Outrun 2SP

Manufactured by Sega (c)2004

I picked up Outrun 2SP from a local who had picked up a bunch of non-working,  semi-working,  and some working games from the Gameworks auction that was held back in 2012 I think it was.  At the time,  I didn't have any extra cash so I avoided the auction like the plague.  Evidently this guy,  after having successfully bringing a Super Offroad back to life figured he'd found himself a new hobby and picked up a bunch of games from the auction.  Some of the games he had included Twin Daytonas,  Terminator 2 (which I ended up with),  Rush 2049 (another I got from him),  Ridge Racer,  A Jurassic Park sit-inside type game,  a fire-fighting game that I told Herbsmart about who ended up picking it up,  a couple of showcase cabinets,  one of which was a Deer Hunter the other Ranger Mission (which I also ended up picking up),  an Apine Skier,  an older Namco dual-driver,  a bunch of redemption games, and this game,  Outrun 2.   He even had (and still has) some roller coaster simulator machine that took up a HUGE footprint that the guy wasn't going to give away it was so damn huge.  Anyway,  after picking up a working Rush 2049 I asked about the non-working Outrun 2.  He said it "just didn't work"… nothing.  I made sure that it was complete,  then I offered him a price I figured he'd balk at… nope.  It was mine.

Overall the cabinet was in good shape.  There was a small chunk missing from the back right side and the molding near the area was coming loose.  I would estimate the cabinet in about "B" condition.  When I plugged it in and tried to fire it up I got exactly what I was expecting… nothing.  No marquee lamp.  No sound.  No video.  Nata.  I unplugged and went right to what I thought it could be… the power switch.  After removing the switch I wanted to test my hypothesis so I simply wire-tied the AC lines together bypassing the switch.  I plugged the game in and… IT CAME TO LIFE!   Awesome!   Being behind the game I took note that the game itself was firing up… but I couldn't hear the GDROM moving… and a check of the front of the cab showed simply a light blue screen.   I powered down,  re-seated all connectors and fired it up again.  This time the GDROM whirrled!  I was extatic to say the least.  I went around to see what was on screen but again,  it wasn'my much… just light blue… after what seemed like ages FINALLY there was movement on screen… what I found was both good news,  and bad.

What I found was that the game was playing "WOO HOO!"… unfortunately the monitor was only displaying blue.  There was no red or green to be seen.  After attempting to adjust the monitor with zero success it was time to bust out the rejuvenator.  After hooking up the rejuvenator I determined that the green gun was weak and the red gun was non-existent.  Pegged during the test.  So with lots of hoping and praying I ran the tube through the usual rejuvenation process.  Unfortunately… it did nothing appreciable.  I did get a little green (i think,  the screen was dominated by blue still) but ZERO red.  Another test and it still showed no emissions what so ever for the red gun.   After doing a some searching about this monitor it seems that the tubes were known crap tubes they used in these machines and it was, evidently,  pretty common for the tubes to take a dump.  Great.  After more searching it it looked like it was going to cost a fortune to replace the monitor.  27" VGA compatible arcade monitors aren't cheap.  Not by a long shot.

It was about this time that I started wondering how big I would have to go with an LCD screen in 4:3 mode to match the LCD screen in the game.  I also looking in to whether or not the game would display in 16:9 as I'd read that there were versions of Outrun 2 that did display in 16:9.  Unfortunately the version that would display in wide screen was based on the Lindbugh hardware whereas what I had was the Chihiro hardware. There was no way in hell I was going to run the game stretched… that is one of my biggest pet peeves,  both when it comes to arcade games and television in general.  I am extremely sensitive to stretched images.  I just can't stand the look.  That just wouldn't work.  I did find a site that showed that if I could somehow fit a 32" wide screen LCD in the cabinet,  in 4;3 mode I would be looking at 26"… I went out to the game and took measurements and realized I could shoe-horn a 32" LCD in the cabinet if I found one that didn't have a large border… I also would need it turn on with power (ideally) and would stay in 4:3 mode (ideally).  I found what I was looking for at Best Buy… an Insignia LED LCD television.  It even had a VGA port so I didn't have to play around with any converter cards or what not.

When I purchased the TV I had no idea if it would auto-power on or remain in 4:3: mode at power down,  but it does!  It also looks absolutely kick ass running in VGA mode.  Couple that with the fact that I didn't have to install another 150lb monster and with the Best Buy gift card I had in the wallet from some Christmas many moons ago,  the thing cost me a total of about $185.00 and it was "win" all around. I did have to come up with a custom way to install it (not difficult since it's only about 18lbs) and I did have to make a custom bezel to "hide" the rest of the screen,  but that was NOTHING compared to the price and difficulty it would have been to have to install another CRT in the cabinet.  Pulling the old one (the tube itself) was a BITCH of a job.

So,  with a working game now,  I put the cabinet together and put it in it's home.  After doing some research about Chihiro I learned about a featured of the hardware called "Netbooting" which allows the user to use a PC to upload different software to the system,  essentially bypassing the GDROM and uploading directly to the memory which is kept "alive" via a couple batteries.   If you own a Chihiro system or a Naomi system I highly recommend you do a google search on netbooting.   Basically because I have a Chihiro driver cabinet,  I could load in a few different games to try.  Namco's Maximum Tune games (two of them if I remember right) work with the cabinet … mostly.  You lose force feedback,  which in a dedicated sit-down cabinet,  is essential IMHO,  so aside from loading them up and playing with them for a few hours,  I wasn't interested.   Another game that will run on the cabinet is Crazy Taxi (one of the versions).  It too plays fine,  and doesn't have force feedback natively… but once you put the car in reverse,  you're stuck.  There is no button hooked up to take the car out of reverse.   I played a half dozen games of that before I moved on.  The one game that I really wanted to try out was the later version of Outrun 2 titled "Outrun 2SP: Special Tours".

Outrun 2SP differs from the original Outrun 2 in that it has TWICE the tracks that Outrun 2 had.  It has the original Outrun 2 Tracks as well as an all new set of tracks.  Not only that,  but more cars were added,  more music was added,  and a special "retro" mode was added where you can play the original Outrun (and Turbo Outrun) songs in their 8-bit glory.  On top of all that some of the gameplay mechanics were tweaked making drifting a little easier to accomplish (not necessarily a good thing,  but it is what it is) and adding a slight turn of the head (screen) when drifting in "cockpit" mode.  Because the game is essentially twice the game that the original Outrun 2 is,  I decided I wanted to run Outrun 2SP in this cabinet full time.   Unfortunately,  with netbooting,  the way the game is "stored" in the system requires batteries to retain the memory while the game is off.  Also unfortunate is the fact that these batteries,  even fresh,  and fully charged,  last only 4-5 days at best before losing enough voltage to lose the game.  That meant that the game had to be powered up and run for at least a few hours every 3-4 days.  Needless to say,  that was a pain in the ass.  Luckily a KLOVian by the name of Teknotoyz came up with an answer.  Using a wall-wart attached to a voltage regulator with a little mini UPS and "Powerwheels" type battery setup,  I no longer have to worry about charging my battery.  Basically the memory is retained via the wall wart … if I lose power the UPS/battery kick in!   (For more info on this setup visit the thread on KLOV here: http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=302266). 

As for the game itself… well,  it kicks ass.  I've not come across another racer that is as fun to drift as Outrun 2SP .  The graphics are detailed.  The sounds kick ass.  The music is awesome… adding the olds school versions of the songs was icing on the cake.  There is also an option to play through every segment of track… there is a goal oriented mode where you're supposed to do what the hottie in the passenger seat tells you to do (drift,  knock over cones,  pass cars,  etc)… and there is a cool "ghost player" mode where you try to beat your best times (represented by a ghost vehicle).   There aren't a ton of arcade video games that give you so many different options to play with… usually those options are reserved for at home versions of these types of games.  I applaud Sega for adding so many ways to play this game to the arcade version.   Also,  for high score/best time junkies like myself,  each course has a high score board… as does each type of gameplay.   There are so many ways to play I've yet to get on each and every board and I've been playing this game over a year now.   As for the up/down gear shifter,  at first I thought I wouldn't like it… but I've grown to love it!  Dropping it down a gear then back  up to start a drift is intuitive and just … works.   This game won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

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