The Classic PC Gaming Era (1977-1989) - DeathTrack
You've got to try this combat racer with shades of the films Death Race 2000, Mad Max and Blade Runner informing its cool aesthetic and brutal design.
RELEASE DATE: 1989
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Dynamix
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Fairly playable
BEST VERSIONS: MS-DOS
Dynamix created a lot of hits in the 1980s thanks to their expertise in building engaging action games in 3D starting with 1983’s Stellar 7 and including fantastic games like 1986’s Skyfox and Arcticfox and 1989’s A-10 Tank Killer and MechWarrior. But even their lesser-known titles tend to be great, and DeathTrack is one that definitely shouldn’t be overlooked because it’s quite accessible, runs well on modern hardware through DOSBox and, most important of all, is still fun to play.
In the 1980s, the phrase “road rage” was just beginning to gain traction, and DeathTrack postulates that races in the future have become so aggressive that every car is now loaded up with weapons including machine guns, missiles, mines, caltrops, ram spikes, wheel spikes and, of course, lasers. You can drive to win the race and leave surprises in your dust to deter your fellow racers from keeping up, but you can come up behind your competitors and blast them off the course. You can also launch rocket-powered skateboard drones called Terminators that blast forward like a missile and deliver an explosive surprise.
The game provides you with three choices of cars – the Ferrari-esque Hellcat, the Lamborghini-like Crusher or the Porsche-ish Pitbull. Except, you know, loaded with guns, spikes and armor. The Hellcat is the fastest and flashiest of the three and designed to focus on passing aggressively and rocketing forward to the starting position. The Pitbull is better for hanging back and blasting everyone off the road, moving up the line by attrition. The Crusher is the Jack of all trades, designed to dish out punishment and also absorb it.
All three cars start out with mostly basic gear and a handful of upgrades, but as you win races, you can use your winnings further upgrade your car to be more formidable on the track. Starter cars can be upgraded in just about any direction you’d like, but the catch is that auto parts can be damaged if you drive too dangerously and the higher-quality weapons, while deadlier, have less available ammo. If you want to tune your car to be the faster racer, it’s important to prioritize your engine, brakes, transmission, tires and airfoils. If you’re more concerned about knocking enemies off the road, you need to focus on souped-up spikes and thick armor. If you’re going to be a bully picking off people from behind, you’ll want a powerful array of missiles, terminators and guns.
DeathTrack has ten courses that are all based around futuristic versions of American cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and St. Louis. Each track not only includes some curves, but also hills, bumps and jumps of varying sizes. While every map has at least one tough turn, some maps also have long straightaways where combat can get very hairy. As you’re racing, your car has a number of dials and indicators to watch, and this is perhaps the most difficult part of the learning curve since your HUD throws a lot of information at you at once. You also have to pay close attention to where the pit stops are, as these are vital areas for refueling and rearming your car (and repairing if things aren’t going well).
The game also has a number of competitors who each have a signature car and digitized portrait, and this is where you really see some inspiration from vehicular classic films like Mad Max and Death Race 2000 as well as, for some reason, the science fiction film Blade Runner. The individual characters all have their own storyline quirks, favorite weapons and preferred tracks. The game even gives you a chance to collect bounties on specific characters from time to time. While the character cars and profiles seem more like window dressing than anything (I never noticed a huge difference in the AI, if such a difference even exists in the code!), they do add to the fun atmosphere and give the game a little bit of player-driven rivalry.
DeathTrack was only ever released for DOS, and while it looks good and plays fairly well, a common complaint is the fairly lousy music. I’d suggest disabling the sound and cranking up some appropriate hard rock tunes. If you enjoy this game, I’d also recommend checking out Activision’s 1997 classic Interstate ’76, which has a similar style but a distinctly retro vibe.
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!