Polyphony Digital

Before Kazunori Yamauchi created the first Gran Turismo, he began his career with a title known as Motor Toon Grand Prix. Produced by “Polys Entertainment” (later to become Polyphony Digital), it’s a cartoon racing game featuring 8 karts and 10 tracks. Sony has just announced the game’s availability for download as a “PSOne Classic” on PSN for $5.99. So, if you want to see how it all really got started, grab the 251 MB download and give it a go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd0fscJeyxg

[HTML1]

The biggest game show of the year is finally upon us, and there’s a lot to suggest that Gran Turismo 5 is finally set for its big debut! Here’s a quick overview of exactly what’s going to happen over the next few days:

Kazunori Yamauchi added yet another event to his motorsport resume earlier this month when he competed in the 25 Hours of Thunder Hill in California. Yamauchi drove an N-spec Honda Civic for Spoon Sports along with several experienced teammates including Tatsuru Ichishima, Naoki Hattori, and journalist Sam Mitani. The all managed a clean drive, but their performance was unfortunately hampered by penalties for improper fueling and (interestingly) a too-loud exhaust. Nevertheless, it was a great experience for Yamauchi-san who is learning much from all this track time:

Unfortunately, most “journalists” who get the chance to interview Kazunori Yamauchi are largely clueless about the current state of the franchise. As a result, they ask the same questions to which the answers don’t really matter, delivered with the same rabid, impatient schoolboy mentality that seems to plague many people on the Internet these days. Needless to say, while this interview method can provide some sensational headlines, it does nothing to connect with the man or the company behind Gran Turismo. That’s what makes this interview with Xavier Ocampo, Japanese correspondent at MeriStation, so incredibly refreshing and insightful.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year (or just not reading the car magazines/blogs…), you probably know about the new Mercedes SLS AMG – the company’s replacement for the SLR McLaren and the spiritual successor to the classic 300SL Gullwing. It was only recently announced by Mercedes, but that didn’t stop Kazunori Yamauchi from getting the chance to slip behind the wheel. As you can see in these two apparently leaked videos (see the other one here), Yamauchi-san saw the car both with and without camouflage, outside and in.