Imagine if it had cost you £69.99 instead of the £3.50 rental fee.

I'd be all over this, I never got to play it much in the arcade due to expense and how quickly it was outdated.

Always like the look of Virtua Racing. The MD version was too ambitious and the Saturn version was outsourced and they ballsed it up.

There was a PS2 redux but they couldn't help trying to update it with the usual cock up.

So - it seems we now have a way to play it as intended with some tiny improvements. The cabinet was 8 way linkup so they have probably just had to massage the code to get it to work in local MP and nice to see some online - though 8 player would have been great.

Another reason for me to get a Switch then.

The handling is a bit notorious - the cars tend to fishtail.  I believe the 32X version is the only port that is viable. Never played that.

I remember plugging quite a few coins into the four player cab with my mates back in the murky mists of time. Up until that point Outrun had been king. With its four coloured buttons for different viewing angles it felt like a bit of a revelation at the time.

But a lot’s happened since then. Does it still hold up?

Back when videogame April Fools jokes were a rarity (or felt that way to me) the Official Sega Magazine ran one about unlocking a minor texture map upgrade to VR Deluxe.  The stock car was replaced by the one from Daytona (in-car bonnet screenshot provided, ofc), as were all the rival vehicles iirc, if you wrote a word out with your car on an square of tarmac hidden off the beaten track in one of the new courses.  It was just about plausible for anyone desperate enough for it to be just about plausible*.  Why else would a giant unused square be hidden up that hill?? Considering the fact that by that point almost everyone who'd boarded the 32X hype train felt, at the very least, a bit miffed - and bearing in mind that the official mag had been doing the majority of the choo-wooing for the previous six months - it stands out as the ultimate games mag arch ubertroll to me.  You know this thing we championed that's approaching obsolete already?  You can make it pretend it's one of the consoles you should've waited for.  Not really! 

*Was it fuck.  Didn't stop me trying to skid out a joined up DAYTONA for absolutely ages.

Seems you need an online subscription just to upload leaderboard times. Bit mean.

Makes one want Starfox redone.

Yes. That will be my first full download.

Unlikely wrote:

I remember renting this on the Megadrive and it was not a good thing.

A friend of mine from school got a Mega Drive really early, which really helped his popularity. He rode that gravy train for as long as possible, even cracking out his copy of Virtua Racing after me and my brother got a PlayStation for Christmas. It'd didn't help his case.

Still, good versions of Virtua Racing are actually worth playing, so I may investigate this.

There’s something really nice about two buttons in and you can sort of zone out for a few minutes on something chill.

Everybody should also do what they can to come first and marvel at the ending.

Looks like I'll have to get this then.

JonB wrote:

Seems you need an online subscription just to upload leaderboard times. Bit mean.

They never quite manage to do it right.

It's great to play though. I've just been doing the beginner track over and over, trying to put together error free laps. Got my time to 3.16.41 so far, but 3.15 seems like a good target.

I've kept the handling on Normal as well - seems easier than Arcade.

I guess this reminds of Ridge Racer a bit. Not in handling, obviously, but just in the simplicity and responsiveness, and how easy it is to get into playing for incremental improvements.

There's something to be said for having a small number of tracks to keep your focus. Well, at £6 anyway.