The Great American Cross-Country Road Race
| The Great American Cross-Country Road Race | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Activision |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Designer(s) | Alex DeMeo[1] |
| Platform(s) |
Atari 8-bit (original) Apple II, Commodore 64 |
| Release date(s) | 1985 |
| Genre(s) | Sim racing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Great American Cross-Country Road Race (UK re-release title: American Road Race)[2] is a sim racing video game written by Alex DeMeo for the Atari 8-bit computers and published by Activision in 1985. It was ported to the Apple II and Commodore 64.
Summary
The game puts the player in the position of a driver of a high-performance car, racing across the United States while passing through its major cities. Obstacles include weather, road conditions, limited fuel, and the highway patrol. The changing time of day affects gameplay, because the other cars drive faster at night.
Players are given the option of choosing their routes from city to city, allowing them to, for example, take a northern route through the snowy Midwest. Every route has its own scoreboard for the top ten fastest times to complete each route.
Development
The Great American Cross-Country Road Race was designed by Alex DeMeo, who had been inspired by the film The Gumball Rally. The game is in part an adaptation of an earlier Activision game Enduro, created for the Atari 2600 console, but with design, graphics and sound expanded to fit the capabilities of the more powerful computers. DeMeo programmed the original version of Road Race on an Atari 800 including sound, music and some graphics. The game's title sequence was based on an introduction screen of another Activision video game Master of the Lamps.[3]
References
- ↑ "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
- ↑ http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-great-american-cross-country-road-race-_18763.html
- ↑ "Help for Great American Cross-Country Road Race", Activision's Commodore 64 15 Pack, Activision, 1995, p. Game History