South Park Rally Dreamcast Prototypes
I'm goin' down to South Park Gonna have myself a time.
Friendly faces everywhere Humble folks without temptation.
Goin' down to South Park Gonna leave my woes behind.
Ample parking day or night People shouting "Howdy Neighbor!"
Heading on up to South Park. Gonna see if I can't unwind
Mmmm mmmm mmmmmm mmmmm mmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm (x2)
Come on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine.
I can still smirkingly remember when, as a young carefree 16 year-old, my school mates first introduced me to South Park - Season One on videotape: Mr.Hankey, the Christmas Poo, Starvin' Marvin... this giant piss-take of a cartoon kept us awake at night, giggling by our CRTs. Those were the days ...
Who would have thought, at the time, that South Park was to become a cultural phenomenon: an animated series known by most and revered by some, and as of this current year of 2022, we're celebrating Southpark's twenty-fourth season! Feeling old, yet ?
It's safe to assume that Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the show, are sitting on a real gold mine today. Between the films, the merch and of course, the video-games, the series has made shedloads of money. Not bad for a "crappy" cartoon.
Enough nostalgia, let's get down to our main business for today: South Park Rally on the Sega Dreamcast.
No cursing on the race course !
South Park has built its reputation on shameless toilet humour and assumed political incorrectness. From Gays to Canadians, no one was spared; not even Saddam Hussein. Fans have been eagerly waiting for a video-game that could rise up to this standard of infamy. Sadly, the first few attempts went south........ The First Person Shooter wasn't exactly a Kenny-Killer (oh God), while the Trivial Pursuit turned out harder and less interesting than Mr.Garisson's sex-ed test. That was until Acclaim decided to give it a go: jumping on that Mario Kart bandwagon.
The principle is pretty straight-forward: barrel through the seven circuits as one of 38 "Dudes" including Jesus, Death, Damien and Officer Barbrady. What an absolute delight: grab items along the way, throw them at your opponents and make sure you cross that finish line first - no holds barred !
You might also be assigned to various missions along the way, such as picking up chickens or collecting turkeys to save Christmas.
It goes without saying South Park Rally unleashes its full lunacy potential when competing against one or several friends -something we've taken for granted since the first Mario Kart.
Menus' specifics:
To analyze the differences, the build of May 17 (the oldest) was used as a reference. The other prototypes look similar to each other and probably have some small differences between them.
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The backup system is not yet implemented (to be confirmed).
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An error message may appear during loading or when trying to save; it will ask you to report the issue to the developers. Simply press a key to skip this message or restart the game.
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There is no "Copyright Acclaim Entairtement inc." at the title screen where you are asked to press START.
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System information is present at the top of the screen in certain parts of the game, such as during the "DEMO PLAY", the scenes before the races, as well as in-game. In particular, you can see the date of the build, the FPS, the time (in seconds) spent playing and the build version.
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Other system information appears during the scenes explaining the objectives of the race. This group of data is called "Objective Cam".
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In this beta version, once you arrive at the main screen for selecting the different game modes, "Main Menu" and "Select Choice" are perfectly centered horizontally and vertically, in their delimited area. The final version only has horizontal centering. This difference will be seen in all the other menus.
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This build has 4 specific menus for beta testers.
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All Cheat unlocks all characters and tracks
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Intro Anim replays the introductory scene and the credits.
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Final Anim launches the scene at the end of the competitions, i.e. that of the podium.
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SOAK test: This mode is used to run the software/game for a long time to see if there are any memory leak issues. This is a console-simulated race. It should be possible to change the race and the game mode set respectively to City and Rally by default.
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In “options”, the "Best Times" window is not yet available.
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In the “credits”, certain crew members are unduly credited, while others are not credited at all, including lead programmer Richard Byron. Ewen Wowels, Brett Paterson and Derek Burnheim will be skipped in the forthcoming versions. Note also how "the many understanding wives and girlfriends of Rally team members" has been rephrased into "the many understanding partners of the Rally team members". The current Sega Dreamcast credits may have been imported from the N64 or PSX version.
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In the track selection, Giridon (Stadium) is placed before Carny, but it should be in the last position just before the random circuit option (Random).
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In Game Option, "Pick Ups: On" does not yet exist. Also missing is "VMU Sounds: On". "Off-Screen Mask Off", meanwhile, is exclusive to the prototype.
prototype
Final
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The Controller Config also has differences. The "Pick Up" text is replaced in this prototype by "Action Item". The assigned button for "Next Pick Up" should be X and not the "Down" arrow key. "Throw Item" should be "Throw Race Item"; the designated button should be Y and not Left.
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When playing in Multiplayer, once at the character selection screen, the icon with the exclamation mark is unique to this prototype. It replaces the question mark, which should be in a different spot than where the exclamation mark is in this prototype. The exclamation mark replaces the shaded icon of a character; there are only 2 instead of 3.
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When playing in Arcade mode, at the character select screen, the exclamation point mentioned above is still there, when it shouldn't be. Only 32 drivers are available instead of 35: Skuzzlebutt, Mrs. Broflovski and Ms. Cartman cannot be played. They are also not present in the other game modes. The rotating question mark is modeled differently.
In-game specifics:
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On the mini-map, the arrow representing the player position on the circuit is blue instead of red.
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When arriving at the START menu, the "Retry" option is not available for Arcade and Multiplayer mode, while it is in the other modes. The "Cheat Win" and "Line Mode" options are unseen in the final; the former allows you to finish the race first, the latter is yet to be understood.
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Still in the START menu, the items in our posession are not placed at the bottom left of the screen; they are in the background, under "Line Mode". In the final, there is only one icon representing the item, with the number written next to it. In this prototype build, there is no numeric itself: it is represented by a new icon. For example, if we have 5 pieces, we will have 5 icons.
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While playing the Mini Championship mode, the "Race Time" annotation should be orange, not blue. By finishing the races, after having saved (likely not possible in this build, as mentioned above), we get to a screen which asks if we want to continue or leave the championship. At the top of this window, in green, it says Next Race with the name of the next race. In the prototype, it says the name of the next circuit and not that of the track. Still in the same screen, the coin icon is missing at the bottom left. In game, at the top right, we notice that there are squares containing the different weapons that can be found during the game. In this mode, normally, these squares are non-existent. The speed boost items are not yet implemented in the Carny race, as well as the animals that can be encountered there.
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On the Forest track, the start line is further back a few meters in this prototype.
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On the Giridon track, you start in the stadium at a different starting point. It is possible to play it in Rally mode, but the game crashes, and an error message will be displayed.
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The Carny track is not finished. Some examples in photos taken in Mini Championship mode :
Different texture
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Part of the decor missing (stand and flags)
Part of the decor missing (caravan)
Part of the decor missing (stand and flags)
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Fire animation not yet implemented
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Fire animation not yet implemented
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How to use the FREE CAMERA:
The FREE CAMERA can be activated in SOAK Test, DEMO PLAY, during the intro scenes of the different races and lastly, during gameplay.
For all the modes mentioned just above, with PAD 1 :
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Right D-Pad: Opens Free Camera mode at the start line
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Left D-pad: Opens Free Camera mode at the driver's position (doesn't work during intro scenes)
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Left directional cross : Returns to normal mode once one of the 2 Free Camera options is activated
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Joystick : Controls the angle of view, the direction of the camera
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A : Move forward
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Y : Move backward
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B : Move to the left
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X : Move to the right
Only in race:
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Directional cross right, down or up : Once Free Camera mode is activated, press these keys again once to remove the icons (heads) of the cameras from the screen, opponent and their position in the race; press a second time and the mini map will disappear. Only works with the Free Camera activated on the starting line.
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You can download the South Park Rally Dreamcast build below
The other prototypes of South Park Rally Dreamcast with Free Camera:
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The other normal South Park Rally Dreamcast prototypes:
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Other South Park Rally prototypes for other consoles:
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The November 2, 1991 PS1 build parallels the analysis of the Dreamcast prototype above. It has some specifics of its own, however. This time, the "SOAK TEST" can be found for the "Championship" and "Arcade" modes. The "Select Race" screen differs in appearance from the final version (maybe the same as the PC version). In-game, pressing Triangle changes the view, in which you can access 2 new ones: "FREE CAMERA" and the interior view "DRIVER".
Acclaim Prototype from the " Duff'y Dreamcast Collection " Project: Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX - Dead or Alive 2 - Ducati World Racing Challenge - ECW Hardcore Revolution - F355 Challenge - Fur Figthers - NFL Quarterback Club 2000 - Re-Volt - South Park: Chef's Luv Shack - South Park Rally - Spirit of Speed 1937 - Vanishing Point
Acclaim prototype of the project "Duffy's Collection Part 2" : Shadowman (Unreleased) PC - Shadowman Ps1 - South Park Rally Ps1 - South Park Rally PC - Re-Volt Ps1 - The Red Star (Unreleased) Xbox - NFL Quarterback Club 2002 Ps2 - NFL Quarterback Club 2002 Gc - Heaven's Drive (Unreleased) Ps2 - Crazy Taxi Gc - Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M. Ps1 - Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX: Maximum Remix Ps1 - Forsaken PC - Machines PC - 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker Gc - All-Star Baseball 2003 featuring Derek Jeter Gc - Aggressive Inline Ps2 - Jeremy McGrath Supercross World 2002 Ps2 - XGIII: Extreme G Racing Ps2 - XGIII: Extreme G Racing Gc
More than 200 prototypes, documents, press kit have been dumped or scanned, you will find them in free download in the "Releases de prototypes et documents"