Examining the influence of Supercar Street Challenge

[Tornado]

I know what you're thinking: What the hell are you talking about? If you even know what that is, you'll know that it not only kinda sucks but that it came out 4 months after Gran Turismo 3 slaughtered every other racing game on the market to that point whether they were good or not.





Well, consider the following:

Did Polyphony Digital steal Rome Circuit from this crappy racing game that somehow came out 5 months after GT3 (and I somehow willed myself to play to completion when I was younger)? Even though GT5's Rome Circuit sucked compared to the original one? Did Kazunori Yamauchi plagiarize Bobby Kotick? Let's investigate.

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The question I'm sure is on everyone's mind is, what can we learn from this?


I dunno. PD probably didn't plagiarize a track layout from an arcade racing game that came out 8 months too late to even be worth playing. I was just watching a YT video a few weeks ago and realized it and just thought it would be neat to check out. We've had posts for driving along real life for street circuits and when they show up in movies, but I couldn't even begin to think of another fictional track layout based on a real location being essentially replicated in another game.

 

[Lion-Face]

I watched the same video a week or so ago and recognized the track immediately. I wonder why as I loved the original Rome Circuit and while I didn't mind the new one, I thought the original was so much better. Also to copy the layout exactly is a bit funny.

I guess the new circuit passes around more prominent monuments? Maybe the PS1 couldn't do it justice so they prioritized the Colosseum and making the track pass that. The park it circles around is less dense with less buildings so may have had an influence as well. Then coming to the PS3, they had the overheads to do their original vision...just that it had already been done...

Or maybe they thought it was a cooler version of the track and copied

It is certainly an interesting note.

 

[Liquid]

I couldn't even begin to think of another fictional track layout based on a real location being essentially replicated in another game.

Other than Tourist Trophy reusing GT4's assets including tarmac circuits like New York, El Capitan, Seattle and Citta di Aria, obviously done by the same developer, you'd be hard pressed to find such another example.

I had always wondered why Rome was different in GT5. It's... an okay track, nothing wrong with it at all, but I was quite disappointed that it wasn't the classic GT Rome track.

 

[daan]

I couldn't even begin to think of another fictional track layout based on a real location being essentially replicated in another game.

Does Pole Position count? The track in Pole Position is an interpretation of Fuji.



Now, is High Speed Ring inspired by Fuji, or is it a copy of Pole Position?

 

[Liquid]

Now, is High Speed Ring inspired by Fuji

I thought High Speed Ring was inspired by a similar track in Motor Toon Grand Prix, an earlier Kazunori Yamauchi game, but upon checking it, the two tracks aren't totally identical in layout. Both could be inspired by the real-world Fuji, of course.

Some of the other tracks in MTGP look like they went on to inspire Clubman Stage Route 5 and Autumn Ring at least in terms of the circuit layout; the two helical-like corners look very similar.