Arcade1up Outrun - Something is different but why?!?

RetroRalph·video·5m 11s·analyzed·Nov 28, 2020

Analysis

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TL;DR

Arcade1Up Outrun uses original arcade ROM but with Ferrari-removed car graphics due to licensing.

Summary

RetroRalph investigates why the Arcade1Up Outrun cabinet features different-looking cars compared to the original arcade version. After confirming with Code Mystics via Twitter, he learns the change was purely graphical due to Ferrari licensing issues, similar to how NBA Jam had to alter player likenesses. The underlying game code remains identical to the original arcade ROM.

Key Claims

The cars in Arcade1Up Outrun are visually different from the original arcade version due to Ferrari licensing issues, not because a different ROM was used
high confidence · RetroRalph received direct confirmation from Code Mystics via Twitter that it is the arcade ROM with art changes only
Code Mystics stated the change is similar to NBA Jam, which had to omit certain retired players due to licensing constraints
high confidence · Code Mystics Twitter response quoted by RetroRalph
The Nintendo Switch Sega Ages version of Outrun also omits the Ferrari logo, which RetroRalph was unaware of until researching this video
high confidence · RetroRalph shows side-by-side gameplay comparison demonstrating identical game logic between Switch and arcade versions
B Kong has developed custom modifications that allow Arcade1Up Outrun cabinet owners to connect the stock wheel to PCs and other devices
medium confidence · RetroRalph mentions B Kong's YouTube content showing these modding capabilities
The Arcade1Up Outrun cabinet includes exposed DIP switches that original arcade cabinet owners would have had access to
high confidence · RetroRalph praises Code Mystics for exposing these options in the Arcade1Up version

Notable Quotes

“it is the arcade rom it was an art change only similar to the nba jam how it had to be altered”
Code Mystics (via Twitter, reported by RetroRalph)@ 1:26 — Official confirmation that the game ROM is authentic arcade code with only cosmetic Ferrari removal
“sega i'm sure would have to fork up some ridiculous amount of money to keep that ferrari likeness there and it just is what it is”
RetroRalph@ 3:11 — Commentary on the practical licensing cost-benefit tradeoff that led to the modification
“i think it's actually really cool that arcade one up could even pull this off you know this amount of time after this game came out”
RetroRalph@ 3:17 — Positive assessment of Arcade1Up's effort to secure and modify the game decades after original release
“man my son was playing the crap out of it on thanksgiving he was loving it”
RetroRalph@ 3:44 — Anecdotal evidence of the cabinet's playability and appeal to casual players

Entities

RetroRalphpersonCode MysticscompanyArcade1UpcompanyB KongpersonFerraricompanyOutrungameSega AgesproductNBA JamgameNintendo Switchproduct

Signals

?
product_launch: Arcade1Up Outrun cabinet has begun shipping to customers with reviews appearing across YouTube
high · RetroRalph states: 'the arcade one-up outrun cabinet just came out and people are starting to receive it you know left and right so there's reviews popping up'
?
licensing_signal: Ferrari branding removed from Arcade1Up Outrun due to licensing unavailability; solution involved art asset changes only while preserving original arcade ROM
high · Code Mystics Twitter confirmation: 'it is the arcade rom it was an art change only similar to the nba jam how it had to be altered'
?
content_signal: B Kong YouTube channel has produced extensive Arcade1Up Outrun modding content (hours of tutorials), positioning him as go-to resource for cabinet customization
high · RetroRalph recommends B Kong's channel and mentions planning an end-card playlist of his Outrun content
?
product_concern: Arcade1Up Outrun cabinet pedals noted as lower quality than desired, though not deal-breaking
medium · RetroRalph states: 'there's some things that need to be improved on the cabinet you know the pedals aren't the greatest quality ever'
?
design_innovation: Arcade1Up Outrun stock wheel being successfully adapted to work with PCs and other platforms via third-party mod techniques
medium · RetroRalph mentions B Kong 'has developed ways where you can utilize the stock wheel to hook it up to other things pcs whatever it is'

Topics

Licensing constraints in retro game portingprimaryArcade1Up cabinet quality and software emulationprimaryArcade cabinet modding and customizationsecondaryCode Mystics emulation expertisesecondaryComparison between arcade and home console portssecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.75)— RetroRalph is impressed by Code Mystics' execution and Arcade1Up's effort to get the game licensed and running well, despite minor hardware concerns (pedal quality). He appreciates the transparency and technical implementation, though acknowledges the Ferrari removal is a compromise necessitated by licensing.

Transcript

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hey guys welcome back so the arcade one-up outrun cabinet just came out and people are starting to receive it you know left and right so there's reviews popping up and things like that so so that all that content is out there i did a couple videos but i haven't done an official review yet but something that i was watching the other day i was watching b kong he's another youtuber who does a lot of arcade one-up modding and he's doing some really cool stuff by the way so if you have an outrun cabinet and you have aspirations to make it better he's doing some really neat things where you can utilize the stock wheel to hook it up to other things pcs whatever it is that you want to do and he's got a couple different ways to do that so definitely go check him out i'll have a link in the description to his youtube channel but what kind of um got me interested in why i wanted to do this video is actually someone on one of his live streams actually said that it looked like the cars were different in you know the version that arcade one up came out with versus the arcade version which i actually didn't pick up on that but it is true it is different and then the person in this live stream actually implied that they used the 3ds port now i i actually was thinking there's no way that code mystics would have used the 3ds port so i went and i actually sent the tweet out to codemystix and said hey there's a little confusion on the outrun version being used on the arcade one of cabinet it looks to me like you you know that you just modified the car due to the likeness of the ferrari logo kind of can you confirm whether that's what you did or not and they wrote back and said it is the arcade rom it was an art change only similar to the nba jam how it had to be altered so for those of you that don't know nba gm needed to be altered because you know certain retired players didn't you know give their licenses or whatever it was they just couldn't get the license to use certain players so anyways they had to be uh omitted from the game so same thing here they just don't have the license anymore with ferrari i don't even know if they actually ever did have a license with ferrari it could have been one of those things where way back then they did it and then ferrari's like hey and then from there forward versions didn't have the game so what i wanted to show you guys is i wanted to show you that uh two versions of the game running i wanted to show you the one on the left is actually the nintendo switch version so sega ages so it's the sega ages nintendo switch version and the right is the arcade version and if i play these two you'll notice that actually um they're exactly the same it's just that one has the ferrari logo and the car is a little different looking than it is on the left but they're exactly the same so what i'm going to do is i'm just going to get this synchronized up here so let me rewind this one really quick because this is actually a video playing on the right hand side so i'm going to see if i can get them in sync sync really quick i probably won't be able to get them perfectly in sync and i'm sure whoever's playing that one's probably gonna be way better than me anyway so i'm sure it won't last very long but i want to get them as close to in sync as possible so you can see when you start it up they're about the same all right let's see [Music] all right we're doing okay so you can see right now exactly the same game right it's just the only thing that's different is the graphics right the graphics on the car are different now some people are gonna hate this but there's really nothing they can do right i mean sega i'm sure would have to fork up some ridiculous amount of money to keep that ferrari likeness there and it just is what it is you know i think it's actually really cool that arcade one up could even pull this off you know this amount of time after this game came out could pull off something like this is really cool and then for code mystics to do the emulation so well and then also expose dip switches and all sorts of things that the original uh you know arcade owner would have access to on the arcade cabinet i think that's pretty neat so whether or not i like the cabinet or not i think they did a good job on the software at least there's some things that need to be improved on the cabinet you know the pedals aren't the greatest quality ever but man my son was playing the crap out of it on thanksgiving he was loving it all right guys it's final thoughts time so what do i think about all this i i didn't know right so i saw that post i wanted to dive deeper i had got in contact with code mystics but had i didn't even know that the sega ages versions had omitted the ferrari for so long it was one of those things i don't usually play outrun that much so it's just i didn't even see it didn't even notice it but it was kind of cool and i just my i just i got fixated on it and i had to go do some research to check it out but if you have an outrun cabinet you've got to do yourself a favor go check out b kong he's like killing it with the mods on this outrun cabinet i'm gonna include a whole playlist at the end card of this video which will have like hours and hours and hours of content that he's put together uh on outrun so definitely really cool so if you want to enhance your cabinet he's pretty much the go-to guy when it comes to outrun and also uh seems like he's got star wars pretty well on lock too so anyways go check them out if you like this video give me a thumbs up considering consider subscribing to the channel put your comments below i wanna know what you think about this and that's it for now guys we will see you on the next one