Car games nostalgia

". ." (xllx) 08/28/2013 at 22:09 • Filed to: games

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I'm willing to bet, that many of you, like me owe your love towards cars (at least in a certain degree) to video games you used to play as kids. Since I'm Polish, while growing up I didn't really have teh opportunity to see many exciting cars in the streets (the fact that I remember the first generation Ford Probe my neighbour owned as a car that stands out says a lot), so I took to video games to experience the thrill of cool and fast automobiles. Here are some of the games I remember playing a whole lot back in the 90's:

Stunts

This one I still occassionally play on my tablet. It's old, but still bloody fantastic. I've spent ages driving around custom tracks, building my own ciircuits and having fun. I even remember asking my dad to buy an Audi Quattro because I loved it in this game. Unfortunatelly and understandably he never did.

Street Rod

Again, this game is something that I often come back to. It's a bit of a precursor to games like Need For Speed: Underground. You're a high school kid in 1963 with a few bucks on you. You buy a crappy, used car (the game features real cars), tune it, race it and in the end, you beat the pants off some smug arse in a Corvette. If you haven't played Street Rod, it's a must.

Lotus III

This game is the reason why I like the Lotus Esprit and oppose people who hate the 90's Lotus Elan. It's great and works with DOSbox like a charm. I remember how gutted I were when we got Windows for our PC and this game stopped working. Luckily, the soundtrack stayed with me to this day.

Crazy Cars 3

For some reason I remember being really impressed by the fact that your car in this game had working brake lights. It's still a pretty fun game, although I couldn't get it to run properly on my tablet. There's an issue with the save function. A shame.

The Need For Speed SE

I remember how incredibly impressive this game was back in the mid 90's. Even to a preschooler. It was literally the coolest thing ever to me. Until !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! happened. Car showcases from this game are unforgettable and still my very favourite thing about it.

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Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit

This game was really impressive too. It also ignited my unconditional love towards yellow Diablos SV's. Back then I couldn't believe how great it looked too. I was sure it was as photorealistic as games would ever get. It had a really great selection of cars too. The already mentioned Diablo SV, Countach, Italdesign Scighera ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ), Mercedes CLK GTR, Ferrari 550 Maranello and many others. I also remember being very impressed with the ability to turn on the lights in your car. I was really, really gutted when someone nicked my CD. I should really get round to finding a working one for sale...

Need For Speed 4: High Stakes

In theory it was NFS III, only bigger and better. For me, unfortunately, it never worked on quite the same level. Still, it has a pretty fantastic car selection and it's a pretty cool game overall. A shame about those ugly 3D interiors they switched to with this game.

Network Q RAC Rally Championship

A rally game that I got my first steering wheel for. It was fantastic, and from what I remember quite realistic. The car selection was also nice. You could drive a Subaru Impreza, a Vw Golf, a Skoda Felicia, a Proton Wira, a Renault Megane, a Ford Escort Cosworth, and others I'm probably forgetting. I've spent years looking for the actual title of this game (as a kid I obviously never paid attention to how it was actually called) and only recently managed to find it.

Midtown Madness

Another all time great. A fantastic car racer with an incredibly fun free run mode and thosands of mods. MM2 was even more fun.

There was also some sort of monster truck game that I used to play back then, but its title is probably lost forever. I remember it simply as Monster Trucks. I've spent bloody ages looking for it, to no avail. And no, it wasn't Monster Truck Madness.

What were the games that shaped your inner petrolhead?

RMudkips > . . 08/28/2013 at 22:15

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It was free when I was a kid, and my parents didn't allow me to buy video games. I remember the horror after I learned it had shut down. Still, I think Hot Wheels in general have shaped up my entire gearhead life.

Dusty Ventures > . . 08/28/2013 at 22:32

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I played Stunts a few times as a kid at a friend's house but never knew the name. The Need For Speed series was big for me all the way through Hot Pursuit II, though mostly I loved being the cops in High Stakes. The NASCAR series by gamemaker "Sierra" also got a lot of play.

. . > Dusty Ventures 08/28/2013 at 22:43

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My favourite cop car in High Stakes was probably the Chevrolet Caprice. You could only drive it by switching into one of the AI cops though.

Dusty Ventures > . . 08/28/2013 at 22:53

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The Caprice and those big green Range Rover(?) SUVs

. . > Dusty Ventures 08/28/2013 at 22:59

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I think those were crudely rendered versions of the Land Rover Discovery.

Takuro Spirit > . . 08/28/2013 at 23:07

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Stunts looks a LOT like Hard/Race Drivin'.

That was my game, both in the arcade and at home on my Genesis.

JasonStern911 > . . 08/28/2013 at 23:53

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Your childhood needed more Sega Rally Championship:

. . > JasonStern911 08/29/2013 at 00:05

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I only had a demo of SRC. :(

KnowsAboutCars > . . 08/29/2013 at 08:17

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Could Thunder Truck Rally be the monster truck game you were looking for?

igcd link

. . > KnowsAboutCars 08/29/2013 at 08:24

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I think that may be it! I remembered that one of the cars was a Lada, and it's there.

I love you, you amazing person!

EDIT: Yup. That's it. I remember the skull and crossbones menu background!

KnowsAboutCars > . . 08/29/2013 at 08:25

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Didn't take too long to find it just searched 'monster truck' from igcd.

. . > KnowsAboutCars 08/29/2013 at 08:28

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I always assumed that "Monster Trucks" was just what me and my family used to call it, not the actual title. My searches all ended up around Monster Truck Madness or those early 00's low budget monster truck games.

I didn't know about the existence of IGCD either.

KnowsAboutCars > . . 08/29/2013 at 08:34

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Always glad to help.

IGCD can be quite helpful when trying to remember names of some video games.

NaturallyAspirated > . . 08/29/2013 at 12:46

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For me it was Lombard RAC Rally on my dad's Amiga 1000. To this day, I still prefer in-car camera views over all others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_R…

The only gameplay video I could find is from a guy who doesn't know how to shift.