World Tour Racing 5 Lap Race Video and others...

[JaguarGod]

I uploaded a few videos of World Tour Racing to my youtube channel. Was just bored and figured maybe someone would be interested if they wanted to see what the game is like. There are a few videos on youtube already, but I still like to contribute something other that videos of my Mac racing sim. For as much as I love World Tour Racing I could post a million of these. I have some races recorded using the cockpit view as I usually use, but the chase view shows more of the wheel to wheel racing that can happen in the game and I thought viewers would like that better.

 

USA 5 Lap Race (Eat My Dust Difficulty)

WTR Clean Racing (Well, As Clean As Possibel )

 

I also have some videos of the JSII beta version in which the cars are more like their actual F1 counterparts. The McLaren is orange and white (instead of the blue and white used in the final version) and the players car is the real Ferrari complete with official sponsor logos. But there are quite a few problems with this beta along with the other betas like the B&C betas. The finished product is better in terms of polish, but I am sure the newer engine Lee and the gang presented was better.

 

I had an email interview with Lee a year or so after WTR was released by Telegames and he stated, as he did in a couple of other interviews, that the new engine was much better and could handle textures better along with a much improved framerate. I will try to find the hard drive with this interview on it, but don't hold your breath.

[Charlie_]

I played this game and was horrible at it. I thought it was a terrible game, but your videos make the game look fantastic!

Looks like once you get the controls down, it can be a lot of fun. Awesome.

[JaguarGod]

I played this game and was horrible at it. I thought it was a terrible game, but your videos make the game look fantastic!

Looks like once you get the controls down, it can be a lot of fun. Awesome.

Over the years I have heard many players state the same and even when I have played two player games with people at our Classic Console and Gaming show since 2000 it shows that the game definitely takes practice! Granted, I am a racing game junkie, fanatic, addict, etc. so I have played the game a lot over the years and I love it, but when someone is trying the game for the first time, it can be quite a sight. So don't worry, you are not the only one who has a hard time with the controls The framerate does not help though either. But with some practice, the game can be very challenging and fun.

[Cobra Kai]

Nice videos!

[JagChris]

Thanks for the vids!

 

I had an email interview with Lee a year or so after WTR was released by Telegames and he stated, as he did in a couple of other interviews, that the new engine was much better and could handle textures better along with a much improved framerate. I will try to find the hard drive with this interview on it, but don't hold your breath.

 

Is this what you are talking about?

 

 

//// World Tour Racing

[JEO] How fast do you think WTR would run if all t-mapping was shut off?

[LB] 30fps, the same as Ridge Racer.

[JEO] Weren't you tempted to put in a code that would do this?

[LB] Yes, but Atari wanted texture mapping with everything. They felt that
they had to take on the competition in the graphics stakes, even though the
machine couldn't do it.

I did have a design for a new rendering system that would have been quite a
bit faster than WTR. Basically it was a lot cleaner and more elegant and
used all of the best techniques whilst only introducing a few restrictions.

One of the things that degraded performance in WTR wasn't the speed of the
polygon renderer, it was the GPU overlay manager-- lots of chunks of code
were being swapped in and out of the small 4K of memory within that chip
during the game and that was something I really wanted to tidy up.

[JEO] Would WTR have been a 16 or 32-megabit cartridge?

[LB] We were developing it for 16mbit as we didn't have a 32mbit Alpine
board, but that was fairly early on before it was moved to CD and the whole
product was upgraded. Back than it didn't have anywhere near as many
texture maps.

[JagChris]

If you do find the specific interview you are looking for you should consider posting the best snippets in the video description. I think the viewer would be interested to see them underneath the video they are watching. Its what I did for some of my videos of NBA Jam TE along with Robinsons Requiem. I thought it might make it more interesting for the viewer to see actual talk from the game creator on what went into doing it.

[midnight8]

Makes me want to get my WTR game out and play it. Too bad Checkered flag did not come out like that.

[JaguarGod]

Thanks for the vids!

 

 

Is this what you are talking about?

 

Yes, this is what I was talking about. I cannot seem to find the actual email interview as it was so many years ago it is probably lost somewhere on one of the 100's of old Hard Drives in storage. IIRC, in the email I had with him, he spoke of this more as a "finished" engine (I thought) that could have been used maybe? I am old and cannot remember things. No matter what though, it would have been great to see this come to light for this and maybe more racing games for the Jag.

 

I have extensively used the track editor and love to take out everything except the road and guardrails. I always thought that maybe a version of WTR using this new rendering system would play normally like the game plays when I edit out the objects in the track editor. It is so fast and a blast to play. I have a video that I will upload sometime soon of a race on a track that I edited everything out of and the speed is amazing. I even started to log what objects coincided with the editor numbers in the track editor way back in 98 or 99 when I was playing around with it, but decided to go away from it as my Wife and I were having more kids and I simply did not have time.

[+save2600]

Damn nice videos indeed! Picture quality is superb - probably the best I've ever seen on YouTube. Gonna have to play this game real soon on my equipment. The colors of your vids look better than I remember the real hardware looking. And I've got a Catbox and nice S-Video equipped CRT.

 

BTW: how do you navigate most of those turns so well?

...also noticed you play the game without the road textures. You do this for the slight bump in framerate or just prefer the cleaner look?

 

Would love to see those JSII beta videos...

[JagChris]

World Tour Racing rocks!

[JaguarGod]

Damn nice videos indeed! Picture quality is superb - probably the best I've ever seen on YouTube. Gonna have to play this game real soon on my equipment. The colors of your vids look better than I remember the real hardware looking. And I've got a Catbox and nice S-Video equipped CRT.

 

BTW: how do you navigate most of those turns so well?

 

...also noticed you play the game without the road textures. You do this for the slight bump in framerate or just prefer the cleaner look?

 

Would love to see those JSII beta videos...

I run the game without the road textures in part for the little smoother gameplay, but mostly for aesthetics. Simply put, I like the way it looks. Though I will admit that the road texture adds the white line to the outside of the tarmac and I really like that. But I can do without it.

 

I will upload the beta video sometime tonight.

[JaguarGod]

Well, I uploaded a couple of other videos of the Beta version from the JSII release. My Wife and Kids are all sleeping and I am done working out so I have some time to play around with this stuff. Can you tell I am a fanatic about World Tour Racing. Pretty pathetic for a 40 year old huh? Oh well.

 

1. This video has a little gameplay from Monaco along with the sponsorship logos included on the Ferrari as seen from the Pit Garage. Pretty cool if you ask me Wait, where's the swimming pool complex?

 

2. This video is of my favorite race game ending ever. I have had some pretty intense races from really good games like iRacing, VGP3 and my own game, but never this close and heart-pounding at the finish line. This is probably as close as you can get to losing and pulling off an excellent win!

 

Something cool that some people may have never noticed about the game that I discussed with Lee and I believe the graphics guy on the game, sorry can't remember his name, is the fact that though all the 3D models may seem the same at first glance, there are different ones used for some of the cars. You'll notice in the second video, on the opponents car, the rear of the car near the "diffuser" is different than the Ferrari. Also, one model (not shown in the videos) uses the "upper" nose on the car (the point of the nose is above the front wing) as opposed to the Ferrari in which the nose is attached to the front wing. Sorry, I just love the subtle differences in the game.

 

 

Here is the rear end difference from the video.

 

Front nose difference...

Edited March 4, 2014 by JaguarGod

[+save2600]

Very nice - thanks for posting those! Cool to see such enthusiasm for this game.

 

BTW: have you played Checkered Flag with the steering patch yet?

[JaguarGod]

Very nice - thanks for posting those! Cool to see such enthusiasm for this game.

 

BTW: have you played Checkered Flag with the steering patch yet?

Yes I have played CF with the patch and it is much better. I actually like the basic 3D look of CF. If the framerate was better and the control would have been fixed in the original release, I would have played the crap out of the game.

 

But WTR is the only game in my 40 years that I ever did a lot of research on. The 90's had a lot of great racers on console and computer in my opinion. Games like F1 Challenge for the Sega Saturn, the original Grand Prix for PC and Formula 1 on PS1 were good too. But the Jag had WTR and the Jag is where my loyalty was. It's funny, I think part of the connection I have with the Jag has something to do with the fact that I met my Wife shortly after purchasing my Jag and it has been there through all three of my Kids, who are now 17, 14 and 6 and I associate the Jag with this part of my life.

 

I even went as far as creating a game companion set for World Tour Racing (don't ask ) along with designing a controller specifically for the game. Yes, that is how much I enjoy the game.

[Gunstar]

Over the years I have heard many players state the same and even when I have played two player games with people at our Classic Console and Gaming show since 2000 it shows that the game definitely takes practice! Granted, I am a racing game junkie, fanatic, addict, etc. so I have played the game a lot over the years and I love it, but when someone is trying the game for the first time, it can be quite a sight. So don't worry, you are not the only one who has a hard time with the controls The framerate does not help though either. But with some practice, the game can be very challenging and fun.

The frame rate is slightly better, a frame or two per second, depending on the camera view and if you have road textures on or off. Firstly you'll gain a frame or two per second with the road textures off, though this may have been the default setting to start with, I don't recall. But also, if you do use the cockpit view (which is NOT a polygonal model like in CF) you'll gain another frame a second than the external views, but also, of the two external views, the more distant camera seems about a frame a second faster too. From my experience, IMO, you gain about 2-3 frames per second in cockpit camera view with no road textures on. The difference is more noticeable in the control responsiveness as well as the game running slightly faster. You'll notice it most if you run a lap with the road textures on, then turn them off after you've gotten used to the tempo...

 

Oh, pressing the 8 button on the keypad or 'Y" button on the procontroller turn road textures on and off.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Gunstar

[NeoGeoNinja]

Makes me want to get my WTR game out and play it. Too bad Checkered flag did not come out like that.

 

I still prefer how Checkered Flag looks though, on the whole.

 

(as static images )

[NeoGeoNinja]

The 90's had a lot of great racers on console and computer in my opinion. Games like F1 Challenge for the Sega Saturn, the original Grand Prix for PC and Formula 1 on PS1 were good too..

 

It's good to hear someone mention that F1 Challenge is worthy of some praise, because I think it is too.

 

I had it on the Saturn back when it came out and I loved it! It was obviously (and nothing on consoles really was) nowhere near as close to being as great as Psygnosis' F1 for PS1 at the time, but it was still a fun, pick up and play, SEGA arcade style F1 racer all the same.

 

And, tbh, it was that lack of depth (as an arcade focused title) and lack of season/all race playthrough mode that hurt the game imo, as it played (in cockpit/no mirror) really well.

 

A series I could NEVER take to, that was really highly praised back in the day, were VideoSystems F1 series on N64 & DC (F1 World Grand Prix I & II, F1 Racing Championship etc). Presumably, had you (have you?) played them, you may find them to you liking, but for me, the hype was more about how great the gfx, weather system, roster, track inclusion, commentary was... over the actual gameplay itself.

[midnight8]

 

I still prefer how Checkered Flag looks though, on the whole.

 

(as static images )

lol, seriously, I really want to play WTR now. Gremlin lost one of my power supplies though. Gotta go dig through their rooms and try to find it, otherwise I will hit some thrifts and try to find one that will work. BTW, I still have fun playing Checkered flag. It really makes me mad<censored for language>, but I have a lot of fun with it as well. Wife wants me to break out Club Drive as well.

[JagChris]

It looks like the release version is cleaned up over the beta by a bit.

[JaguarGod]

 

It's good to hear someone mention that F1 Challenge is worthy of some praise, because I think it is too.

 

I had it on the Saturn back when it came out and I loved it! It was obviously (and nothing on consoles really was) nowhere near as close to being as great as Psygnosis' F1 for PS1 at the time, but it was still a fun, pick up and play, SEGA arcade style F1 racer all the same.

 

And, tbh, it was that lack of depth (as an arcade focused title) and lack of season/all race playthrough mode that hurt the game imo, as it played (in cockpit/no mirror) really well.

 

A series I could NEVER take to, that was really highly praised back in the day, were VideoSystems F1 series on N64 & DC (F1 World Grand Prix I & II, F1 Racing Championship etc). Presumably, had you (have you?) played them, you may find them to you liking, but for me, the hype was more about how great the gfx, weather system, roster, track inclusion, commentary was... over the actual gameplay itself.

Well, I collect and play F1/Open Wheel (all racing games in general too) games from every era and have a crapload of them (probably around 200). As for F1 WGP.... The N64 version was pretty poor in my opinion, but I did play it quite a bit. I much preferred Monaco Grand Prix for N64, though it did not have the F1 license here in the states. It just seemed better in most aspects and the control was better. The Dreamcast version of F1 WGP was better than the N64 version of course and I still play it from time to time, but I prefer to play a game that most people despise on Dreamcast, CART: Flag to Flag. I was huge fan of CART in the 80's, 90's (and 00's) and went to almost every race here in in my home state. Guys like Paul Tracy, Emerson Fittipaldi, Michael Andretti, Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Zanardi, were fun to watch. Though Alex Zanardis crash is still a horrible thing to see.

 

I fell in love with open wheel racing in the early 80's as my Mother was a Mario and Michael Andretti fan and it got me into it. I was hooked and transferred this love to games and here we are.

 

F1 Challenge is a great game. Just pickup and play. Fast and fun and nothing hard about it. The tire wear and fuel usage is a cool addition too. But that music makes these 90's Sega racers. To some, it is horrible, but it reminds me of the time and I like it.

Edited March 4, 2014 by JaguarGod

[Gunstar]

I'm a huge fan of racing games too. My all-time favorite is still 3DO's original NSF, then Jaguar's WTR. For Dreamcast I loved the Tokyo Extreme Racing games, and Video System F1, and Metropolis Street Racer, even The Spirit of Speed vintage open-wheel racing, but favorite of all on the DC is Lemans 24 hour...incredible game. For the Xbox and 360, Project Gotham series and Forza mainly. I try to like the newer NSF games, some I do, some not.

 

But when all is said and done, I always go back to 3DO NSF, Jaguar WTR and DC Lemans.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Gunstar

[+save2600]

You guys ever play F1 BITD? Pretty much just discovered it... added a 14mhz accelerator to my A1000 and cannot believe how well this game plays. Looks great, nice framerate, excellent handling, graphics, etc. Not sure what's up with the washed out picture on this vid... contrast is normal and colors are vibrant on the real thing.

 

[JaguarGod]

3DO Need For Speed was, by far, the best version of that game. The Saturn and PS1 versions were dumbed down to more arcade. The 3DO version was a viable sim in the day and is still hard to master today. When I play my Saturn version, I just long for the 3DO version as it was so much harder and more satisfying.

 

It's funny you bring up Spirit of Speed 1937. That game gets blasted by so many reviewers, but I actually like it! The cockpit views a re great and the racing is not as bad as some of the reviews say. Now, the load times can be tiresome and turn a lot of people off to the game. But again, I like the game.

 

Ah, Lemans 24 Hour on Dreamcast was ahead of its time. When I first played the game on DC with the VGA Box, I thought it looked above what I had seen on a lot of the PC games at the time. It looked fantastic and played even better! When I play the game today, I still have as much fun as I did then.

[JaguarGod]

You guys ever play F1 BITD? Pretty much just discovered it... added a 14mhz accelerator to my A1000 and cannot believe how well this game plays. Looks great, nice framerate, excellent handling, graphics, etc. Not sure what's up with the washed out picture on this vid... contrast is normal and colors are vibrant on the real thing.

Yes, I played this game a bit and it was definitely better than what the video portrays. But I was really blown away by Virtual Grand Prix on the Amiga years later, which was created by my now partner and consultant, Paolo Cattani. (I have to say this as he works with me ) Though you will find a lot of reviews for the original that say the controls were broken, as well they were, but the patch fixed it and made it much better. This led to me working on Virtual Grand Prix 2, Virtual Grand Prix 3 and now broke out to create my own game Auto Sport Driving for Mac OSX.

 

It's great to see many of you playing these older racing games as a lot of them are more fun than a lot of the big budget titles coming out today. I'm telling you, I have more fun with titles from the early 90's than I do with a lot of the titles from 2013!

Edited March 4, 2014 by JaguarGod

[Gunstar]

Is the beta version of WTR available for download some where? I thought I had a copy that i downloaded at some point. I know B&C sell a version, but I never bought a copy from them and I'm sure I had the beta a some point...