VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Discussion, Reviews & High-scores

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Which is your favorite VIC arcade racer?

Deathrace
2
17%
Pole Position
7
58%
Race Fun
0
No votes
Road Race
3
25%
Tammerfors
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 12

hasseapa
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by hasseapa »

I finally had another go at Death Race and it took my quite a while of cursing to reach extended play. At exactly 0 seconds left I finally got there (you simply have to get 2000 points to get extended play?). Well, to my surprise it was very much worth it! New backgrounds :D A pretty bridge (which is not in the Colecovision Turbo conversion, but in the Sega original), the tunnel section, and an icy road - can't tell if it actually acted icy though :o

Funny scoring system. From 2000 to almost 10 000 in an instant when you reach extended play. I won't beat akator's amazing score though.
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akator wrote: The best I've figured is that speed needs to be at least 250 throughout the game with no crashes to get to the first checkpoint, speed 260 to get to the second. I doubt I will beat this because it would require maintaining 270 throughout the game and at that speed I crash all of the time.
Yeah, I actually aimed at 270 from the start but was probably mostly at 260 in my most successful races. A lot of crashes and I find it difficult to get back to speed after a crash.

I am pleased to note that you can actually get hit from behind if you go too slowly. However, at 70 you already drive faster than your opponents.

At slow speed the game is totally void of any feel of driving, but it is meant to be played at full speed and it actually works OK then. If you squint your eyes during the forest stage, it's really rather convincing :lol:
Last edited by hasseapa on Wed Sep 20, 2017 4:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
hasseapa
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by hasseapa »

I also had a very quick go at Tammerfors. Wow, the game Race "Fun" should have been! Background that whizes by at breakneck speed but opponents that actually drive forwards at good and smoothly varied speeds. Should have had better crashes though!
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akator
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by akator »

My high in Race Fun is 1698.
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My high in Tammerfors is 369.
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I like both of these games but Tammerfors is my favorite between these 2.

Road Race has been a problem for me. The controls make a lot more sense on a real VIC keyboard and I haven't been able to do well at all in it with emulation. I can't play my VIC right now because that space has been re-purposed by my wife, so I doubt I will be posting any scores for Road Race until I can play it on the real hardware.
hasseapa
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by hasseapa »

On to Road Race and Race Fun...

There were two other guys in my class that had a VIC but they were not really into games (and I traded games with other guys). However, they were both into cars (in the 12-year-old kid way), so one of them bought Road Race and the other bought Race Fun (and those were basically the only games they had).

I did borrow Road Race and Race Fun from them but I don’t remember playing them much. Road Race was a cartridge game so I could not tape copy it (I suspect that was the other reason for my class buddy to choose it…) and Race Fun perhaps I did not bother to copy…

Road Race is really impressive though. It is of course very much inspired by 1976 Night Driver (IIRC there is a similar German arcade game that predates Night Driver slightly) but it also adds a simulation tinge. The hi-res front of the car and the meters looks great and the road effect is impressive for a VIC-game (the only one where the road moves instead of the car). All in all great piece of software to show off the hardware!
akator wrote: Road Race has been a problem for me. The controls make a lot more sense on a real VIC keyboard and I haven't been able to do well at all in it with emulation. I can't play my VIC right now because that space has been re-purposed by my wife, so I doubt I will be posting any scores for Road Race until I can play it on the real hardware.
Yep, it is practically unplayable on my laptop too, but I should play it on my VIC the next time I have the opportunity.

Race Fun… Blocky, jerky and the oncoming traffic move at the same speed as the road… Definitely not good for showcasing VIC but it does offer some entertainment as a score chaser and works great on my laptop. I especially like that it gets harder very fast and offer a short and focused challenge.

Again, I did not manage to beat akator. It did not seem worth it to manually increase speed at the beginning of the race, but if the automatic increments are time based (rather than score based), it should. So I may try that.

1562
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akator
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by akator »

NitroWheels (just released) is the game I want Race Fun to be. Definitely give NitroWheels a try :)
hasseapa
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by hasseapa »

Looks like I got a bit addicted to "shitty" Race Fun :wink:
2118
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akator wrote:NitroWheels (just released) is the game I want Race Fun to be. Definitely give NitroWheels a try :)
Yeah, I tried it and it plays much better that Race Fun, thanks to wider road, smoother movements and zig-zagging cars :)

I have not played Pole Position yet. It just doesn't feel right to play the legendary Pole Position on emulator and keys. Arcade Pole Position is an ageless classic. I never had access to the VIC-version as a kid but I saw a screenshot in a US-magazine and thought it looked amazing. Even better than the C64-version that I had a pirated copy of and was quite fond of. Unfortunately it lacks the dynamic road perspective of the arcade and C64-version, but it is visually superb in every other way. It is especially impressive when you start a race and have seven well drawn cars in front of you.

The fanfare is well done too. The arcade fanfare + "prepare to qualify" is probably my favorite game "sound bite" of all time!
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Ola H
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by Ola H »

Squeezing up in 2nd position in Turbo: 10620 :)
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I kept mostly to 260 but I feel a lot safer in 250. 270 and above feels suicidal!

The sensation of speed is actually more than adequate at high speeds and with the large road side obejcts like trees or houses. But the game would look so much better on lower speed with just one more "scaled sprite" for the other cars before the full-size version.

The new scenery after the checkpoint was extremely neat :D I really think Death Race could have been up to par with the Coleco version if it had been developed by a US software house and received proper time and attention. Still, it is a unique title in the Vic 20 library.

Road Race and Pole Position are, however, in a class of their own.
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Ola H
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by Ola H »

380 in Tammerfors.
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Much superior to Race Fun in all aspects. I could see this selling well if it had been released back in 82-83 as the competition in the genre was weak and unexpanded games rarely looked and scrolled as nice as this.
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Ola H
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by Ola H »

Ah... Tammerfors is a 1k game :shock: I didn't know, but of course ... that explains the lack of title screen, collisions, etc. Think what could have been in 3k ... or 16k!
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akator
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by akator »

I'm still having a tough time picking a favorite this round :D
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Ola H
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by Ola H »

45890 on Pole Position Beginner.
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I will try my luck on Intermediate now, have already tried advanced and found it extremely difficult - cars, cars, cars just about everywhere. Makes the game look very good though :)

Btw, what a pleasant surprise to see a cute cartoon-like flagman when I finished my race! Weird though - I don't remember seeing him before. Granted, I didn't get to play Vic Pole Position until I bought my Mega Cart. Nevertheless it seems like I should have seen him before. :?
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Ola H
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by Ola H »

LOL! 50690 on Intermediate
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Seems like we're tied for Pole Position, Akator 8) I don't think I can do much better. The race went incredibly well. The only mistake I did was accidentally gearing down for a few seconds without noticing it.

Unlike my attempts on beginner level, I now played on NTSC (Vice) as I find the proportions and colors look just a little bit more right for the game. Really pleasing to eye, particularly the cars. :)
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akator
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by akator »

There is a max score in Pole Position because the race time and track laps are limited. That makes it lousy for high score competitions but it's still a great game :D
hasseapa
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Re: VIC Game Club No. 9 – Arcade Racers

Post by hasseapa »

Apparently I DID play Race Fun a lot as a kid. I found an old high score of 2820 written down on paper. Much better than my score this round but I definitely lay the blame on the lack of a joystick rather than ageing reactions :wink:
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