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Proto:Metropolis Street Racer/Nov 10th, 1999 build

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This is a sub-page of Proto:Metropolis Street Racer.

Hiddenpalace.org logo.png  This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

The Nov 10th, 1999 prototype of Metropolis Street Racer is a Sega internal demo, dated just shy of a year before the game's initial European release.

General Differences

  • Car models have a considerably lower quality in this build
  • The driver is depicted as a woman, rather than a man as in the final game
  • The title screen is different from the final version, and marks this as a Sega internal demo
Prototype Final
Metropolis Street Racer - Nov 10 1999 - Title.png MSR Title.png
  • Many track barriers are missing or incomplete in all cities
  • Lots of geometry and textures are missing in Westminster and Asakusa
  • Track barriers are untextured in Tokyo
  • Track barriers are reversed in Asakusa
  • Minimap and track geometry is mismatched in Asakusa, and the track itself differs significantly from final

Branding and Billboards

Hmmm...
To do:
Rip the corresponding textures from prototype and final for a better comparison
  • The logo of the Tokyu department store in Shibuya appears in this prototype just as it does in reality. In the final version, it is edited to read "Tokyo" instead, but the logo remains the same
  • A series of billboards for "TDK" were replaced with Sega logos
  • Several McDonald's restaurants appear in this prototype which were later removed. Despite this, several McDonald's restaurants remain in the final game, the remainder edited into generic shopfronts
  • A KFC restaurant appears in Trafalgar, in the final game being replaced with a Diesel clothing store
  • A Subaru billboard appears in Shinjuku. In the final game, this is instead a Renault billboard, and no Subaru vehicles appear in the game
  • Shinjuku contains some hedges whose collision isn't correctly configured, which can easily send your car flying and crash the game
  • Billboards for Epson appear around Tokyo, and are replaced or removed in the final game
  • Trafalgar's Odeon West End cinema appears in both versions, however, in this prototype it depicts posters for 1998 feature films Lost In Space and The X-Files. This texture was replaced in the final game
  • Shopfronts for Pizza Hut featured the older version of their logo, and were updated to their then newly redesigned version in the final game
  • Burger King shopfronts appeared in this prototype, but were replaced in the final game with "Burgers R Us"
  • Trafalgar's Virgin store is depicted as a generic storefront in the prototype

Alcohol & Tobacco Billboards

  • Two billboards for Asahi Super Dry, and one for Miller Special beers in this prototype were replaced with an ad for "Sakana: New Album 9.1 On Sale," "2Old Antique" and "Milk Special" respectively. They appear in Asakusa and Shinjuki
  • A billboard for Marlboro, a cigarette company, appears in Shinjuku and was replaced with the same ad for "Sakana" as Asahi Super Dry was
  • The Piccadilly Circus billboards depicted in Trafalgar are static in this prototype and contain a Fosters billboard. The final game instead shows Nescafé in its place

Removed Cars

This prototype contained the Honda S2000 as a playable car. It's likely this car, alongside other Honda cars, were meant to be playable in the final game. However, no Honda cars made it into the final game.

Early Soundtrack

This prototype includes early renditions of the entire soundtrack. Some tracks have different instrumentation, some have different vocals, and some lack vocals altogether.

# Track Name Audio Notes
00 It Doesn't Really Matter
01 Overdrive
Slightly different instrumentation
02 Holding On
Missing vocals
03 Sold Out
04 State of Mind
Missing vocals
05 Club Paris
06 Show Me Your Love
07 Freeway
08 Passion
09 Am I Only Dreaming
10 Heartland
11 Push
12 Low Lights
Different mix
13 Think About It
14 Outside In
Panned fairly hard to the right in this early mix
15 I Can Still Believe
Missing vocals, seems to be using a MIDI guitar, where the final sounds more acoustic
16 Live Your Life
Different vocal performer (could it be the composer?), very different mix and instruments
17 Come on Baby
Different vocal performer (possibly the same as in Live Your Life)
18 Fallen Angel
Different vocal performer, very different mix and instruments
19 California Demon
Different instrumentation and mix
20 Red Line
21 Don't Wait
Missing vocals
22 When She Comes Back
Missing the crowd intro (the final version is framed as being a live performance), different mix
23 Long Long Road
Different vocal performer, mix and instruments
24 Let's Get It On Tonight
Missing (the Will Smith-esque) vocals
25 Time
Missing vocals
26 You Can Love Me
Missing vocals

The # column indicates the index of the file within the METRO_ADX.AFS archive file.

Placeholder Radio Station Announcements

A series of radio station announcements for various genres of music in each city, with an English, masculine voice reading the number and genre in a dry tone. Likely placeholders for announcements which specify the track name and artists in final builds.

City Announced Number & Genre Announcement
Tokyo 1, English Pop
2, Hard House
3, Girl Band
4, Progressive Rock
5, Jazz Funk
6, Euro Dance
7, Garage
8, Synth Funk
9, House
London 1, Garage
2, Drum n Bass
3, Big Beat
4, Modern Jazz
5, Jazz Funk 1
6, Jazz Funk 2
7, Rock/Pop
8, Britpop
9, Disco
San Francisco 1, Rock 1
2, Rock 2
3, Rock 3
4, Modern Country
5, Modern Blues
6, Country
7, Pop/Hip-Hop
8, Rhythm and Blues 1
9, Rhythm and Blues 2

Save Function

This prototype includes a basic save function, accessible from the in-game menu. It saves your chosen car and colour, license plate, and home town (a feature removed in the final version, and buggy here; your saved home town will load, but not be shown correctly until you finish a race in this version).

The saved game file appears in the Dreamcast's file management UI with the file name "METROSR", caption "My BOOT ROM Double-width comment", and description "KEITHS COMMENT". The associated icon appears to be corrupted. Nobody named Keith appears in the final game's credits, so presumably Keith is either someone who worked on development tooling at Sega, or somebody who left Bizarre Creations before the game shipped, and was therefore excluded from the credits.