HSC9 Round 21: The Great American Cross Country Road Race

[adam242]

How did I just notice this??

 

This was one of my favorites, I spent DAYS playing this as a kid. Hopefully I can get a good run in before the deadline.

[jk40001]

Here are my final standings for U.S. Tour: 74:33

 

 

 

This was real fun for me to rediscover this game again after 25 years. I think, I maybe did even better this time than when I was a kid. Good to know, some reflections are still here This was my only participation in HSC9 season but I do hope to join more games in year 2013, see you around!

[Champions_2002]

Will i was looking for the manual for this game i found this little interview from the designer of the game

 

 

 

Alex DeMeo, Designer and Programmer

 

"I felt that in most of the driving games that were around back then,

you were basically driving in circles. So I thought, 'What if we did a

road race like the movie "Gumball Rally"?' In fact, if I remember

correctly, the working title for the game was 'Gumball'. That was what

we called it while it was in development. It was sort of a 'Cannonball

Run' type thing."

 

Fans of the Atari 2600 will certainly notice a similarity between The

Great American Cross-Country Road Race and a game called Enduro for

the Atari. (Look for it on the Activision Atari 2600 Action Pack,

Volume II.) Alex explains the similarity: "The Enduro game was a very

popular 2600 game. Enduro was based on passing a certain number of

cars in a certain time. The code and drivers [parts of the program for

the game] from Enduro that displayed the road and fed cars to pass

were used as the engine for Great American Road Race. But when you

moved to more powerful systems like the Atari 400 or 800, or the

Commodore 64, more was expected of the game, so the whole design,

graphics, sound, and so on, were all redone for the new platforms. We

added elements too, like the dashboard and the police. The program

itself was rewritten from Enduro, due to the extreme differences

between the platforms. The Atari was a very simple machine - you

needed to do ALL the graphics yourself, 'by hand', almost, in the game.

The Commodore was more powerful and had better graphics capabilities,

like sprites." (A sprite is [from the Commodore User's Guide, p. 68]

"a high-resolution programmable object that can be made into just

about any shape". Sprites eased the programmer's job of redrawing the

screen as the game proceeded.)

 

"The Great American Road Race was originally programmed and designed

on an Atari 800. I did the sound, the music, the programming, the

design, and some of the pixelated graphics work. The C64 graphics were

done outside, though."

 

"For a while, Road Race had the distinguished honor of having the

longest title of any game, up until 'The Complete Computer Fireworks

Celebration Kit', another Activision title."

 

"When I was researching the distances between cities, to make sure I

scaled it right, I just used a regular old road atlas, and tried to

choose the cities so that no segments were too short or long. Of

course, due to the geography, some things were unavoidable, like the

drive from Boston to New York, which is really too short for this

game." Obviously, one can't drive from Boston to New York inside four

minutes, even at 100-200 mph (the game's speeds). "The measurements

were all an even multiple of the real thing - I think it was 128 times

faster than real time. So if you took 10 minutes to drive a segment,

theoretically if you drove that same drive in real life at the same

speed you did in the game, it would take exactly 1,280 minutes."

 

"It's really easy to miss a gas station, and I had this list of things

I wanted to fix or improve in the game, but we just had to ship it.

One of the things on that list was reverse gear, but the game had to

go out."

 

"We wanted a really interesting title screen, where the car would

speed by and blow up a lot of dust in its wake. At the time, Peter

Kaminski and Russ Lieblich were working on a game for the C64 called

'Master of the Lamps'. There's this one scene in Master of the Lamps

where the screen fills with smoke. I lifted the algorithm from Peter,

and made minor modifications so it would look like dust. It's not

smoke, though - if it was smoke, that would mean the car was a dog. So

if you look closely, there's actually a graphic under the back wheel

where the rocks are flying up from the road."

[roadrunner]

Another go at LA to NY

 

24:21

[+therealbountybob]

me too but I didn't improve and then I got worse - seems you have to be fresh for a high speed first stage to make headway

Had another attempt at finding a shorter route on the US Tour - I finished in Miami but clocked up (or more likely cocked up) 11,380 miles still I made it in a respectable 80:53 I'll make one final tour tomorrow - this scoreboard has an old 10,466 miles go from my friend so there must be somewhere you can save some miles

Scalak let me know if you need an extra day or two to play

 

Please all take the Gaming Survey (link below) re next season and post any suggestions (not games yet!)

[Scalak]

Scalak let me know if you need an extra day or two to play

 

DieMON times gain respect... my is 19:40... can You take one extra day? If not no problem - cause of my laziness

[horsie]

20:43

 

[jk40001]

me too but I didn't improve and then I got worse - seems you have to be fresh for a high speed first stage to make headway

Had another attempt at finding a shorter route on the US Tour - I finished in Miami but clocked up (or more likely cocked up) 11,380 miles still I made it in a respectable 80:53 I'll make one final tour tomorrow - this scoreboard has an old 10,466 miles go from my friend so there must be somewhere you can save some miles

Scalak let me know if you need an extra day or two to play

 

Please all take the Gaming Survey (link below) re next season and post any suggestions (not games yet!)

 

Please, see my "professional map drawing" below. This is how I made US Tour in 10.942 Miles. DieMON´s way is even bit shorter. If somebody know the shortest one (probably 10.466 miles) and is willing to share, please post!

 

[+therealbountybob]

How did I just notice this??

 

This was one of my favorites, I spent DAYS playing this as a kid. Hopefully I can get a good run in before the deadline.

 

DieMON times gain respect... my is 19:40... can You take one extra day? If not no problem - cause of my laziness

OK this round will now close *Friday 18th Jan 10am GMT*

Scalak you'll need to complete a US Tour to take the title of HSC Champion, but I'll be playing more days too

 

Please, see my "professional map drawing" below. This is how I made US Tour in 10.942 Miles. ...

Call that professional?!!! Check this out for professional:

 

p.s. Yes I'm still playing Zork too

[+therealbountybob]

This round (and Season 9 of High Score Club action) now finishes Fri 18th January @10am GMT.

 

Did I mention I've created a 2013 Atari 8-Bit Gaming Survey on the main forum to generate some interest for next season?!!! Please can everyone complete this and put any comments or suggestions on too (do not list games yet)

 

Thanks

[DieMON]

Here is my "non-professional digitalized map" for US Tour - 10.878 miles

[jblenkle]

I see you gave me a point for at least playing...I was just coming on here to ask that!!!

 

 

Here's one of my DQ screens...I have gotten so I can make it through 3 or 4 stages of the game, but then I just run out of time...usually because I keep whizzing by the gas stops and run out of fuel or get stopped several times by the cops...

[+therealbountybob]

I see you gave me a point for at least playing...I was just coming on here to ask that!!!

 

 

Here's one of my DQ screens...I have gotten so I can make it through 3 or 4 stages of the game, but then I just run out of time...usually because I keep whizzing by the gas stops and run out of fuel or get stopped several times by the cops...

As soon as you get a "gas on the" message slam the brakes on and pull over and re-accellerate to 62 (the top of 2nd gear) if it's fog then go slower still you can then usually react in time to stop for the gas Cops 60mph if the radar warning is on at the start of a stage or accelerate to the max (and keep it held) hog the middle of the road too - once the cops are off slam on the anchors again and accelerate to cruising speed. Better to take it easy when it's busy.

 

If you have time take a bash at the US Tour it's funb trying out some of the other features

 

I had a go setting the start time of day and improved to 17:56 and this will make everyone laugh I spent a good hour playing the US Tour thinking I'd finished but I'd missed out a city miles away

[jblenkle]

LA to NY - 25:55 / 107mph

[adam242]

Thanks for the extension, Bob! Feels great to revisit this game from a real Activision floppy on real hardware after years. I'd almost forgotten how "realistic" this game is - fuel consumption, police radar, weather, traffic... Unfortunately, I no longer have the reflexes of a 13-year-old!

 

Here's my first two attempts, 22:45 @ 123 MPH and 21:01 @ 133 MPH. Crashed a lot, missed a few fuel stops and got pulled over once. I'll be playing more tomorrow and Thursday, I know I can beat this. I need to play around with the start time to figure out when I want to hit traffic.

 

 

Thanks again, this is great fun and really takes me back. (Second pic is a bunch of my scores 'back in the day', circa 1986/87)

 

Edited January 16, 2013 by adam242

[horsie]

brmm brmmm

 

19:35

 

[roadrunner]

@trbb, my time for LA to NY is 24:21 not 24:29

 

 

 

edit - fixed

Edited January 16, 2013 by roadrunner

[+therealbountybob]

Latest T.G.A.C.C.R.R. Tables:

L.A. to N.Y.C

1st Top Speed DieMON 16:52 165 mph 12pts

2nd The One jk40001 17:45 157mph 11pts

3rd myrearbrakesarefrozenon&settingonfireReallyBountyBob 17:56 154mph 10pts

4th Fast Caco 19:23 144 9pts

5th Speedy Sikor 19:27 143mph 8pts

6th more horsie power 19:35 142 7pts

7th Late Start Scalak 19:40 141mph 6pts

8th adam242 21:01 133 5pts

9th Fulcrum Fallout 22:30 124mph 5pts

10th learner driver jblenkle 25:55 107

11th Dieselhead Dom (in his beamer320i) 23:07 119mph 4pts

12th Northern Norman (Champs) 23:19 120 3pts

13th Long Gone McKong 24:16 115mph 2pts

14th Anvil dodging roadrunner 24:21 114mph 2pts

15th hiswheelsareshaking orpheuswaking DQ 1pt

 

U.S. Tour Bonus [Position Player Time Miles Points]

1st DieMON 71:37 10,878 12pts+1pt for winning!

2nd The One jk40001 74:33 10,942 12pts

3rd Beat High Revvin Renee for 12pts 76:00 11021

4th Beat Leadfoot Laurette for 11 pts 78:43 11021

5th The Wheel Bounty Bob 79:03 11,096 10pts

6th Beat Jersey Jessica for 10pts 81:38 11021

7th Beat Move Over Mary for 9pts 84:47 11021

8th Beat Daring Dan for 8pts 88:10 11021

9th Beat Jump Start John for 7pts 91:50 11021

10th Beat 'Jet Engine Jim for 6pts 95:50 11021

11th Beat Careful Caroline for 5pts 100:11 11021

12th Beat Keep Ahead Kevin for 4pts 104:58 11021

13th beep beep it's the roadrunner 107:53 11,160 3pts

14th Beat Quick Start K.C. for 3pts 110:13 11021

Finish the course for 1pt

remember you can set the time of day by pressing Option/F4 to choose a start time for either race

 

Season 9 As it stands...

1st therealbountybob (293) +10 +10 = 313pts

2nd Scalak (298) +6 = 304pts

 

p.s. Planet Rock currently playing 'Wheel in the Sky' by Journey

[+therealbountybob]

Well what do you know I found a shorter route... and this time I didn't miss out a city half way across the map

US Tour 10,795 miles and 73:06 would have been better if I'd slowed down at the start, much better when I dropped the speed and took it easier. Well there you go Scalak you did say you wanted a challenge in the last few rounds, so it's another +2 for me

 

p.s. Liked the old scoreboards Adam242

[jblenkle]

Great American CC Road Race - 25:05 / 111mph

[Sikor]

My poor result for US tour: 95:00

[+orpheuswaking]

After finally getting the hang of this... No time for the US tour though.

 

LA to NY

 

22:23 - 125mph

 

[Scalak]

haha trbb it seems that you will win! My lovely wife bought me a few days ago puzzle (5k pieces) I love it but maybe tomorrow will win the atari with puzzles ...

Edited January 17, 2013 by Scalak

[horsie]

U.S. Tour - 88:45

 

[adam242]

Got a few more games in tonight.... best I could manage was an 18:56 @ 147.

 

I'm getting there! Just haven't quite figured out the right departure time to hit the traffic sweet spots.