Stunts
| Stunts | |
|---|---|
| Studio | Distinctive software |
| Publisher | Brøderbund , Mindscape (4D Sports Driving) |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1990 |
| platform | MS-DOS , Amiga |
| genre | Racing game |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | Keyboard , mouse , joystick |
| language | English |
Stunts is a racing game released in 1990 . The game was programmed by the Distinctive Software (DSI) group and initially distributed in the USA by Brøderbund in versions 1.0 and 1.1 for PC . At the same time Mindscape brought out the same game in Europe under the name 4D Sports Driving in versions 1.1 for MS-DOS and 1.2 for the Amiga . The game came out with "3D polygon graphics " which were fantastic at the time . The influences of the predecessor Test Drive , also from DSI, were clearly noticeable in the graphic implementation and operation.
The game
On a large area marked out with a fence, you can race against time or different opponents with different cars in automatic or manual gearshift on a track (but also off the track). The aim is to get from the start to the finish as quickly as possible while roughly following the route. Often times you can drive off-road and some shortcuts are accepted by the game while others are punishable by penalties.
The special thing about stunts is that you not only have to drive given routes, but also that there is a built-in route editor with which you can build your own racing courses from prefabricated sections with a square base that are inserted into a landscape grid. In addition to straight stretches, curves, highways, ramps, tunnels and elevated roads, there are also obstacles such as concrete blocks and unusual routes such as loops, screws, ski jumps (e.g. to jump over high-rise buildings).
The individual races can be saved as so-called "replays" and viewed from different perspectives.
Stunts today
Although the game is now more than twenty years old, it is still popular around the world. After the game was already declared as abandonware or as freeware by the developer companies themselves at the end of the 1990s , many people rediscovered the game. As early as the mid-1990s, there were the first websites on the Internet that dealt with stunts and offered it for download. Especially since the game is under 1MB when packed, it spread quickly over the Internet. When the first competitions started in the late 1990s, in which a competition manager was sent replays by email for a certain route, the game began to boom a second time - considering its age.
Even today stunts are still played by a worldwide community. Several competitions are currently running, there are hundreds of game websites, a lively forum, and a stunts chat channel. Since 2004 "World Stunts Meetings" have been held irregularly, which are attended by players from various nations: