2d/2.5d Racer/Driving Game Fans?

[j.fitzenr]

Hey Folks, I've recently been really focusing on futzing with a lot of games prior to my first build to see exactly what I really *need* on my first cab/CP and what I can do without.  I've noticed a genre that is seemingly sorely underappreciated... the non-3d racer.  (overhead, or 2.5d, isometric, etc.)

Background: honestly, 1000 Miglia, or Great 1000 Mile Rally, or Mile Miglia, or whatever it may be called where you are, is seriously my favorite arcade game of all time.  My mall arcade as a kid had an upright, 360 wheel version of the game that I probably single-handedly made profitable for the op.  It's seriously my favorite arcade game of all time, and probably still the only arcade game I've ever been able to 1cc regularly without obscene amounts of dumb luck.

Not to mention, Super Sprint and Super Offroad were consistent quarter-munchers for me.  I could play Super Sprint for hours without blinking.  I logged probably hundreds of hours on Micro Machines for NES when I was a kid.  RC Pro Am is my own personal Jesus.  That kinda thing.

I don't really have a question about this, just wondering how strange I was for loving these 2d racer type games... I realize there's a major difference between say, Super Sprint and Neo Drift Out, but I consider them spiritually similar.

Primarily I was wondering if there are any other fans of this pseudo-genre, and if there were any other great games I was missing.  I had actually never played Neo Drift Out until yesterday, and I'm wondering what greatness I may be missing!  I can't be the only person that considers this my favorite 'genre' can I?

[bobmoo79]

Yeah I have a soft spot for those games too, but not in the arcade> My main experience was playing games like Nitro, skidmarks and Ivan Iron Man Stewart on the Amiga. Pity I can't figure out how to define the controls for my bartop! I have the emulator all set up, it loads, runs games but my bartop controls do nothing, no matter how I set them up.

[keilmillerjr]

I spent hours at my friends house playing RC Pro AM on his NES.

Lots of places had Super Off-road for Arcade. It was 3 player, so my dad and I would play together, and my brother would join when he was tall enough. I had Super Off-road for the gameboy, but it didn't compare to the arcade experience.

Unfortunately, the closest place to me that I know of that has a real arcade game is Dave and busters, 45 minutes away. And they got rid of all the retro/pinballs except 1 single ms pac/galaga. God, I hate ticket machines. ---smurfing--- legal gambling for kids.

[DarthMarino]

Primarily I was wondering if there are any other fans of this pseudo-genre, and if there were any other great games I was missing

Rock n' Roll Racing on the SNES is fantastic. A fanmade remake called "Motor Rock" was released was released but banned from Steam, likely for copyright infringement. It might be worth also checking out its predecessor, RPM Racing, which is pretty bland but has a track editor.

Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat is a decent arcade game from the same company that made Super Off Road. Badlands is basically Super Sprint in the future with weapons.

[j.fitzenr]

Hell yes, to everyone!  I'll have to check out those Amiga games... and RnR racing is incredible! I remember always being Jake Badlands because it blew my ten year old mind to hear a video game announcer say my name.

Totally just remembered Death Rally for pc until just now, too.  I wonder if I can rig that up on dosbox and find a copy when I finally get a cab... Spent sooo much cash renting the LAN room of our local game shop to play that

[Generic Eric]

1000 Miglia, or Great 1000 Mile Rally, or Mile Miglia, or whatever it may be called

That game is so fun!  I usually end up calling it Great 100 Migila Rally though.  I also spent too much time looking for Tony Stewart Offroad. 

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

I also spent too much time looking for Tony Stewart Offroad. 

(Italics mine.)

... Did you ever find it? 

[Generic Eric]

I also spent too much time looking for Tony Stewart Offroad. 

(Italics mine.)

... Did you ever find it? 

NO

After a while, I lol and come to my senses.

[j.fitzenr]

Tony Stewart's Super On-Road

OMG They Remade Death Rally.  Ugh, I had so much I was going to get accomplished today, too.

[Generic Eric]

Tony Stewart's Super On-Road

OMG They Remade Death Rally.  Ugh, I had so much I was going to get accomplished today, too.

  I get it. 
Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off-Road

I'm @ 71% after 20 hours.  I played on my laptop with the keyboard. 

Gameplay supports keyboard and controller

Its too bad wheel controls fell out of favor.  This game was about 15 years too late.

[Generic Eric]

You might enjoy Real World Racing on steam. Its a top down game with many hairpin turns.  It has a photo real vibe to it.

[BadMouth]

Ivan Ironman Stewart's Super Offroad is one of my favorite arcade games of all time.
The theme music and sounds are one of those triggers that recreates the feeling of being at the mall arcade as a kid.

[harveybirdman]

NITRO!

[Generic Eric]

I think the other reason this sub genre fell out of favor was so many games became based on toys.  Kart racing put a nail in too. 

I play a few iOS games that have this small scale isometric angle racing.  I'll dig it up and get back to you.


If we can have sports games for each console iteration every year, we should be able to have a periodic refresh of a top down racer.

[DarthMarino]

On the current (or almost current) console front, there's a few entries worth mentioning.

Rock 'n Racing Off Road just came out on the the Wii U E Shop. Reviews haven't been great but its obviously an ode to Super Off Road:


One I do recommend though is PixelJunk Racers on PS3.  It's a fixed screen racer game but it plays more like a slot car game.  You control the speed with the analog trigger and just shift lanes.  There's a bunch of different modes instead of just straight racing.  Definitely worth checking out if you're into this genre:

[j.fitzenr]

I still have nightmares about the damn Tornado from Super Sprint.

Thanks for the suggestions folks! 

You might enjoy Real World Racing on steam. Its a top down game with many hairpin turns.  It has a photo real vibe to it.

Gonna pick up that Real World Racer game I think while it's still on sale.  Though the "4-pack" is $7.49 and the "bundle that includes four items" is $2.49?  Color me confused.  But it's a top down racer that looks awesome for under $10, I guess they can just shut up and take my money however they want.

On the current (or almost current) console front, there's a few entries worth mentioning.

Rock 'n Racing Off Road just came out on the the Wii U E Shop. Reviews haven't been great but its obviously an ode to Super Off Road:


One I do recommend though is PixelJunk Racers on PS3.  It's a fixed screen racer game but it plays more like a slot car game.  You control the speed with the analog trigger and just shift lanes.  There's a bunch of different modes instead of just straight racing.  Definitely worth checking out if you're into this genre:

I dug PixelJunk Racers, but then again, I love everything they put out so. I literally don't want to know how many hours I logged of Monsters.

Ivan Ironman Stewart's Super Offroad is one of my favorite arcade games of all time.
The theme music and sounds are one of those triggers that recreates the feeling of being at the mall arcade as a kid.

Totally!  The giant three-wheeled monstrosity might be the single most 90s image I can conjure up.  What sucks is my first build is going to be a bartop, but now it is MANDATORY that it have three 360 wheels on it.  Along with the four 8-ways, and the two 4-ways, and the trackball, and the flightstick and the roadblasters controls and the dedicated q-bert stick and dammit.  Anybody got plans for a twelve-foot-wide bartop, or perhaps have mounting suggestions for a rotating Drive-In Movie Screen?


In case anybody is curious, they apparently ported the original Death Rally to Windows and released it as freeware prior to the remake.  http://www.joystiq.com/game/death-rally/download/death-rally-for-windows-full-game/ I'm going to catch up to Sam Speed if it's the last thing I do!  But seriously, I've got two classes worth of reading, assignments, and exams to do in the next 12 hours and I'm more concerned with Death Rally.

Random update: just remembered another old favorite: F-1 Spirit for MSX.  Apparently it ALSO got remade: http://www.braingames.getput.com/f1spirit/ but I haven't played that remake yet. 

[Generic Eric]

I still have nightmares about the damn Tornado from Super Sprint.

Thanks for the suggestions folks! 

You might enjoy Real World Racing on steam. Its a top down game with many hairpin turns.  It has a photo real vibe to it.

Gonna pick up that Real World Racer game I think while it's still on sale.  Though the "4-pack" is $7.49 and the "bundle that includes four items" is $2.49?  Color me confused.  But it's a top down racer that looks awesome for under $10, I guess they can just shut up and take my money however they want.

Ya, you want the bundle:
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/54469/

Apparently Steam thinks we are all MoneyBag McDucks that send people games for free and need extra keys.  The 4 pack is 4 keys ~ 4 copies of the game.

[j.fitzenr]

Apparently Steam thinks we are all MoneyBag McDucks that send people games for free and need extra keys.  The 4 pack is 4 keys ~ 4 copies of the game.

Jeebus.  Well for $7 if I had four Steam friends I'd probably do it lol. 

[jerrybigd]

Good to see some people are interested in driving games. I am building a spyhunter/other racing games mame machine. I got a turbo cabinet - that was trashed and cat urine infested - cleaned it up and then changed out the control panel with a spyhunter control panel I bought off ebay. Now with the new mame, I can actually have the weapons buttons show up on the screen and have a pretty decent feel of a true spy hunter game.

Since its a mame game, I figured I would put on as many other racing and driving games on the machine as well. In fact, I even made the control panel move in the y axis and I can also play paperboy and starwars on this machine with the movement in the x and y axis's. Not quite the same with these two games as the originals but they are just a bonus. This machine was built to be a spy hunter machine.

I'll try and send some pics whne I get a chance.

[Generic Eric]

Good to see some people are interested in driving games. I am building a spyhunter/other racing games mame machine. I got a turbo cabinet - that was trashed and cat urine infested - cleaned it up and then changed out the control panel with a spyhunter control panel I bought off ebay. Now with the new mame, I can actually have the weapons buttons show up on the screen and have a pretty decent feel of a true spy hunter game.

Since its a mame game, I figured I would put on as many other racing and driving games on the machine as well. In fact, I even made the control panel move in the y axis and I can also play paperboy and starwars on this machine with the movement in the x and y axis's. Not quite the same with these two games as the originals but they are just a bonus. This machine was built to be a spy hunter machine.

I'll try and send some pics whne I get a chance.

That is awesome.  Looking forward to your thread in the project announcements forum.

[BorgDog]

The only racing game I ever really got into was on the PC, MS Monster Truck Madness back in the late 90s.  We used to lan race at work every lunch for months on end (or play Descent, or Doom).  Was awesome that you could create your own tracks for it.  I still have the install for it and a couple custom tracks I made, maybe I'll see if I can get it running on one of my bartops just for fun.  not 2d though so not sure if relevant, and not an arcade game so ... just reminiscing I guess