Wacky racers! I've written down some groovy tips for you! To be good at anything we've gotta have the right mindset, experience & also the skills! Combine them & you've got a strong combination! 💪

Why listen to me?! I've played OutRun on Sega Saturn since I was young! About 15 years now! I never played to speedrun until recently when I realised I was competitive! I really enjoy playing the game & I hope y'all do too. Here's some groovy tips from my years of sitting on my butt playing this game! 🤪

First let's get our heads screwed on properly ...

Mindset Tips! 💯

• Willing to accept being wrong is the first step to becoming good at anything!

• We all start out crap at everything, we're all wrong when we start! We need to learn in order to get better!

• Learn from other players! Watch what they do! Use their years of experience!

• Understand you're gonna have to play A LOT**** to get good at any game!

• Don't worry about little mistakes! Who cares! Let them go!

• Try to make the game fun! It's not going to be fun if you keep getting frustrated & mad! Don't allow those thoughts to manifest at all, shut them down immediately!

• Don't be reactive! Recklessness will ruin you! Take your time, think carefully & act positively (more on this later!)

• Be confident. Don't play scared. Don't play with shame. Play like you think you're good enough!

... alright, now our heads are screwed on let's talk about gameplay tips!

Gameplay Tips! 🎮

• Hug the side of the track!

Always aim to position your car on the side of the track. You can't hit anything, not even the super-wide truck if you're stuck perfectly to the side of the track (some exceptions). Of course when going round corners you can't maintain this position! Always aim to get to the side as quickly as possible!

• Inside line on corners!

When you go around sharp corners you'll get pulled to the other side of the track, and maybe even pulled off the track unless you slow down! To give yourself the maximum possible room to avoid getting pulled off the track make sure to take the hardest possible inside line on every corner. In some circumstances, like Cloudy Mountain, you're gonna need pixel perfect cornering to avoid going off the track! This type of pixel perfect cornering is what'll separate the great runs from the greatest runs!

• Stop yourself from slowing down by braking or releasing the accelerator!

From this point on you're now BANNED from braking or slowing down on straights & easy corners. The only time you need to slow down is on certain corners you can't make without going off the track on the other side! We go pedal to the metal all the time! The best way to make sharp corners isn't by braking or releasing the accelerator. We make the super sharp corners by driving off the track on the inside line to slow the car down just enough to allow us to stay on the track when we exit. Master this strategy & you're gonna be posting some super quick times!

• Wait for cars in front to make their move first!

One mistake I see a lot of players make is reacting before the car in front has moved. If you move first, then the car in front might decide to move in front of you & cause a collision. This is a major issue on bends, particularly the narrow stage exits. Pay close attention to the cars in front, give them a chance to move, then you make your move. Like I said in mentality tips, don't be reactive, it's going to ruin you!

• Cars will move out of the way when you approach them!

Always anticipate cars in front moving out of the way! Again, this fits into the reactive category. This is another mistake I see players make all the time. When driving at full speed lets say you have a car in the middle & left lanes in front of you. As you approach the car in the middle lane will move to the right always. It's going to happen, anticipate it! On long quick sweeping bends like Seaside Town you may feel like you're getting sucked into a car & make an evasive manouver to try & avoid it. Stop yourself, have faith that as you go round that bend & start getting sucked towards another car that it'll change lanes. On so many of my runs it looks like I'm crashing into a car only for it to change lanes!

• Don't focus on stage timers!

One thing that's very important to understand is the Stage Timers in Outrun aren't accurate (excluding stage 5 timers, they're correct!). If it says you did a 56.18 stage that doesn't mean you did a 56.18. It means your time was between 56.01 and 56.99. The timer that is accurate is the big yellow timer on the left that counts down to 0. Let's say you did a 57.18 stage 1 that could be a 57.01 still! I've done so many crazy good runs with dodgy looking stage timers! And I've done so many runs with amazing stage timers that didn't turn out well! My advice just forget about the timers altogether!

• Play to finish!

One thing I see a lot of players do is abuse save-states & spam reset the game whenever they make a mistake. Again this is another mentality psychology tip for you. Play to finish the game over & over. Get in the groove of completing the game all the time, no matter what is thrown at you, tell yourself you're going to complete the game! Crash on stage 1, doesn't matter, complete the game still. This is all about building your confidence! Most of my best runs came after I pulled off strings of completions over & over again. This is why playing on real hardware is advantageous, the entitled thought to reset the game doesn't exist. The entitled thought of doing 10 runs in 10 minutes doesn't exist. Therefore you learn to take your medicine & really concentrate on the one chance you have. This is why players on Arcade Cabinets were so good! Entitlement is going to make you a worse player. When things aren't as abundant we care so much more!

More to come, later, hopefully!