Track Attack

Publisher: Microprose Developer: ARC Developments

No matter how long you spend searching the web, the most you'll find about Track Attack is about one Games Domain review, a listing in a Playstation titles catalogue, and this site. It seems to be a bit of a mystery game, as even Microprose have no mention of it on their own website. I have purchased a copy, however, and will now proceed to actually mention the software many times in a row....

. . .

Track Attack is an arcade-style racing game for one player, providing multiple camera views and supporting modem, serial link and 4-player Network options.

Some of the features which make it stand out include its 'Dynamic Track [morphing] System', the well-developed 'ramming' in the game and the overall approach to car physics.

DTS - Dynamic Track System
This is essentially a fancy name for features similar to those which have been present in 3d games like Doom for quite a while now, but which have never really been used in racing games. DTS involves driving over switches to open doors, make jump ramps and blocks rise out of the road, bank the corners, and cause a bunch of nasty stuff to happen to you or to your opponents.
there it goes.

Here, DTS has caused the road to form into an oil-filled pit.
Track Attack also knows how to make the road slippery, and can simulate water, sand, snow and oil. Each of the tracks has a different gimmic for starting the race, ranging from tobogan runs and water chutes to catapults and this u-turn start. the u-turn start

DTS features are an integral part of the game, as often you'll have to hit a switch to open the doors to a shortcut or the next part of the circuit, and you'll want to avoid the skull-shaped swtiches which do annoying things like twist and slope the road until it's all bumpy and horrible.
This nasty undulating brige thingy is tricky to negotiate. nasty undulating bridge thingy

DTS definately adds to Track Attack, and it's a blast to go hitting all the switches just to see what loony aberations are going to rise out of the road.

Ramming, 'hotting' and car damage
Track Attack isn't one of those games where you have to watch out that you don't crash into your opponents; instead it's rather a good idea to watch that you do. Whoever is responsible for this game gets top marks for the collision detection, the many different types of car debris, and the physics and strategy involved in crashing into those wicked computer players.
Head-on is not the way to go.

. . . .

Max 'The Enforcer' Reed teaches me a lesson

. . . .

The artificial intelligence of the computer players is generally very good, and each of your 18 opponents is provided with their own picture, stereotypical personality, collection of deliberately overdone sound samples, and a very good idea of how to ram you silly.
Take one of my favourites, Bob 'Ram Master' Stax.

(Does he remind you of anyone?) Anyway, here are his sound files - they should have downloaded with the webpage and you can now click on the play button.

(31kb) "Blastin' through!"

(22kb) "Feelin' lucky?"

(33kb) "Raam time, sucka!"
Obviously, it is possible for the cars to get damaged and knocked out of the race. Most of the tracks contain pit areas for you to drive through, and spanner bonuses which repair parts of your car. You are able to spend prize money in the garage to modify your car between races. Tyres, ram bars, armour, engine and body shell may be upgraded or repaired. If you get damaged enough during the race, your windscreen gets chipped, you don't go as fast, black smoke starts to come from your engine and your wheels and ram bars can fall off on the road. Here, someone gets busted on the high contact 'Desert Blur' track.
It's 20 miles back to the gas station.

Driving model
You get to choose from four cars in Track Attack, all of which drive pretty much the same and all of which have no gears. Your car accelerates up to top speed in about 2 seconds, then bounces merrily along the road until you think you're driving a beach buggy. The lack of gears is no doubt intended to let you concentrate on other things, and when combined with the wierd bouncy handling is strange to get used to but soon fits right in.
Your car is also equipped with a turbo boost system, and provided you've got some turbo fuel this can almost double your speed. Keeping enough turbo fuel in your car is also important to strategy, and some tracks can be won or lost depending on whether you're first to the little red turbo can.
The 'Renegade' car. Note headlight effects, ram bars, armour etc. the headlights are for decoration

Unlike far too many racing games these days, Track Attack manages to make the computer cars handle and drive by almost exactly the same rules as human players. This is most appreciated - I can't stand it when the bad guys don't have to stop for fuel (Lotus 3), or where they drive faster than you to catch you up (Big Red Racing, Screamer 2), drive through stuff (Lotus, Test Drive 3), wait for you when they're ahead (Need for Speed, Big Red Racing), or don't even have vaguely the same handling as you do (Need for Speed 1 and 3). In Track Attack, however, if you find it's possible for your car to teeter momentarily on two wheels then you know it's possible for the computer cars to as well.
(maybe this is why the game is slower in race mode than in practice mode)

General
The Track Attack box says there are 39 tracks, but actually the game has 3 'heats' of 13 tracks, where each heat has different obstacle placement or DTS effects. 13 tracks still feels sufficient, however, and a tournament will take you a long time to complete.
The game takes 6 megs on your hard drive as a minimum installation (the documentation and installation program say it takes 30), and when set up this way the option screens are agonisingly slow as they are all hi-res images read off the CD-ROM. If you go for maximum installation (100 megs!), then you'll get to use your CD drive for music.

pros

good graphics, detail settings and a pretty fast frame rate
sound is good; Qsound system makes use of stereo
Dynamic Track System adds an extra element
excellently done computer cars with silly personalities
replay option
ability to get damaged / repaired
cars are upgradable with prize money
easy control system, once you're used to the mouse
great music, but only useable with full installation

cons

considerable CD access delays with minimum installation
quite hard for beginners
sometimes unstable, only at the END of a race (&^%#@%^!!)
maximum installation installs lots of stuff that isn't used by the game, the most obvious of which is the entire German sound file directory...
road is somtimes made of too few polygons and becomes hard to drive on
you can only play individual races in any multiplayer mode
joysticks are pretty useless for this game - the mouse is best
the computer opponent ability varies on different tracks, and sometimes they get confused
The cars seem to handle differently on computers of different speeds. (On fast machines, damage is high, jumps become impossible to make and you don't skid nearly as much.)

Try these clips of

Track Attack's music (18kb, 4-bit mono)
Track Attack's sound effects (27kb, 4-bit mono)

Here's some replays:

Replay #1: A very close race with plenty of violence. (Salt Spray, Renegade)

2001 Look Back at Track Attack

I'm not playing Track Attack that much any more, because it's too easy for me and too hard for anyone else. The fact that the game's handling is quirky and difficult to get used to means that I can't persuade anyone else that the game is good.
Every now and then I boot it up, though, crank the instrumental metal soundtrack and burn through a championship, trying to knock out as many opponents as possible in each race. A good road rage game.

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