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King of Route 66 and the NAOMI 2; the Dreamcast 2 existed...and gaming's fascination with big rig trucks

VGEsoterica

Member
18 wheelers are everywhere. In every country, on every highway, on every continent...but it seems like humanity has a fascination with these vehicles...and so does gaming.

Euro Truck Simulator? HUGELY popular...and you just drive trucks. Its seriously interesting just how much gamers seem to love big rigs and Sega did NOT ignore this fact...releasing not one but two 18 wheel racing titles on NAOMI and NAOMI 2

But King of Route 66 is the real interesting look because its running on the Sega NAOMI 2, which was utilizing the same PowerVR chip family as Dreamcast...except faster and with more on board. Add in a bumped spec CPU and a ton more ram...and you have a platform that can match and in a lot of instances exceed what PS2 was capable of. Basically Sega could have slimmed the NAOMI 2 hardware down and released it in 2004ish to compete with the PS2

But King of Route 66 itself is just a wild ass game. I mean you can jump a big rig over a ravine while fireworks shoot out of your exhaust stacks. Its definitely going for it!

But GAF...what is the fascination with big rigs? and what is your fav racing game not involving traditional vehicles. I really would be curious

 

El Muerto

Member
It really comes down to westerns, and how most guys dont mind being a cowboy for a day (it's in our dna!). Truckers are considered to be the last of the cowboys. It's just them and the open road, trying to deliver something from one town to the other. They dont give two shits about the law and nobody gets in their way. Then there's our car culture where we like anything on 4 wheels to have a lot of power. Combine both and that is why i think we saw these type of games back then. ATS is fun but it's pretty chill, but a new arcade-y big rig game would be great if done right.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Naomi 2 never felt like a generation ahead or anything, but it did help to keep up with PS2-based arcade boards that were starting to hit arcades around the time. Wild Riders was pretty fun, as was VF4, of course.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
Naomi 2 never felt like a generation ahead or anything, but it did help to keep up with PS2-based arcade boards that were starting to hit arcades around the time. Wild Riders was pretty fun, as was VF4, of course.
NAOMI 2 to me felt like a Dreamcast that could match or exceed PS2. Plus we barely got to see what it could do as it was not in use for very long
 
As an IRL trucker I will never understand the allure of these games. You guys know that nothing is stopping you from getting your CDL right? I made 70k last year.

Edit - That being said, I can't wait to be a greasy space trucker in Starfield.
 
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