Best 3D racing game for the 9918A

[Asmusr]

The 9918A is difficult when it comes to racing games. We have Pole Position for the TI. Has anything better been developed for one of the other computers that share the same VDP (Colecovision, Intellivision, MSX1, ...)?

 

[+save2600]

Always wished a port of Turbo had made it to the TI. Not sure I'm aware of anything better than Turbo for both the CV and Intv...

 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=intellivision+colecovision+turbo

 

 

[matthew180]

I don't know, but my instinct would be to look at the MSX1 for examples, although I learned yesterday that the CV set the bar for the NES engineers to pass, so there is that.

[Asmusr]

36 minutes ago, save2600 said:

Always wished a port of Turbo had made it to the TI. Not sure I'm aware of anything better than Turbo for both the CV and Intv...

 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=intellivision+colecovision+turbo

 

 

Some interesting ideas there. I assume it is changing between 4 different name tables that are already in VDP RAM.

[Asmusr]

19 minutes ago, matthew180 said:

I don't know, but my instinct would be to look at the MSX1 for examples, although I learned yesterday that the CV set the bar for the NES engineers to pass, so there is that.

It has a version of Outrun but I have mixed feelings about that. I like the music, though.

 

 

[ti99iuc]

I would love an OutRun on TI99...

 

MSX version is very close to the one for Spectrum. 

lazy developers I think  
 

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by ti99iuc

[Asmusr]

7 minutes ago, ti99iuc said:

OutRun on MSX is very close to the Spectrum version

I don't know if the game would run on an 48K Spectrum, but the music is from the much later (1985) 128K model.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Asmusr

[ti99iuc]

I checked on this website
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3563/ZX-Spectrum/Out_Run

here says that Outrun was from 1987 and work on Spectrum 48k/128K 
Probably just playing it on the 128K version can play the music and not in the 48K? I do not know, just suppose, I always hated the Spectrum ?
Probably also the Outrun for the Amstrad CPC was just a simply convertion of the spectrum code.

I remember I really loved the C64 version instead but yes, it is another CPU I know

Anyway if it could be interesting to read this:
https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/software/outrun

Edited September 3, 2021 by ti99iuc

[Asmusr]

1 minute ago, ti99iuc said:

I checked on this website
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3563/ZX-Spectrum/Out_Run

here says that Outrun was from 1987 and work on Spectrum 48k/128K 
Probably just playing it on the 128K version can play the music and not in the 48K? I do not know, just suppose, I always hated the Spectrum ?
Probably also the Outrun for the Amstrad CPC was just a simply convertion of the spectrum code.

I remember I really loved the C64 version instead but yes, it is another CPU I know

Well I love the ZX Spectrum and it's incredible library of games, but as you said what you can do on a Spectrum, which has direct access to video memory, has little to do with what you can do on 9918A machines. So I'm still looking for more examples, to make sure we can do better.

[ti99iuc]

on MSX we have also:
Hyper Rally

 

a good version of the Enduro of the Atari2600 but named Endurace on MSX:

 

[ti99iuc]

I also loved a lot Buggy Boy on C64 but I seen there is also a Spectrum 48K version
 

 

[tmop69]

@Asmusr are you selecting the next game to create? ?

 

For Colecovision there is also PitStop from Epyx to consider.

 

[matthew180]

Do they have to be 1st person, or over-the-shoulder view (not sure what that is, 3rd person?).  What about top-down or isometric kinds of driving games?

 

Edit: never mind, I should learn to read the topic title.

Edited September 3, 2021 by matthew180

[Asmusr]

43 minutes ago, ti99iuc said:

Hyper Rally

That looks quite nice. Again it's seems to be flipping between 4 name tables to create the animation. The curvature of the road looks a bit exaggerated..

Edited September 3, 2021 by Asmusr

[+OLD CS1]

Test Drive gets my vote.  I love that game.  I believe Test Drive II: The Duel is the one which came to MSX, and it definitely improved upon the original.  I played them both on my C64.

 

Ah, yeah, here:

 

 

Although, I think Outrun is far more iconic.  I liked it but not as much.

[+OLD CS1]

8 hours ago, ti99iuc said:

I also loved a lot Buggy Boy on C64 but I seen there is also a Spectrum 48K version

Oh!  That reminds me of another C64 racing game I enjoyed playing.  Stunt Car Racer!  What it lacks in graphics it makes up for in game play.  It seems monotonous but is really fun.  Granted, not a 9918A, but looks simple enough to make work.

 

ZX Spectrum represented in this "Let's Compare" video.

 

 

Commodore 64 version.

 

 

[+InsaneMultitasker]

F1 spirit, top-down similar to road hunter in that regard, though not as smooth. Some nice, fast gameplay.

 

 

I enjoyed playing Pitstop II split-screen head-to-head (the screen was split in half top/bottom)  with friends on the C64 back in the day.  Don't think there was anything 9918 specific for that game; would be neat if TIPI was fast enough for competitive racing

 

There is a Pitstop for coleco but single player only, not the most robust gameplay or graphics but still some simple fun.

 

 

[Asmusr]

2 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Oh!  That reminds me of another C64 racing game I enjoyed playing.  Stunt Car Racer!  What it lacks in graphics it makes up for in game play.  It seems monotonous but is really fun.  Granted, not a 9918A, but looks simple enough to make work.

I used to play Stunt Car Racer a lot but that must have been on the PC. I think it would be a difficult challenge for the 9918A. In the same category I spent an insane amount of time playing a later PC game called Stunts.

[tmop69]

37 minutes ago, Asmusr said:

I used to play Stunt Car Racer a lot but that must have been on the PC. I think it would be a difficult challenge for the 9918A. In the same category I spent an insane amount of time playing a later PC game called Stunts.

I agree that is better to focus on games designed for 8bit systems. Stunt Car Racer was a great game to play on 16bit generation machines (Amiga/Atari ST). The 8bit versions were necessarily cut down and published just for milking the cow. Similarly for Test Drive, Outrun and Buggy Boy.
In particular, Buggy Boy was fun on Amiga because it was fast. Just look at the video of the Spectrum version: ultra slow. Out Run had a great graphics and it was a fast game on Arcades. The MSX version is slow and with a mediocre graphic. Also the Amiga version was a mediocre conversion.
Test Drive hasn't a great gameplay on the 16bit versions and the focus was mainly on graphics/realism. If you look at the C64 version you'll see that is slow and boring.

 

[+jedimatt42]

8 hours ago, InsaneMultitasker said:

would be neat if TIPI was fast enough for competitive racing

We have tech demos that show it should be fast enough. Network latency need to be less that 25ms to seem responsive at 30fps. You should be able to get that in a local LAN setting.

 

With modern games, predictive compute is used to make up for network latency.

[Asmusr]

So far I think Turbo and Hyper Rally look like the best 3D racing games for the 9918A. Outrun and Test Drive II are too slow in my opinion.

[+OLD CS1]

9 hours ago, tmop69 said:

Test Drive hasn't a great gameplay on the 16bit versions and the focus was mainly on graphics/realism. If you look at the C64 version you'll see that is slow and boring.

Test Drive II on the C64 is at least a well put-together rendition which holds its own against the other platforms released at the same time.  If you were an 8-bit user in 1989, you did not expect miracles compared to an Amiga or Atari ST, but what we got was still playable and impressive enough to make it worth the purchase.  As noted at the time, if you cannot grok the original Test Drive you likely will not enjoy the sequel.  That said, yeah, the 16-bit renditions are pretty basic.  I think a lot more could have been done with the Amiga and Sega Genesis.

[+retroclouds]

Lotus F3 for MSX1. Granted it’s not a 3D first person. But this is the best smooth scrolling racing game I’ve seen for the 9918.

It’s a homebrew of Dvik & Joyrex, they did some very impressive over the years.

 

 

[+Torrax]

Here's another two to check out -- GP World and Safari Race on the Sega SG-1000.

[+mizapf]

6 hours ago, retroclouds said:

Lotus F3 for MSX1. Granted it’s not a 3D first person. But this is the best smooth scrolling racing game I’ve seen for the 9918.

It’s a homebrew of Dvik & Joyrex, they did some very impressive over the years.

Once again one of those games where I would have lost every bet that this can't be on a 9918.