San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
 | |
| Developer(s) |
Atari Games (Arcade) Midway Games (Nintendo 64) Climax (Sony PlayStation) |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) |
Atari Games (Arcade) Midway Games (Consoles) |
| Producer(s) | John Ray (Game Producer) |
| Designer(s) | Ed Logg(Nintendo 64 version), Spencer Lindsay(Arcade version) |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PC, Nintendo 64, PlayStation |
| Release date(s) |
Arcade |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) |
Single-player Multiplayer |
| Cabinet |
Sit-down Upright |
| Arcade system | Atari Flagstaff |
| Display |
Raster Horizontal Orientation |
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing is a video game developed by Atari Games and published by Midway Games. This game was first released in arcades in 1996 and was ported to Nintendo 64 in 1997 and the PlayStation in 1998. San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing is the first game in the Rush series.
Gameplay
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
Released in 1996, the original San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing features three unique tracks that take place in San Francisco, California and eight playable vehicles. San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing is the first game to use Atari Games' Flagstaff engine.
San Francisco Rush: The Rock
Released in 1997, the second installment of Rush brought four unique tracks, including the Alcatraz track, and four new cars were introduced.
San Francisco Rush: The Rock: Wave Net
Released in 1998, the third and final installment of San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing which was an updated version of The Rock with support for online muiltiplayer.
Tracks
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
| Difficulty | Track Name | Description |
| Beginner | Golden Gate | The course starts on the outskirts of San Francisco and crosses the Golden Gate Bridge. It features easy turns and noticeable shortcuts. |
| Advanced | Embarcadero | Begins near the Palace of Fine Arts and continues onto the highway to the Seaport. It has a mix of easy and hard turns and some noticeable shortcuts. |
| Extreme | Market | Starts out in the Downtown area of San Francisco and follows a challenging course through the Twin Peaks area. It then returns to the urban area of Chinatown before reaching the finish line. |
San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition
| Difficulty | Track Name | Description |
| The Rock | The Rock | A racecourse on the famous Alcatraz prison island. |
| Advanced | Downtown | Based in San Francisco's Downtown Area, the track features multiple routes to the finish line. |
| Extreme | Heights | Starting from the seaport the track winds around northeastern San Francisco including Russian Hill and the Marina districts. |
| Extreme | Sunset | The course starts on the Great Highway near San Francisco's Ocean Beach and climbs into the hilly areas near Land's End as well as the parkland surrounding Lake Merced. |
Ports
Nintendo 64
Rush was ported to the Nintendo 64 in 1997. This conversion contains six regular tracks and two hidden tracks. The regular tracks can be run in either reverse or mirrored modes and feature added collectible hidden keys throughout the track that can be used to unlock hidden vehicles. Most of the original cars appeared in this conversion, but some from San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition are not present. This conversion contains a Practice Mode and a Death Race mode where the game ends if the player crashes. The Nintendo 64 port of Rush also includes a Circuit Mode and a save system for Fast Times, circuit progress, and hidden keys that the player can find on secret spots to unlock new cars. San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition was presumed to be ported to the Nintendo 64 for release in 1998, but, despite advertisements included in the box of the Nintendo 64 version stating the game was "Coming Fall 1998 for Nintendo 64," this was later reported as an erroneous statement, and that the advert was actually intended solely for the arcade version, which includes all of the tracks that were already in the Nintendo 64 version.[1]
Game Boy Color
Rush was planned to be ported to the Game Boy Color, but the project was canceled because the publishers did not find suitable a developer for the conversion.[2]
Sony PlayStation
Rush was ported to Sony PlayStation in 1998. This conversion contains three tracks, plus an exclusive bonus track. None of the original music from the Arcade versions is present, and the announcer voice has been modified, but some of his voiceover is included in the game. Some of the modes from the Nintendo 64 port are included. The Death Race mode was renamed Extreme Race, and circuit mode was included but with fewer tracks. There are two exclusive modes: GP Mode and Explosive Mode. The PlayStation version has all eight original cars but none of the San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition cars. The gameplay is also different from the arcade version, as the gravity is higher than the arcade version, reducing the jump airtime, and the steering sensitivity was also modified.
PC
San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition was released on PC exclusively with the 3DFX Quantum Obsidian video card, and was designed to run only on that specific card. It can, however, run on more modern video cards through the use of modified .exes and a glide wrapper for glide support. It is a near-perfect conversion of the arcade game, although it suffers from several collision detection issues and other bugs.
Other ports
San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition was ported to Midway Arcade Treasures 3 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox and also included in Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition for the PC. The arcade treasures version is a recreation of the original game, with a new physics engine and sound changes: The game's audio was replaced entirely with a new announcer voice, uses remixed or altered music tracks, and has completely different sound effects. This version received heavy criticism by fans for the alterations made to the audio along with the new physics engine that was reported to be buggy and therefore would mess up the gravity in the game. The PC version had a critical bug where the car would go over 200 mph and then blow up if gas was held on without braking.
Sequel
The San Francisco Rush series was followed by 2 sequels.
The first was Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA, released in 1998 exclusively on Nintendo 64.
The second was the futuristic San Francisco Rush 2049 which was released in 1999 for the arcade and ported to the Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 in 2000.
References
- ↑ "Rush: The Rock Not Coming to N64 - IGN". Ign64.ign.com. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- ↑ "San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing - Game Boy Color - IGN". Gameboy.ign.com. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
External links
- San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing at the Killer List of Videogames
- San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing at MobyGames
- San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing at Arcade History
- San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (N64) at GameRankings
- San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (PS1) at GameRankings
- San Francisco Rush Review at Cult of Games