Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Racing games of the late 80s

The racing game industry shifted in the late 80s since developers started to create games with different themes and different types of racing. Turbo Espirit of one of those games that was very different from its predecessors. It was released by  Durell Software in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. It introduced a whole different type of game play, it allowed users to roam around the map like in a open world game. It also allowed you to change between the cities you were driving in. It influenced later games that were open world such as the infamous grand theft auto series. Another revolutionary concept that this game had was a plot line. The player plays as a special agent, and as this agent you must travel around the city looking for drug smugglers. As you drive around the city a message would pop up giving you the location to an armored car. The player had to capture or destroy the armored car, which could be done by the built-in machine guns or by ramming the car. However you got more points for disabling the car rather then destroying the car, and points are deducted for hitting objects while driving. 


Screenshot


Wec Le Mans was another game that was revolutionary as it simulated an actual racing event which as its title suggest is 24 hour race called Le Mans. It was developed by Konami and released in 1986. It had features that tried to recreate the experience of driving a race car. It allowed the player to counter steer to prevent the car from spinning out while cornering. It had a force feedback system that simulated all the bumps and dips in the road and this was achieved through vibrations in the steering wheel.The game was available in three forms the regular cabinet, cockpit, and one that could spin around 360 degrees. 


360 Cabinet 

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