Sega's 'Super Scaler' Games

[RetroKingSimon]

I have always been interested in Sega's range of groundbreaking games that utilised their state-of-the-art 'Super Scaler' technology, particularly in the arcades for obvious reasons, and was wondering how many of you are fans too. OutRun is obviously the most popular, I would think, and Space Harrier and After Burner are sometimes considered the only other Super Scaler games, all awesome in the arcade, all somewhat limited on home systems. However, there are several other games that made use of the technology and I was wondering how many. The ones I can think of are listed below (at least, I presume they are all Super Scaler games).

I think my favoutire is predictably OutRun. It was the first arcade game I really got into in a big enough way to make me realise I'd be spending a lot of my life playing videogames, and I still enjoy the Saturn version a lot. I think my least favourite is Power Drift. Admittedly I never played it in the arcades, but I've got the Saturn version and I don't like it at all. The control of the buggy is really unpleasant to me, and the roads are too narrow in places to make it really enjoyable as resulting collisions often see you fall of the track.

So, who is fans of these games? Which is your favourite? Which is your least favourite? Which (if any) do you feel made a great game on a home system too, and which version? And have I missed any out?

I haven't researched the matter in much detail in favour of discussing it here, so don't laugh at me! Super Scaler games (I think):

Hang On
Space Harrier
Enduro Racer
OutRun
After Burner
Super Hang On
Power Drift
Galaxy Force
Turbo OutRun

OutRunners?
Super Monaco GP?
Thunderblade?
G-Loc?
Rad Mobile?

[elmosexwhistle]

outrunners has loads of sprites flying around so probably uses that sprite scaling technology....galaxy force 2 is my fave by the way, stunning looking game ^.^ x

[Smurph]

Batman Returns on the Mega-CD? The driving bits looked like that kind of tech.

[Commander Jameson]

I absolutley LOVE this era of Sega Coin-ops...in my eyes thius was a massive leap at the time, suddenly everything seemed to jump from Pole Position, Canyon Bomber and the like one year, to seeing Hang On, and Space Harrier etc. all over the seaside arcades! Space Harrier seemed to be miles in front of everything else technically speaking, with sprites scaling all over the place, gorgeous palette, and speech!

I would play Hangon on MAME more, but it stopped being compatible years ago. Space Harrier works a treat tho.

Also had a soft spot for PowerDrift, very clever constructing the track out of scaled sprites like that...

[MikeHaggar]

Guess some of them other games running on the same HW as the already mentioned games also uses 'Super Scaler'?

http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=696
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=697
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=698
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=699
http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=709

[Smurph]

And have I missed any out?

AB Cop as well, I just remembered that one. Great game, hardly anyone ever played it. There's a wee bit about it in RG a couple of months ago.

[sack]

if I ever worry that I'm getting bored or disillusioned with games I just fire up space harrier and I'm sorted for another year or so. Some games age really badly, some look a bit dated but are still fun, Space harrier just doesn't seem to get old at all.

The graphics were impressive but I think that's around the time Sega really nailed game music as well - I reckon some of the best music is in those games, especially outrun and space harrier. They also had bloody powerful speaker systems in the cabinets that just called out to you from halfway down the road. Great stuff