World Tour Racing: Brief History and Review

[JaguarGod]

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

 

That gave me a good laugh! I needed that this morning.

[JaguarGod]

I just realized that auto-correct changed "Telegames" to "Telegrams" in my original post!!!! Sorry about that.

[KidGameR186496]

On 9/26/2016 at 11:09 PM, JaguarGod said:

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

 

 

 

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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

 

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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)

 

 

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World Tour Racing Review by JaguarGod

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

 

http://siniscope.com/images/005-660.png

 

"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.

 

http://siniscope.com/images/030-655.png

 

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”.

 

http://siniscope.com/images/019-655.png

 

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

Sorry for bumping this post but this is still great read! Have you thought of submitting your WTR Review to Hardcore Gaming 101? Just an idea, since you're the biggest WTR fan online

 

Speaking of which, i saw news of a planned Songbird release in 2023. I saw an interview Carl did with a YouTube channel and given the teaser he gave there, i'm inclined to believe it's WTR but i could be wrong...

Edited February 9, 2023 by KidGameR186496
Typo fix

[ave1]

I'll share my review of WTR here for those of you who might be interested: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/jaguarcd/916026-world-tour-racing/reviews/148992

 

It's definitely a fairly good Jaguar racing game with a few faults. Certainly worth owning if you enjoy games like Virtua Racing. 

[LynxJagLunatic]

This is a much better game than Checked Flag but graphically this game really bothers my eyes after a few minutes of playing. I like Checkered Flag better graphically but World Tour is better overall.

[+Biff Burgertime]

For the record, this is one of my favorite threads in the Jaguar subforum. OP fuckin' loves WTR.