Star Wars Episode I Racer - Twin Sticks?

[OlivusPrime]

The arcade version of Star Wars Racer featured twin flight stick controls in a unique way of matching the podracer controls from the film. The Nintendo 64 version of Star Wars Episode I Racer then infamously included a cheat code that enabled dual analog stick control, which, when used with a pair of the console's elusive arcade sticks, somewhat emulated the arcade control setup.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has ever tested if the Dreamcast Twin Stick peripheral works with the Dreamcast version of the game? Since this feature was a hidden extra in the Nintendo 64 version, I'm wondering if it was similarly included in the Dreamcast version without being documented anywhere.

[Anthony817]

Completely different games. Nope. There exist lists of compatible games with the twin stick. Also don't forget, the twin stick is a clicky device, not analog joystick. Meaning that it is like clicky arcade buttons in stick form lol. So it is using switches so yeah not really what you want with 3D games anyways as analog has finer movement, I think it works best with 2D top down twin stick shooting or something. I did get the chance to play the actual arcade and it is really cool how they have the controls.

[OlivusPrime]

Completely different games. Nope. There exist lists of compatible games with the twin stick. Also don't forget, the twin stick is a clicky device, not analog joystick. Meaning that it is like clicky arcade buttons in stick form lol. So it is using switches so yeah not really what you want with 3D games anyways as analog has finer movement, I think it works best with 2D top down twin stick shooting or something. I did get the chance to play the actual arcade and it is really cool how they have the controls.

Yeah I suppose there's also the fact that the Twin Stick was Japan only, so the devs might not have had the incentive to add support to Episode I Racer (which didn't even get a Japanese release).

I agree that the sticks are a great way of playing the arcade game! It's still slightly baffling to me that we didn't get that game on the Dreamcast, seeing how it was developed by Sega. I like the N64 game a lot, but it's disheartening how expensive it would be to replicate the arcade controls on that console, and it's a shame the same can't be done for cheaper on the Dreamcast.

[Anthony817]

Yeah I was shocked how different the arcade version was when I played it. Real awesome cabinet for me, right up there with Crimson Skies.

[cloofoofoo]

Completely different games. Nope. There exist lists of compatible games with the twin stick. Also don't forget, the twin stick is a clicky device, not analog joystick. Meaning that it is like clicky arcade buttons in stick form lol. So it is using switches so yeah not really what you want with 3D games anyways as analog has finer movement, I think it works best with 2D top down twin stick shooting or something. I did get the chance to play the actual arcade and it is really cool how they have the controls.

Yeah I suppose there's also the fact that the Twin Stick was Japan only, so the devs might not have had the incentive to add support to Episode I Racer (which didn't even get a Japanese release).

I agree that the sticks are a great way of playing the arcade game! It's still slightly baffling to me that we didn't get that game on the Dreamcast, seeing how it was developed by Sega. I like the N64 game a lot, but it's disheartening how expensive it would be to replicate the arcade controls on that console, and it's a shame the same can't be done for cheaper on the Dreamcast.

The hardware it ran on was very different from the Dreamcast. It basically had two DC cpu , two very custom gpu with like up to thousands of light sources and phong shading , and two DC sound CPU. It basically filled in where the DC was weak. Yeah it could have been ported but knowing Sega , they probably couldn't be bothered at the time.