Road Rash 2 Overclocked

I've always wondered what it would be like to overclock a Sega Genesis to fix the horrible framerate issues in Road Rash 2 and 3. With the power of emulation, I've succeeded.
Setup: The Wild Thing 2000 super bike from Road Rash 2 is notoriously hard to control. Insane speeds, twitchy handling, not to mention going 200+mph will make you wreck if you hit nearly anything. An extremely low framerate make things even worse.
I start the race playing with the emulator set to normal settings. After one wreck, I pause the game, overclock the genesis's cpu by a factor of 8, then resume.
Results: The framerate is no longer an issue. The engine seems to top out somewhere between 30 and 60 frames per second. However there are adverse side effects. It's interesting to note that the rendering aspect of the engine was held back by the limitations of the genesis cpu.
While the game runs smoothly, the game doesn't play the same. The bikes don't handle as quickly as they normally would, usually taking 3-4 times as long to turn. This is not a result of control lag either (most of the controls are actually more responsive since the results are drawn quicker) but instead the game physics get messed up. The Wild Thing suddenly becomes a much easier bike to control yet still feels sluggish when turning.
Unfortunately it's the way the game was programmed, so unless the engine is re-written to take advantage of a higher framerate while keeping the same feel there's no way to smooth the game out without completely breaking it. Road Rash 3 is even worse (to the point where the bike is almost glued to the road) and the biggest difference is the insane sharp turn in Germany (near the end of the track in Level 1) where you can take the turn at full speed and stay in the center of the road.
*Note*
Hopefully the video framerate isn't completely decimated by youtube so the difference in smoothness can be seen. If it does get messed up I'll upload the original video somewhere else. Also, the speedup in the music track is a result of the emulator itself, NOT the overclock (speedup is present even with standard genesis cpu speeds)

[@ParryAll]

It's interesting that the engine is actually scaling sprites. Here I always thought they were drawn at different sizes but it was just the 15 fps making it look that way. With the overclocked CPU it's almost sega arcade quality wow

[@MatthewBester]

That finish! 😂 This is great! I never considered overclocking RRII will give it a try.

[@Nobunaga1983]

the nice thing about the wild thing is you can crash a hundred times and still be in first place

[@DetroitGamingINSTABILITY]

Dude the sound of the bike sounds like a fire alarm

[@GamerGee]

2:28 Before you can even hear the Yeah.. a jealous driver fails to yeild the right of way.

[@murve33]

This emulator would make Rocket Knight even harder. The slowdown is the only reason I can beat some of those levels.

[@sonichuizcool7445]

You are the 2nd coming of christ. My mind is blown. This looks amazing!

[@GamerGee]

2:09 And we are flying.. litterally

[@93problems]

that was on the vanilla system, it was a strange effect to have, I played it like that until about level 2 until I realised something wasn't quite right

[@RichardCraig]

I tried this, and from my experience it felt like the bikes handled exactly the same. It just feels so different because your brain really has to fill in a lot of gaps in a game that runs at around 12 frames per sec... you have to anticipate more at such a low frame rate, but with the game running smoother you can feel the true physics of the game. I found it made it far more playable. I'll try RR3, though, and make sure since you said that one was worse... I could be wrong as I only tried RR2.

[@RichardCraig]

Oh, and in regards to Hard Drivin' (and Race Drivin'), both are locked to the standard clock speed, which means upping the clock will just keep making the game run faster and faster, but that includes time, so it'll just run be all sped up and eventually unplayable as you go. It does help Sonic Spinball run at its proper speed, and Blood Shot/Battle Frenzy, an obscure FPS, runs amazing overclocked. I've always wondered how you could overclock Virtua Racing ;)

[@GamerGee]

Blast processing!!! Can you upload a 60 fps video

[@honorablejay]

@TheMVRules Yeah I've seen articles on how to do it, I just don't have the skill/hardware to accomplish an actual overclock.

[@slyfoxlover]

lol at nitro sounding like a horn. xD

[@BCob66]

As smooth as it makes the game, I've had similar findings in terms of the handling. It just wasn't meant to play that way. However, one game that benefits tremendously from overclocking (outside of the old EA Air Force titles) is Skitchin. I may never go back to playing it on a vanilla system. The game's fundamentals are more or less intact, but the gameplay is so much more fun and open with a better framerate. You can actually see and prepare for ramps and weapon pickups ahead of time.

[@RichardCraig]

Just tried again... you're totally right... it does control a lot slower. Damn shame!!

[@honorablejay]

The game handles turning speeds and friction/gravity on every single frame. The devs originally intended the game to run between 15 and 20fps. By overclocking the genesis in an emulator, the steering in the game becomes incredibly sluggish. Not only does it take longer for me to turn, but it takes longer for the game to properly apply physics to my bike. The result is high speeds don't throw me to the sides during turns, and I stay practically glued to the road.

[@Lightblue2222]

honorablejay that's an awesome experiment, but I guess if it effects the physics of the game it's not worth playing it like that. But it really looks great. Does this game actually do scaling? I had heard the genesis only imitates scaling, but with this overclocked it looks so smooth!

[@honorablejay]

@ApachaiHapachai Now that I will have to check out, didn't know gens could simulate an overclock.

[@honorablejay]

@Jadervason While I do love Road Rash 3, I never liked how low the framerate is (I'd have to guess it's about 15fps). To me, a framerate that low just needlessly increases the already high difficulty.

[@Deathkicker666]

I wanna see outrun and turbo outrun on this overclocked emulator :)

[@honorablejay]

@fallingupward1 Yeah, it's the only emulator I found that can simulate an overclock.

[@15silverblade]

the increase of gameplay is very noticeable...

[@weds9994]

@Jadervason Kind of yes and no from me... look at the original, its playable yes, and looks great - but this overclocked one looks better :)

[@93problems]

interestingly I noticed the handling issue of the game not applying physics correctly before I cleaned my cartridge slot, after cleaning and retensioning it now plays as it should

[@STEJTHEGREATEST]

0:10 ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Tiamat583]

its much better to play in 60 fps now! slow framerates get kinda boring.

[@honorablejay]

Maybe true, but was that on a vanilla system or an overclocked system that gets the higher framerate?

[@ArtietheArchon]

@weds9994 here's an amusing thought...I own a motorcycle now. remind me to ask where Viper's little punk ass gets his chains

[@Alianger]

So which emulator did you use and how did you do it?

[@RobertHurleyJr]

How on earth did you make that tricky turn at 1.1 going over 200 mph?

[@ArtietheArchon]

one thing I don't understand is why you're so critical of the original framerate, it never seemed like such a glaring issue to me. maybe you have bionic eyes

[@destroyed3620]

what emulator did you used

[@honorablejay]

+DeStRoYeD The emulator is Regen, specifically the debug version to allow the fake overclock.

[@Beeebe101]

I wonder if I can play this game on my gtx 680 ?