Slot car racing for the 2600? Possible?

[tremoloman2006]

Growing up in the late 70s and early 80s, I was and still am a huge fan of electric car racing sets. I was wondering if the 2600 would be capable of handling a game that layed out an electric car track and then allowed you to race against 1-4 people. I've got no programming ability for the 2600 yet but was thinking this might make a cool game if it was possible. If it is, this might be the inspiration I need to finally learn how to program this beast and write my 1st homebrew.

 

Does this sound like a good idea or a train wreck waiting to happen?

 

I envision it something like a "Super Sprint"/"Indy 500" hybrid where you would be in a slotted track but you would fly off if you went into the turns too fast or get stuck if you went too slow. Controls would also be an issue since the 2600 doesn't have analog triggers like my old Tyco/TCR/Aurora tracks had.

 

I'd also like to add a jam car and passing (a la TCR) as a bonus if it could handle it but I may be dreaming...

[Vectorman0]

If it can be programmed, it sounds like a great idea! Maybe the paddle controller button could accelerate the car, and the paddle knob could control the power.

[fiddlepaddle]

I LOVE slot car racing, and have hundreds of cars and boxes and boxes of track: from 60's Model Motoring and Tyco up to the current AFX and Mattel stuff, including lots of odd-ball stuff. I've thought a lot about this game idea you're talking about. I'd love to play that game!

 

I imagine it would be quite challenging though to give the player the ability to design layouts and then letting them race, using the 2600. Probably could do it with later systems, though, maybe Genesis. I don't even think NES would be powerful enough to do anything I would be satisfied playing with.

 

Regarding the analog controllers that slot cars use, a paddle controller would be perfect, I think, but as I understand it, they require more processor time than joysticks to use. Maybe would be OK as slot car controller latency may not be as critical as it is with games like kaboom.

 

I've used my Amiga and Deluxe Paint III (must have been close to 25 years ago by now) to design layouts, and had all the different track pieces like 6", 9", 12", 15" curves, 3", 6", 9", 15" straights, Y-tracks, criss-cross, intersection, etc all programmed in so that I could place the pieces around on a 8x4 piece of plywood using my computer before actually building it. Had a ball creating layouts, and drawing new types of track pieces as they came out.

 

A couple of years ago, I duplicated my work using OpenOffice Draw (free software), where I've designed several interesting layouts, and also taken a few pictures of some of those layouts that I actually built and raced on. I was thinking I might eventually publish those layouts in a book, but I don't know how many people would be interested.

 

By the way, I once had a single track that took up the entire living room and dining room, up the walls, 4 or 5 layers deep, AFX, Tomy, Tyco, and Marchon tracks all connected together with homemade adapters. It took about 45 minutes to make one lap.

[BSA Starfire]

I sure hope it would be possible, loved TCR when a kid, the jams car was a really neat idea. Pity the pick-up wore out so fast but otherwise it was great. Go for it Tremoloman I'll buy if you can make it happen :-)

[Mirage]

I'm not an expert, but I'll bet it could be done with a huge cart size, and maybe a SuperChip or something similar. or Supercharger. If Stella's Stocking can be done, what you're saying should be possible... but difficult. Seems to me the hard part would be the construction set part. The racing part set would be the easier part. Not so sure how much fun it would be on the VCS though... not really well-suited to the VCS's capabilities. Some great programmer could probably do something fun with this though.

[tremoloman2006]

I am happy to see slot cars haven't been forgotten!

 

We could skip the construction part and have a track contest like AtariAge did for the 'Indy 500 XE" cart. Of course we could add jumps and stuff like that.

 

I need to hear from people who know the 2600 inside out so I don't give my hopes up. I'm serious when I say I'd learn how to program just to make this no matter how long it took.

[shadow460]

I dunno, man. You'd really need a decent layout size to enjoy it. For example, my old Cliffhanger set required each car to travel over 100 feet for a single lap. That's huge. I had another set with roughly 40 to 50 feet per lane, and it would drive the cars automatically on the inside lane. Three variable resistors were used to set the speed on several corners, and a Model Motoring wheel set the overall speed. A second guide pin added to the back of certain cars stopped oversteer, and frequently the thing was unbeatable.

A paddle controller could simulate the round Model Motoring wheel used for some sets. I'd say you could press the button to cut the power just like the brake switch did on those old slot racing controllers. It could also be used to shift into reverse if needed for truck racing.

 

Really, though, I just don't see where the 2600 could pull off something with a lot of depth to it. I'd want to be able to customize cars...say, I'd want to have an HP7 frame with a typical Curve Hugger motor assembly (except it would be fitted with a G Plus rotor), aluminum rear wheels, a crown gear from a Magna Traction hop up kit, and spongy foam tires. Oh, and let's pull the plastic blade off the front and replace it with a steel guide pin, shall we?

 

Also, how would you implement the insane upside-down-on-the-ceiling parts?

 

I'm thinking this would work better on something like an Apple II, similar to Pinball Construction Set. It is a great idea, but I just don't think it would work.

 

Want slot racers? How about building on the game we have by that name. There was a type of slot racing set that functioned in a similar fashion to that game. The cars were known as either Record Breakers, Hyper Racers, and then there were Stompers we all knew and loved. Hyper Racers were much faster than Stompers, but the tracks were closer to what's in Slot Racer, and movement was very limited. Like Stompers, Hyper Racers were four wheel drive and were battery powered for off track ventures. they featured guide rollers to roll along the sides of the tracks.

IMO, the focus here wasn't on driving at all, but building the best vehicle you could. In a 2600 game, you could lay out a simple track, then you could build the car you wanted and let it all rip. Don't wanna do Hyper Racers? OK, let's build Stompers instead, and customize the layouts with actual dirt, sticks, rocks, and whatever else we could have found outside back then. Heck, let's dump that stuff onto one of those big Bandai tracks and run Hyper Racers over it all.

[Mirage]

You have played Racing Destruction Set, right? On the C64 and probably other 8-bit computers. It's has many similarities to something like this, though it's not slot racers. If you haven't tried it, do so... I expect you'd like it.

 

After thinking about it more, and reading shadow's thoughts (which were pretty much what I was thinking), I just don't see how this is really feasible on the 2600. Something very simplified, maybe, but not fun in the way it should be.

[shadow460]

Perhaps one could program several tracks, like Indy 500, and use the difficulty and TV Type switches to select car types. Perhaps the TV Type switch would choose a car speed, and the difficulty switches would let the players choose a brand. Track types don't matter much...just assume Aurora "deep slot" track is used so that all the cars in question could be run on the stuff.

 

For example:

A = Tyco models

B = Aurora models

 

and on the TV Type switch:

Color = Curve Hugger (Tyco) or Magna Traction (Aurora)

BW = Magnum 440 (Tyco) or G-Plus (Aurora)

 

Throw in a set of four to six tracks, approximate handling for the car types, and there you go.

[yuppicide]

I race slot cars for many years. I like the 1/24th scale cars.. they're about 6 to 8 inches long. I prefer Group 20 class as they're blazing fast. I can travel a 150 foot track in a matter of 2.5 to 3.0 seconds or so on a set of tuna tires. They call them that because when you open them whatever they put on them kind of smell like fish. My controller alone cost me about $150 with low resistor and modified heatsink and fan.

 

Nobody really races Group 20 though around here, but Nascar is pretty popular. I'm about to get back into racing (probably this weekend), but unfortunately I have to buy stuff all over again.. car, gears, tires, controller, etc.

 

The place closest to me in Farmingdale, NJ has been around a LONG time. They have three tracks. The tracks are very well maintained and one has a crossover. They don't make them like this anymore.

 

The cars you mostly play with are H.O. Scale. There's a place about an hour or so away that races them. He has an Aurora commercial track from the 50's or 60's that he still races on.

 

The Race Place is where I race 1/24th scale. If you want to see it here:

 

http://www.geocities.com/rprules4u/

 

To get an idea of the size of that track on the main page, look at the stools to the right. It's pretty freakin huge. They have 3 tracks total.

[Nukey Shay]

You have played Racing Destruction Set, right? On the C64 and probably other 8-bit computers. It's has many similarities to something like this, though it's not slot racers. If you haven't tried it, do so... I expect you'd like it.

 

RDS fails on so many levels Discovering ways to bypass jump height restrictions or (intentionally) create unresolvable tracks was the only interesting thing it had. The game itself is boring IMO.

[Mirage]

You have played Racing Destruction Set, right? On the C64 and probably other 8-bit computers. It's has many similarities to something like this, though it's not slot racers. If you haven't tried it, do so... I expect you'd like it.

 

RDS fails on so many levels Discovering ways to bypass jump height restrictions or (intentionally) create unresolvable tracks was the only interesting thing it had. The game itself is boring IMO.

 

I haven't played it for years, but when I remember it being one of my favorite games when I was about 13-14. Maybe it doesn't hold up as well as my memory seems it would!

[shadow460]

I've seen 1/24ths in action in Fort Smith, AR. Although the tracks used were utilitarian, I was curious about the hobby and the cars.

All the cars I owned and built were roughly 1.64th scale. For those interested, here's a partial list of chassis types I used:

Tyco Curve Hugger HP-1, HP-2, and HP-7

Tyco Magnum 440 and Magnum 440 X-2

Amrac (very, very similar to AFX G Plus, but much lighter and faster)

AFX Magna Traction (one with a special worm gear), and G Plus (one with a special mount for the F-1 body)

Tomy Turbo Cars

1999 Like Like models

 

The special Magna Traction unit I had used a worm gear to drive an electric switch, which activated flashing red and blue lights atop the police cruiser body it had. The unit was interchangeable from chassis to chassis as long as the correct body was used.

The special G Plus chassis I had lacked the normal Aurora style clips that would hold any Magna Traction or G Plus body to it. Instead, the body locked into the same slots as the retaining clip for the magnets. It was 1/4 inch or so narrower than any other Aurora car I had, including the Turbo Cars.

All said, my favorite was (and still is) the three Amrac models I had. They took the G Plus chassis, cut away everything they didn't need, and put the rest on foam rear tires with rubber front tires. The things blew away G Plus, Magnum 440 X-2, and HP7 cars right out of the box. Instead of the metal retaining clip used on a G Plus model, Amrac models were built with metal side retainers that had extra material running underneath the frame to further lower the center of gravity.

Later on, Amrac would market a "Tri Body" set that included three bodies with one chassis. Those sold for about $15 at Kay-Bee, and the single body units sold for $10. By comparison, HP-7 units were $8, IIRC Turbo Cars and G Plus were about $20, and Magnum 440 units were close to $25.

My second favorite was the orginial Curve Hugger, which I think of as an HP-1. As long as you could keep the rear magnets in, you were golden. Sure they had a lot of parts in them...there were six parts between each pickup shoe and the rotor, but they could be tuned for some serious speed. They also used motors that were very similar to those found in Stompers, with the entire motor being contained in a metal frame. Swapping motors was simple in these cars. You could build your own motors when you had time, and then if you wanted, you could swap them out in under a minute without jacking with the brushes or the magnets.

 

One other thing I had that would go well with the game mentioned is the Tyco Super Sound unit. It featured a countdown with three red and one green LED, and it also featured "realistic engine sounds"! Remove a car from the track and the unit produces a screech and an explosion. Start too soon and the countdown scrambles to let you know you need to reset the unit.

[yuppicide]

It's set! Valentine's Day is this weekend. I'm going to ask my Girlfriend to get me a car, controller, and some stuff. Gonna see when they start racing Nascar again.

 

BTW, I loooooooved Racing Destruction Set. Awesome game. So much fun.

[Allpaul]

Maybe they could have separate screens. One for each scenario. On static screen could be the up the wall part, and another could be a different part of the track.. (X-cross etc.) It wouldn't really scroll, but would give the illusion. BTW, I love the paddle button/accelerator idea!

[fiddlepaddle]

Wow. There's a lot more people into this than I expected. I guess you'll have quite a few suggestions coming as you start working on your game.

 

Regarding layouts, you could have a series: oval, then figure eight, then a loop, and so on.

[pinball22]

By the way, I once had a single track that took up the entire living room and dining room, up the walls, 4 or 5 layers deep, AFX, Tomy, Tyco, and Marchon tracks all connected together with homemade adapters. It took about 45 minutes to make one lap.

 

This is what I always dreamed of doing as a kid. I never had enough track to make it as big as I wanted, though.

[yuppicide]

I still have pictures of one of our tracks. It was built on a large table, we had a television because we were going to install a lap counter. We soldered in a heavy duty power supply for more power to run the faster H.O. cars (some cars can cost $200 alone). As for the track, we used some brand off the internet, not Tyco. This brand didn't have grooves to connect it together. You screw it down into the wood. Thus, there's no crappy fit between two pieces of track.

 

We also did have some Tyco track. I remember I used to go to Toys 'R Us, buy a large set and take parts out of the box in the parking lot, and be back inside within 10 minutes exchanging it for another. Then I'd do the same thing to that one only returning it at a different store. We went to 4 or 5 Toy 'R Us locations.. one we got cars and some track, one we got a power supply and some track, the others we got lots of track. Then at the end I still had the receipt so I returned it to get my money back.

 

I just got back from the track about 1.5 hours ago. I bought a Nascar.. Parma Flexi-1. They race on Friday nights. You need to have either a Flexi-1 or 2 chassis, certain body types for Nascar, stock motor sealed, stock 9 pin gear, and can change some other stuff. I have to start off in Novice class since I haven't run in so long, but I'm sure I'll move up quickly. I have to get over 100 laps per race for XX amount of races before I advance.

[fiddlepaddle]

By the way, I once had a single track that took up the entire living room and dining room, up the walls, 4 or 5 layers deep, AFX, Tomy, Tyco, and Marchon tracks all connected together with homemade adapters. It took about 45 minutes to make one lap.

 

This is what I always dreamed of doing as a kid. I never had enough track to make it as big as I wanted, though.

It was pretty cool. I even built a couple of radio-remote controllers using jury-rigged airplane transmitters/receivers and the insides of Tyco controllers so I could walk around without having a cord knocking the trestles over. After weeks of getting it to run smoothly with only a couple of cars that could make all the loops, jumps, etc, I had a party and invited a bunch of friends over. Nobody else could make a car go very far without falling off, so we never got around to racing, but everybody had a great time. Only thing is, one girl got too drunk and kept falling on the track and breaking things that had to be put back together.

[shadow460]

I had a grand total of six or seven cars that could complete my Cliffhangers set. Amazingly this did include one original Curve Hugger model, but I refused to risk damaging it. The ceiling part was a killer for many of them. If I took that out, I could get about nine cars to run at 16.7 volts. When I cranked it up to 25.5 volts, I could get HP-7 cars to clear all three vertical loops and climb to the ceiling but not actually run upside down.

You would think that the high end cars I had would have run the course better, but that's not the case. I had problems with my G Plus and Magnum 440 cars getting up the wall and making the turn. The cheaper Amrac and some of my low end Tyco models ripped right through it.

 

I think the ones that worked when totally upside down were one Amrac unit, a couple of Turbo Cars, and a handful of Magnum 440 X-2 units.

[yuppicide]

Well, I got a brand new Parma Flexi-1 with controller and some tools. I raced my first race in a long time last Friday night. The kid put me in the wrong class and I didn't know it, so I didn't have some things in my car that I should have. namely a smaller gear. They come stock with 31 tooth and most people run 27 or 28 tooth. In the class I was SUPPOSED to be in they only let you run 31 tooth.

 

So, I had a tire come off in one heat, a bodypin come loose in another, and didn't have the smaller gear so I was slower than everyone.

 

I mean I didn't do too bad. I had 78 laps and the next guy up had 97. I am confident with the near gear and some weights to keep me from fishtailing as much I'll do much better next week.