Find myself playing this a lot, also 4K Race refueled. Surely, if this was made into a fully-blown 128k only game, it'd be the best racing game ever on the speccy! Hows about it?
Find myself playing this a lot, also 4K Race refueled. Surely, if this was made into a fully-blown 128k only game, it'd be the best racing game ever on the speccy! Hows about it?
I am one of the author (code) of the game. Thanks for the compliments :-)
We were thinking about making a full 128k version of the game. I think that this thread is a good opportunity to ask for suggestions on what you all would like to see in the final version of the game. They would also give me some motivation to continue the development :-)
Right now I'm stuck as I was planning another main revision of the graphics engine, similar to the one that brought to the refueled version. However, I'm somehow "afraid" of doing that, as I'm not sure if it is worth doing it, I'd wait to hear if it is one of your suggestions.
You know, if you add some features, you really could up with a game on par with the PC classic Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge, which, IMAO, was absolutely great.
- Weather conditions such as: evening, night, fog, heavy rain (with lighting of course), snow, powerful wind, wider or narrower roads, with both a convincing, colourful, graphic display and the required effects on the driving parameters. Even Atari 2600 Enduro had some of these and they worked great.
- Varied backgrounds and settings (LETC even had a section where you drive up a narrow mountain road - solid rock on the right, dazzling abyss on the left)
- Sadistic AI. For once, I want to play a computer that doesn't want to lose.
- Oh, and automatic track generation, with the possibility of replaying any generated track (i.e. Track No. = Randseed). Probably already implemented, seeing as how the game was 4K.
Rain and snow effects may be quite graphic-intensive, but if you can afford sweeping the entire screen every frame, I think they're not much of a challenge.
Yep i would love to see a version of this game either 128k or 48k. What the author did in 4k was amazing so to think of what he 'might' be able to do with much much more memory is great !
Rather than pseudo-random tracks, I'd prefer to see designed ones. You could base them on famous racing circuits, and perhaps even offer a track editor.
I'm not convinced about the idea of incorporating weather effects. Whilst Enduro had some, they were graphically poor and didn't really enhance the gameplay much; you just have to slow down a bit because of the reduced visibility. The one thing that might work fairly cheaply though would be a night driving stage with low contrast colours making the other cars less visible.
Other than that, I'd reckon the graphic engine is pretty much as good as it gets for Spectrum racing games; maybe you could put in hills and S-bends (as in Enduro Racer for instance) but they're a bit gimmicky and don't really add much to the gameplay. Adding extra roadside graphics would be nice for variety too.
Rather than pseudo-random tracks, I'd prefer to see designed ones. You could base them on famous racing circuits, and perhaps even offer a track editor.
I'm not convinced about the idea of incorporating weather effects. [...]
There's the old saying, "When in doubt, let the user decide". I reckon a few checkboxes to the effect of "Pseudo-random tracks ON/OFF", "Weather effects ON/OFF", etc. would be in order :)
We were thinking about making a full 128k version of the game. I think that this thread is a good opportunity to ask for suggestions on what you all would like to see in the final version of the game.
How much memory for extra stuff would there be available? I think wrote somewhere that a lot of memory was used for pre-calculated tables to make it run smooth.
Thanks for so many replies in such a short time :-) Please continue giving suggestions as, in the meanwhile, I'll contact the other author so that we'll decide what to do. I'll also try LETC to see how it is. One thing for sure is that I don't want to make the game slower - speed is what makes the game addictive and the refueled version is barely sufficient from this point of view, IMO.
About the current memory usage, the game uses 32K for precalculated multiplications (for the prospective). There are about 16K free memory in the main 48K of RAM, plus other 48K in the paged RAM. So there is probably enough free space to make a complete game.
You should take all the good things from ChaseHQ, Wec Le Mans, Roadblasters.
I`d like to see forks in the road, hills, tunnels, ramps/jumps, the ability to ram opponents. Different game modes like, Full Race(against 6 or more cars), Time Trials(solo), Tag(one on one you have to tag your opponent and drive to a checkpoint), Cop and/or Villain modes ala Chase HQ. Power Ups, for fuel, turbo boosts, armour and even guns.
Different types of circuit like City Road, Mountain Road, Dirt Track, Race Track and Oval.
Well thats what I`d like to see, even though it may not be possible to do everything above in a single game, there are some ideas to play with.
Why`s no-one thought of doing a Grand Theft Auto clone? APB was done pretty well and its a similar design.
Id like to see a choice of views, but it sounds very memory hungry to me. I love both versions of 4k race, and think it'd be great to play it, 'behind the car' then switch to a 'slighty above car' view to negotiate tricky bits of track. Not too worried about weather, but undulating roads and a bit o bobbin up n down would be nice ( ;) )
Thinking of it as an advanced version of Enduro, mixed with Lotus Esprit is spot on, me thinks. Its about time we had a big, new racy game to play.
Thanks a lot about the suggestions. Please continue posting them, if you have new ideas.
I'm thinking that we (the other author and me) shouldn't change the game structure too much, as it seems to work nicely. So I think that the game will remain a simple racing game like Outrun. We will very likely keep the same prospective (I think that it is more difficult to play from other points of views). Maybe we will make the track non-flat (that's the main change that I was mentioning in the first message) and maybe with variable width. I'm also thinking about making the game less repetitive, by allowing night races also, and more kinds of competitions. There will be more and better graphics, of course.
There were also other nice ideas that seem good for other kinds of racing games. Maybe in the future.
I have to say that I'm somehow embarassed working on this game. Right now, there are platforms where you can have racing games with huge 3D cars and other objects moving smoothly at 60 fps on a 1600x1200 pixels display. Sometimes I wonder how much it is worth struggling on writing code that should put a few small, monochromatic sprites on the screen with a decent frame rate. On the other hand, succeeding in that is really an achievement. It is just a pity that I'm 20 years late :-)
Sometimes I wonder how much it is worth struggling on writing code that should put a few small, monochromatic sprites on the screen with a decent frame rate. On the other hand, succeeding in that is really an achievement. It is just a pity that I'm 20 years late :-)
You're not late at all. between Xbox360's Project Poo racing and 4k race, 4k race wins everytime! It's a heck-of-a-lot better! Struggle on. It's worth it, and your hard work is much appreciated!
Had my first go on 4k Race Refueled yesterday.
It's quite addictive, plays well and ain't too easy either.
I only made it through 2 checkpoints. It sort of reminds me
of F1 Race on the gameboy. (The one with the four player link thing.)
Yeah it's a really good game that deserves a full version. But can someone tell me - how do you start a new race? Once it finishes I have to load it up again to have another game. There ain't no start key!
How does the TS2068 version differ from the original?
From the readme file:
2.10 "4k race refueled+" for the ts/tc2068 (beta).
- Tested on the real TS 2068
- New introduction screen
- Better landscape
I added more graphics that I left out from the minigame compo for size reasons. The gameplay is identical.
On the other hand, the game may be slightly slower as I couldn't use precalculated tables, as the TS2068 has only 48k of RAM.
Also, I'd suggest to skip trying the original 2004 game. The refueled version is better: same gameplay, better graphics.
Refueled is certainly harder, but not better. Personally, I prefer the original perspective as it is easier to negotiate past the other cars, but I play an equal amount of refueled as its more challenging. Both games are quite different to play. I couldn't really choose one over the other.
In both games you sometimes have to slow down to avoid the other cars. It happens for different reasons. In the original game, that is because you see the other cars at the last moment. In the refueled version it is because there are harsher turns.
This is basically the only difference in gameplay. Right now, the refueled version is more tuned to my skills (I'm pretty trained on these games). Some difficulty levels can be introduced as well...
But while there can be different opinions about the gameplay, I think that there is no match about graphics.
Much prefer the refuelled addition, was impressed with the framerate when I first saw the original but didn`t find myself really playing it, whereas with this one I do.
Would love to see/hear a 128 K tune whilst playing, that would be the biggest thing that would add to the game.
Other than that some colour for the side of the road would be ace, even with clash... just to make the road stand out more.
If the other cars moved left and right sometimes to make things tougher then it`d have more lasting appeal too :) perhaps even take away the punishment for crashing into a car if you only hit them from the side and you could knock them into side of road ?
a Crazy Cars 3 (amiga) style betting angle. in that game you could bet against other racers on the outcome of the race. money could then be spent on upgrades.
Another source for inspiration might be Pitstop for the C64. This one's one or two player with screen split top and bottom for 2-player. There's a pitstop phase for changing tires and fuelling up.
Doing a split-screen might interfere too much with the graphics, in which case I would suggest thinking about if1-network capable multiplayer :-) I think that would be something, especially if it's written with the if1 bit being modular so that code for any kind of network could be inserted. I know of another network that uses the 3.5mm ear jacks.
Comments
I am one of the author (code) of the game. Thanks for the compliments :-)
We were thinking about making a full 128k version of the game. I think that this thread is a good opportunity to ask for suggestions on what you all would like to see in the final version of the game. They would also give me some motivation to continue the development :-)
Right now I'm stuck as I was planning another main revision of the graphics engine, similar to the one that brought to the refueled version. However, I'm somehow "afraid" of doing that, as I'm not sure if it is worth doing it, I'd wait to hear if it is one of your suggestions.
- Weather conditions such as: evening, night, fog, heavy rain (with lighting of course), snow, powerful wind, wider or narrower roads, with both a convincing, colourful, graphic display and the required effects on the driving parameters. Even Atari 2600 Enduro had some of these and they worked great.
- Varied backgrounds and settings (LETC even had a section where you drive up a narrow mountain road - solid rock on the right, dazzling abyss on the left)
- Sadistic AI. For once, I want to play a computer that doesn't want to lose.
- Oh, and automatic track generation, with the possibility of replaying any generated track (i.e. Track No. = Randseed). Probably already implemented, seeing as how the game was 4K.
Rain and snow effects may be quite graphic-intensive, but if you can afford sweeping the entire screen every frame, I think they're not much of a challenge.
I'm not convinced about the idea of incorporating weather effects. Whilst Enduro had some, they were graphically poor and didn't really enhance the gameplay much; you just have to slow down a bit because of the reduced visibility. The one thing that might work fairly cheaply though would be a night driving stage with low contrast colours making the other cars less visible.
Other than that, I'd reckon the graphic engine is pretty much as good as it gets for Spectrum racing games; maybe you could put in hills and S-bends (as in Enduro Racer for instance) but they're a bit gimmicky and don't really add much to the gameplay. Adding extra roadside graphics would be nice for variety too.
Great little game. I'm very impressed. It'd be good to see the skills of the programmers opened out in a 128k version.
Now I'm going to play it some more, and find 4k Race Refuelled while I'm at it.
There's the old saying, "When in doubt, let the user decide". I reckon a few checkboxes to the effect of "Pseudo-random tracks ON/OFF", "Weather effects ON/OFF", etc. would be in order :)
How much memory for extra stuff would there be available? I think wrote somewhere that a lot of memory was used for pre-calculated tables to make it run smooth.
It's at:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/otto/spectrum/spectrum.html
Scroll down the list and it's at the bottom.
Tire selection : Michelin
About the current memory usage, the game uses 32K for precalculated multiplications (for the prospective). There are about 16K free memory in the main 48K of RAM, plus other 48K in the paged RAM. So there is probably enough free space to make a complete game.
I`d like to see forks in the road, hills, tunnels, ramps/jumps, the ability to ram opponents. Different game modes like, Full Race(against 6 or more cars), Time Trials(solo), Tag(one on one you have to tag your opponent and drive to a checkpoint), Cop and/or Villain modes ala Chase HQ. Power Ups, for fuel, turbo boosts, armour and even guns.
Different types of circuit like City Road, Mountain Road, Dirt Track, Race Track and Oval.
Well thats what I`d like to see, even though it may not be possible to do everything above in a single game, there are some ideas to play with.
Why`s no-one thought of doing a Grand Theft Auto clone? APB was done pretty well and its a similar design.
My ZX Art Music Page
Carlos Michelis Theme
Thinking of it as an advanced version of Enduro, mixed with Lotus Esprit is spot on, me thinks. Its about time we had a big, new racy game to play.
I'm thinking that we (the other author and me) shouldn't change the game structure too much, as it seems to work nicely. So I think that the game will remain a simple racing game like Outrun. We will very likely keep the same prospective (I think that it is more difficult to play from other points of views). Maybe we will make the track non-flat (that's the main change that I was mentioning in the first message) and maybe with variable width. I'm also thinking about making the game less repetitive, by allowing night races also, and more kinds of competitions. There will be more and better graphics, of course.
There were also other nice ideas that seem good for other kinds of racing games. Maybe in the future.
I have to say that I'm somehow embarassed working on this game. Right now, there are platforms where you can have racing games with huge 3D cars and other objects moving smoothly at 60 fps on a 1600x1200 pixels display. Sometimes I wonder how much it is worth struggling on writing code that should put a few small, monochromatic sprites on the screen with a decent frame rate. On the other hand, succeeding in that is really an achievement. It is just a pity that I'm 20 years late :-)
Heh heh heh, that was a classic race. :D
You're not late at all. between Xbox360's Project Poo racing and 4k race, 4k race wins everytime! It's a heck-of-a-lot better! Struggle on. It's worth it, and your hard work is much appreciated!
It's quite addictive, plays well and ain't too easy either.
I only made it through 2 checkpoints. It sort of reminds me
of F1 Race on the gameboy. (The one with the four player link thing.)
Good to hear that it may get updated.
https://discordapp.com/invite/cZt59EQ
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/otto/spectrum/spectrum.html
There you can find a TS/TC 2068 version also. (The web page needs some polishing.)
Also, I'd suggest to skip trying the original 2004 game. The refueled version is better: same gameplay, better graphics.
How does the TS2068 version differ from the original?
From the readme file:
2.10 "4k race refueled+" for the ts/tc2068 (beta).
- Tested on the real TS 2068
- New introduction screen
- Better landscape
I added more graphics that I left out from the minigame compo for size reasons. The gameplay is identical.
On the other hand, the game may be slightly slower as I couldn't use precalculated tables, as the TS2068 has only 48k of RAM.
Refueled is certainly harder, but not better. Personally, I prefer the original perspective as it is easier to negotiate past the other cars, but I play an equal amount of refueled as its more challenging. Both games are quite different to play. I couldn't really choose one over the other.
This is basically the only difference in gameplay. Right now, the refueled version is more tuned to my skills (I'm pretty trained on these games). Some difficulty levels can be introduced as well...
But while there can be different opinions about the gameplay, I think that there is no match about graphics.
Would love to see/hear a 128 K tune whilst playing, that would be the biggest thing that would add to the game.
Other than that some colour for the side of the road would be ace, even with clash... just to make the road stand out more.
If the other cars moved left and right sometimes to make things tougher then it`d have more lasting appeal too :) perhaps even take away the punishment for crashing into a car if you only hit them from the side and you could knock them into side of road ?
a Crazy Cars 3 (amiga) style betting angle. in that game you could bet against other racers on the outcome of the race. money could then be spent on upgrades.
Doing a split-screen might interfere too much with the graphics, in which case I would suggest thinking about if1-network capable multiplayer :-) I think that would be something, especially if it's written with the if1 bit being modular so that code for any kind of network could be inserted. I know of another network that uses the 3.5mm ear jacks.
Write games in C using Z88DK and SP1