World Tour Racing: Brief History and Review

[JaguarGod]

Quick Note

 

Well, I couldn't sleep and things have been a bit crazy around my personal life so I thought I would try to take my mind off of things. I sincerely hope you don't mind, but I thought I would again turn to the Jag community as an outlet. I apologize for the length of this post, but I really like to let loose when I write about WTR. I'm leaving a lot out here and feel free to add anything in this thread you like.

 

Forward

I have not posted here much over the years, but as a lot of the members here or members from past forums may know, I am a huge fan of the Atari Jaguar and have been since I got my first one in late '93. I have also been a huge fan of Formula 1 and open wheel racing in general since the 80's and even developed my own racing sim in 2011 for the Mac platform that was well received, but far from perfect, though I did receive a 7.5 out of 10 from Inside Mac Games! I was shocked. When World Tour Racing was released, I was absolutely excited to play it and I still play it more than any other Jag game to this day. It’s not just my favorite Jaguar game, it’s one of my favorite games of all time. I have tried to watch for and get my hands on anything related to the game and have even created something for the game that I would love to share with any fans of the game in the future when it is officially finished. Sorry, it’s not a beta or anything great like that, but something that took me a lot of time to create and produce, but that’s for the future and not now.

Ok, I’ll stay on topic…. Years ago, I was close to getting a great piece of WTR development history, but unfortunately, I was led on a wild-goose chase that turned up nothing of real historical importance pertaining to WTR. I have the original game and the betas from B&C along with, personally, my favorite version of the game that was released in the Jaguar Sector II Extremist Pack #2. This version of WTR is so very close to the final product, but includes all of the real-life drivers along with liveries that are much closer to the actual cars and the best lap times from the real drivers on the courses at that time. It’s simply fantastic in my opinion and I have been primarily addicted to the marriage of my beloved Atari Jaguar and Formula 1 since I first played it. I know it may sound strange, but everyone has their favorite genres, consoles and collector’s items and this just happens to be mine.

Unfortunately, I know I will never be able to get my hands on any of the elusive cart version builds or anything else related to the early versions of the game and that stinks. It would be really great to try out that version of the game simply for nostalgic reasons. I would pay an arm and a leg and sell the rest of my Jag collection to get my hands on something like that! Lol! But I still think it is cool to see some of the older WTR stuff and how the game progressed through time. I am very thankful this game saw the light of day and that there are some early versions that I can go back to and play from time to time. In 1994, Lee Briggs, WTR's programmer, was developing an Amiga game that would eventually become the roots of World Tour Racing. It was called F1-Racer and having played the game, the similarities are fairly noticeable. That’s where I would like to start.

Thanks.

Brief ‘WORLD TOUR RACING’ History

F1-Racer, from Lee Briggs, was the beginning of what would eventually become World Tour Racing. In and of itself, F1-Racer was headed in the right direction in my opinion. It’s an impressive semi-sim and has some nice options for tuning the car and getting the best lap times though there was not a lot of content. I enjoy the game and like trying to play the game well with a mouse! I stink at driving with a mouse. Would be a lot better with a Jaguar controller. You can find a nice little review of the 2.0 version here; https://amigueros.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/f1-racer-a-la-sombra-de-microprose-f1gp/

F1-Racer by Lee Briggs for the Amiga

*****************

When the game was to be developed for the Atari Jaguar, it was originally a cart game. But the game would be moved to the JaguarCD platform and overhauled quite a bit in the graphics department. Here you will see the cart version in action. Really wish this version was somewhere out there where I could get my hands on it. It looked very basic and a bit more like Checkered Flag. The framerate looks pretty low, but as you can see in the video, the car was still quite controllable even this early on. I was amazed at the cockpit view and how the different sprite layers moved and created a much more animated experience. But I also think that the finished version cockpit was a bit less distracting therefor creating a better overall racing experience. Please note that this video is taken from PSNation. You can find their YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/psnation

World Tour Racing (Cartridge Version)

https://youtu.be/zu-WOiTw44Q

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After the games official Telegrams release (I know, going a bit out of order, but I'm putting this in order of versions instead of release dates), some beta versions were released to interested Jaguar players from B&C and Jason Smith at Jaguar Sector II. My favorite version was the release from Jaguar Sector II. This beta version is almost identical to the final version. One big difference though was that it still had the actual teams and drivers from that time. Awesome! The car liveries were more in step with their real-life counterparts from that era too. Unfortunately, though understandably, the officially released version did not have the F1 license and the teams and drivers had to be excluded and replaced by fictitious ones. I don’t think there was any way that license was going to be paid for! Lol! The Jaguar Extremist Pack #2 version of the game does include the Track Editor, but this version of the track editor is much easier to use than the version in the official release and is very intuitive and quite impressive. I will upload some videos of the differences in the track editors from all the versions of the game I own. This video is a bit older and not in HD. Sorry about that, but I didn’t have my ElGato HD 60 at the time.

World Tour Racing (Jaguar Extremist Pack #2 Early Version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk6i6RN84-A

*****************

The game was officially released by Telegames and I was very excited to try this game out. I was absolutely amazed when I received my copy of the game during it’s official release and I can still remember being very pleased with the 3D engine and how much fun it was racing the AI. In a few email conversations I had with Lee Briggs many years ago, I complimented him on just how impressive the AI was to race against and how it always felt like you were actually fighting for position with your opponents instead of flying by them or having them whizz by when they passed you like what happened in Checkered Flag. It was real wheel-to-wheel Formula 1 racing in a 3D environment on my favorite console and I couldn’t have been happier.

World Tour Racing (Official Release)

*****************

World Tour Racing Review by JaguarGod

You can also find my review at; www.siniscope.com/wtr-review.html

"World Tour Racing: Takes the Checkered Flag for the Atari Jaguar"

The Atari Jaguar has been bashed quite a bit since it's release by reviewers and gamers alike and continues to be to this day. But the Jaguar can be very misunderstood by those who have either never played it or those who didn't really give it a chance. But this negativity is not totally unfounded. I'm sure most classic or nostalgic gamers have heard of the game Checkered Flag for the Atari Jaguar. But I'm also sure that it was mentioned as a joke or a way to put the system down more than likely. Many people were left with this memory of what 3D racing on the Atari Jaguar was like and stayed away at all costs. Can World Tour Racing for the JaguarCD make believers out of them.

World Tour Racing is no Checkered Flag... Thank Goodness

Being a huge Atari fan and with thoughts of the acclaimed Checkered Flag for the Atari Lynx abound, I was excited about Checkered Flag for the Jaguar. What could the 64 Bit console do for the 3D open wheel racing genre? Uh Oh! Well, though I believe Checkered Flag can be fun at times, it is simply not a good game. Broken controls and a terrible framerate spoil the nice colorful polygonal look of the game and what the game should have been. Well, enter Teque and programmer, Lee A. Briggs and World Tour Racing is born. What a difference a few years makes.

World Tour Racing Description

World Tour Racing is a 3D polygonal racer for the Atari Jaguar CD addon. Though it is based on the Formula 1 series, it does not have the F1 license so you won't be able to race as Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen or any of your favorite drivers from that era. But the game does include an editor for names in the options menu, so if you were so inclined to take the time to do so you could add them to the grid. It also has 2-player support via split screen. There are 16 tracks to race on with 12 of them mimicking their real-life 90's counterparts and the other 4 being fantasy tracks. You can tune your racer to your liking for the best lap times or to try for the pole position. Three difficulty settings along with 3 to 15 lap race options should give drivers of all levels a chance to aggressively compete and shoot for the podium. Tire wear and wing damage can ruin your race if you're not careful. A cockpit view along with other chase views and even a trackside camera are selectable while on track along with the choice of automatic or manual gears. Watch the lights go out and slam the accelerator! It's time to go racing F1 style on the Atari Jaguar.

Graphics

Graphically, World Tour Racing includes textures and a mixture of polygons and sprites on track unlike Checkered Flag. World Tour Racing is a graphical mixture of good and… well… not so good. The cars are actually modeled well for the Jaguar. What you might not notice is that the game contains more than one car model. It may be a little hard to tell due to the fairly low resolution used in the game, but nice nonetheless. The track surface can be textured if you like by pressing the “8” button while on track. But it will cost you a few frames per second which it really can't spare and it doesn't look as well as you might hope. Hence the reason it is off by default. Trackside objects consist of polygonal buildings, a mixture of polygonal and sprite based vehicles, 2D people and trees, polygonal grandstands, Atari Jaguar and Jaguar game banners and signs along with some of the strangest clouds you'll ever see. I'll admit that I truly enjoy the moving clouds and I am glad they were put in. The drivers field of view and the draw distance are very nicely done and make judging your breaking points or passing a rival much easier. Nice backdrops are incorporated into the tracks, though some are used more than once and the low resolution makes them pretty pixelated.

Presentation

The games presentation is fairly well done, with beautiful FMV (that's full motion video for our younger readers who are used to our powerful home consoles now) sequences that in some cases serve as the underlying background for your menu. While on track, information such as your position on track, speed, lap and lap time are all available to you. Unfortunately, this cannot be turned off. With the resolution the game is running in, the text is a little large and cumbersome. It would have been nice to have the option to turn this off. It's easy to navigate through the menus though it can take a few seconds to load some of the menus. As you progress through the games Championship mode, you will have to write down a passcode in place of saving. The game does not utilize the Jaguar's Memory Track unfortunately. The 16 character passcode can be a handful but it's the only way to keep your game progression. Luckily, these passcodes can be found easily online if you have lost or forgotten yours.

Sound

The engine sounds in World Tour Racing are fairly well done and give a good sense of when to change gears if you use the manual gear option. Screeching tires let you know when you've lost grip and need to make an adjustment. Collisions can be common if you're not careful and the accompanying sound is a little weak in my opinion, but it gets the job done. One of the highlights in the sound category would be the music. Though there is not a lot of it, the music is very nice and sounds great if you have a nice audio system. But of course, you can always turn the music off by pressing the “0” button. While on track, the engine noise, voice and music levels can be adjusted by pausing the game and pressing either the “A” button for music, “B” for voice and “C” for engine. The only voice audio you'll hear in the game is the sample “Final Lap”.

Gameplay

Well, this is a little complicated. The framerate can be a bit touchy and is extremely noticeable on some tracks more than others and when playing 2-player split screen. Fortunately, the control is tightly done and even when the framerate falls to an almost unbearable low, you can still control the action on screen fairly easily. But there is a caveat to this. The game includes an automatic steering and throttle mechanism (control interpreter) that you cannot turn off. It is noticeable when you drive but especially when trying to enter the pits. Sometimes it's almost impossible to get into the pits. The collision detection can be frustratingly crazy at times. There are times you hit a car and all hell breaks loose! Your car goes spinning into the air or shoots backwards for some reason. For the most part, it works just OK. But it is definitely not a high point of the game. This can be a bit frustrating as you cruise around the tracks. You can learn to drive clean if you take the time to, but eventually you'll hit somebody or something and it's a bit unpredictable. That brings us to the AI. You'll be happy to know that the AI in World Tour Racing is well done. Especially for a game that was released in 1997. The cars can be aggressive, but they definitely know when to give up and fall in line. The great thing about the AI is the fact that unlike Checkered Flag before it, you actually race wheel to wheel with your competitors. Not only can the racing be hair raising and fun, but it can actually be very satisfying! Whether you're racing for first place or to stay out of last place, it is quite satisfying to set up and then make that pass. I'm still impressed with the AI to this day. It's obviously not perfect and the game is not a sim as a lot of the time you are power sliding around turns to get the best lap times. But theres a lot of fun to be had if you give it time. All in all, it's quite fun to play World Tour Racing and I still have as much fun now as I did when it was released.

Summary

While the Atari Jaguar is not known for 3D racers, World Tour Racing is definitely worth a try. While Super Burnout and Power Drive Rally get a lot of applause as the Jaguar's best racers, as well they should, World Tour Racing shows that there was potential in the Jaguar and the CD addon. All of this was done while Atari was dying and pressure was high. Framerate issues are there, but the controls are not broken as they are in Checkered Flag and this makes World Tour Racing a good racer. If you have a JaguarCD and are thinking about getting World Tour Racing, do it (though you'll be hard pressed to find it these days and it'll cost you a fortune on eBay).

Score

My official score is 8 out of 10

My Heart scores it 11 out of 10

Edited September 27, 2016 by JaguarGod

[sd32]

Great review and history bit. I love this sort of stuff. I had never seen that footage of the cart version before. I wish they had kept the untextured look, i love it! And they probably could have achieved a higher frame rate had they gone that direction.

 

Isnt World Tour racing said to have had a version with better performance almost ready, but Atari went ahead and released this choppier one. Or was it another Jag game?. This sort of story comes up quiet often, hehe.

 

Good job JaguarGod!

[KidGameR186496]

Great history compendium about World Tour Racing good job mate

Edited September 27, 2016 by KidGameR186496

[bmx]

Nice review, thank you.

Maybe the upcoming SD-Card from SainT in combination with the CD-Player code from Songbird can help you to play your favorite game from Cart in the future. At least the released versions.

[+Saturn]

Amazing amount of history there. Had no idea about the initial cart versions.

That's some excellent driving skills you have. Jeeze, it would take me ages to get that good and memorize the turns. Waiting on SainT and Carl's projects to become reality so I can play this at length without burning up a JagCD. Too risky to play long term at their age and price tag.

Thanks for this JG

[JaguarGod]

Thanks guys. Like I said, I was just having a bad night and doing that calmed me down quite a bit and got my mind off of things. Man, I really wish I could have had the chance to pick up a cart build of the game. The framerate doesn't look great in it, but it is something from the WTR timeline and I would love to have as much as I can from the game.

 

As far as the JagCD getting worn out, I am a bit nervous about that. I play this game for hours at a time and I am still using my original JagCD unit I purchased in 95. Luckily I still have an extra and all I can hope is that it is made like the one I have been using for the past 21 years!

[+save2600]

Sweet, thanks for the awesome writeup! Never made the connection with Amiga's F1 Racer until now... talk about some tour de force programming.

 

Still give Auto Sport Driving (originally said Formula F1, but meant ASD) a go on my Mac once in a while and nice to see you're still around thinking about this stuff. Would love a cartridge copy of that early version of WTR on the Jaguar too!

[Rick Dangerous]

TL;DR

 

Just kidding, great write up and cool to see the video's and history of the game. Also its always fun to see someones passion for a particular game.

[JaguarGod]

TL;DR

 

Just kidding, great write up and cool to see the video's and history of the game. Also its always fun to see someones passion for a particular game.

 

Yeah, I was babbling quite a bit there! I am such a big fan of WTR and I wish I had more versions to try. The Extremist pack version is awesome. I can only imagine if there had been a World Tour Racing 2 with the new engine.

[Bill Loguidice]

Excellent, thorough review. I agree that WTR is one of the Jaguar's better looking games. It's just a shame about the framerate issues, which really undermines a lot of the game for me.

[JaguarGod]

Excellent, thorough review. I agree that WTR is one of the Jaguar's better looking games. It's just a shame about the framerate issues, which really undermines a lot of the game for me.

 

The framerate is quite a shame as it feels like Lee squeezed what he could out of the Jag with the engine he put together at the time. But I really think if he would have been able to keep going without textures it would have been a sight to behold.

Edited September 27, 2016 by JaguarGod

[Isgoed]

Nice read, thanks!

[Fredifredo]

One Player in 60 hz mode : Good game I say

2 players mode in 50 hz : Checkered mode activate :/

[JaguarGod]

One Player in 60 hz mode : Good game I say

2 players mode in 50 hz : Checkered mode activate :/

 

It's playable in two player mode even though the framerate is quite low, but only because the control is fairly good and the "control interpreter" Lee incorporated can really help keep the car on the track. It may not be much to look at though when the fps is really low. If the game is running at a very low framerate and you were heading into a turn without the assistance, you would end up a bit more like Checkered Flag. You can see this when you are outside those control parameters (either going too slow around the turn in which you then have full control most of the time or if your car is outside what the normal racing line would be) and you actually take control and the car can suddenly oversteer into the guardrail fairly easily.

 

I wish the game ran as fast as when I edit everything out of the track!

Edited September 27, 2016 by JaguarGod

[JaguarGod]

Sweet, thanks for the awesome writeup! Never made the connection with Amiga's F1 Racer until now... talk about some tour de force programming.

 

Still give Formula F1 a go on my Mac once in a while and nice to see you're still around thinking about this stuff. Would love a cartridge copy of that early version of WTR on the Jaguar too!

 

Yes, a cart build of WTR would be my favorite piece of Jag history ever if I would have been able to get my hands on it.

 

As far as Mac racing...... I still play a bunch of racing games on my Mac and to be honest, I have been thinking about bringing my game back and updating the hell out of it. I'm getting that itch a bit more every day. I would like to add a few more tracks, overhaul the graphics and make it free with the hopes that some people would donate or sell it for $0.99 so I could make a little money. It's really sad, but there were some issues (some were my fault) and I never saw a cent for my game. 9 months in development, sitting in my office and ruining my marriage! Lol! I could push the issue and make a stink about it, but I haven't as the only person I could really bitch to would be Paolo and he was nothing but super nice to me throughout the development of the game. I don't think the publisher is around anymore, so I would probably never get anywhere anyway. Thus, I would really like to actually make something on the game.

[JaguarBrett]

Awesome to read thanks for posting!

One of my top 3 Jag games for sure ?

[+madman]

As far as the JagCD getting worn out, I am a bit nervous about that. I play this game for hours at a time and I am still using my original JagCD unit I purchased in 95. Luckily I still have an extra and all I can hope is that it is made like the one I have been using for the past 21 years!

The Jag CD laser is readily available for cheap, I have 2 backups for the future that should last me the rest of my life.

[JaguarGod]

The Jag CD laser is readily available for cheap, I have 2 backups for the future that should last me the rest of my life.

 

So, it's a good idea to pick a few of these up? I would hate to not be able to play WTR.

[+madman]

So, it's a good idea to pick a few of these up? I would hate to not be able to play WTR.

Yep, there are a few threads around here about which laser model you need, a search should turn it up for you. That's really the only part that'll wear out on the Jag CD, there isn't a lot else to the CD unit. No extra memory or processors or anything. It's pretty basic.

[JaguarGod]

Yep, there are a few threads around here about which laser model you need, a search should turn it up for you. That's really the only part that'll wear out on the Jag CD, there isn't a lot else to the CD unit. No extra memory or processors or anything. It's pretty basic.

 

I still can't believe I'm using my original JagCD unit from '95. Awesome.

[skip]

I still need to pick this up at some point. Hopefully soon (and the beta versions as well just to be a completist ).

Have you played the first officially licensed F1 game on the original PlayStation? I always thought that was a great game (and very graphically pleasing for its time).

[JaguarGod]

I still need to pick this up at some point. Hopefully soon (and the beta versions as well just to be a completist ).

 

Have you played the first officially licensed F1 game on the original PlayStation? I always thought that was a great game (and very graphically pleasing for its time).

 

Yes. That game was a real eye opener when it was released as it was so cool to play my favorite drivers from that era and hear the commentary that went along with it. I have collected F1, IndyCar and all other Open Wheel games for many years now. I now have around 200 of them, though I no longer play a lot of them. WTR gets the most play out of all of them. I play Final Lap 2000 for the Wonderswan quite a bit too.

[JaguarGod]

Nice review, thank you.

Maybe the upcoming SD-Card from SainT in combination with the CD-Player code from Songbird can help you to play your favorite game from Cart in the future. At least the released versions.

 

This would be really great! I would pay handsomely to be able to play WTR from Cartridge. I wonder what the finished version would have looked like if it were released on cart. In my opinion, releasing the game on CD was not a bad call as the music and the added space on cd for graphics was a positive. But on cart, I can only imagine what the load times and frame rates could have been like with no textures and optimized. Man, I need to find a build of that old cart version. I feel a disturbance in the force..... A cart build is out there somewhere.

[JaguarGod]

Just for an update, the review is now on my new website <here>.

 

Well, no luck with the cart as I got a bit of the run-around again. But I have been told that there is a version of the game on cart somewhere that is actually playable (not the first time I have been told this though). I cannot confirm this of course, but hopefully it is true and I can track it down as I just emailed someone about it. I do not want to bother Lee as he may not have been hard to find, but I think he has gotten over the WTR story a bit and probably does not want to be bothered anymore about it. If I recall, and I can check my old emails, I think he stated that he does not have anything pertaining to WTR or it's development anymore?

 

Here's a couple new screenshots to make the bumping of this old thread less angering to everyone here.

 

 

 

Scenic Shot

 

Beautiful Monaco

 

Wheel to Wheel Racing

[Ayreon]

Wheel to wheel racing? Looks like Vettel is torpedoing Massa after the later one ignored too many blue flags. Honestly..what is he doing?