Memories of the first Ridge Racer (PS1)

[David]

Been playing this a lot today.

I remember buying all the magazines at the time the ps1 and Saturn were coming out and drooling over this and Sega rally

When I finally got my ps1 and played this I was blown away. It only had 1 track but man was it fun.

Especially when you mastered drifting round bends

I used to be brilliant at this but I am hopeless now but still probably my joint favourite racing game along with Sega rally.

The thing I remember being blown away by when I got it was that if you went into a tunnel it SOUNDED like you were in a tunnel

Any fans?

[killbot]

Been playing this a bit today via emulation. Graphically it's not too shabby even today but the control is ass compared to Daytona and Sega Rally. The cars are just way too floaty, Sega's racers always felt like they had some weight to them.

[paranoid marvin]

Remember seing this running in Game on a big screen when the PS1 came out, and knowing I had to get one. was never impressed Sega Rally or Daytona , but the graphics, cheesy fx and commentary along with a fantastic sense of speed made this game awesome.

Also really enjoyed Revolution, but after that the series went down-hill gameplay wise imho.

[Antiriad2097]

Love it, still pop it on from time to time and its my standard test game with any new ps1 emulator or device. Played it so often its now quite relaxing just to knock in a quick race or two in the easier modes.

Hammered it when new, unlocking all of the cars, no mean feat without a rear view mirror.

[Negative Creep]

Played the full size arcade one several times, and the PS version looked mind blowing. The difference from the 16 bit consoles was as clear as the gap between F-Zero and Rad Racer. Actually played Revolution a lot more, but trying it again I find them completely unplayable. Once you get used to the realistic handling in modern games it's very hard to revert to RR idiosyncrasies

[David]

The lucky star arcade in Blackpool (now a wetherspoons) had ridge racer where you sat in a FULL SIZE car

[David]

[Antiriad2097]

Yeah, we had one of those at the Aberdeen beach arcade for a bit. Gave it a whirl, but I found it completely unplayable. I wasn't going to waste more credits learning the game as I'm sure it cost at least 2 quid a go, if not more.

[David]

Yeah it was expensive

[adippm82]

Still the only game that has made me buy a console on sight, saw it running on one machine in Gamestation in Bedford, while another on the other side of the counter had Wipeout, before that I was all geared up to wait for better games on the Saturn, I remember the excitement in the shop, just such a leap up from the SNES and Megadrive.

Ridge Racer was the game that made me want the PS1, just such an exciting game, only having one track did not hinder it, my mate and I spent the next couple of days trying to shave tenths off each others times.

Great days!

[Katzkatz]

I have mainly memories of the arcade version. I think it was quite novel, in that you had a clutch pedal with a manual gearstick on it. Those machines must have taken some abuse over the years!

I sadly never played the full size version cab. That would have been great.

[theantmeister]

Yeah, I played a lot of it in the arcade.

I still pay the version that came with RR4 occasionally. If you ever want to see proof of developer skills evolving during a consoles lifetime, break out that disc. The difference between the launch version and the RR4 engined version is astounding

Especially when you mastered drifting round bends

A skill I wish I still had. Back when I was playing RR4, I had the drifting down. I could pull the car around a corner by its nose and it felt really good. Playing it now, I'm constantly crashing into walls

[MadManDan79]

Nice, they used a Mazda mx5 base which is a nice car in its own right.

[outdated_gamer]

I first played the series with Ridge Racer 64, a sort of remake of the PSX game with better visuals and more content. It was pretty good, but the handling was not that great and there were better Arcade racers on that platform. I also played the Arcade version which was much like the the PSX one, just running in higher resolution. The handling felt too floaty for my taste and there was not that much content in it (clearly a coin-op game). I would also say that Screamer on DOS was the better game, when it came to graphics and handling. I find the hype around RR was mainly that a home system was able to reproduce a basically Arcade level 3D racing game. I think many old 3D Arcade racers don't hold up too well due to lack of content and floaty physics and I would sooner pick the likes of OutRun and Super Hang On over them as I find them more (re)playlable. They also look more visually pleasing to me.

[theantmeister]

In general, I find sprite based, palette cycling 2D racing games horrible to play these days. Racing games were always meant to be polygonal 3D.

Outrun excluded, of course.

The cars in Screamer feel too light and they're way too wide. Also, how can you compare a game played with cursor keys to a sit down arcade cab with force feedback steering?!