Driving Games Chat:
Thanks to this thread, I pulled out R4 (Reminder that the “R” in “R4” stands for “Ridge Racer”) and also the 60 FPS Ridge Racer bonus disc that came with R4 last weekend. My opinions on the controls are largely unchanged from 20 years ago.
Ridge Racer 1 60 FPS Bonus Disc is nearly unplayable for me. Using formal dynamic controls nomenclature, the system is super under-damped. I swing wildly back and forth trying to just keep the wheels under me. I dunno, but it feels awful and un-fun to me. I probably need some practice, or to re-wire the way I expect to drive a game car, but the initial experience is “something is wrong with the game design”.
Ridge Racer 4 feels much better - which is what I remember from 20 years ago and still feels like the game I liked a lot.
I don’t think the 60 FPS version of RR1 supports analog sticks (which I don’t have working with my DS4 controller in RetroArch yet), but I was playing both of these on the D-pad for reference.
Car Chat:
deepblue Brandon! Tim has mentioned to me on more than one occasion that you own or have owned at least one pretty sweet Honda Prelude. I’ve always wanted an old Honda VTEC. 4-cylinder buddies!
Circa 1992, my dad bought a (manual) ’88 Prelude si to use as a fun commuter car. Then I used it as a fun commuter car circa 2000-2003. It was kind of tiring sitting in stop-and-go traffic, but I really liked zipping around, only filling it up with 11 gallons of gas, and getting better than 30 MPG in it. Also, being able to parallel park in basically any parking spot in downtown Portland I saw thanks to four-wheel steering.
I replaced it with a (manual) 2004 Jetta TDI which I used from 2003-2016. I replaced it with a 2017 Prius and let me tell you, the ball of my clutch foot was so happy after the first week of commuting, I’m never going to purchase another manual ever again.
But if I ever drive Hunter S. Thompson style from LA to Vegas, I’d rent something cool with a clutch.