After 36 years, Amiga finally gets a worthy OutRun port

Few video games capture the essence of freedom, speed, and the joy of the open road quite like Sega’s OutRun. Released in 1986, OutRun was a groundbreaking driving game that surpased the technical limitations of its time, offering players a sensory escape into a world of scenic highways, vibrant landscapes, and pulsating synthwave music. Its impact on gaming culture, technology, and aesthetics remains significant, solidifying its status as a timeless classic. Sega’s cutting-edge arcade hardware played a pivotal role in OutRun’s success. The game utilized Sega’s “Super Scaler” technology, which created the illusion of depth and speed through rapid scaling of 2D sprites. This technology brought the game’s vibrant environments to life, whether it was the sun-drenched beaches, alpine passes, or desert highways. The dynamic visuals, combined with fluid controls, immersed players in a high-speed fantasy that felt exhilarating and responsive. It was also ported to the Commodore Amiga in 1989, a system which was more than capable of handling a decent conversion – but sadly, US Gold’s port has gone down in gaming history as a complete mess. It was ported from the Atari ST version, which means it doesn’t make use of the Amiga’s powerful blitter. A team led by Agermose (Thomas Jensen) is producing a new port for Amiga which promises to be much, much closer to the 1986 arcade original. It’s expected to launch October 2025, just in time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Amiga platform. The initial release will require an A1200 with a small amount of fast RAM, but the intention is to eventually produce a version which will run on the base A1200.

News source: Youtube

Spread the love

More Amiga news