Stunts (video game)
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| Stunts | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Distinctive Software, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund, Mindscape |
| Designer(s) | Don Mattrick Kevin Pickell Brad Gour Rob Martyn Stan Chow |
| Platform(s) | PC (MS-DOS), Amiga |
| Release date | October 1990 |
| Genre(s) | Racing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Stunts (also distributed under a different title 4D Sports: Driving) is a racing video game developed by Distinctive Software, Inc. (DSI), based in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. The game was published by Brøderbund in October 1990 for the United States and published by Mindscape for the United Kingdom in 1991. The influence of the classic game Test Drive (also by DSI) is easy to spot because of the similar graphics and game structure. The game was also similar in style to Stunt Driver and Geoff Crammond's Stunt Car Racer. The game was originally made for the PC and then ported for Amiga.
Contents |
[edit] Description
In Stunts, players race a lap around the circuit, with the aim of completing the lap as quickly as possible without crashing. However, these laps often feature special track areas such as loops, jumps (including over tall buildings), slalom roads and corkscrews. The game area is restricted by a large fixed size square area defined and surrounded by a fence which the player can not leave. Players can either race against the clock or choose between six different opponents; there is no support for real-time multiplayer. Stunts features 11 different drivable cars, with either automatic or manual transmission. Replays of races can be saved and reviewed. There are four camera views available during replay and actual driving, and the dashboard is an optional overlay on all views. In addition, there is a built-in track editor that lets players design their own tracks.
The cars can drive on paved roads, gravel roads, icy/snow roads, and grass if driving off the track — which all offer different levels of grip. The game has a relatively advanced pseudo-physics engine for its time which can simulate oversteer and understeer, and driving through a banked corner gives the car more grip. The graphics are a combination of 3D polygons and sprites with no textures, running in 320×200 with 256 colors. There is an option to select high and low detail. The game is written for MS-DOS and executes in real mode.
Stunts includes a form of copy prevention. Each time after running the program, players must complete a specific phrase found in the game manual before being allowed to race. If the player fails to complete the phrase three times, the next race will still load. However, approximately four seconds into the race, the player is informed that he or she did not deactivate the car's security system, the car crashes, and the player is returned to the main menu.
[edit] Features
[edit] Cars
- Acura NSX
- Audi Quattro Sport Coupe
- Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
- Ferrari 288 GTO
- Jaguar XJR9 IMSA Race Car
- Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition
- Lamborghini LM002
- Lancia Delta Integrale
- Porsche 962 IMSA Race Car
- Porsche Carrera 4
- Porsche March IndyCar – fastest
[edit] Hidden Cars
In addition to the cars listed above there were 4-6 cars in the PC Version which were not in the game proper, but which could be accessed through a sub directory in the game.[citation needed] . Some of the cars in this directory included the following;
- Antique Roadster
- K-Car Type
- Economy Hatchback
[edit] Opponents
In addition to racing against the clock, there are six opponents of different skills available. By increasing talent, these are:
- "Squealin'" Bernie Rubber – slowest driver
- Herr Otto Partz
- "Smokin'" Joe Stallin
- Cherry Chassis
- Helen Wheels
- Skid Vicious – (refers to Sid Vicious) fastest driver
[edit] Bugs and glitches
Some of the cars in the game have a critical speed which when reached allows the car to keep its maximum speed while turning and/or driving on grass (which would normally make the car decelerate). This bug has become a major feature among the modern Stunts fans and is often exploited in track design: some tracks are specifically designed to make it possible to drive at maximum speed continuously to allow for fast lap times. The critical speed is difficult to reach on the slower cars. An easy way to reach the critical speed of the fastest cars is to drive repeatedly through the loop by using a special technique. When a car has reached critical speed arbitrary strange behaviour rarely can occur, such as the car bouncing up and down and sometimes flying higher up — usually resulting in a crash.
The physics engine can cause other strange effects too, such as causing the car to accelerate vertically as a result of crashing horizontally into a wall while in the air.
The AI player will always crash on certain tracks, whereas an average human player will have no difficulty finishing the same track.
Other bugs include the ability to cut certain obstacles by bypassing the collision detection on certain obstacles, including the loop, the slalom, and the corkscrew.
Since the user is free to design his or her own tracks, some of them can be very long or contain multiple paths to the finish line without a clear indication of which paths are considered valid by the game. In such cases, the game may incorrectly identify the "main" path and either accept alternative paths to the finish line as legal or assign a time penalty to seemingly valid paths.[citation needed]
When a tunnel is placed directly behind a pipe, it is possible to drive upside-down on the tunnel's ceiling.
[edit] Screenshots
 Game menu |
 The track editor |
[edit] Stunts today
Although the game is more than 17 years old, it has a large fanbase worldwide. There are many web sites that increased public exposure by providing information and copies of the game. The compact size of Stunts, which is only 1MB when zipped, may also had contributed to the game's popularity. Online Stunts competitions, in which the competition master would receive race replays on certain tracks via e-mail, is also booming.
At present, worldwide Stunts communities remain strong and active. Forums and websites dedicated to the game remain operational, several Stunts competitions are still organized (see the Stunts Racing Portal link below for active competitions links) and the first World Stunts Meeting took place in Budapest, Hungary on August 2004. It has been followed by 2 other meetings: Aarhus (Denmark) in 2005 and Budapest again in 2006, proving that Stunts community is and will remain active.
The game also was liberated as freeware [1][citation needed]
[edit] Similar games
There are several Stunts-like games in existence, of which the most popular as of 2008 is the TrackMania series. At the time of Stunts' technological era (the end of 1980s and the beginning of 1990s), Stunt Driver and the Hard Drivin' series were other similar games.
Crashday and GripShift (for PC and PSP) also adopt several elements from Stunts. Each of these games feature a track construction kit, allowing players to create Stunts-like courses, with the option to race against other competitors or play in a time trial mode.
[edit] Ultimate Stunts
There is also an unofficial, free software and open source incarnation of Stunts called Ultimate Stunts,[2][3] an attempt to create a modern Stunts-like game from scratch. The project was started by a Dutch student in 2001.
Ultimate Stunts allows the player to race on different tracks including elements like jumps and loops to do stunts on. The game supports single player and multiplayer racing. The game will also allow the player to import tracks from the original Stunts game.
The game's development can be followed on its SourceForge project site.
[edit] Tile Racer
Tile Racer is another free remake which was developed by two students.[4]
