I maintain recreation preservation very close to and pricey to my coronary heart. Whereas I don’t personally have the ability to take previous video games and replace them to be used in 2024, supporting those that do is paramount. The newest instance of this superb work may be seen in OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, the place a brand new mod makes the sport look and play prefer it belongs within the ‘New & Noteworthy’ part of Steam.
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast gained’t be featured on lots of the finest racing video games lists in 2024, in fact. In truth, many individuals might not even keep in mind the sport existed till they see footage of it, however I’ve fond recollections of taking part in this recreation.
Throughout household holidays overseas to Italy, an OutRun 2 machine was ever current within the native arcade. I spent numerous hours, and euros, taking part in on it and making an attempt to higher my earlier runs and hold impressing my digital girlfriend within the OutRun recreation mode. I couldn’t assist however be devastated when the machine was finally changed with pool tables. What a downgrade.
Now, not solely can I revisit the PC launch of the sport, titled OutRun 2006: Coast to Coast, but it surely’s by no means regarded or performed higher than on my Nvidia RTX 4070 proper now, due to the Tweaks 0.4.1 patch on GitHub. This mod provides a ton of enhancements, together with sooner loading occasions, UI scaling, improved reflections, and even higher controller assist.
Beforehand, the sport would solely run at a most decision of 640 x 480 with a 60fps cap in place. I ought to notice that the unique recreation wasn’t capped at this decision, however working the sport by way of Home windows compatibility settings appeared to restrict my choices inexplicably. Now it’s doable to scale the UI and determination in step with what your desktop is ready to, and the body cap is detachable with out destabilizing the sport and having it run uncontrollably quick.
This implies I’m taking part in at 2,560 x 1,440 and 144 fps with no points in any respect. Higher nonetheless, the sport loading occasions have gone from being middling to fast. Loading every particular person menu display screen, and launching into gameplay, now takes barely a couple of seconds when taking part in on an SSD. Beforehand loading occasions had remained unoptimized and, whereas removed from dreadful, have been nonetheless no manner close to reaching their potential.
It solely took round ten minutes for me to get the mod put in, with some much-needed texture packs too, and with the fixes I’ve simply talked about, out of the blue the sport seems and performs extremely on a contemporary gaming PC. There are nonetheless extra texture packs I can obtain, however the aim right here was simply to attempt to get the sport working and expertise the nostalgia, all made doable due to recreation preservation.
Sadly, OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast isn’t obtainable to buy anymore, but it surely’s being preserved by the My Abandonware venture, which targets video games which were pulled from all digital storefronts, are now not bodily bought for PC as new, and are at the moment not less than 12 years previous.
Preservation of those video games is essential, however so is the modding work completed to maintain them engaged on fashionable gaming PCs, the place previous DRM points may cause points with compatibility. That is the place the modding and preservation communities collide, and the result is implausible examples of labor like OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast.
It wouldn’t shock me if these within the RTX Remix neighborhood have been additionally taking a look at this recreation, as a full-scale, ray-traced lighting improve could be the proper crowning glory.
Lots of the finest PC video games ever launched are nonetheless supported and bought to today, however not each recreation is so fortunate, which is why preservation mods akin to this one are so essential.
