Rad Racer

Rad Racer
Also known as: Highway Star (JP) Developer: Square Publishers: Square (JP), Nintendo (US/EU) Platform: NES Released in JP: August 7, 1987 Released in US: October 1, 1987 Released in EU: January 15, 1988 This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences.

Rad Racer is basically Square's take on OutRun. Playing the game with the Power Glove is very cool and impressive.

Course Select

After selecting a vehicle, press B the number of times for the course you want to select. The speed meter will increase with each press. Then, hold Up + Right and press Start.

Presses	Course
0	Course 1	Sunset Coastline
1	Course 2	San Francisco Highway
2	Course 3	Grand Canyon
3	Course 4	Ruins of Athens
4	Course 5	Los Angeles Night Way
5	Course 6	Snow White Line
6	Course 7	Seaway in Typhoon
7	Course 8	Last Seaside Running

A similar stage select method was used in the sequel.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	US/Europe

The title logo was changed, but still uses a similar style.

3D

Japan	US/Europe

Pressing Select during gameplay will switch the game into its 3D mode.

The Japanese version was one of the few games to support the Famicom 3D System, which used active shutter glasses. Since this peripheral wasn't released outside of Japan, the international versions changed this to the simpler anaglyphic system for use with basic red/cyan glasses.

...or at least it attempted to. The game still used the rapid flicker effect from the shutter system, simply changing the palette of each frame that was supposed to go into each eye. Since both images couldn't be displayed on-screen simultaneously, the effect was heavily diminished, if completely ineffective.