Out Run is based on the infamous Sega coin-op game that featured a convertible Ferrari Testarossa that raced across different environments to a mythical finish line. The goal was to beat the timer through to various checkpoints in order to be awarded more time. If your time ran out, the game ended. Players had two gears (high and low, just like the console Pole Position) to get the car up to speed, and slowing down or crashing resulted in time penalties that affected the overall time.
That is the game in a nutshell. Race the clock and if you beat the clock you can keep driving...see how far you can get.
Just before each checkpoint, there would be a "Y" in the road that the player would veer one way or the other to head to a different area. There were fifteen unique areas that the player could travel to, although in each game, the player would see five out of the fifteen routes based on which route was chosen after the "Y" split in the road.
At the start of the game, the player was permitted to select one of three music tracks to play during the game. The tracks were Splash Wave, Magical Sound Shower, and Passing
Breeze. They were pretty cool, and it was nice to have a choice.
This game was designed by Yu Suzuki who is credited with many of Sega's most successful coin op titles.
Sadly while the Amiga version is fun and playable, it doesn't take advantage of any of the Amiga's graphical or sound capabilities. In fact, this version is just a port of the Atari ST version which was the lead development platform, both developed by Probe. The scrolling is a bit rough, the sound effects are grating, but the game does remain faithful to the coin op. All fifteen areas of the game are offered in the Amiga version, and all three sound tracks can be chosen before a game is started. The Amiga version offered an intro sequence that didn't match the style of the game, and probably shouldn't be included.
This game was released in the United States by Mindscape, and in Europe by US Gold, but both titles are the same.
Other than the more recent Sega Ages Sega Saturn (or MAME emulated titles), the best home version would be the Sega MegaDrive (Genesis) version.
