Virtua Racing

The cartridge shell is bigger than a standard Genesis cartridge — the extra size isn't packaging, it's an actual processor embedded inside. The SEGA Virtua Processor renders 9,000 polygons per second, more than Nintendo's SuperFX chip could manage. It was the only Genesis game ever to use it, and you could tell just by looking at the box.

Virtua Racing on the Genesis/Mega Drive gives you three tracks — Big Forest, Bay Bridge, Acropolis — fifteen other cars, and about 15 frames per second. Against the arcade original's 60 FPS, it looks like a cut. It is a cut. But the four camera angles are all there: first-person cockpit, close chase, far chase, overhead, switchable on the fly at any point during the race. That feature was unusual enough that SEGA filed a patent on it — and spent years collecting royalties.

Finish every course in first place on Normal or Hard to unlock mirrored versions of all three tracks — the same layouts run backwards, which play surprisingly differently. All of it is available to try online right now in the browser.