Talk:Rad Racer/GA2

GA Review

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Reviewer: Blue Pumpkin Pie (talk · contribs) 18:47, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

I'll start the review soon after I'm done with Castle Wolfenstein.Blue Pumpkin Pie (talk) 18:47, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

Ok sounds good @Blue Pumpkin Pie: Judgesurreal777 (talk) 03:51, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

@Blue Pumpkin Pie: Is this still happening? Or should I just delete this review page so someone else can pick it up? --03:56, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

I apologize for the severe long delay. I'm nearly done recovering. I do plan on reviewing this very very soon.Blue Pumpkin Pie (talk) 15:44, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

@Judgesurreal777: i just posted my review. There may be more that I can recommend, but this is what I have so far.Blue Pumpkin Pie (talk) 19:39, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

Lead

• it's unnecessary to distinguish between Famicom and NES. Nintendo Entertainment System is the name the system goes by outside of Japan. If it has an English release outside of Japan, then we should just call it an NES throughout the article. Unless for some reason there are differences because of the specs of the NES and Famicom, we won't need to make such a distinction in the future.

Gameplay

• no issues so far.

Development

• The credits in the infobox are more clear than in the development section.
• The main reason for the game's development was that Square owner Masafumi Miyamoto wanted to demonstrate newly hired and Apple II programmer Nasir Gebelli's 3D programming techniques.

^Was the game conceived by Masafumi Miyamoto or did Masafumi Miyamoto assigned Nasir to the game's development? it's hard to tell unfortunately because we don't have access to the source itself. If you have access, perhaps you can clarify.

• There's a lot of famous developers that were mentioned as part of the development but no specific role in the development, so they're not as vital. But since they are notable they shouldn't be removed either. I recommend just putting them all in a single sentence rather than having each section. Especially because if i keep digging into the source, some of the information contradicts itself.
• A lot of the programming details is at the bottom of the article, even though the core development is closely related to Nasir's work. So it may benefit moving it closer to Nasir's role in the development section. Try to keep a single topic together and not have it split off into a separate paragraph.
• The lead has release information but not reflected or verified anywhere in the article. This is very important for GA nomination.

Reception

• The first source says Rad racer is considered a premier racer but the source does not implicate that at all.
• I think Gamespot's commentary is a bit longwinded and can be simplified to a single sentence instead of three.

Fixes::

So, I cut the stuff in the lead that wasn't sourced, and the claims about the game being premier. I also found a source for the dates of release. I did see the source describing why the game was created and it just says that it was conceived to show off Gebelli's 3D skills. It was probably also done to compete with the other big racing game of the period, but no RS from Square say that LOL. I moved the programming info about what Gebelli did closer to the section about him as you requested. I also looked at consolidating the famous people with bit parts in the development, but I didn't see how to write it without being awkward. The sentences about their roles do site their little parts such as track creation, creating the ending, or being pulled to make the original Final Fantasy. Let me know what you think! @Blue Pumpkin Pie: Judgesurreal777 (talk) 22:07, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

@Judgesurreal777: I added a couple of issues specifically with the reception. I made some adjustments to the development section by briefly summarizing the staff in the first paragraph and adding their development involvement in the latter. Let me know if you agree/disagree with the current arrangement.

I managed to get a pdf of Next Generation issue 50 (ty Retromags), I read it as carefully as I could, and could not find any mention of Rad Racer's main reason for development being teaching Gibelli. However, there are other references that indicate how Gibelli got hired. If you want to implement that instead, that's fine. If you have another source that indicates that, I recommend adding it in. I'm wary of Nintendo Life's source as it directly links to Wikipedia. The most we can verify for the time being is that the game was released in 1987. IF that's it, I'm willing to support GA with just the year.

I don't know if you noticed but I also shared a video interview of Nasir on the talk page, if you think it can be useful.Blue Pumpkin Pie (talk) 07:57, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

also, I see "arcade" listed in the platforms but no mention of it in the article.Blue Pumpkin Pie (talk) 08:14, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

Well thank you @Blue Pumpkin Pie:, I don’t have time at the present moment to listen to the three hour interview with Gebelli at this time, so let’s close this out for the time being and I can fix this up at a later date. This review will help the article someday get closer to GA status. Judgesurreal777 (talk) 18:28, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

@Judgesurreal777: I wasn't going to close the GA over the source. Sorry if I made it seem it was detrimental to the GA process. What about the other concerns? They seem like they can be addressed. I'll do some more adjustments. I'm willing to keep it up for a little longer since we're so close.Blue Pumpkin Pie (talk) 18:36, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

@Blue Pumpkin Pie: the other adjustments seem very doable, I’ll work on those. Judgesurreal777 (talk) 19:06, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

@Blue Pumpkin Pie: Ok I like your adjustments and the link you posted is actually to the short 20 minute interview and I think I was able to mine two nuggets related to Rad Racer out of it. I also skimmed the three hour interview and got to the part chronologically where they discuss his early Square career and found one piece of info regarding Rad Racer, could be more but I doubt it. So, anything else? Judgesurreal777 (talk) 04:45, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

I made some additional fixes. but I think it's worthy of GA now.Blue Pumpkin Pie (talk) 17:23, 15 July 2021 (UTC)