This classic game propelled Sega to dominance in 1990s 3D arcade racing

We’ll confess to a limited understanding of the multiverse. As far as we can tell, it’s the scientific theory that at key points of inflection, universes split off and run in parallel timelines, each one with a different actor playing Spider-Man. Pretty sure that’s it.

If the theory turns out to be true, there’s almost certainly a parallel universe where Virtua Racing doesn’t exist and never propelled Sega to dominance in 1990s 3D arcade racing. After all, Virtua Racing was originally built as a proof of concept to demonstrate the polygon-shifting speed of Sega’s new ‘Model 1’ graphics technology. Had Sega not decided to turn that prototype into a fully fledged arcade game, we might never have had Daytona USA or Sega Rally.

While it was graphically more simplistic than those two titles, Model 1 ensured Virtua Racing was blisteringly quick and up to eight cabinets could be connected for multiplayer racing. The circuits were a far cry from the more flat, sprite-based racers before it, dominated by mountains, cliff sides and, on one circuit, a gigantic suspension bridge. And thus, a long and fruitful collaboration between arcade racing games and giant suspension bridges was born.

The game’s technical leap and resultant popularity presented Sega with a bit of a problem when it came to creating a home version. The only console it had to port it to was the humble, 16-bit Mega Drive. The result was a crude, but frankly miraculous, recreation of the game on hardware that was never designed with 3D graphics in mind.

It clearly wasn’t the best way to play Virtua Racing. That accolade was reserved for the rare ‘Virtua Formula’ arcade version, which featured full sized, motion simulator replicas of actual formula cars. Forget Spider-Man, where’s the parallel universe where those still exist?