rec.autos.simulators

Hi. I've noticed that no one's really discussed Sega Rally here. Sure
it's not a SIM, but all of us love stuff on 4 wheels don't we? I've
found the modelling to be very similar to the arcade version, which I
find to be pretty fun, albeit unrealistic. Somewhat `Screamish' perhaps.
But the graphics (on my humble P133, 16MB, Trio64) is pretty smooth,
many, many more FPS that the crappy Daytona port and MTM. Some annoying
`leakages' of scenery (like those transparent mountains in GP2) does
occur, but no too obstrusive. One tip : after the game's started, have
the CD removed. Sure the music's cool (some the best in-game music
around), but it takes up a lot of processor occupancy (GP2...). May have
limited single-person appeal, but would really be fun in multi-player
mode (haven't found friends to play with yet). But you don't go to the
arcades and play by yourself, do you?

One other thing, I use the GP1 and CH pedals. The game will not
recognise a second joystick for a given player, hence I was not able to
use the CH, but the GP1 paddles were OK.

In short, good fun, nice (smooth) graphics, so a worthwhile GP2
diversion for me. I can't see why they ported the whole game lock, stock
and barrel to PC though (so there's a token set-up menu, ), but they
could have expanded it into a full-blown rally simulator. Hope the
Psygnosis F1 port will have improved upon its console predecessor.  

Have fun,

Stanley Chan

I played around with the demo, and found it rather boring. It would
recognize my steering wheel, but when I try to drive with it, it won't
work. Nice graphics, but that was about it.

All in all, I'd say it was fun, but came up a bit short.
Direct 3D support, better controller support, or a better frame rate
with DirectX support (any one of the three, not necessarily all three)
would have made it a must have for me.

Has any stuff changed from the demo (that you know of)?

--                        

I've had the game for a month or so and have found it to be a
reasonable investment :-).
I'm running a P100 with 16 meg and have to run the game at its lowest
resolution to get a good/accepatable frame rate. However, this doesn't
retract much from the graphics.
The game certainly has captured the feeling of actually driving a 4x4,
at least to the extent that you get rear end drift. This is one thing
that is sadly missing from RAC Rally.
Thanks for the tip concerning the removal of the CD - ending the
music, I had thought this would have been an available option from
within the game, i.e. to switch off the music.
If anyone is interested in some cheats for this game see the spoiler
below.

********SPOLIER**************

Hyper car mode - hold down X and press ENTER to choose your car at the
car select screen

Lancia Stratos - press X Y Z Y X  at the menu screen. At the car
select menu go to the manual versions of the Delta and the Celica and
press DOWN

Ultimate Ghost Car - go to the time attack screen. When it asks
whether you want three laps or a free run, hold X and Z and select
three. This will give you a ghost vcar that shows how to take the
corners perfectly.

Lake Side Courses - Press X and Y in the main menu then select the
game to give you the fourth track.

Mirror Mode - Hold down Y and press ENTER at the select screen in
Arcade Mode.

Above cheats courtesy of PC Format Magazine March 1997 edition.

You say you can't use pedals with the game? That junk Daytona won't
even use a joystick! If I can't use my pedals with my Extreme
Controls rig I'm not buying.

--                        

If the pedals run off the x/y axis of a single joystick, then you can
use the pedals. It should not be a problem for current ECCI wheels since
they are able to run as a single joystick. I'm using CH Pedals, which
uses x and y axes of joystick 2, which the game doesn't support. But
since it's a GP1, I can still use the paddles.