Worth buying a jap ps2 for Sega Rally Championship (1995)

[andykara2003]

I really love the original Sega Rally championship from 1995. There’s an almost perfect console port on the Japanese ps2 - it’s very well known & respected. You get it as a bonus disc with the mediocre Sega Rally 2006 & it’s Japanese only.

I’m thinking of buying a cheap £50 Jap ps2 slim and the game. Has anyone else played it? I’m trying to discern whether it’s worth the effort. Also I’m asking as the game is fairly bare bones & is just the arcade game without any extra modes.

[Ghegs]

It's a great port of the arcade game. No additional modes, but lots of settings, especially graphic-related ones, to tweak.

Sega Rally 2006 isn't bad either, I think it gets an undeservedly bad rep. Its career mode is rather impenetrable if you don't know Japanese, but it has an arcade mode with tons of tracks, there's even a set of re-created courses from the 1995 game. It's quite difficult, too. Some years ago I sat down to play through the re-created courses and it took me almost three hours just to finish it successfully. Video of that here.

[Dochartaigh]

Why not get a (assuming USA) phat PS2 and a $25 hard drive (and a $12 network adapter needed to plug the HDD into) with Free McBoot (or whatever they're using now) and play ALL the PS2 games from any region?

PS2 STILL has he largest library of games out of any system I think, and tons of gems on it.

[andykara2003]

I get your point totally & was considering that but I already have a ps2 slim. Jap PS2s are so cheap I might as well just spend the £50 and I can run the game without software of hardware mods.

I wonder if anyone’s played both the Jap ps2 and the Saturn version and could give a comparison between the two.

[neorichieb1971]

I liked the Sega Rally (1995) on PS2, it played very close to the arcade. Haven't played for 12 years though.

[Tarma]

I get your point totally & was considering that but I already have a ps2 slim. Jap PS2s are so cheap I might as well just spend the £50 and I can run the game without software of hardware mods.

I wonder if anyone’s played both the Jap ps2 and the Saturn version and could give a comparison between the two.

Gameplay wise the Saturn version captures the arcade version very closely, the "plus" version with analog stick control is probably the Saturn port to have.

Graphically, while the Saturn port was very good for the time, it's not going to compare to the PS2 port because of the hardware differences.

If you want a port of the game that is as close to the arcade as possible (in all ways) you'll need to forget the Saturn port.

[andykara2003]

Perfect, thanks :) Apparently some people find the PS2 port a bit twitchy, but others think it’s the best controls possible. I’ll just have to pick it up & see :-)

[Johnpookie]

Hey just stumbled on this old post. I also want to play a perfect port of Sega Rally. Did you end up getting Japan ps2 and this game? Was it worth it? Thanks

[it290]

Only tangentially related but I've been playing the PC version of Sega Rally Revo recently and man that game kicks ass. Super-fun handling, the track deformation is all kinds of cool, and the game still looks gorgeous today. Not sure why it's so slept on, it's a great update to Sega Rally and in the spirit of the original.

[Austin]

Revo is awesome. I was pleasantly surprised by that a few years back after sleeping on it forever.

I still need to get the PS2 remake of Sega Rally. Always heard good things about that conversion.

[Marc]

Revo is brilliant. Best racer of the 360/PS3 era.

[andykara2003]

Hey just stumbled on this old post. I also want to play a perfect port of Sega Rally. Did you end up getting Japan ps2 and this game? Was it worth it? Thanks

Hi! Funny you replied at this point, I didn’t, but was just considering it again. Having looked into it, considering the game is so expensive and I don’t have a Jap PS2, I’ve seen you can get region free modded PS2 slims for about £70 on UK EBay. Then I can get a Free McBoot memory card and associated hard drive from Etsy to go with it, so I can get the game that way, plus the rest of the PS2 library.

Can anyone tell me if there are any downsides to this solution? I.e. will the game run absolutely authentically in this hardware configuration? And/or is there a better solution?

Plus def looking at Revo also, thanks to the suggestions here.

[andykara2003]

Just to add - Revo was 30fps on ps3 & 360 which is a no for me as I feel these games should be 60 & I’m a console person. The Jap PS2 version of1995 is 60 so I’ll stick with that. I’ve heard the controls are a bit twitchy though - does anyone have any experience with that?

[Marc]

Just to add - Revo was 30fps on ps3 & 360 which is a no for me as I feel these games should be 60 & I’m a console person. The Jap PS2 version of1995 is 60 so I’ll stick with that. I’ve heard the controls are a bit twitchy though - does anyone have any experience with that?

You're missing out. It's a buttery 30fps.

[Sengoku Strider]

Gameplay wise the Saturn version captures the arcade version very closely, the "plus" version with analog stick control is probably the Saturn port to have.

This, although I still always use the dpad anyway. Forget about comparing it to anything else, it just feels like a perfect video game.

Across Saturn versions Sega kept doing incremental improvements to things like car textures/badges and trackside detail, and the JP version of Plus was the last one to be released so it's the definitive Saturn version. It's also got online play if you're motivated to get that working.

[andykara2003]

Just to add - Revo was 30fps on ps3 & 360 which is a no for me as I feel these games should be 60 & I’m a console person. The Jap PS2 version of1995 is 60 so I’ll stick with that. I’ve heard the controls are a bit twitchy though - does anyone have any experience with that?

You're missing out. It's a buttery 30fps.

Good to know - it’s funny, some games just do 30fps without feeling too framey. Mario 64 is another. Seems like the 360 version is the better version of Revo of the two so might grab that.

The Saturn version is tempting too, especially if it has decent extra content. The Jap PS2 version is literally just the arcade game with nothing added.
[Edit: It looks like the Saturn version is pretty bare bones too.]

Just bought Revo for the 360. Could play on my 360 or Xbox 1. Does anyone know if the stick on the Xbox one feels significantly diffferent to the 360? Might be better on the 360 in that case for the authentic original handling on the stick the game was coded for..

[Marc]

Just to add - Revo was 30fps on ps3 & 360 which is a no for me as I feel these games should be 60 & I’m a console person. The Jap PS2 version of1995 is 60 so I’ll stick with that. I’ve heard the controls are a bit twitchy though - does anyone have any experience with that?

You're missing out. It's a buttery 30fps.

Good to know - it’s funny, some games just do 30fps without feeling too framey. Mario 64 is another. Seems like the 360 version is the better version of Revo of the two so might grab that.

The Saturn version is tempting too, especially if it has decent extra content. The Jap PS2 version is literally just the arcade game with nothing added.
[Edit: It looks like the Saturn version is pretty bare bones too.]

Just bought Revo for the 360. Could play on my 360 or Xbox 1. Does anyone know if the stick on the Xbox one feels significantly diffferent to the 360? Might be better on the 360 in that case for the authentic original handling on the stick the game was coded for..

Saturn SR lets you just lap a course indefinitely, wguch is obviously a huge benefit if you get into time-chasing. I spent hours looping the first course back in the day trying to shave off another 100th.

[Austin]

Saturn SR lets you just lap a course indefinitely, wguch is obviously a huge benefit if you get into time-chasing. I spent hours looping the first course back in the day trying to shave off another 100th.

Not to mention that feature is critical if you want to learn the game well enough to actually finish it! Getting to the 4th course and winning in 1st place is stupidly strict on how many mistakes you are allowed to make.