3DO ZONE Forums

Damn, this is a great game. I forgot entirely the tracks get longer as you progress, but the bike purchasing decisions are so integral to the game, the graphics, the music. Really is aces.

i remember playing road rash and with the music and the sounds of the bike i would go into a trance of kicking butt

I've tried on and off for about twenty years to finish Road Rash! I can never finish the final race. I'll be impressed if you do it. Good luck!

I'm working through both the Saturn and 3do version simultaneously. I've had the Saturn version for years and never finished it. Mostly because I take a break and in the interim the damn backup battery in the Saturn goes dead.

a31chris wrote:I'm working through both the Saturn and 3do version simultaneously. I've had the Saturn version for years and never finished it. Mostly because I take a break and in the interim the damn backup battery in the Saturn goes dead.

Saturn Rule #1: Always have a backup cart. (Action Replay if you can).

I still adore the 3DO version of Road Rash. That version of the game across the 3DO and Saturn is easily the best game in the series. I know there was Road Rash 3D and Road Rash Jailbreak afterwards, but those two games seemed to take the points of Road rash and try to over complicate the damn game. Saturn version has a faster frame rate, but the 3DO version has tighter handling, so either way, very cool stuff. Before Playstation fans chime in here, sorry, but I really hate the PSX version just for the annoyingly long load times when trying to save or load your game, it almost breaks the game. Plus, the controls seem too loose. It's another problem altogether. I know that the Saturn version was ported from the PC version, not sure where they got the PSX version, but it's nowhere near as tight as the other two.

I'm a pretty big fan of the Road Rash series, and this one is my favorite. Well, the 3DO-developed version. I put tons and tons of hours into the PC port of it. It is as good, or better, than the original 3DO version. Unlike the Saturn/PSX ports. I used to play it with an flight stick, oddly enough. It worked exceptionally well. I got really good at the game. I've been enjoying going back and playing the 3DO version, but I suck at it. I just need to get good at it again. Having digital controls is kind of annoying after all those years of analog, but the shoulder/shift/whatever buttons help alleviate that somewhat. It's a fantastic game, regardless.


As for other versions of Road Rash, my runner-up is definitely Road Rash 64. Great game. I really like how the AI is setup and how you often are driving in a pack. It feels more realistic in a way. The graphics are pretty mediocre, blurry as hell textures, but the fully 3D hilly tracks and everything make up for it. Though at the beginning, with the starter bikes, you really feel way too slow. That gets better though.

The Genesis/Megadrive Road Rashes are kind of mediocre in my opinion. Before I got my 3DO not to long ago, about six months before, I got a Genesis. One of the main reasons being to replay the original Road Rash for the first time since it originally came out. Well, it's not that great. The framerate is terrible. I've spent too many years playing modern games, which has ruined me for a lot of older games with low framerates. It's just jerky in general. Though, I think my biggest problem is the lack of battery save on the cartridge. The game uses a password system, which I know was common for the time, but again I'm spoiled by more modern games. I resorted to taking pictures of my TV with my phone, which is certainly more convenient than writing them down, but it still was a pain. The passwords are super long. I've tried Road Rash 2 and 3 on the Genesis and they're more of the same, to be honest. They didn't really improve a whole lot. 3 used some of the sprites from the 3DO game, but was otherwise the same. The Sega CD game was a combination of Road Rash 3 with some of the menus and stuff from the 3DO game. Weird, actually. Basically, playing any of these just made me want to play the PC/3DO game. Or even RR64.

The Master System and original Game Boy RRs are basically the Genesis game but slightly cut down. The Game Boy version is a bit silly looking but surprisingly playable. The Master System version is even jerkier than the Genesis.

I've yet to play Road Rash: Jailbreak nor Road Rash 3-D on the PSX. Haven't played the GBA Jail Break either. I plan to get them all some day. The GBA game is supposed to be very good. Those two PSX games got some mediocre reviews back in the day, but from looking at videos, they seem decent. Not sure though.

Kyosho wrote:I've yet to play Road Rash: Jailbreak nor Road Rash 3-D on the PSX. Haven't played the GBA Jail Break either. I plan to get them all some day. The GBA game is supposed to be very good. Those two PSX games got some mediocre reviews back in the day, but from looking at videos, they seem decent. Not sure though.

If you liked Road Rash 64, you will more than likely enjoy RR3D and RR jail Break. More of the same stuff. Again, it's not that I hate those games, I just hate the changes that were made to the formula. I loved that the main fact of Road Rash was to originally go really damn fast, beat up some people and win the races. With the later 32-bit/64 bit games, the point is the same, but so much has been done to make the controls feel more "Real", or whatever they want to call it, that the games just aren't as fun as the older ones. They don't suck, but they aren't amazing either.

Austin wrote:

a31chris wrote:I'm working through both the Saturn and 3do version simultaneously. I've had the Saturn version for years and never finished it. Mostly because I take a break and in the interim the damn backup battery in the Saturn goes dead.

Saturn Rule #1: Always have a backup cart. (Action Replay if you can).

Aren't those rare and crazy expensive?

a31chris wrote:

Austin wrote:

a31chris wrote:I'm working through both the Saturn and 3do version simultaneously. I've had the Saturn version for years and never finished it. Mostly because I take a break and in the interim the damn backup battery in the Saturn goes dead.

Saturn Rule #1: Always have a backup cart. (Action Replay if you can).

Aren't those rare and crazy expensive?

The official ones are, though I wouldn't go so far as to say crazy expensive. But Action Replay 4-in-1 carts are quite common, and you shouldn't be paying more than $25 for one at the absolute most. (Also, the official Japanese memory carts are pretty common and cheap, and they work on Saturns from any region.)

I've got RRash 64 and its alright. Good fun, but not as good as the classic style of Rash IMO.

The thing that really irked me about it was the AI. Whoever developed it decided to utilise the whole rubber banding / catch up bullsh*t making winning races more about luck most times. Annoying...

I remember asking here about the glitch of the flying tree, which appears in the third part of the track "pacificcoast" in the Japanese version of the game. I just bought the U.S. version but still have not tested to see if it is there too. If I'm not mistaken, it is also in the playstation version. Anyone know about this?

klogg wrote:I remember asking here about the glitch of the flying tree, which appears in the third part of the track "pacificcoast" in the Japanese version of the game. I just bought the U.S. version but still have not tested to see if it is there too. If I'm not mistaken, it is also in the playstation version. Anyone know about this?

I remember one of the 3DO books had a screen shot of it. I think they made a joke that they crashed the bike cause they were laughing about it.

a31chris wrote:

Austin wrote:

a31chris wrote:I'm working through both the Saturn and 3do version simultaneously. I've had the Saturn version for years and never finished it. Mostly because I take a break and in the interim the damn backup battery in the Saturn goes dead.

Saturn Rule #1: Always have a backup cart. (Action Replay if you can).

Aren't those rare and crazy expensive?

Action Replays can still be had NIB. $25 - $40 or so.

As I said I'm playing through both the Saturn and the 3do version looking for differences.

On the 3do version there are cows when you race the Peninsula. I don't remember them on the Saturn. Also on the 3do I hit a man in a business suit and it dropped his trousers and he stood there with his pants down in his red polka dot boxers.

I'm not saying these things aren't there on the Saturn. I'm just saying I think its curious I don't remember or have not run into them yet. Its like there is more stuff going on in the 3do version and there was more love put into it.

Austin wrote:

a31chris wrote:

Austin wrote:Saturn Rule #1: Always have a backup cart. (Action Replay if you can).

Aren't those rare and crazy expensive?

Action Replays can still be had NIB. $25 - $40 or so.

Yeah, it's the ones with the serial ports are the ones that can get up there. I bought one for $35-40 the first time and around $60 I think after I had to replace it. You don't need the serial port, it's really only used for downloading the save games to PC and uploading small games.

a31chris wrote:Aren't those rare and crazy expensive?

Just to offer the relevant link: http://www.play-asia.com/action-replay- ... 0-1b2.html

Play Asia always have these in stock and have done for years!

Been competing with my friend to see who can beat Road Rash first on our Sega Saturns so have been playing that version a lot lately. We're both on level 4. Now there is a slight waiting period as my friend had to take the Saturn he bought back in because of memory save corruption issues.

Anyways while he is on vacation and I'm waiting for him to catch back up again on his exchanged Saturn I've been playing catch up on the 3do version. In my strong opinion the 3do version is the best version of the two. Yes the Saturn version is a bit smoother and the colors are more vibrant. However a LOT of stuff is missing from the Saturn version. From the 'you're a winner/loser' FMV scenes to splash screens. Stuff has been left out of the Saturn version. Also a bit of in game stuff is missing. Pedestrians and happenstances on the in-game play are lacking on the Saturn version in comparison to the 3do. Its like the Electronic Arts crew when porting it got lazy and left about 20-25% of the content in the 3do version on the cutting room floor. Even the road maps seem to be different. I cannot confirm this for sure but on the 3do road maps there seems to be more in there. I believe I went over a bridge on level 3 of the 3do road rash map I have never seen in the Saturn version. But this would need video taken of the side by side comparison of the maps to be sure because my memory is not that good. Just a sense that things are missing.

Does this video help at all?

Unfortunately that video was just of the Saturn/PSX version which seem to be almost identical.

The more I play the 3do version it seems glaringly obvious that Electronic Arts got lazy on the other ports.

a31chris wrote:Been competing with my friend to see who can beat Road Rash first on our Sega Saturns so have been playing that version a lot lately. We're both on level 4. Now there is a slight waiting period as my friend had to take the Saturn he bought back in because of memory save corruption issues.

Anyways while he is on vacation and I'm waiting for him to catch back up again on his exchanged Saturn I've been playing catch up on the 3do version. In my strong opinion the 3do version is the best version of the two. Yes the Saturn version is a bit smoother and the colors are more vibrant. However a LOT of stuff is missing from the Saturn version. From the 'you're a winner/loser' FMV scenes to splash screens. Stuff has been left out of the Saturn version. Also a bit of in game stuff is missing. Pedestrians and happenstances on the in-game play are lacking on the Saturn version in comparison to the 3do. Its like the Electronic Arts crew when porting it got lazy and left about 20-25% of the content in the 3do version on the cutting room floor. Even the road maps seem to be different. I cannot confirm this for sure but on the 3do road maps there seems to be more in there. I believe I went over a bridge on level 3 of the 3do road rash map I have never seen in the Saturn version. But this would need video taken of the side by side comparison of the maps to be sure because my memory is not that good. Just a sense that things are missing.

See? What did I tell you man? Everyone that isn't a 3DO fan, not stating you Chris, wants to argue with me that the Saturn and Playstation versions of Road Rash blow the 3DO version out of the water when that isn't the case. Have you run into the instance where it seems like the frame rate has gone past the game yet? Things get so fast on the Saturn/Playstation version and you completely lose control of the game for a split second and your bike won't respond? This usually happens during a spot in the gme where the road splits. You will crash every time because the bike will go straight into the obstacle in the way, but the bike will move forward through the object like it's still on the road for a second or two. mI have never had it happen on the 3DO version but on both the Saturn and Playstation versions. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's one Hell of an annoying bug to have.

No I have not run into that but the differences in speed are not that big a deal. To me its a marginal difference that you only notice the first few moments. Overall the 3do is the best version IMO. More love was put into it. The others were mostly a milk the money cow. They phoned it in on the last stretch of the race as it were when it came to putting in the finishing touches of the game.'Dont put that stuff in! It will take us another two weeks! We want to start generating money NOW! The magazines will fawn over it anyway and call these versions 'of course superior to the 3DO version in every way'. Irregardless of the truth. Ship it out NOW!'

Its too bad.

a31chris wrote:No I have not run into that but the differences in speed are not that big a deal. To me its a marginal difference that you only notice the first few moments. Overall the 3do is the best version IMO. More love was put into it. The others were mostly a milk the money cow. They phoned it in on the last stretch of the race as it were when it came to putting in the finishing touches of the game.'Dont put that stuff in! It will take us another two weeks! We want to start generating money NOW! The magazines will fawn over it anyway and call these versions 'of course superior to the 3DO version in every way'. Irregardless of the truth. Ship it out NOW!'

Its too bad.

Ah, gotta' love the logic there.

Is it my imagination or does PS1 Road Rash have a higher framerate on the (slim) PS2 than on a regular PS1? Anybody want to corroborate? (Off-topic, but G Darius feels the same way, too.)

CRV wrote:Is it my imagination or does PS1 Road Rash have a higher framerate on the (slim) PS2 than on a regular PS1? Anybody want to corroborate? (Off-topic, but G Darius feels the same way, too.)

Does this have anything to do with the 2x disc read speed option you can toggle in the PS2's bios/menu?

NeoGeoNinja wrote:Does this have anything to do with the 2x disc read speed option you can toggle in the PS2's bios/menu?

I don't have those options turned on. There are very brief moments, especially in valleys, where it gets pretty smooth. I don't remember noticing that on my PS1, but I guess I'll have to dig that out.

On level four when racing the Peninsula watch your ass for that road block about six miles in...

CRV wrote:

NeoGeoNinja wrote:Does this have anything to do with the 2x disc read speed option you can toggle in the PS2's bios/menu?

I don't have those options turned on. There are very brief moments, especially in valleys, where it gets pretty smooth. I don't remember noticing that on my PS1, but I guess I'll have to dig that out.

Does playing on the PS2 help with the horrendous loading times when saving or loading a game? That's the one thing I found inexcusable on the Playstation version of Road Rash. it was just so poorly done. I could go cook a Thanksgiving Day meal waiting for it to load. Obviously not literally, but mang, it's ridiculous.

On the Peninsula level four, there are two road blocks. One at 6.4 miles and one at 11.6 miles. You've all been warned.

T2KFreeker wrote:Does playing on the PS2 help with the horrendous loading times when saving or loading a game?

I don't think so.