Cool Riders

Last updated
Cool Riders
Cool Riders.jpg
U.S. flyer
Developer(s) Sega AM1
Publisher(s) Sega
Composer(s) Hiroshi Kawaguchi
Platform(s) Arcade
Release
  • JP: April 1995
  • NA: September 1995
Genre(s) Racing game
Mode(s) Single player, multiplayer
Arcade system Sega H1 Board

Cool Riders is a 1995 racing arcade game by Sega. It is the spiritual sequel to OutRunners and has a similar premise to it, though rather than driving cars, the player rides bikes. It also uses digitized graphics similar to Mortal Kombat . [1] The Steppenwolf song "Born to Be Wild" is featured as the game's opening theme, as well as one of selectable in-race music. [2]

Contents

Cool Riders was not emulated by the MAME emulator until 2013. This is because it was the only arcade game on the Sega H1 Board hardware, which used a unique graphics compression scheme. [3]

Gameplay

The object of Cool Riders is to finish each stage ahead of a computer-controlled rival by the end of a stage's checkpoint and within the allotted time. Whoever finishes first gets to select the next stage. For every rival defeated up to stage four, the player receives a promotion, indicated on the lower left-hand corner of the screen. There are three routes to choose from (westbound and eastbound routes with a middle route that takes the player through the United States.)

There are five stages. The fifth stage is an "Extra Stage" where the object is to outrace all seven computer-controlled rival opponents on the streets of New York City to the finish line. Regardless of what happens, the player character's ending will display on a projector if the player had time left over to finish the race, followed by a map containing the route the player took to reach the Extra Stage and the finish line, followed by the word "FINISH" appearing in the center of the screen.

Sonic the Hedgehog appears in this game. When the player completes the game, his head and that of Tails are icons for the player's initials in the high score table.

The game has failure animations when the player runs out of time during a race and comes to a complete stop. The announcer says the same "game over" message as in OutRunners : "I'm sorry. You didn't make it." When this happens, mini-cutscenes depending on the character the player chose play, ranging from one character throwing a tantrum on a scooter to characters being carried or thrown off the screen, followed by a map showing the route the player took with the word "RETIRE" appearing in the center of the screen.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Cool Riders on their July 15, 1995 issue as being the seventh most-successful dedicated arcade game of the month. [4] A critic for Next Generation panned the game, commenting that "Realism is ridiculously absent, a sense of speed is almost nil, and control is plain sloppy; you practically have three directions, straight, and a left and right turn at 45 degrees. With games like Cyber Cycles eating up players' quarters, Cool Riders is just not up to par." He gave it two out of five stars. [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>NBA Jam</i> (1993 video game) 1993 video game

NBA Jam is a basketball video game developed and published by Midway for arcades in 1993. It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series. The project leader for this game was Mark Turmell.

Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic racing simulations and more fantastical arcade-style racing games. Kart racing games emerged in the 1990s as a popular sub-genre of the latter. Racing games may also fall under the category of sports video games.

<i>Shinobi</i> (1987 video game) 1987 video game

Shinobi (忍) is a side-scrolling hack and slash video game produced by Sega, originally released for arcades on the Sega System 16 board in 1987. The player controls ninja Joe Musashi, to stop the Zeed terrorist organization from kidnapping students of his clan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yu Suzuki</span> Japanese video game designer

Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimensional sprite-scaling games that used "taikan" motion simulator arcade cabinets, such as Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run and After Burner, and pioneering polygonal 3D games such as Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter, which are some of the games besides others from rival companies during that era credited with popularizing 3D graphics in video games; as well as the critically acclaimed Shenmue series. As a hardware engineer, he led the development of various arcade system boards, including the Sega Space Harrier, Model 1, Model 2 and Model 3, and was involved in the technical development of the Dreamcast console and its corresponding NAOMI arcade hardware.

<i>Samba de Amigo</i> 1999 video game

Samba de Amigo is a rhythm game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game was released in arcades in December 1999, and for the Dreamcast in 2000. A port for the Wii was also developed by Gearbox Software and Escalation Studios and released in 2008. Samba de Amigo draws on Latin American culture and its gameplay involves the player using controllers shaped like maracas to match a series of patterns displayed on-screen. The music is made of primarily popular Latin music songs rather than common or traditional samba. The game also features non-Latin pop songs.

<i>The House of the Dead</i> (video game) 1996 video game

The House of the Dead is a 1997 horror-themed light gun shooter arcade game developed by Sega AM1 and released by Sega. It is the first game in the House of the Dead series. Players assume the role of agents Thomas Rogan and "G" as they combat an army of undead experiments created by Dr. Curien, a mad scientist.

<i>Space Harrier</i> 1985 video game

Space Harrier is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but technical and memory restrictions resulted in Sega developer Yu Suzuki redesigning it around a jet-propelled human character in a fantasy setting. The arcade game is controlled by an analog flight stick while the deluxe arcade cabinet is a cockpit-style linear actuator motion simulator cabinet that pitches and rolls during play, for which it is referred as a taikan (体感) or "body sensation" arcade game in Japan.

<i>Sega Rally Championship</i> 1995 video game

Sega Rally Championship is a 1994 racing game developed and published by Sega. Originally released for arcades using the Sega Model 2 board, ports were published for the Sega Saturn in 1995 and Microsoft Windows in 1997. The Sega Rally Championship simulates driving on different surfaces, with different friction properties, with the car's handling changing accordingly. As the first racing game to incorporate this feature, Sega Rally Championship is considered to be one of the milestones in the evolution of the racing game genre. It was also an early rally racing game and featured cooperative gameplay alongside the usual competitive multiplayer.

<i>Sunset Riders</i> 1991 video game

Sunset Riders is a side-scrolling run and gun video game developed and released by Konami as an arcade video game in 1991. It is set in the American Old West, where the player(s) take control of bounty hunters who are seeking the rewards offered for various criminals.

<i>Primal Rage</i> 1994 arcade video game

Primal Rage is a fighting game developed and released by Atari Games for arcades in 1994. The game takes place on a post-apocalyptic version of Earth called "Urth". Players control one of seven prehistoric beasts, that battle each other to determine the planet's fate. Matches feature many of the conventions of fighting games from the era, including special moves and gory finishing maneuvers. Ports were released for home video game consoles and personal computers. Efforts to perfectly emulate the arcade original have been unsuccessful due to the use of an unusual copy protection method. Toys, comics, a novel and other merchandise tie-ins were produced. More than 1.5 million copies of the game were sold.

<i>Hang-On</i> 1985 arcade racing game

Hang-On is an arcade racing game released by Sega in 1985 and later ported to the Master System. In the game, the player controls a motorcycle against time and other computer-controlled bikes. It was one of the first arcade games to use 16-bit graphics and uses the Super Scaler arcade system board, created with design input from Yu Suzuki, as technology to simulate 3D effects. The deluxe cabinet version also introduced a motion-controlled arcade cabinet, where the player's body movement on a large motorbike-shaped cabinet corresponds with the player character's movements on screen.

An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, often through the use of full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage.

<i>Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3</i> Fighting video game

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game in the Mortal Kombat series, developed and released by Midway to arcades in 1995. It is a standalone update of 1995's earlier Mortal Kombat 3 with an altered gameplay system, additional characters like the returning favorites Reptile, Kitana, Jade and Scorpion who were missing from Mortal Kombat 3, and some new features.

<i>BC Racers</i> 1994 video game

BC Racers is a racing video game released by Core Design in 1994 for the Sega CD, and in 1995 for the Sega 32X, the 3DO, and MS-DOS. The game was designed by Toby Gard, who later created Lara Croft. BC Racers mixes a racing simulation by mixing with a "prehistoric" theme. It is the third game in the Chuck Rock series, despite the Chuck Rock connection not being prominent.

<i>Lethal Enforcers</i> 1992 video game

Lethal Enforcers is a 1992 light gun shooter released as an arcade video game by Konami. The graphics consist entirely of digitized photographs and digitized sprites. Home versions were released for the Super NES, Genesis and Sega CD during the following year and include a revolver-shaped light gun known as The Justifier.

<i>OutRunners</i> 1993 video game

OutRunners is a 1993 racing video game developed by Sega AM1 on System 32 Multi hardware. It constitutes the third release in the arcade Out Run series, after Turbo OutRun (1989), and was ported to the Sega Genesis home console in 1994.

<i>SegaSonic the Hedgehog</i> 1993 video game

SegaSonic the Hedgehog is a 1993 arcade game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series by Sega. Controlling Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel, the player must escape an island after they are kidnapped by the villain, Doctor Eggman. The game uses an isometric perspective. Players use a trackball to move the characters while dodging obstacles and collecting rings. The game was developed by Sega's arcade division, Sega AM3. It is one of four Sonic games with the SegaSonic name and was inspired by the 1984 game Marble Madness.

<i>Rad Mobile</i> 1991 video game

Rad Mobile is a racing arcade game developed by Sega AM3 and published by Sega. It was first published in Japan in October 1990, followed by an international release for arcades in February 1991. Rad Mobile was Sega's first 32-bit game, using Sega's System 32 arcade system board. It was also the first ever appearance of Sonic the Hedgehog, who appears as an ornament hanging from the driver's rearview mirror.

Virtua Fighter is a series of fighting games created by Sega AM2 and designer Yu Suzuki. The original Virtua Fighter was released in December 1993 and has received four main sequels and several spin-offs. The highly influential first Virtua Fighter game is widely recognized as the first 3D fighting game released. The latest mainline release was Virtua Fighter 5 in 2006; this version has since been continously updated.

<i>Tekken</i> (video game) 1994 fighting video game

Tekken (鉄拳) is a 1994 fighting game developed and published by Namco. It was originally released on arcades, then ported to the PlayStation home console in 1995. One of the earliest 3D polygon-based games of the genre, Tekken was Namco's answer to Virtua Fighter and was designed by Seiichi Ishii, who himself was also Virtua Fighter's designer when he worked at Sega previously. The game was developed on the purpose-built low-cost System 11 board, based on PlayStation hardware.

References

  1. ↑ "Cool Riders". Sega Retro Games. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  2. ↑ Handley, Zoey (December 12, 2023). "Cool Riders for Arcade is just a beautiful, captivating mess". Destructoid. Retrieved September 9, 2024.
  3. ↑ Haywood, David (19 February 2013). "Still Too Cool for Mamedev" . Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  4. ↑ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - 完成品夕イプのTVゲーム機 (Dedicated Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 499. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 July 1995. p. 25.
  5. ↑ "Cool Riders". Next Generation (10). Imagine Media: 128, 130. October 1995.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.