Ah, OutRun! It was the first street racing arcade game where you drove a Ferrari Testarossa at breakneck speeds with a female passenger in tow, feeling the wind in your hair as you raced to your next checkpoint area to progress further in the game. It was as simple as that, thank you Mr. Yu Suzuki.
OutRun’s simplicity was its biggest drawcard – the flash red car, gorgeous woman, awesome graphics (especially the crashes!), great European tracks (with uphill and downhill gradients!), brilliant music (oh that Magic Sound Shower tune!) and the choice of path to take when confronted with a fork in the road!
It was this choice of which road you took in OutRun which ultimately lead you to five very different goals (endings), some more humorous than others. For those of you that weren’t aware or had not seen all of OutRun’s different endings, here they are for your pleasure! Don’t forget to lock the Testarossa!
Choose your course – it’s as easy as a, b, c, d or e!
Course: Vineyard (a)
End Goal: No wine here for the easy winner. After the driver is hoisted aloft by the crowd, they then get distracted by a bikini clad lady and drop the driver to the bitumen. That’s gotta hurt!
Course: Death Valley (b)
End Goal: How apt is the name of this route as your Testarossa literally falls apart the second the winning line is crossed. Instead of celebrating, your driver will need to wait for a while for the Ferrari roadside assist van to rock up.
Course: Desolation Hill (c)
End Goal: What could be the winning prize here? Perhaps the camels to take the driver back to civilisation as the Ferrari has ran out of fuel? Hang on, what will the driver wish for when rubbing that lamp? Oh, a harem!
Course: Autobahn (d)
End Goal: As the crowd gathers to see the driver receive the big gold trophy, he gets embarrassingly bypassed by the presenter, with the trophy being handed to his female passenger! ZING!
Course: Lakeside (e)
End Goal: As the driver screeches past this most difficult of all goals, he is finally rewarded for his most excellent driving skills! Now he is ready to party!
image source: The Video Game Museum