The Classic PC Gaming Era (1977-1989) - Stunt Track Racer (a.k.a. Stunt Car Racer)
It's an amazing 3D game for its time about racing on a high-up track loaded with jumps and tricky turns. There’s never been another game quite like it.
RELEASE DATE: 1989
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: MicroProse Software
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Fairly playable
BEST VERSIONS: Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64
You’ll find Stunt Track Racer on many “best of” lists for 1980s PC gaming, and there’s a good reason why – despite its crude polygon graphics and strange premise, it’s an amazingly fun and highly playable game even today. Unfortunately, it’s also a game that’s largely forgotten outside of its fanbase due to the lack of remakes, sequels or console ports. If you missed Stunt Track Racer in its heyday like I did, you definitely need to give it a try today.
The basic premise is that your hot rod is hauled up onto a roller coaster-style track and set loose to try to beat a single opponent controlled by the computer. The challenge lies in not being able to see very far ahead and knowing you’ve got some tight turns and jumps you have to nail if you want to stay in the race. And since the game moves quite quickly thanks to its polygon graphics, it’s pretty easy to lose control and fall off the track, forcing you to get hauled back up to try again.
One of the things that’s interesting about Stunt Track Racer is how simple the game is. You can push forward to accelerate, backwards to brake or reverse, and the button for nitrous to get a boost of speed. Aside from that, you’re really just trying to keep your car on the track by steering right or left, and managing your speed, angle and momentum (particularly when you’re airborne) takes some concentration and skill that goes far beyond the seemingly simple premise. Some of the game’s eight tracks are fairly easy, while at least one - the “High Jump”, named for a tall tower you have to rocket up to and then from down from- is quite tough because you have to really practice hitting your jump at the right speed and angle to kiss the high ground before you jump back down to the lower portion of the track and begin a turn.
The single-player game is broken up into four divisions where you must beat computer players to earn points and advance. Because there are far more opponents than tracks, the game gets a bit grindy after awhile and makes it incrementally harder to score well enough to advance. Each division plays across a season that includes two maps and three-lap races against each opponent. You have to be careful about the risks that you take because as you damage your car, the damage lasts through the entire season. While there’s a real thrill in mastering each map well enough to leave the computer player in your dust, you’ll spend many, many runs frustratingly falling off the course before you truly reach a competitive level of play.
It’s also possible to play against another human player using a null modem cable, and since each player has their own full screen, the experience feels quite similar to the single-player mode. While this was mind-blowing in 1989, it’s pretty standard stuff for modern gamers.
Stunt Track Racer was created by Geoff Crammond, the creator of The Sentinel and eventual lead designer for the excellent Formula One-themed Grand Prix series in the 1990s and 2000s. The game was far more popular in the UK than it was in the United States, and thus the game is better known among enthusiasts by its European title, Stunt Car Racer. Unfortunately, a rumored 2003 remake never materialized, but a fan did release a mod in 2004 called Stunt Car Racer TNT (“The New Tracks”) that included eight new courses and some performance tweaks for the Amiga version.
While the original game was ported to many platforms (including the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, where it’s surprisingly playable despite a very low framerate), the Amiga and Atari ST versions are probably the best to play today since they have the smoothest framerates and the best-looking graphics. The Commodore 64 version is the best of the 8-bit editions. The MS-DOS version, in the meantime, is disappointingly poor.
As Our Series Continues…
In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about sports games, gameroom games, puzzle games, unusual games and so much more.
And while you’ll definitely see some titles from prominent North American publishers like Sierra On-Line, Infocom, Activision, Electronic Arts, Brøderbund, SSI, MicroProse, Lucasfilm Games, Epyx and Sir-Tech in the mix, you’ll also see references to games from the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Spain and Japan.
If you’ve missed the earlier entries in the series, which cover ASCII games, adventure games, wargames, strategy games and role-playing games, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 1. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!
I have to tell you how I've dreamt of this game. Back in 1991, I had purchased my first computer and quickly found the wonderful BBS world. Shoutout to "Atomic Cafe". Along with games like Commander Keen I found this little treasure. I remember playing it hours and hours. I recently came across the retro gaming reddit group and had been trying to figure out how to describe it in hopes someone could tell me the name. But no need. You've provided that and more. So thanks!