Maximum Speed is a white scorching racing recreation that can thrill all of your senses. Not my phrases – the phrases of whichever promoting guru got here up with the guff adorning Maximum Speed‘s European advertising supplies. And who am I to argue? Absolutley no person, that is who. Right, let’s get crack-alacking.

Maximum Speed was launched in arcades in 2003 on the Atomiswave platform, and represents arcade racing in its purest type: there’s you, a load of thick-as-mince AI adversaries, a plethora of tracks of questionable design high quality and an ever-ticking clock. Thanks to the unimaginable growth efforts of Megavolt85 et al over at Dreamcast-Talk within the latest previous, Sammy Atomiswave titles at the moment are playable on the Dreamcast, and we thought it was excessive time we took a extra in-depth take a look at a number of the video games which have made the leap from the coin-op to the house and expanded the Dreamcast assortment even additional. 

If you are not accustomed to the Atomiswave story, it is price looking at our information to the short-lived Sammy arcade format right here, and the story of how these lesser-spotted arcade titles ended up being ported to the Dreamcast right here.

The two marquee racers for the Atomiswave platform had been Faster than Speed, a kind of Need for Speed: Underground type avenue racing title stacked to the gills with neon strip lights, garishly painted scorching hatches and extra evening racing than you can shake a Tokyo Extreme Racer at (test it out right here); and Maximum Speed, a extra conventional inventory automobile type racer very a lot within the vein of Daytona USA. Its the latter of those two (obvs) that we’ll be poring over right here, to find why, although its probably not as much as the usual set by SEGA’s personal inventory automobile racing collection, Maximum Speed might be nonetheless price a glance if arcade racing is your bag.

From the outset, it’s clear that Maximum Speed is a recreation that is meant to be performed briefly bursts. Because that is basically the exact same code that will be performed on a coin operated cupboard with a steering wheel and pedals (of which there have been arise and sit down variants), most likely secreted away within the darkest reccesses of some brick and mortar arcade someplace, there isn’t a championship mode, no profession mode or owt even hinting at something greater than “please put your cash in dickhead, play for five minutes after which kindly piss off.” The solely actual high quality of life enhancements for the house console are that the controls have been helpfully mapped to the usual Dreamcast controller, full with analogue stick and set off help (which is essential – extra on this later).

So what you are basically getting, must you plop Maximum Speed onto your GDEMU (different optical drive emulators can be found) is the genuine arcade expertise with no dwelling conversion enhancements whatsover. Mainly as a result of, y’know, Maximum Speed was by no means (formally) ported to something. What you are confronted with when beginning Maximum Speed is the power to play a single race, in any of the preliminary three courses of car, on any of the six circuits. There are 23 different automobiles additionally vying for the highest spot throughout every race, and there is a clock counting down that replenishes by various dwindling allotments every time you attain the following lap checkpoint. So far, so ‘as you’d anticipate.’

The automobile choice boils down to a few totally different courses, with inventory automobiles, vehicles and open wheel variants being slectable, after which every sort of car being additional sub-divided into three distinct flavours; one being an all rounder, one having higher acceleration and the opposite having a better prime pace. Once you’ve got chosen your whip you get to pick out a monitor, of which there are six and these are, once more, additional divided into straightforward, medium or laborious difficulties. 

The recreation explains these issue ranges utilizing a collection of stars to indicate how tough they’re, however the operations guide that I managed to scrape from the remnants of the now defunt SEGA Amusements USA Inc. web site goes a bit of additional, truly labelling the tracks as straightforward, medium or laborious. Thanks Wayback Machine. For ease, I’ve now uploaded this operations guide right here so you can also view it, pricey reader. As an fascinating facet observe, I did discover that the preserved web site for Maximum Speed seems to exhibit the textual content for SEGA Clay Challenge slightly than the proper copy for Maximum Speed. Not positive why that’s, possibly somebody absent mindedly pasted the incorrect paragraph in there when the web page was created. A hangover possibly? Or simply plain previous incompetence? Who is aware of…however I digress.

The tracks on provide are a superb combine of ordinary ovals and twisty forest, desert and mountain based mostly circuits and whereas none of them actually stand out or are as memorable as the enduring 777 Speedway or Seaside Street Galaxy, they’re all useful and provide a pleasant selection by way of aesthetic. With names like Liberty Hall Raceway, Wizard Grove Raceway and Rodeo Peak Speedway, they’re clearly going for the NASCAR and Indy Car vibe, and to be trustworthy Maximum Speed nails it by way of monitor design…even when none of them are actually all that spectacular by way of location or intricacy.

In the chilly mild of day, Maximum Speed feels a bit like a price range title in the case of the precise gameplay. The automobiles do not actually really feel like they’ve any distinct charateristics apart from visible; all of them play in just about the identical approach with solely the highest pace actually differentiating them from one another. The open wheel Indy Cars are the quickest, with the inventory automobiles being the slowest and the vehicles slap bang within the center. That stated, and to reiterate, the entire automobile courses seem to have the identical dealing with mannequin. 

It’s not a nasty dealing with mannequin by any means, nevertheless it does err on the ‘automobiles pivot on a central level’ facet, and it is truly fairly potential to by no means take away your finger from the precise set off and simply blast across the programs at…er…most pace, by no means ever bothering with the brakes. You can just about take each nook at full pelt with a bit of observe, and it would not actually matter from which of the 2 digicam angles you play from. This is not actually a detrimental when enjoying within the vehicles or the inventory automobiles, however sending an Indy Car sideways via a nook at full throttle is not precisely what you’d name practical. If an Atomiswave arcade racer may ever be described as such. I’m digressing once more.

This entire ‘full throttle’ factor is curious as a result of should you play both the inventory automobiles or vehicles, the speedometer has a bit of flashing mild that can beep incessantly should you simply continually redline the engine. Initially, I assumed this was the sport telling me that I used to be doing one thing incorrect and that I’d in some way be damaging the motor by simply flooring it constantly, however after just a few races it grew to become obvious that this little alarm is completely benign and would not actually serve any function apart from to harass. 

While the automobiles do have a (fundamental and purely beauty) injury mannequin, merely holding that set off all the best way in would not actually have any detrimental impact. Well, other than the one inflicted in your ear drums because the little alarm beeps again and again till you possibly can hear it in your sleep. I did initially make use of using the analogue set off to carry my revs as near the redline as potential with out tripping this infernal alarm, however after some time I realised it was pointless and so the set off went absolutely in and I by no means appeared again (in anger).

It’s odd {that a} recreation known as Maximum Speed would add one thing like this, however who the hell is aware of what was happening at SEGA/Sammy throughout these heady publish Dreamcast years? I’ve stated up to now that I like to consider post-Dreamcast SEGA as a kind of Stratton Oakmont free for all, the place something was allowed so long as the booze saved flowing and the coin-op cash saved coming in. Maximum Speed‘s existence (and to a lesser extent the Atomiswave itself) – to me at the least – confirms this little fantasy.

In all honesty, this senseless appraoch to the gameplay is actually what you’d anticipate from a pure arcade racer. There’s not a lot in the best way of technique required – simply pedal to the steel and steer. Competitor AI is squarely idiotic, with adversaries probably not exhibiting something truly approaching intelligence. They appear to ping off one another (and also you) in a trend not seen since Cruis’n USA, and whereas they seem to have the ability to maintain a racing line they’ll spin out or flip over on the merest trace of a shunt. Curiously, their presence would not actually have an effect on your automobile in any respect, that means if they’re unfortunate sufficient to commerce paint with the participant automobile, it’s they who will come a cropper and never you. Also worthy of observe is the slightly weird nature of opponents’ potential to muster unnatural pace boosts nearly at will – one minute you are cruising together with an open highway in entrance of you, the following an AI automobile has simply overtaken you at about 400 mph after which slammed on the anchors proper in entrance of your bonnet. It makes absolutley no sense in any respect…nevertheless it’s truly fairly endearing that the sport designers thought it was price together with at the least some arbritrary try at a ‘difficult’ AI. And naturally, by ‘difficult,’ I imply ‘shit.’

After just a few races although, it turns into fairly straightforward to navigate the circuits and weave via the pack to achieve the rostrum locations. It’s right here that titles within the mildew of Maximum Speed start to unravel, the pure arcade leaning laid naked. If this recreation had been given a launch on a house system then it’s fairly evident that some additional content material and modes would have been required so as to add some modicum of longevity. As it stands, this unique rendition is a title that folks would probably have had a few races on after which moved on to a different cupboard within the arcade. I can not actually fault it for the vanity of the expertise with this considered.

For an arcade recreation launched in 2003, Maximum Speed is not a lot of a looker. While it is completely acceptable within the visuals division it does nothing in a spectacular trend. Indeed, the Dreamcast’s personal Daytona USA 2001 is a a lot prettier, extra polished recreation. Hell, even the varied F1 video games on the Dreamcast give Sammy’s title a little bit of a slap. In a approach, Maximum Speed‘s visuals remind me extra of an N64 title than a Dreamcast recreation, although it was designed from the bottom up as an Atomiswave title. The trackside particulars are fairly rudimentary, with scale irregularities aplenty and empty grandstands stretching off into the space at any and each alternative; and the automobile fashions are a bit of on the fundamental facet reality be instructed. Also, the extent of element (or LOD) rendering is fairly brutal, with different automobiles and trackside furnishings turning into blocks of Lego as they hit some magical boundary about 100 metres or so from the digicam lens. John Linneman would have a subject day with Maximum Speed, that is for positive.

It’s truly fairly jarring how shut competitor automobiles change to a brilliant low element mannequin as soon as they overtake you, for instance. That stated, there are some cool trailing results from hind lights and a few satisfactory lens flares, however that is about your lot in the case of particular results. Real time lighting is off the desk totally, and save for just a few sparks which might be thrown up sometimes by AI automobiles, there’s nothing right here that (most likely) could not be executed on any {hardware} from the era previous the Dreamcast. To put it bluntly, if Maximum Speed had launched in 2003 on any modern dwelling platform (assume Xbox, PS2, Gamecube or Tiger Game.com), it could undoubtedly have been lambasted for its discount basement graphics. Still, all of it strikes at a pleasant slick tempo and there isn’t any trace of slowdown or body charge points, even with a number of automobiles on display screen. Granted, the automobiles greater than 6 ft away appear to be somebody slapped a bunch of cereal packing containers off a shelf, nevertheless it’s nonetheless as easy as butter.

The sound design would not actually fare significantly better than the visuals. Everything sounds simply effective, however there aren’t actually any standout tunes (all of them sound like nondescript techno muzak) and the automobile engines sound like vacuum cleaners. There’s additionally the aforementioned ‘most revs’ beeping noise that is incessant should you race the inventory automobiles or the vehicles (the open wheel automobiles do not have it for some cause); and there is the added bonus of a horrible pit crew shouty radio dude™ who sometimes pipes up with semi-legible recommendation akin to “extra pace!”, “take it straightforward!” and the like. Metropolis Street Racer this aint.

It will most likely come as little shock that there isn’t a multiplayer choice in Maximum Speed, being because it was a single participant cupboard. There is point out of a networking operate within the operations guide linked to earlier, however clearly attempting to reverse engineer this right into a rudimentary Dreamcast port would little question be a colossal waste of time and serve just a few individuals on the market who’ve a Dreamcast console hyperlink Taisen Cable. As I’m not a programmer I do not even know if this might be potential, so please take actually all the things I write on this article, and all the things I’ve ever stated wherever else on the complete web, with a large bucket of salt. Cheers.

In abstract then, Maximum Speed might be extra fascinating from a historical past and preservation perspective than as an precise racing recreation to obtain and play. That is not to say it is not enjoyable briefly bursts, however the actual fact that it varieties a part of that elusive Atomiswave library that was as soon as the only real protect of arcade collectors and may now be loved by anybody with a Dreamcast outfitted with a GDEMU is arguably extra fascinating than the sport itself. As it’s then, Maximum Speed is a competant and mildly entertaining tackle the Daytona USA mannequin of automobiles going shortly round (nearly) oval tracks. You by no means know, it’d truly take off if somebody had been to do that in actual life.

Gameplay is easy, problem is negligible, and visuals and audio are simply effective. Maximum Speed is undoubtedly price testing should you’re a fan of the style and have an curiosity within the esoteric nature of the Atomiswave library; however general it’s little greater than a median racer that was by no means prone to threaten Daytona USA‘s dominance over the arcade inventory automobile racing style. 

That stated, Maximum Speed is completely free to obtain and pattern for your self – thanks once more to Megavolt85 and others concerned within the scene for this Dreamcast port – so seize the ROM at Dreamcast-Talk right here and tell us what you assume within the feedback.