The Classics
Hard Drivin' II |
|
|---|---|
| Hard Drivin' is a stunt racing game that was avaliable as a coin-op, and for the Atari and Amiga systems as well as for the PC. My PC version is dated 1990, and it comes on one 600K floppy disk that you can't make a backup of no matter how hard you try. Sound is PC speaker only, and the game claims to support serial link but I think my machine is too new. | 
|
|
One of the neat things about Hard Drivin' II is the track editor. There wasn't one in Hard Drivin' 1, and the game only came with 2 tracks compared to HD2's five. The track editor is not grid-based, which means it is far more versatile than the Stunts track editor. Too much scenery runs you out of memory (I suspect only conventional memory is used), and makes the game even more likely to crash than usual. The one problem with the editor is that it won't let you play, check or even save a track until it is completed to the program's satisfaction. |
|
Another nifty feature that was absent from racing games for a few
years (recently seen in NFS3, Motorhead) is the use of a ghost
car. If you get a good time during
normal play, you will go into the championship lap of that particular
track and race against a ghost car that exactly copies the way the
previous champion player drove. The ghost car's transparent, and you
can drive right through him. If you win, a recording of your drive is
substituted as the champion ghost recording. Overall, Hard Drivin' II is obviously a good game; it uses frame rate limiting to make it playable on all computers and its track editor is very good. On the downside was the fact that you were only racing against the clock, and the program crashed if there was the slightest bit too much scenery. |
|
|
Cheats: choose manual gears, go fast then
change into neutral. You'll coast at the speed you were last travelling
at, not skidding, slowing for corners or anything. Also, repeatedly
press the '4' key and you may receive millions of points. Most useless feature: probably the support of Hercules and Tandy graphics modes, which have no purpose other than to make your monitor black out and force you to press reset. That or the 'save' feature on the option menu which never saves a thing. Strangest happening: if you bump around a banked curve and exit it on the left side of the road, your car may be lifted nose-first up high in the air for no reason and take a jolly long time about coming back down. Tracks: |
|
Stunts |
|
|---|---|
| Stunts, sometimes called 4D Sports Driving, is another stunt racing game dated about 1990. You can choose from 8 cars and several computer opponents (only one opponent at a time), and the program comes with a track editor. As with Hard Drivin', mouse or joystick control is best since you'll need the proportional steering. Stunts' handling is surprisingly good for a game of this age; you can spin out, have oversteer and understeer and force the other cars off the road. | 
|
|
The replay system in Stunts is pretty much perfect - it allows you
to pick from helicopter cam, in-car cam, trackside cam or to customise
your own camera angle. The replay covers the entire race and can be
viewed from either car. If you select a custom camera view in replay
mode, you can also drive from this view next time you play. Stunts also has good computer AI (Artificial Intelligence) - the baddie knows how to pass your car and how to get back onto the road if he or she ever falls off. The computer player also 'plays by the rules' reasonably well.. there's only a couple of situations where they cheat or go too slowly for no reason. Stunts' track editor provides several pre-defined terrains for you to choose from, then you can select a track section from a side menu and place it on the grid. A grid system means the track always meets up and you can't put in too much stuff. Overall, a superb and stable game that just needed multiplayer support. |
|
|
Cheats: you shouldn't need any Most useless feature: the ability to, in the middle of a race, switch to a driving view that's on the bumper of the bad guy's car Strangest happening: if you have a high-speed crash from way up in the air, you car will land on the ground then teleport all over the track, making bumping noises and shrouded in dumb-looking scribbles. Tracks: find some here An interesting Stunts site with a competition and FAQ: this one |
|
Test Drive 3 |
|
|---|---|
|
Test Drive 3 is the third in Accolade's Test Drive series, and the first of these games to use full 3d graphics. You can drive off the road whenever you want, and some of the scenery is quite impressive. In the version I've got, you can choose from three cars and one course of five tracks. Expansion disks have been allowed for. During the game, you race against the other two computer cars and the race continues until the course is completed or you run out of lives. Cops will try and catch you as in all the Test Drive games, but in this particular one all they have to do is drive near you and you get a ticket. |
| The best thing about Test Drive 3 is all the little touches they put in to make the driving experience more believable. You get to use headlights and window wipers, and you'll meet butterflies that splat on your window and little chickens and ferret-kinda-things on your travels. Rain and snow are possible, making the road more slippery; you can see the barrier arms work as trains cross the road and much more. | 
|
|
The game is quite hard to get used to, however, and you'll play for
ages before you manage to finish without running out of lives.
The computer opponents cheat like mad, and since they can't run out of
lives it's best to stay away from them. They know how to block you
off and how to pass you, but often they get frustrated and just
try to go right through you. They always come off better than you
in collisions, have better acceleration and cornering than you,
and never leave the road on jumps. This is a poor aspect of
Test Drive 3, but if you know other people who can manage the game you
can all compete using the inbuilt 'hot seat' system to race humans
instead. The greatest problem with playing this game today is that it will run far too fast on a modern computer. Even on my 486, you press the accelerator and you're down the road and into a tree before you realise what's happening. I use Game Wizard or switch off my 486's turbo (So there is a use for those features!) to slow the game down to a playable speed. Test Drive 3 supports Sound Blaster, has a good skill level system and great attention to detail. They didn't get everything right, though, and to play it today you need a reliable method of slowing your computer way down. |
|
|
Cheats: you shouldn't need any. Choose the best car, the easiest skill
level and find the easiest of the three possible routes for each
section. In the section with the jump over the canyon, take the jump
route then switch to the canyon track at the jump. You will lose one
life, but this combination of routes is the fastest. Most useless feature: compass, to tell you which way you're supposed to be going Strangest happening: hit a baddie at the top of the hill and he will be knocked out horizontally into space. When both cars are restored, he will merrily drive through the air until he reaches his former position and can continue. |
|
Speed Racer |
|
|---|---|
| Never heard of this game? It's a classic here simply because I choose to call it one. I have played this game a zillion times because the driving is so enjoyable, the music is good, there is a split screen mode and the whole game is so hilarious. The Speed Racer cartoon has always been good for a laugh; surely that's why they invented it. When you load up Speed Racer you get some silly footage from the cartoon, and this is continued throughout the game - as you race, the drivers come up on your car's TV to inform you of sound clips badly chopped from the TV series. Some of the clips even have the music still in the background. |
 Speed Racer, although made in 1993, still uses 2D sprites for the graphics and a strange form of texturing for the road. For a 2D game, however, it has very good car handling. Speed must use his jumpy-jacks to jump over water and chasms, and your car also has turbos and two weapon slots for you to fill. Weapons are purchased with 'star' points, as opposed to race points, although you get some of each for finishing in a good position... As Speed Racer or Racer X you are the ridiculously moral good guy so you'll actually lose stars if you bump one of your 'friends' into a spin. Stars are important to both purchase weapons and buy them back each time your car sinks or is blown up by the baddies. |
| An original part of Speed Racer is the mission system - you are set a corny task to do at the start of each level, and completion of the task brings extra points. Examples include the one where someone is carrying a stolen diamond hidden inside a pineapple in their car (you must 'spin his car to flip out the jewel'), and my personal favourite, "Speed Racer has a vendetta". In this last one, you get to crash into the little twerp and hear him go "Whoa!" as many times as you please. Of course, if he's behind you and he comes up on your TV saying "It's too bad, but he asked for it..", then it might be a good time to move out of the way before Speed gets out his chainsaws. | Unfortunately the computer intelligence is pretty bad, and none of the computer cars know exactly where on the road you are. This means that often you get some guy ahead of you laughing away in an evil fashion dropping out stacks of smoke screens on completely the wrong side of the road. Speed is also likely to drive right past with his chainsaws on. Occasionally a computer car will come alongside you, laugh, and zoom forcefully into the side of your car. You are spun around but he continues off the side of the road and into a cliff. These things, combined with the fact that the game and the cartoon series seem to want you to take it all seriously, make Speed Racer so funny that it's instantly a classic in my book. |
|
Cheats: none. The game is too easy anyway. Try and sandwich a baddie between
you and a burning car, then use chainsaws on him until
he blows up. Speed Racer's multiple collision detection will ensure
you end up with plenty of stars. Most useless feature: modem connection that only supports 1200 or 2400 baud rates. Absolutely HOPELESSLY slow. Use Serial link or split screen for two players. Strangest happening: although SR uses only one sound channel to try and stop the baddies repeating a sound file many times all at once, this still happens sometimes with the original file being interrupted. Racer X (your pal) is also often guilty of attacking you, saying, "If you're smart, you'll give up the race!" A second later, as you pass him, he mutters, "Why'd you try to get rid of me?" . |
|