I want to preface this by saying that if this news is exciting to you and you are interested in purchasing this product, I am not trying to rain on your parade and I encourage your excitement. I am also (mostly) not passing judgement on the quality of the product itself. I discovered today that Arcade 1up is releasing an OutRun seated cabinet that will include OutRun, Turbo OutRun, OutRunners, and Power Drift, at a price of $500. http://segabits.com/blog/2020/11/04...trun-turbo-outrun-outrunners-and-power-drift/ Assuming that all of these games are the arcade originals, which is very likely, this will be: - The first accurate port of Turbo OutRun available in the US, and not on a handheld - The first accurate port of OutRunners anywhere in any form - The only modern port of Power Drift not on a handheld Sounds fantastic, right? This is the kind of news I've been waiting for (apologies) AGES to see, and here it is. I should be over the moon, right? Except this means that now the only way to legally purchase OutRunners is to cough up FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, as well as make space for the cabinet. That's the problem here. This is something I've been noticing recently with a few different products. Arcade 1up, Astro City Mini, Capcom Home Arcade, and certain mini consoles such as the Genesis and PC Engine Mini. These units all have never-ported/rereleased, highly desirable games on them (OutRunners, Arabian Fight, Dark Edge, Rad Mobile, Revenge of Death Adder, Scramble Spirits, Quartet 2, 1944, Alien vs. Predator, Progear, M.U.S.H.A., Sapphire, and several more). Games that are trapped on these expensive, separate devices, with no option to purchase them on any current console or PC. For the Arcade 1up cabinets, this means purchasing a $100+, still quite large cabinet that lacks both the authenticity and original hardware of the cabinets they're based on (LCD screen, input delay, dramatically cheaper overall build quality), as well as the convenience of a modern console port (affordable, requires no space, usable with other games on the same device). The other devices are smaller and less expensive, but still far costlier than digital rereleases of the games, and still a separate peripheral you must integrate into your home setup. I fear this is becoming a trend, and I really do not want to see this practice continue. I want to support official rereleases of these games, games I consider to be some of the greatest of all time, but I feel this is an awful method of distribution. I can only hope that because the code for these unported games now clearly exists in these devices, console releases could come in the future (surely the Arcade 1up OutRun set of four would make for a perfect $20-$30 digital collection), but the recent end of the Sega AGES line doesn't inspire much hope in that direction. The Sega AGES line that, had OutRunners been a part of, would have cost me a staggering four hundred and ninety-two dollars less to access (removing the cost of the Switch, I also believe these games should be distributed on as many platforms as possible, but that's another problem). This may not be much more than a rant, but I wanted to get it out nonetheless. Seeing one of my top five most desired ports get locked into a $500 box set me off.
I won't lie, I'm tempted by the OutRun cab, although I'd probably get the upright version because it looks more "accurate", if you know what I mean. I'd need to have a go at it myself though before making any decisions, the Arcade1UP cabs I've tried in the past have been a bit hit and miss for me. But yeah, I've been dying for proper home ports of Turbo OutRun and OutRunners ever since the early 90s so it's a bit frustrating that they're being released on something like this when they could easily be included on a hypothetical OutRun Collection or something, especially if SEGA got the Ferrari licence back and included OutRun2SP! (And gave us the proper Testarossa and F40 models for the first two games)
Just like every other Arcade 1up product, it's overpriced garbage with cheap parts. Imagine paying 500 dollars for a FOAM steering wheel. Better off investing that 500 towards a real OutRun upright cab (seen them go for as cheap as 700.)
I think it makes sense in OutRun's case to actually want to ship it with a seat and a steering wheel, given that's what it was designed for. The price tag is dumb but I can't imagine it's cost effective to manufacture proper arcade cabinets for the two people who might want one. But I mean you can play all of those games right now - just fire up MAME. They're not "trapped" per se, and if you live in Japan, it might even still be possible to walk into an arcade and play the real thing. Sega neglecting Western interests is nothing new.
I once missed out on an OutRun upright that was going for 100 quid. ONE HUNDRED SODDING QUID! Wish I knew how to get the MAME version of Turbo OutRun to play the tunes in the right order
The earlier sets (FD1094 317-0101, and FD1094 317-0106) play the correct order of Shake The Street/Rush A Difficulty/Who Are You/Keep Your Heart. It was changed from 0107 onwards, along with the removal of persistent weather conditions in Pittsburgh and Atlanta.