About a month ago, I heard about this spiritual successor to Wipeout making its way to PC thanks to a trailer on /r/pcgaming. Although the thread was removed, I made a comment about it here.

The reason I bring up that old thread is to demonstrate, in some small way, that if anyone is interested in Redout, then it's me. With that said, I can't tell you how bittersweet its release has been for me. Sweet in that it finally released, and bitter that I can't buy it. This is my request.

It all started for me with Pole Position. The arcade machine. If I was lucky, I'd sometimes come across one of the floor models that let you sit down, like so. The best part was turning that wheel. I don't know if it was the ball bearings, but spinning the wheel and flinging that car around track got me hooked.

Then it was Super Sprint. I won't lie. This was an ungainly cabinet. But man, oh man, were those racing wheels nice. Better than previous arcade wheel iterations, my younger self was convinced that we had invented perpetual motion and put it to use in an arcade racing wheel. Even when I didn't have quarters, I'd stand at the machine, spin the wheel, and watch it go. Yeah, I was that guy.

The NES was the first time that a home system felt like it could compete with the arcade experience. ColecoVision and Atari 2600 were good tries, but the NES was something else. It was clearly as big a step in technology as it was in gaming. And with it came Rad Racer. That game was like the cyber noir version of racing games. It felt like you were driving in Blade Runner or your car was Kit from Knight Rider. I'm sure some of these references are making no sense to most of you. Shortly after, RC Pro AM came out, an overhead iso racing game (much like super sprint), but based on remote control cars. Adorable AND fun to boot. I could go on about games like Spy Hunter, Chase HQ and Outrun, but I'd digress.

The point is: all of that changed with F-Zero. Up until then, the majority of racing games were somehow based in our reality: racing F1 cars or roadsters, running from the cops or driving a spy car. Then, F-Zero came along and the future was here. Maybe the ending scene from Back to the Future inspired them, but here was a game where you shot across the raceway, hovering above ground at ungodly speeds, marginally protected from flying off into a hostile industrial landscape by magnetic barriers (and only barely). It felt as unreal as it sounds. I didn't even have an SNES to enjoy it. I had to go to a friend's house to play it. Long story short, he's one of my best friends now (in no small part thanks to F-Zero).

The years passed and we all enjoyed our Mario Kart time, but it wasn't until the Playstation that the next big future racer came in the form of Wipeout. Wipeout was more than a game.

Wipeout is a slice of time. A snapshot of gaming history, as well as music and design. Play it today if you can, and realize that this was a breakthrough for gaming. It's the first time I can remember a game paying as close attention to its music as it did to its visuals (don't get me wrong, F-Zero had fantastic music and sound). OMG, even the cover of the game was from the future. In order to match the visuals of a future racer, they chose futuristic sounding music too; at the time, it was techno.

Today, it would sound more like the intro to NCIS than Nero or Skrillex, but the point is its poignancy. It was music relevant to the cyber youth of the day. They even released an OST alongside (a rare move back in those days). While this fantastic music was blaring, the game on the screen was even more impressive.

The first thing I remember was the speed. This game was fast. Blazing fast. And smooth. We didn't talk much about frame rates back in those days. Console games were just meant to work (also, probably because we didn't know any better). If a game stuttered, it was just considered broken. Not Wipeout. It was glorious. I remember playing it for the first time and my first thought was "holy shit". My second thought was "I need a bigger TV".

But the future racing genre never really caught on. There would be sequels, and knock offs, and of course the most excellent Pod Racer for N64, but when Psygnosis closed its doors, the Wipeout series would die with it.

This is why I am making my request. Because Redout came out today, and I've got that feeling all over again. The next iteration in a lifelong passion for great futuristic racing games. I've been following Distance, and though it may seem promising, I know enough about Early Access to treat it with the appropriate amount of caution. Hell, maybe one day I'll be able to play it. But as ambitious as making a good future racer may be, Distance doesn't hold a candle to Redout.

I tried watching some of Totalbiscuit's coverage, but about half a minute in, I already heard everything I needed to know:

After about an hour's worth of play, I want to get more and more and more of it, because this really does feel exactly like the game I was looking for when it came to a spiritual successor to Wipeout.

After I heard that phrase, I stopped the video and resolved that I would need to play Redout before I spoil anymore of the experience for myself. So I'd like to ask GOG, in the same way we asked for a game back in the days of Pole Position, "anyone got a quarter?"

Edit: Omg, my Steam ID! doh.