Metropolis Street Racer

Metropolis Street Racer
Developer: Bizarre Creations Publisher: Sega Platforms: Dreamcast Released in US: January 15, 2001 Released in EU: November 3, 2000 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused music. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article This game has a bugs page

Metropolis Street Racer was the predecessor to what would become Project Gotham Racing and is often hailed as one of the best driving games for the Dreamcast.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Bugs

Unused Audio

SOUND/TOKYO.AFS

The music played during the introductory logo sequence, with the Kudos screen, the Sega logo and the Bizarre Creations logo plays approximately 22 seconds of audio, before being interrupted by the "Press Start" screen. The audio clip it uses, however, is much longer, the remainder going unused:

There's a fancy Sega fanfare in the game. The Sega logo instead appears during the above audio clip.

Development Text

Scattered throughout MSR.BIN are the following texts:

-DEMO=
-DEMO=%d
-ZONE=
-ZONE=%d
-SPEED=
-SPEED=%d
-playable
-autodemo
Beginning profile...
-DEMO=%d
-ZONE=%d
-SPEED=%d
Here we go - %s
Initialising DEBUG
Resetting DEBUG
The Bizarre Message Handler
(C) Bizarre Creations 1998,99
Cannot DBMalloc %d Bytes
Cannot DBTrashMalloc %d Bytes
/*
******************
* ERROR '%s'... 
*/
*** 
Replay Size = %d/%d bytes
Free Memory %d bytes
Free Trash %d bytes
Found Valid GHOST
CurrentRaceMode not set
Quit To Movie
DREAMON_OPPONENT
DREAMON_OPPONENT2
Player Car Set As AI
* Loading Circuit : %s
* Route           : %s (%d)
Unknown city %s
Unknown area %s
Unknown route '%s'
Cannot find TIMEATTACK of circuit %s
No Idea
Cannot find car colour %s
Cannot find car colour index %s
Cannot find car in chapter %d
Cannot Find Car Challenge for %s
Unknown
Driver
NoName
MSR
c:/kdev/projects/racer/data/dc
S2000
BERLINA BLACK
DREAM ON
DREAM 1
DREAM 2
ASAKUSA 15
STJAMES 01
Cannot Find Manu Badge for %s
Cannot Find Car Badge for %s
Using Default Car Badge for %s
Too Many Races Defined
Too many routes (%d) in area '%s'
Too many Routes for Length
0
%d_%d
%d
Car %s Store out of group order
Cannot find Section %s
Too Many Opponents
Too Many Cars
Too Many Areas
Too Many Routes
Too Many Demos
Too Many Bonuses
Too Many Chapters Defined
Chapter %d
Unknown GameMode %s
Too Many Total Races
Undefined INI Type %s
Whoops - Too Many TorqueCurve Entries
Whoops - Too Many CarColour Entries
Too Many Circuits Opened for Time Attack
boost car %d:CPFRatio=%.3f dist %.3f (%.3f-%.3f) scale=%.3f base=%.3f CPF Bunching = %.3f
boost car %d:CPFRatio=%.3f dist %.3f (%.3f-%.3f) scale=%.3f base=%.3f CPF Bunching=%.3f
CAR[%d]:scale=%.3f
Possible shagged cameras (%d)
Setting Up CAMERA %d - '%s'
Races cannot be more than %d Laps (%d)
%02d_%s
Too many opponents
-- Initialise_CircuitLoad In  - SysMem F(%7d) U(%7d) - TexMem F(%7d) U(%7d)
-- Initialise_CircuitLoad Out - SysMem F(%7d) U(%7d) - TexMem F(%7d) U(%7d) 
Barrier%d
-- LandscapeTempData Out      - SysMem F(%7d) U(%7d) - TexMem F(%7d) U(%7d)
-LandscapePermenantData    :           (Mem Used:%7d - Trash Used:%7d)
Illegal Type in HOTLAP %s
Illegal Challenge Type '%s' in (Chapter %d, race %d)
Illegal Entry Type '%s' in (Chapter %d, race %d)
Starting Debug Output
End of debug output
Too Many INI Items
Too Many Cameras Defined

Commented Out Manufacturers

FRONTEND/MANUFACTURER.INI contains commented out references to the Honda and Acura brands, whose cars don't appear in the game.

;[MANUFACTURER]
;Name = Acura
;Ident = ACURA
;Badge = ACURA
;Territory = America

;[MANUFACTURER]
;Name = Honda
;Ident = HONDA
;Badge = HONDA
;Territory = Japan

;[MANUFACTURER]
;Name = Honda
;Ident = HONDA_US
;Badge = HONDA
;Territory = America

One Honda did appear in a prototype, however.

Regional Differences

Default Time Zones

Both versions of the game prompt the user for their current time zone on start-up, but while the PAL version defaults to GMT (a.k.a UTC, which is likely to be closer to most European users), the NTSC version defaults to Pacific Time (closer to most North American users).

PAL	NTSC

Car Licence Plate Styles

The European version has British licence plates on every car driven by the player. The American version uses California plates instead.

Driver Seat and Steering Wheel Position

Most cars used by the player in the European version are right hand drive, except for the Ford Mustang, Opel Speedster and the Fiat Barchetta. In the American version, most cars would be left hand drive, except for the Nissan 300ZX and Vauxhall VX220.

Revisional Differences

To do: There are likely many more version-exclusive bugs than just the ones listed here.

In Europe (where it was first released), the game had three revisions. The third and final one was used for the North American release.

The first European release was recalled almost immediately by Sega Europe due to its many game-breaking bugs. The following bugs are present only in the first European release:

• The player can complete Street Race challenges successfully without the required number of Kudos.
• VMUs can sometimes be corrupted.
• After playing for a long enough time, races in Tokyo would always be set at night, regardless of the Dreamcast's internal clock settings.
• The keyboard doesn't work properly, as it is improperly mapped.

The second release, while more stable than the first, nonetheless retained several serious bugs. The following bugs are present in the first two European releases and were patched out for the final, internationally released revision:

• "Quick Race" in Multiplayer mode cannot be played, as the screen simply goes blank.
• Chapter 17, Challenge 8 cannot be beaten, as the race continues indefinitely.
• The Alfa Romeo GTV cannot be unlocked properly, as the time limit is too low to clear.
• Special Events can be completed without the required car or clock time.

(Source: MSR Dreamcast)