OutRun Europa about to rev its way onto Speccys around the globe, so we plonked Duncan MacDonald into a Reliant Robin and sent him over to Probe to have a quick pre-release gander at it!
    The conversion of the arcade classic OutRun was a bit of a disappointment for Spec-chums, as you probably know -- the problem being that the programmers actually tried too hard to be faithful to the original coin-op. Four hundred trillion sprites the size of Mount Everest was a nice idea in theory, but in practice even the renowned processing speed of the rubber beermat couldn't cope -- leaving the gameplay wallowing in sticky mud. The race crawled along at the speed of Ayers Rock (that's not particularly quickly) making the 32,000 multi-loads a tiresome chore rather than a brief resting period between levels. So what of OutRun Europa, the follow-up? Have the programmers learnt their lesson? The answer is a resounding 'yes indeedy' by cracko, so read on to see how well they've done.
    
Drive On
OutRun Europa you're at the wheel of a convertible Ferrari Testrossa (like you were in the original OutRun) and you've still got the tasty 'chick' in the passenger seat, praise the Lord. (That's nuff of that! Ed) You've got a lot of driving in front of you though, namely from here in good old Blighty all the way to West Germany, taking in the 'delights' of France, Italy and Switzerland en route. Each of the five countries is split into three different stages; rural, suburban and urban, so in essence we're talking 15 rip-roaring, hard driving levels! Yahooo!
    Hacking along England's country lanes at hundreds of miles an hour, you pass hedges, trees and telephone boxes. Up hill, down dale, as the road scrolls inexorably towards you - oh dear, what's that up ahead? Looks a bit like another 'motor', a Lotus if I'm not mistaken -- a nifty bit of overtaking's in order here, I'll be bound. Blimey, he's moving over. Crikey, I can't get through. Quick, over to the other side of the road. Yikes -- a telephone box! Blaaaarrgh! Curse British Telecom! In fact, curse these country roads and all Lotus drivers -- I'll be much happier when I get to the city.
    An hour later. Yippee, there's the Post Office Tower -- and there's a London bus. Yahoo, there's a taxi-cab, I'll carve him up. The infidel. Inhale my exhaust fumes, cabbie. Ho ho ho.
    From the city it's back into the country again, aiming for the English Channel and, ultimately, the Continent (after crossing the Channel 'Bridge' -- which the programmers plumped for instead of a tunnel in the interests of in-game speed).
    France, aaaah. Ooh lala, the weather over here's a bit naff (yes, there are actually climatic changes in this game) and the rain's coming down in buckets. Oh look a couple of 2CV's. No mirror/indicate/manoeuvre malarkey in this country -- just steam past with all the stops pulled out, that's the only kind of driving they understand. Yikes, slippy road 'cos of the rain. I forgot. Blammo!! My apologies, monsieur 'Johnny Onion'!
    
When In Rome...
Drive through Paris, head South East (the weather improves in these parts) and you hit Italy. Bang. Oh dear, the drivers here are even more mental than they are in France, and there are some mean cars to go up against, like other Ferraris and Lamborghinis. They try and barge you off the road, and to make matters worse the weather closes in again. Still, go for broke, eh? Wheeeel Yes, yes, yes! Yes, yes, yes! Bang! Drat!
    Having negotiated the torturous twists and turns of the Italian landscape, it's time to head north through Switzerland where it's not only snowing and very slippery, but for the most part you're driving on mountain roads with a sheer drop on one side. Yikes. Anyway, should you make it through unscathed you'll find yourself on the final leg -- a high speed romp on a German autobahn. You're badgered by BMW's and Porsches, the weather's got better again but now you've got to get to Berlin, where the race ends. Good luck chum, you're going to need it!
    The steering of the car has been programmed beautifully. You can oversteer, understeer and even pull yourself out of a potential skid by yanking the steering wheel (sorry, joystick) from one side to the other. Oh, and another nice touch is that after you've finished a country a passport pops up on screen and you get a stamp in it (a passport stamp, not a 19p postage stamp you clot).
    Yes, it has to be said, OutRun Europa looks like it's going to be the definitive motor-car racing game. With brilliantly detailed scrolling backdrops, beautiful road-side graphics, changing weather and cars that are 'intelligent' ('cos the Speccy remembers where they are -- even if they're behind you), the successor to OutRun looks like it's going to be everything (and more) that OutRun should have been - that's, erm, oh dear, I can't think of a good enough superlative. Hang on, I'll just have a look at the back of a Code Masters cassette inlay. Ah yes, that'll do. OutRun Europa is going to be amazingly brilliant. Boing.
    A CLOTS GUIDE TO HOW AND WHY

Why Is The Animation So Good In OutRun Europa?
Animation with a pseudo 3-D effect relies on things in the distance being small and things close up being big. These are two 'frames' of animation -- near and far. Here's an OutRun Europa Beetle in the distance.
    
[Or not, as the case may be. Imagine a very tiny car sprite - NickH]

    If you put your foot down to catch the rogue VW up you wouldn't expect it to suddenly look like this, would you.
    
[And image a very big car sprite here - NickH]

    Unless of course you closed your eyes for a couple of seconds, but that's not the kind of driving that's likely to get you through a driving test, is it now? In fact closing your eyes while driving at speed is downright dangerous. DON'T DO IT. Anyway, with open eyes you'd expect the beetle to get gradually bigger.
    Much more lifelike, n'est ce pas? The same thing applies to bus stops, telephone boxes and, well, everything really.
    All the objects in the game have twelve frames of animation, which is why everything scrolls smoothly towards youl
    
If There's So Much In The Game How Come It's Not Slow Like OutRun?
Because programmers Probe learnt from the mistakes made on OutRun. Also, because this is an original game (not a conversion) Probe were able to do pretty much what was needed to make the game really playable, rather than just attempt to mimic a coin-op which couldn't be mimicked. One 'time-saving' move was to drop the fork in the road at the end of levels -- this apparently used up loads and loads (and loads) of memory space and added nothing much to the enjoyment of the game. OutRun updated its screens at something like four frames per second, while Europa manages ten (more than twice as fast) -- even with sprites as big as the bus to deal with.
    
[NB - This version of OutRun Europa was scrapped when US Gold acquired the rights to the official coin-op sequel, Turbo OutRun. OutRun Europa did eventually get released, albeit in a completely different form - NickH]