SEGA Ages: Out Run

Out Run (also stylized as OutRun) is an arcade game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics and innovative features such as nonlinear gameplay and a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi. Designed as a racing game where the goal is to avoid traffic and reach one of five destinations, Out Run was set up for players to enjoy the experience of driving.

The game was designed by Yu Suzuki, who traveled to Europe to gain inspiration for the game’s stages. Suzuki had a small team and only ten months to program the game, leaving him to do most of the work himself. The game was a critical and commercial success, becoming one of the best-selling video games of its time and Sega’s most successful arcade cabinet of the 1980s. It was ported to numerous video game consoles and home computers and spawned a number of sequels. Out Run has been cited as an influence upon later video games.

Gameplay

Out Run is a 3D driving video game in which the player controls a Ferrari Testarossa Spider from a third-person rear perspective. The camera is placed near the ground, simulating a Ferrari driver’s position and limiting the player’s view into the distance. The road curves, crests, and dips, which increases the challenge by obscuring upcoming obstacles such as traffic that the player must avoid. The object of the game is to reach the finish line against a timer. The game world is divided into multiple stages that each end in a checkpoint, and reaching the end of a stage provides more time. Near the end of each stage, the track forks to give the player a choice of routes leading to five final destinations. The destinations represent different difficulty levels and each conclude with their own ending scene, among them the Ferrari breaking down or being presented a trophy.