Check out this Cool OutRun car toy only released in Japan. This is a vintage item that was released in a series of at least 17 items with other SEGA arcade inspired toys including Hang – On Bike and Thunderblade copter.
You might of noticed that the car isn’t a Ferrari But a Lamborgini Countach which is kinda strange, but hey, for ¥500 the equivalent of $5 or £3 these were pretty cheap toys.
ひろなex or the translation Hirona ex is a Japanese comic that has seen several series.
It features several retro video game references throughout the comic book.
One really cool pic shows an OutRun DLX machine as seen below >
Source @MiakotCat on Twitter
OutRun money wallet
>
Yosuke Okunari (SEGA CS3 Developer) posted a photo of his 20+ year old OutRun wallet on Twitter to celebrate the announcement of 3D OutRun coming to 3DS
Above is the latest release of Retro Gamer magazine from the U.K.
It features OutRun’s Ferrari Testarossa and has a feature on the evolution of arcade racing games.
Hopefully I will get hold of the magazine and share the contents of the feature. If you can’t wait go buy the magazine now!
Painted by artist Maya from Madrid,Spain Yu Suzuki would be proud to wear this to collect his next Award.
It’s great how Maya has managed to replicate the game in pixel form.
So you want to get hold of one of these Tie’s?
Check out eBay, but don’t expect to get one cheap. The last one sold for over 300€!
Check out Maya’s other work on her Facebook Page Maya Pixelskaya
Their is some seriously great art work, the Street Fighter canvas is awesome too!
I came across some SEGA collector cards a fair while back but never realised that OutRun was featured.
The cards are called SEGA Freaks and were released in Japan back around 1996.
The cards featured pictures and facts about SEGA Arcade machines, Consoles, Games and Characters.
Above – Some special cards were reflective .
Below are some photos I found with an OutRun Deluxe card.
I believe there were 3 series of these cards and 120 in total.
Added to the Flyers,Mags,Books & Merchandise Page
Gameworks volume 1 is a glossy Japanese released hard back book focusing on Yu Suzuki’s game history.
Release during the SEGA Dreamcast era it featured a GD-ROM with 5 of Yu’s classics sprite scalers including a version of OutRun with an unfortunately modified Ferrari.
The book is totally in Japanese so if your not familiar with Japanese the only thing you will get out of it is the game disk and the gorgeous photos and archive pictures.
So let’s take a look at some of the OutRun specific content.
Below – The book featured a first time release of a drawing of the Standard sit down arcade.
This was then accurately presented at the 1986 Jamma Show in Japan (Below)
As you can see below The original drawing seen in the book varies to the production cabinet. The production version dropped the OutRun writing from the base.
There’s also a nice concept drawing of the what the Deluxe cabinet may of turned out like (Below)
Think I prefer the final production design.
There are some nice photos of the machines too and they are in perfect condition.
I picked up this japanese book when it was first released for £70 from a Video Games Importer in the UK.
You can still pick it up now from Specialist import shops or eBay.
The price hasn’t changed too much over the years, you can still grab it from £70 – £100.
Added to the Flyers,Magazines,Books and Promo’s Page.
Last night I watched the above mentioned gaming documentary based on the Japanese arcade scene, for those who haven’t seen it heres a quick breakdown of what to expect including some small sections of SEGA delights!
The documentary starts off with the Video Game breakthrough of the Japanese company Taito and the effect they had when releasing Space Invaders in Japan. Arcades started popping up everywhere and are still popular today with the likes of dedicated arcades by Taito and SEGA
The documentary tends to focus on 3 key gaming styles starting with SHUMPS and the progress from Space Invaders to heavy defence and bullet frenzy games by the likes of Cave.
From the SHUMP era things move on to the development of improved Video Game soundtracks and the journey and importance of music / rhythm games and the role they played in keeping arcades fresh and alive.
This section starts off with an interview with SEGA music legend Hiro Kawaguchi who was the main composer of SEGA classics like OutRun, Afterburner and Space Harrier.
Below – Hiro Kawaguchi being interviewed and sections of classic SEGA arcade games that he talks about during the documentary.
The music / rhythm section is one of my favorite parts of the documentary as it shows the lengths that Japanese gamers go to to be at the top of the leaderboards…and there’s some CRAZY Japanese arcader’s out there!
Below – Taking DDR to a new level of Crazy!!
Below – Street onlookers are entertained by someone freestyling on drummania.
The last main component looks at the Beat em’up genre and spends some time looking at fighting games at competition level.
Overall I enjoyed “¥100 The Japanese Arcade Experience” The version I watched had no subs so understanding the Japanese interviews was a little challenging.
If you’ve not been to Japan then you may be surprised to see the difference in Japanese culture and how popular arcades still are.
If you’ve been lucky enough to go to Japan like me then it’s a reminder of how great it is to spend time in a country that loves Video Game Arcades so much.
Below are a few photos from my trip.
My Hotel called “Nikko” in Toyohashi, It was attached to a SEGA Arcade as seen below 🙂
OutRun 2 had just been released so I took a few snaps and spent a few Yen!
and if you didn’t like OutRun you could always play the game where you take the Labrador for a walk…seemed popular lol
To go and check out the official page click here —–>. ¥100 Yen The Japanese Arcade Experience
Added photo of a popular U.K home computer magazine cover called ‘Your Sinclair’ issue Dec 1987
Featuring OutRun on the cover and a A3 pull out poster of the game case artwork.
Above – A vintage OutRun enamel pin badge and a photo of a great SEGA collection.
I believe these pins date back to the time when the SEGA master system was the cutting edge console.
They most probably were available from the SEGA master system fan club in France.
If you want this badge it’s currently on eBay at around $25Aus dollars.
SEGA OUTRUN 86 Blog 