Rad Mobile / Gale Racer - Grandfather of The Run?

2011 Need for Speed The Run
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GT3x24x7
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Rad Mobile / Gale Racer - Grandfather of The Run?

Post by GT3x24x7 »

I'm a huge retro gamer. Recently I bought an old Sega Saturn game from 1994 called Gale Racer and after playing it a bit, it struck me that the whole premise of the game is identical to NFS: The Run :o
  • Race involving lots of cars across the USA from West Coast (San Francisco) to East Coast (New York).
  • Arranged in a series of linear races where you must move up from last place to first by the time you hit New York City.
  • Different stages representing the major regions of the US as you progess across the country.
  • Different driving tasks, surfaces, time of day and weather in each stage.
  • Sub-bosses every so often that try to take you out.
  • A cop chase.
  • A train chase.
  • An evil end-boss that tries to kill you.
  • Cows.
.. and the list of similarities goes on! Here's a video I made of my run across the country in Gale Racer so you can see what I mean.


Gale Racer

.. and here's the original arcade game that Gale Racer was based on, Rad Mobile:


Rad Mobile

Did Black Box model their game on Rad Mobile / Gale Racer?? You decide! :D
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Re: Rad Mobile / Gale Racer - Grandfather of The Run?

Post by Hydro_PT »

I bet they did... and The Run just lost one of the few good things it had: originality. I thought the concept was pretty cool and new, as probably most gamers thought. Seems like Blackbox most likely based their game on this. :\
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Re: Rad Mobile / Gale Racer - Grandfather of The Run?

Post by GT3x24x7 »

Oh well, I still think all three games are pretty fun. That's what matters in the end, right?
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Re: Rad Mobile / Gale Racer - Grandfather of The Run?

Post by Hydro_PT »

Well yes, but I appreciate when a game brings something new, or at least tries to. Take as an example Crysis 1. I loved the entire concept of the game, an island to explore, jungles and beaches, different ways to complete the goals, etc. And then a couple of years later I played Far Cry 1 and bang! Crysis lost a big chunk of its appeal and originality, to me at least.

And The Run is not much fun, but that's my opinion. Now that I know the concept isn't as original as I though, the game has very little to offer. :|
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Re: Rad Mobile / Gale Racer - Grandfather of The Run?

Post by GT3x24x7 »

Well I played The Run back through a couple months ago and while I didn't really have much good to say about it the first time around, I really did enjoy the second playthrough. I ignored the game's attempts to hurry you along and just had fun with each stage, retrying them until I was satisified with my performance instead of moving on immediately as soon as you scrape through with a medal. It was infinitely more satisfying and enjoyable this way.

Edit: BTW I actually recorded the entire playthrough and it's available here on NFSUnlimited, if anyone is interested: http://www.nfsunlimited.net/therun/walkthrough :D
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Re: Rad Mobile / Gale Racer - Grandfather of The Run?

Post by Bojan »

Well it's not really a new concept as the coast to coast races started back in the 70s if not sooner:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball ... rophy_Dash

There's also several movies and a really interesting article about a 2007 attempt when they actually broke the record
http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/ma ... ntPage=all

So yea, The Run definitely didn't invent this race :)
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Re: Rad Mobile / Gale Racer - Grandfather of The Run?

Post by GT3x24x7 »

Well sure, everyone knows the Cannonball Run, mostly thanks to Burt Reynolds and his shiny black Trans Am.. I'm just sayin' that the concept had already been done in a game well before NFSTR.
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