4x4 Off-Road Racing

From C64-Wiki

4x4 Off-Road Racing Game No. 9 Developer Paul Vernon, Paul Nickels, Joe Simka, Ed Schoenberg, Steve Thomas, K-byte, Paul Jaquays Company Epyx, Ogdon Micro Design, Inc. Publisher Epyx, U.S. Gold Musician Paul Jaquays HVSC-File GAMES/0-9/4x4_Off-Road_Racing.sid Release 1988 Platform Amstrad CPC, Amiga, C64, MSX, PC-DOS, Sinclair Spectrum Genre Racing, Cars Gamemode Single player Operation Media Language Information

Contents 1 Voting 2 Description 3 Design 4 Hints 5 Solution 6 Cheats 7 Critics 8 Miscellaneous 9 Highscore 10 Links

Voting

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
6.00 points at 22 votes (rank 496). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	7	02.07.2006 - "very good" 4685 downs
Lemon64	6.4	04.01.2011 - 36 votes
Kultboy.com	5.9	11.10.2007 - 10 votes
Powerplay	30%	Issue 3/88
ZZap64	56%	Issue 11/88

Description

In 4x4 Off-Road Racing you need logical reasoning and driving skills. Before you start you can choose between several cars, which vary by weight and power. There are many routes to choose from where the "hard-core" race is then carried out. Before it finally comes to the start, you have to choose from a pool of provided tools and extras for your car. E.g. your car can be equipped with a bigger tank, bigger tyres and a cable winch to get easier through the race. The tank allows you to fuel more gas, to make less stopovers. The "A/T tyres" help you, to get safely through the quicksand and the cable winch helps you with steep slopes. When you have retooled your car accordingly, you go on to the supermarket where you can buy things like fuel, oil, coolant, gear oil, spare battery, spare tyres, tools, mechanics, map, food&drinks and so on. But you have to be careful not to buy too much, as you have only limited space in your car.

Design

The game is, as already mentioned above, obviously desgined with much attention to detail. There are realistic sequences built in as e.g. that the player has to buy important things as fuel, oil or coolant before the game to avoid getting disqualified later. Operation is done fully by joystick. However, the design of the tracks are rather simple and monotonous and the loading times are extremely long.

Hints

For each truck seven factors are shown:

• Power: a mixture of HP and acceleration
• Weight: the less weight, the better are the speed, MPG and the better it can be manoeuvred. A heavy truck needs more fuel.
• Gas Mileage: These are the estimated miles per gallon (MPG). But if your truck is loaded with lots of equipment, it will need more fuel and reach a lower MPG than given.
• Endurance: how much the truck can bare before it needs to be repaired.
• E.R.F: how complicated it is to repair a truck and with this how long it takes to repair it.
• Payload without Cap: how much the truck can load without additional cargo area.
• Fuel Capacity: the capacity of the tank

Solution

• The most important thing is the fuel, as the race is over if you have not thought of a reserve and the tank is empty.
• If the truck stops for repair, the repair window with the required repair equipment is shown. If you don't have it with you, you still can choose the hammer and the repair is still possible. However, the overall state of the truck is diminuished.

Cheats

Critics

Alexvf:"This game is one of the best games I have ever played. Both the graphical implementation and the fun of the game are very convincing. Personally I give the game a 10 and it is for me personally one of the best games for the C64. (There are also game versions for the PC,Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Sinclair Spectrum and for MSX)."

mombasajoe: "The possibilities of adjustments are great. The things you can buy and build in: Amazing! Unfortunately, the race itself is as interesting / diversified as a grey concrete slab the size 50x50. Pity, reall a pity. There was more in that. During some ralleys one drives through waste areas for hours, but this is no necessity to implement this into a game 1:1. As a producer one might have been allowed to lie a bit there. I formatted it in the earlier days and today it doesn't get better. A small comfort: the Amiga version is just as bad. 3/10, but only because of the nice shopping possibilities."

TheRyk: "This game amazes the player with a nice title screen, four seemingly endless tracks and a zillion possibilities to equip the drive. Unfortunately, after only a few games, all the equipment - except for fuel - turns out to be only redundant ballast or useless false fronts. Despite the boring and empty highways, the race itself is actually a bit of fun, but not enough to justify the vast loading times. A rather mediocre racing game, which I rate 4 points and cannot really recommend, since there are at least a dozen better games of this genre on the C64."

Miscellaneous

Cover

Highscore

Links

• C64Games.de - Game No. 1309
• Lemon64 - Game No. 25
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 63
• Test Report No. 1605 on