The game was a futuristic racer that put you in control of a high powered, nitro-enhanced stunt car.
The tracks had more resemblance to Alton Towers than Silverstone with , tight twisting corners and massive ramps and jumps.
The graphics were great and the way everything worked together really got you immersed in the game. The car really did feel as if it was traveling at high speed and you could see the tyres bounce realistically when you landed from a jump.
Sound was also good with crunching effects when you crash landed and the engine roar changing when you launched your car high into the air.
You start the game in in the lowest of the 4 divisions and the aim is to complete a season with the most points so you can move up the divisions and take on the better drivers on the more difficult tracks.
Even in the lowly division 4 you are able to practise on any track from any of the other divisions giving you a chance to get used to the turns and jumps before racing against opponents.
When you make it to the top of the first division you can then compete in the Super League.
The Super League pits you against the same tracks and drivers but both you and your opponents have faster cars with better brakes. You begin again in division 4 and must win races to move up and attempt to become Super League Champion.
Points were awarded for winning the race (2 points) and the fastest lap (1 point). At the end of the season the driver with the most points would move up to the next division. If you finished bottom you would be relegated to the lower division.
The controls were simple but responsive. You moved forward to accelerate and back to brake (or reverse if you had stopped) and left and right to move the car..eh left and right!
The fire button was used to give your car a nitrous boost which would see your car reaching amazing speeds - lovely. The nitrous was limited and the units of boost you had left was indicated by the B gauge on the dashboard.
The car could also sustain damage and this would be indicated by cracks and holes which would appear above the windscreen. If the crack reached from the left to the right side of the car your race was over.
Any cracks were repaired after each race but the holes stayed throughout the season and caused cracks to move faster if the encountered a hole.
So you had to look after your car and find the optimum speed to take corners and perform jumps as you didn't want to bash up your car and have to retire from the race - handing the points to your opponent.
As well as the single player mode you could play multi player with 8 players competing in up to 4 race seasons. Each player would race on each of the tracks in turn against a computer controlled pace car.
The points would be added to find the ultimate champion.
Today Stunt Car Racer is still a lot of fun to play and the 3D graphics and speed of the action still look pretty good. So if you haven't already, get yourself an amiga emulator and track down a copy of the game and strap yourself in for a thrilling, roller coaster ride of a game! It's retro racing-tastic!
By the way, Stunt Car Racer on the ZX Spectrum was also reviewed on our Brother Blog ZX Spectrum Games - check it out!
Developer: MicroStyle
Year Released: 1989 (a long long time ago!)
Genre: 3D Racing (Arcade Game)
Check out the Amiga Longplay video below for a taste of the speed and danger you can experience playing Stunt Car Racer...
Classic Games, Arcade Games and Amiga Games
Check out the Amiga Longplay video below for a taste of the speed and danger you can experience playing Stunt Car Racer...
Classic Games, Arcade Games and Amiga Games
2 comments:
What a classic! Shame I never connected my friend's Amiga to mine and played vs. In those days it wasn't so easy :(
One of my all time favourites. Only had a C64 at the time though, but it was fun on that one too. When I saw it at a friend's Amiga, my C64 version didn't feel quite as nice to return to though. ;)
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