makes it look like a steerable game, it looks like the controls are still difficult. It does look more like WTR's frame-rate/control scheme.

No, my video isn't the best example of my CF playing

Set to NTSC, I can do lap after lap of 19 second laps without letting off the accelerator or pressing the brake, not touching a single thing on the way 'round. It's dead easy to play in VJ, and therefore loads more fun (fun of a less sadistic kind maybe

Well, I guess I'll try it out VJ later today, if I can find a rom image of CF. I used to be able to do go full-throttle with no brakes too, on several of the tracks, any without hairpin turns. I probably could again with a bit more practice. I was playing around last night on other tracks.

If I had a video capture card I could make movies off the real Jaguar of racing around every track without a single crash. The game looks good, as is on a real Jag, when I'm playing it. I'm so good I make it look good. But I do want to see this game with a good frame rate.

I'm not good at this game becuase I like it though, it has always sucked, I'm just good at it becuase it's against my nature not master every racing game I come across. Also becuase I bought this game as a new release for over $60 back in early '95; there's no way I was going to let that money go to waste even if I had to force myself to play the game.

Edited by Gunstar, Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:35 AM.

[Gunstar]

Lentzquest, on Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:28 AM, said:

Makes me wonder if they made the drone A.I. crap on purpose because they knew that the framerate and controls were broken.

Possibly. The A.I. in this game acts and reacts, as if they are the only car on the track set to drive perfectly at a pre-determined speed. They actually don't act or react at all to any other cars, only the track. they will smash into you from behind and each other every time (assuming your not going faster than them), at full speed as if you don't exist. When you pass them, they barely react , if at all to intentionally block, but you end up hitting them most of the time becuase the frame-rate sucks and your on top of them before you know it. I really think this is just in a long line of Atari releases that rushed to market, basically still in the Beta stage. It just seems like so much wasn't implemented in terms of A.I. and control, and frame-rates never to to be optimized as originally intended and possible. I'm have my doubts that many of these Jaguar titles would have even used the 68000 CPU as much, had they had the time to transfer code from the 68000 to the RISC chips. As Atari said themselves, the 68000 was there as a familiar starting point. Then they didn't give developers time to go beyond the starting point as intended.

[jeremiahjt]

12.3

[Austin]

jeremiahjt, on Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:33 PM, said:

12.3

That seems pretty crazy compared to other submissions. I'll need a snapshot to verify that.

[jeremiahjt]

None available.  That's how far I got into the first lap before I threw my controller across the room.





In all seriousness I did manage a 29.8 thereby satisfying my goal of getting a sub 30 second time.

[twoquickcapri]

0:26:8

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[Austin]

Last few hours to get in your times!

[jeremiahjt]

27.4 and I do not forsee me getting any better than that.

[SamanthaLT]

31.8

[twoquickcapri]

0:26:5

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