Scud Race "Supercar"

supercar was listed in upcoming game of sega saturn , do you have something about that ? i may be able to find back the paper ad.

 

You'd have thought Sega would've learnt their lesson about rushed releases after all the derision the first Saturn version of Daytona USA got for it's awful frame-rate, tons of pop-up and lack of two-player mode, necessitating the eventual later release of Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition with it's far superior graphics, extra tracks and mulitplayer option. Interestingly though, the Dreamcast version of Sega Rally 2 didn't just look a bit shoddy because it was rushed, it was because it was basically an emulated version of the PC port. R. Belmont (of MAME fame) had this to say about it over on the Supermodel forum awhile back:

 

Actually, the conversion process for Sega Rally 2 is one of the more convoluted stories in the company's history, with two separate teams working on the same game (though not simultaneously, I should add)...

The PC version featured in video form at the 1998 E3 was being developed by the same CS Team previously responsible for Virtua Racing Deluxe and Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition, but due to delays in receiving a final development kit, work for the Dreamcast was not the priority of the division led by Ryuichi Hattori. However, progress continued at a compromised pace, as seen by its appearance in tape form only during the New Challenge 2 conference. With just over a month until its planned release as a Dreamcast launch title in Japan, most hoped that SR2 would be playable at the Tokyo Game Show. As late as October 1998, the CS Team's console efforts were still only 40% and remained in the form of a brief rolling video (which highlights a frame rate that makes the original Saturn treatment of Daytona USA look positively smooth by comparison). For those who have seen early magazine or website screenshots from both the PC and Dreamcast versions of SR2, it's clear that the CS Team's efforts were basic, with grainy textures and low draw distance that insulted the original Model 3 Step 2.0 source material, plus a relative lack of transparency effects.

Of course, it's possible a lot could have changed in the last few weeks of development, but due to the poor overall response of those attending the TGS especially, Sega made the decision to announce a significant delay until February 1999, claiming this was necessary in order to establish that network features worked as planned. The reality is that management simply ordered the CS Team to continue on with their more advanced efforts for the PC, assigning members from the original AM Annex group to start again from scratch on the Dreamcast version with any required technical assistance. Under their initial deal, Microsoft provided Sega with the Windows CE libraries as long as a certain number of titles were developed using this OS. Because large amounts were being referenced directly from the PC edition, AM Annex chose to utilise Windows CE for the Dreamcast code, and in return the CS Team were able to improve their own work by using the best elements AM Annex were able to achieve in less than a month. According to one team member, the whole Dreamcast game took just three weeks and many programmers slept under their desks when not enduring 18 hour days on average.

From one update to the next, the media went from publishing screenshots of the CS Team's preliminary conversion to something that far better approximated the arcade machine, including two exclusive courses (plus a third only revealed after the game's release), extra cars and a ten year championship mode. While it's believed that the original plan was always to add new content for any home version, this was the first time anyone had seen the promised new elements. Indeed, based on the images circulating previously, the CS Team appeared to be struggling enough just to get the first three arcade tracks up and running, while I don't ever recall finding any proof they even started work on the final Riviera track. At this stage, the PC code was still far behind (with car models in particularly still having a few rough edges because of low polygon counts), though by contrast the Dreamcast version had its release date brought forward slightly with the unveiling of an atmospheric 15 second teaser video that I can still recall downloading from the official Sega of Japan site on a connection that slowed down others accessing the internet through the server of my school's IT suite!

While the long awaited Dreamcast edition finally made its way into the hands of fans on January 28th, it certainly wasn't arcade perfect, leading a localisation team within Sega Europe to add similar improvements to those Daytona USA CCE received for its overseas variants, only this game reached the Japanese market first by nine whole months, with US players receiving it last in November 1999 - over a year since it was originally meant to have launched in Japan. Sega's licensing deal with Ford had expired at some point during this gap, leading to the Escort RS Cosworth only making its appearance in the original NTSC-J version. Between these events, the PC version made its debut in the middle of 1999 looking very much identical to the Dreamcast code, although it's not known whether or not the CS Team also started from scratch based on the AM Annex console effort. My guess is that they simply took advantage of Windows CE to port over the Dreamcast game, making a few platform specific alterations (such as allowing players to improve the frame rate with a toggle option and variable display modes) then implementing the post-localisation changes.

Sorry, that was a far longer response than I was anticipating. Can you all possibly forgive me?

 

Of course, now, MOAR SCUD RACE.

Do you know the real reason behind the cancellation of the Dreamcast port? Also did this version and the Saturn one get a playable state? Did Core really made that tech demo?