Super Speed Machines

Super Speed Machines is the game that emerged when Top Gear: Downforce finally escaped from publishing hell.

Unused Splash Screens#

One sign of this game's tragic history with publishers is the litany of splash screens left over in /Art/2D/Splash/ in both the Japanese and American versions. The Japanese game already includes four unused splashes:

• Kemco.rbh, the Kemco logo with ® symbol, likely intended for non-Japanese releases.
• KemcoJ.rbh, an identical Kemco logo but unmarked, for the Japanese release. D3 ultimately published the game in Japan.
• Legal.rbh, where Kemco's properties are laid out, again most likely meant for western versions.
• Selected.rbh, a plain black screen.

KemcoJ.rbh	Legal.rbh

The US version includes even more unused splash screens:

• Bold.rbh, the Bold Games logo; one prospective publisher.
• Legal_EU.rbh, the legal screen for the unreleased European Midas version.
• Midas.rbh, the Midas Interactive Entertainment logo; the intended European publisher.
• N3V.rbh, the N3VRF41L Publishing logo. N3V is credited as copyright owner on the (used) US legal screen, but this splash screen is not shown.
• Nintendo.rbh, a simple "Licensed by Nintendo" text. This was instead incorporated into the legal screen.
• Selected.rbh, the same black screen from the Japanese version.

Bold.rbh	Legal_EU.rbh
Midas.rbh	N3V.rbh
Nintendo.rbh

Top Gear: Downforce Leftovers#

Download Top Gear: Downforce hack File: Drift Rally (JP) to Top Gear Downforce (US).ips (56 B) (info)

While the west wouldn't see the game for several years, the Japanese release includes everything necessary to transform it into the unreleased Top Gear title, from the title screen to English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish localizations of all menus.

The Arashi no Drift Rally	Top Gear: Downforce

A full conversion to Top Gear: Downforce can be accomplished with the above patch or via the following minor edits to the ROM:

Super Speed Machines does still include some Top Gear leftovers like the Logo.rbh attract mode screen, but lacks some of the other files necessary to convert it to its earlier form like the old menu SWFs.

Test Tracks#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Are these tracks early versions of any of the used tracks? This game is friggin' hard.

Included along with the other tracks in /Art/Tracks/ are the TestQuarry tracks. These can be accessed by replacing the game's used courses.

• Track1 is a relatively complete and "normal" track, though it lacks a sky.
• Track2 is very obviously a test track, featuring a green and black checkerboard pattern outside of the course area with some test obstacles like ramps and very low-res assets in the track itself. However, the player's car immediately falls through the track and so it cannot be played. The track map for this course actually depicts Track3.
• Track3 is the course depicted in the second graphic below. It has a very wide and simple layout but, like Track1, is reasonably complete.

TestQuarry/Track1	TestQuarry/Track2 and Track3

The map graphics for these tracks (seen above) are in a completely different style to those used by the final game. Here, the graphics are simply renders of the track from far above. The Track3 map notably features none of the decorative "off-road" content included in Track1's, though they are present in the course model used when playing.

Notably, the scale on these early maps is also off, such that the position marker is not able to correctly follow the player's location. In the final game, the map graphics are stylized versions of the track layout against a blue background, with room for position markers, etc. rather than filling the entire lower screen.

Build Dates#

Both versions of the game include some build info and dates: