In spite of I find now Chequered Flag a very very crappy game, I have fond memories of it... a question of nostalgia, I suppose... :-)
Well at the time is was....hate to use the term 'ground breaking' but to a degree it was, after playing the racers on things like the Atari the graphics and 'realism' were...ground breaking.
The sophistication of later games we are now used too makes it look crap now though.
This is true.
TT Racer is also one of the few spectrum racing game that I like..
Commode has a much better choice: Test Drive, Cycles, Pit Stop II, Night Racer, Super Monaco Grand Prix, Out Run and my favorite Grand Prix Circuit and Stunt Car Racer.
This is true.
TT Racer is also one of the few spectrum racing game that I like..
Commode has a much better choice: Test Drive, Cycles, Pit Stop II, Night Racer, Super Monaco Grand Prix, Out Run and my favorite Grand Prix Circuit and Stunt Car Racer.
In spite of I find now Chequered Flag a very very crappy game, I have fond memories of it... a question of nostalgia, I suppose... :-)
I agree with this,still have fond memories of hurtling along the straight on the Paul Ricard circuit and not being able to stop at the end lol,also the afore mentioned Deathchase of course and Rally Driver by Hill MacGibbon was cool with its fold out map :)
Revs is much better on the BBC Micro. It's got a faster CPU than the C64, so it runs at about twice the frame rate.
I'd dare say that it's the game that Psion were hoping to make with Chequered Flag; there's a much higher level of realism and you get to see features in the road ahead rather than just having one bend thrown at you at a time. Plus you also get to race against other cars, rather than just run time trials on an empty circuit. As I said before, TT Racer was about as close as you got on the Spectrum in the same vein. I don't think either game was significantly bettered until games like Formula 1 Grand Prix and No Second Prize on the 16-bit computers in the early 90s.
It's very smooth and fast, plus, it came with a massive map. Not a great deal to do mind you, but still good fun to have a drive around in!
I just thought that I'd have a look in the archive for the map that came with the big box version of this, but it's not there! Or am I just being stupid and missing it?
I know for a fact that I don't have the original anymore, just the tape :(
fired up chase hq last night; and boy, has it aged...
there are certain types of retro games, especially, certain spectrum games, that seem ageless. Games that depend a great deal on fitting comfortably with the hardware.
3d racing games are not that type; (certainly not on the spectrum) :-(
fired up chase hq last night; and boy, has it aged...
there are certain types of retro games, especially, certain spectrum games, that seem ageless. Games that depend a great deal on fitting comfortably with the hardware.
3d racing games are not that type; (certainly not on the spectrum) :-(
With the 8 and 16 bit machines, it does seem to be the 3D games that age quicker. Not isometric 3D, but the true 3D, into the screen ones.
Some of the 3D games that WOW'd me and my mates on the Atari ST now look very old, even compared to older 2D games on the Spectrum.
Super Hang-on, with Out Run, Enduro Racer, Buggy Boy - which I really understood in the last Speccy Tour - and the old, venerable Full Throttle and Pole Positioncoming right after.
There are quite a few good other racing games for the Spectrum in my opinion, but these are the ones I like the most.
I would also name Turbo Esprit but I am not sure if that qualifies as a "racer" since it's mostly a kind of arcade/simulation hybrid.
Most games the car was at a fixed point in the centre of the screen and the view point moved around, in the likes of crazy cars the road was at a fixed point and the car was moved around.
Most games the car was at a fixed point in the centre of the screen and the view point moved around, in the likes of crazy cars the road was at a fixed point and the car was moved around.
so which approach was better?
I would of though moving the car has to be easier tech wise than moving the entire scenery left and right especially in a low spec machine
oh yes,
it moves really well; smooth scalling and fast.
4k? Put another 44k of game and a great racer can be made from that engine
From what I can gather, the game is just packed into 4K and expands to use pretty much all the RAM in a 128K Spectrum with pre-calculations to speed up the graphics. As such, you'd have to cut it down to work on a 48K machine.
From what I can gather, the game is just packed into 4K and expands to use pretty much all the RAM in a 128K Spectrum with pre-calculations to speed up the graphics. As such, you'd have to cut it down to work on a 48K machine.
hmmm feel vaguely cheated now, I'd suspected that it was packed as you can't see the graphics in the tap file but I didn't realise how much the game unpacked to
From what I can gather, the game is just packed into 4K and expands to use pretty much all the RAM in a 128K Spectrum with pre-calculations to speed up the graphics. As such, you'd have to cut it down to work on a 48K machine.
AFAIK it didn't take all the RAM, just a big bunch, but there was still some space to make a more complete game out of it. Let me check... found:
Outrun, chase hq, wec le mans etc i will go to mame to play (why play those on the speccy when you can play the real thing? If we'd had that option back when we would have taken it). But Enduro Racer still feels better on spin than on mame!
Outrun, chase hq, wec le mans etc i will go to mame to play (why play those on the speccy when you can play the real thing? If we'd had that option back when we would have taken it). But Enduro Racer still feels better on spin than on mame!
My fave is Chase HQ, probably the best driving game the spectrum ever had.
Another one was Hard drivin', quite a technical feat at the time but a bit slow on the spectrum (watch when another car drives past you, sometimes the graphics fall apart!).
Others incude Roadblasters 128k, Wec le mans, Enduro racer and super hang on.
I also quite liked kick start 2, it was funny watching your man go flying off his bike if you hit a fence too hard!
Wheelie is almost 30 years old now, a lot of movies from the 1980's were in bad taste at the time, now when you watch them you laugh at how crap and unnoffensive they are ;)
Horrible stuff changes with time, look at how people chuckle at A Clockwork Orange now, wonder why it was banned, sure enough it's got some nasty subject matter but it's dealt with in such a strange way that these days it's comical, wheras in the late 70's it was unacceptable (well by the British stifflip standard anyway, according to the wife it was never banned here in the US, but the scenes with "the auld in and out" were cut from it).
basically no point in laughing at something like that from so long ago when basically it's all subjective.
Another vote for Chase HQ here. I did really enjoy playing Outrun, Turbo Outrun, Super Hang On, Enduro Racer and Nightmare Rally too. Oh, and Power Drift...
I remember the rave reviews about how amazing it was; and the superb graphics....
it wasn't amazing and the graphics were rubbish
from Sinclair User: crash sequence is a little too graphic and some people might find it tasteless.
who wrote those reviews? somebody's grandma?
Wheelie was and still is a fab game to play! I still fire it up once in a while. The sheer panic when you get to the other end and have to make the return journey against the phantom biker without making too many mistakes!
For 3D motorbike racing , nothing beats Enduro Racer. As for why its better on Spin than MAME - well the arcade cab had the player sat on a mini-bike and required the player to physically 'pull' a wheeli, which led to some entertaining gameplay. Whilst Deathchase creates an impressive impression of speed itaint a racer , otherwise you'd include all into-the-screen 3D games like Starstrike.
For 4 wheeled fun , Nigel Mansell on the 128k Speccy was really good and if you can ignore the slow pace (and play Musical Sound Shower at full blast), Outrun is about as close to the arcade original as you could get.
Best of all though (and I'm a little surprised it hasnt already been mentioned) but the best racer is the one with NO wheels - DI's Bobsleigh. Tough at first , but a real sense of achievement when you get the hang of it. Great sensation of speed , good graphics and some strategy thrown into the mix - just as playable now as it ever was - and a great titlescreen tune
Comments
Well at the time is was....hate to use the term 'ground breaking' but to a degree it was, after playing the racers on things like the Atari the graphics and 'realism' were...ground breaking.
The sophistication of later games we are now used too makes it look crap now though.
This is true.
TT Racer is also one of the few spectrum racing game that I like..
Commode has a much better choice: Test Drive, Cycles, Pit Stop II, Night Racer, Super Monaco Grand Prix, Out Run and my favorite Grand Prix Circuit and Stunt Car Racer.
http://zx-pk.ru/
Don't forget 'revs' on the commode.
Yes, you're right.
REVS is an excellent 3D drivin game, although I have not played much.
Something like counterpart of the speccy's Chequered Flag..
http://zx-pk.ru/
I agree with this,still have fond memories of hurtling along the straight on the Paul Ricard circuit and not being able to stop at the end lol,also the afore mentioned Deathchase of course and Rally Driver by Hill MacGibbon was cool with its fold out map :)
I'd dare say that it's the game that Psion were hoping to make with Chequered Flag; there's a much higher level of realism and you get to see features in the road ahead rather than just having one bend thrown at you at a time. Plus you also get to race against other cars, rather than just run time trials on an empty circuit. As I said before, TT Racer was about as close as you got on the Spectrum in the same vein. I don't think either game was significantly bettered until games like Formula 1 Grand Prix and No Second Prize on the 16-bit computers in the early 90s.
I just thought that I'd have a look in the archive for the map that came with the big box version of this, but it's not there! Or am I just being stupid and missing it?
I know for a fact that I don't have the original anymore, just the tape :(
there are certain types of retro games, especially, certain spectrum games, that seem ageless. Games that depend a great deal on fitting comfortably with the hardware.
3d racing games are not that type; (certainly not on the spectrum)
:-(
With the 8 and 16 bit machines, it does seem to be the 3D games that age quicker. Not isometric 3D, but the true 3D, into the screen ones.
Some of the 3D games that WOW'd me and my mates on the Atari ST now look very old, even compared to older 2D games on the Spectrum.
There are quite a few good other racing games for the Spectrum in my opinion, but these are the ones I like the most.
I would also name Turbo Esprit but I am not sure if that qualifies as a "racer" since it's mostly a kind of arcade/simulation hybrid.
it might only be a simple racer, there's some clever programming under the hood of that game
so which approach was better?
I would of though moving the car has to be easier tech wise than moving the entire scenery left and right especially in a low spec machine
oh yes,
it moves really well; smooth scalling and fast.
4k? Put another 44k of game and a great racer can be made from that engine
From what I can gather, the game is just packed into 4K and expands to use pretty much all the RAM in a 128K Spectrum with pre-calculations to speed up the graphics. As such, you'd have to cut it down to work on a 48K machine.
hmmm feel vaguely cheated now, I'd suspected that it was packed as you can't see the graphics in the tap file but I didn't realise how much the game unpacked to
AFAIK it didn't take all the RAM, just a big bunch, but there was still some space to make a more complete game out of it. Let me check... found:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showpost.php?p=143855&postcount=12
Outrun, chase hq, wec le mans etc i will go to mame to play (why play those on the speccy when you can play the real thing? If we'd had that option back when we would have taken it). But Enduro Racer still feels better on spin than on mame!
Outrun, chase hq, wec le mans etc i will go to mame to play (why play those on the speccy when you can play the real thing? If we'd had that option back when we would have taken it). But Enduro Racer still feels better on spin than on mame!
Another one was Hard drivin', quite a technical feat at the time but a bit slow on the spectrum (watch when another car drives past you, sometimes the graphics fall apart!).
Others incude Roadblasters 128k, Wec le mans, Enduro racer and super hang on.
I also quite liked kick start 2, it was funny watching your man go flying off his bike if you hit a fence too hard!
I remember the rave reviews about how amazing it was; and the superb graphics....
it wasn't amazing and the graphics were rubbish
from Sinclair User:
crash sequence is a little too graphic and some people might find it tasteless.
who wrote those reviews? somebody's grandma?
Horrible stuff changes with time, look at how people chuckle at A Clockwork Orange now, wonder why it was banned, sure enough it's got some nasty subject matter but it's dealt with in such a strange way that these days it's comical, wheras in the late 70's it was unacceptable (well by the British stifflip standard anyway, according to the wife it was never banned here in the US, but the scenes with "the auld in and out" were cut from it).
basically no point in laughing at something like that from so long ago when basically it's all subjective.
Wheelie was and still is a fab game to play! I still fire it up once in a while. The sheer panic when you get to the other end and have to make the return journey against the phantom biker without making too many mistakes!
Brill!
For 4 wheeled fun , Nigel Mansell on the 128k Speccy was really good and if you can ignore the slow pace (and play Musical Sound Shower at full blast), Outrun is about as close to the arcade original as you could get.
Best of all though (and I'm a little surprised it hasnt already been mentioned) but the best racer is the one with NO wheels - DI's Bobsleigh. Tough at first , but a real sense of achievement when you get the hang of it. Great sensation of speed , good graphics and some strategy thrown into the mix - just as playable now as it ever was - and a great titlescreen tune