Stunt Car Racer MicroStyle
Stunt Car Racer (SCR) is a 16 bit stunt-car simulator designed and coded by Geoff Crammond of MicroStyle for Amiga and IBM PC MS-DOS (1989). Stunt Car Racer is also known as Stunt Track Racer.
Pre-SCR, Crammond designed and coded Revs 1985 for the BBC Micro.
Stunt Car Racer is notable for its head-to-head racing on elevated contoured tracks, complete with sharp turns, steep ramps and massive jumps. The stunt car often bounces around on the track wildly, with sparks flying and engine revving like mad.
The object is to keep the car on the track through skillful steering, acceleration and braking. In order to overcome obstacles and beat opponents in head-to-head races, boost acceleration must also be applied at key moments.
Left: Crane-assisted drop-start / Right: Booster on!
Note how I said "wildly". That is only the initial impression players get of the game, before they have gotten to grips with its controls and physics. Once players get a feel for the game, the way the car's suspension reacts can be predicted in accordance with speed, track contour and the height from which the car landed.
Stunt Car Racer employs flat-shaded 3D vector graphics that were common in combat flight simulators of the time. Due to the need to achieve and maintain solid framerates, its well-chosen color palette was limited in range and geometric detail was kept to a minimum. In the Commodore 64 version the cars are rendered in wireframe graphics.
In SCR, the contoured track is rightfully the prime priority. Note the smoothness of the curvature.
Stunt cars can be damaged by hard landings, car collisions and crashing off the side or into gaps in the track. Cars that roll off and fall from the track lose time by needing to be hoisted back on-track via crane.
The degree to which the car has been damaged is indicated by a crack that appears horizontally on the rollcage (above-right). If the car sustains too much damage, it becomes a wreck and the race is lost.
SCR controls and visuals were ground-breaking in 1989. The steering, suspension and acceleration of the car feel perfect, and the idling, revving and crashing sound effects are loud, raw and realistic.
Back in the day, playing SCR was an energizing and exhilarating experience -- especially when you took off from the crest of a steep ramp to get seriously airborne. And then when you landed and bounced around -- trying to keep the car on-track -- it was so much fun.
For many, SCR was the first 3D physics game they had played.
From a technical point of view SCR was the best racing game on a microcomputer at the times of its release. It was also the most fun to play.
From memory, SCR ran slightly better on the Atari ST than it did on the Amiga (8 MHz vs. 7.xx MHz).
The IBM PC EGA version by Tim Ansell also runs well and looks good, but its flat-shaded graphics are not as impressive as Crammond's ST/Amiga originals.
384K RAM req. / MS-DOS 2.1.
Stunt Car Racer League
The object of the game is to win and become the champion in each of the four divisions of the Stun Car Racer League. Each division contains three drivers and two tracks. Once the SCR League has been won, a Super League may be entered. In the Super League, top speeds and acceleration of cars is increased.
Division 4 Tracks
Little Ramp
Hump Back
Division 3 Tracks
Big Ramp
Stepping Stones
Division 2 Tracks
Roller Coaster
High Jump
Division 1 Tracks
Draw Bridge
Ski Jump
Geoff Crammond would later go on to design and code Formula One Grand Prix MicroProse.
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