Slicks Racing

[nooly]

I made a new game called Slicks Racing because there are not enough racing games on Atari 2600 out there ;]

 

 

 

Story
You are a retired race car driver who spent his entire career in the shadow of more successful drivers. But even so, it has brought you enough money to live in relative comfort. You've spent your whole life fighting your inner demons. You drank, met many women, and in the end you underachieved. You feel like you could have done so much better if only you weren't so weak back then. So here you sit - old and grumpy, drowning in self pity. Suddenly, you feel an urge to fight your way out of this pit of despair. "Yeah, that’s it!" you say to yourself. "I’ll visit all my favourite tracks and break my old records! And if I find someone to race, we’ll have a duel!" You buy your plane tickets and set out on your mission…

Controls in track selector

Player 1 left/right: Select player 1 car
Player 1 up/down: Select track
Player 1 fire: Start race
Player 2 left/right: Select player 2 car
Player 2 fire or SELECT: Enable or disable player 2
 

Controls during race

Use the fire button as a gas pedal, joystick left/right for steering. When the race starts, you have to wait for the green light (or the 3rd audio blip), and at the same moment, hit the fire button. If you hit it too early, you won’t go anywhere, and you’ll have to release the fire button and press it again. Steering is disabled when your car is stationary, just like you’d expect in real life. You always have to complete five laps, after which the race will end. If you’re fast as the wind, you may get golden time, which means you've beaten your old record. If you’re a bit slower, you may achieve silver or bronze times.

From a technical point of view, this game is a standard 32k F6 ROM. It was written with batari basic using a Visual Studio Code extension made by chunkypixel. I borrowed the racing timer code from SeaGtGruff. The music was prototyped with tildearrow’s Furnace Tracker, which was of great help. It was then manually rewritten in code, which was of course painful. The game was tested on real NTSC and PAL machines, the Stella emulator, and hopefully it will work on an Atari 2600+, but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. The game is inspired by the Slicks 'n' Slide game made by Timmo Kauppinen which I played a lot when I was younger.

Credits
Programming, music: Vojta "nooly" Nedvěd
Graphics: Petr "Raist" Šťastný
 

Support
Cartridge cases: Bóža
EPROM programming: Sillicone
PCB design: Pixels Past
Programming consultations: Kvee
English correction: Mekso
Game testing: Mr. Holub, MartyOC, Blackhead, Visáč, David, Aleš
 

A web page with more information: https://www.lowfuel.cz/

If you want a physical cartridge, you can send me a PM or send an email to info@lowfuel.cz. The price of $30 (or 30 EUR) includes cartridge, printed manual, a small gift and international economy shipping. The shipping time can vary but sending the package overseas usually takes two or three weeks.



Hope you enjoy it ;]

Slicks_Racing_Manual.pdf Slicks_Racing_v1.0_NTSC.bin Slicks_Racing_v1.0_PAL60.bin

Edited October 11, 2023 by nooly

[0078265317]

Nice

[+Philsan]

Very nice! Someone on my socials asked me if you plan to add driving controllers.

[nooly]

2 hours ago, Philsan said:

Very nice! Someone on my socials asked me if you plan to add driving controllers.

Thanks! Well I didn't know about Driving Controllers at all and someone at the ZPH live stream asked me that question two days ago. First I unfortunately don't have one, is it possible to DIY make one? And then I don't know if batari basic supports it at all (it does support paddles).

[Impaler_26]

On 10/12/2023 at 11:42 PM, nooly said:

And then I don't know if batari basic supports it at all (it does support paddles).

batari Basic does support the Driving Controllers. Zombie Chase, the game that comes included with bB, and Grandma's Revenge can both be played with Joystick or Driving Controllers.

 

[nooly]

10 hours ago, Impaler_26 said:

batari Basic does support the Driving Controllers. Zombie Chase, the game that comes included with bB, and Grandma's Revenge can both be played with Joystick or Driving Controllers.

Thanks! Well I think I should make a version with Driving Controls support then. First I have to DIY make the controllers or buy one. I'm curious if the game will be a bit easier with it.

[LatchKeyKid]

That's a great start screen! 

[nooly]

I captured game soundtrack using real hardware. Enjoy! :]
 

 

 

[+Dave C]

@nooly - very cool project ... do you have your original Furnace music protoypes somewhere? I've been working off-and-on (mostly off) on getting furnace to support some sort of export and would love if someone wanted to try it out - or just have the music available for testing.
 

 

[+Living Room Arcade]

Nice!  I love top-down racers!  I just tried it a little and so far I'm lovin' it!  

 

Note to self: Turn off auto fire!  (I just finished playing Gyruss, auto fire was set at 4 Hz, then in Slicks Racing, the car went very slowly!)

[+Philsan]

Best times save on Atarivox/SaveKey would be nice.

[+Living Room Arcade]

@nooly  May I ask a programming question?  Pac-man for the Atari 2600 is chased around by four computer-controlled ghosts.  Hypothetically speaking, would it be a difficult programming challenge to have four computer-controlled cars join the race in your racing game?  I guess I wonder because Indy 500 and Sprint Master don't have any computer controlled cars, either.  So, I'm guessing that it must be something difficult to do.  

Edited January 16 by Living Room Arcade

[nooly]

On 1/16/2024 at 10:59 PM, Living Room Arcade said:

@nooly  May I ask a programming question?  Pac-man for the Atari 2600 is chased around by four computer-controlled ghosts.  Hypothetically speaking, would it be a difficult programming challenge to have four computer-controlled cars join the race in your racing game?  I guess I wonder because Indy 500 and Sprint Master don't have any computer controlled cars, either.  So, I'm guessing that it must be something difficult to do.  

I think it would be doable. The problem is that sprites would flicker and I don't like flickering. Computer controlled cars would be a real challenge, yes. At least for me:) I guess the car would receive commands (press brake, release break, turn L/R) in time but that way it each run would be identical and also it would eat precious ROM.

[+Living Room Arcade]

 

CORRECTION: I cannot edit my previous comment.  Sprint Master DOES give you one computer-controlled car to race against.  

7 hours ago, nooly said:

I think it would be doable. The problem is that sprites would flicker and I don't like flickering. Computer controlled cars would be a real challenge, yes. At least for me:) I guess the car would receive commands (press brake, release break, turn L/R) in time but that way it each run would be identical and also it would eat precious ROM.

@nooly  I see.  Thank you.  

Edited January 24 by Living Room Arcade