Top 50 Amiga Driving Games - lemonamiga.com

[Vimster]

LemonAminga are counting down the 50 best Amiga driving games:

PART 1

 

PART 2

 

PART 3

 

PART 4

 

PART 5

 

Part 6

 

Part 7

 

Part 8

 

This will be a 10-part series counting down the 50 best Amiga driving games. I franklydidn't know there were that many of that sort of games on the system but hey, there you go.

I'll add the other parts as they come on. Well worth a watch, and well worth checking out LemonTubeAmiga and LemonTube64 on Youtube. The guy does a sound job.

[Goose]

Goodness, some of those in the 50-40 category were god-awful. I can't believe we played them. I seem to recall Power Drift on the 64 was much better.

[Nathan Wind]

Yeah, there are a few already that I've not seen before. Surprising to see Moonshine Racers at the bottom. Although I also like some of the ones he mentioned not even making the list, so there is that, and I suppose there will be loads more I haven't heard of as the series continues. Turbo Outrun seems much worse than I remember it being. Always meant to try Street Racer, it looks fantastic.

[Goose]

I'd forgotten all about Moonshine Racers and there were a couple I'd not heard of.

I'd also forgotten how badly Chase HQ handled, I remember be so disappointed. Really enjoying the series though, many thanks.

[gizmo1990]

Racers weren't really the Amiga's forte as I remember. Basically the only truly marvellous title was Stunt Car Racer, but WHAT a title it was!! Actually Lotus Esprit 1 and 2 were pretty decent as well.

[b00dles]

Supercars II is hands down my favourite "car" game, although not strictly the right type.

I remember enjoying Jaguar XJ220 although it was probably shit.

[SeanR]

Racers weren't really the Amiga's forte as I remember. Basically the only truly marvellous title was Stunt Car Racer, but WHAT a title it was!!

Better on the ST.

And surely everyone played Indy500?

[Salsa Party Animal]

To me only things worth bothering on Amiga for Racing games are

Stunt Car Racer, Formula One Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500, and the Lotus games.

[DarhkFox]

Does this list count top down games? I agree with stunt car racer and the lotus games. ATR, Micro Machines, Super Skidmarks, Roadkill.. they were decent enough. Excite Racing wasnt bad for a mario kart clone too (think that was its name).

[gone fishin]

Yeah, there were some great overhead racers on the Amiga - seemed to really play to the strengths of the platform. Super Skidmarks, Roadkill, Nitro, ATR, Ivan "Ironman"'s Super Off Road, Super Cars 1 and 2 are all still great fun.

[Nathan Wind]

APB is in the first video, so yes.

[gizmo1990]

Better on the ST.

And surely everyone played Indy500?

Doesn't mean it still wasn't brilliant.

I found Indy to be pretty terrible to control, nice sensation of speed though.

[Anne Summers]

Stunt Car Racer has to be top surely? After that I'd say Super Cars 2 if we were including top down.

[Dudley]

Dear god that guy's voice.

[gone fishin]

Dear god that guy's voice.

If you think that's bad, check this out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trn39olybqM

[Vimster]

Just added part 4/10 to the first post.

[Vimster]

Part 5 added to first post.

[Vimster]

Honestly thought this series had died but part 6 has just appeared. It's been added to the first post.

[gone fishin]

Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat was a brilliant top down/isometric/single screen racer. Made by the same guys that did Super Off Road in the Arcade, the conversion was really good too but it's a game that's rarely mentioned. Unfortunately it also wasn't on the Midway Treasures compilations and I'm not sure it's ever been available since it's original release.

 

 

Here's a let's compare of the different ports, I forgot the NES one was by Rare. Need to try that one out again and the C64 version looks really good.

 

 

ANd there was a Megadrive version released in 2011! It was made in the 90s but shelved. 

 

 

It was easy on the Amiga but it felt like the pinnacle of single screen F1 type racers, like Super Sprint. Super Off Road was a great game, but the terrain made it a bit more of a challenge (and it was more fun crazily spinning the steering wheels in the arcade!)

[Goose]

I remember that but I can't honestly recall if I've played it. I recall Ivan Ironman Stuart and Badlands, but I think I've only played Indy Heat via Mame. 

[luth714]

Indy Heat was a regular 3 player game with me and my mates (probably me on the keyboard which was fine) Loved it - super smart fun and as you all progressively powered up the races got very daft and fast towards the end.

 

Never got on with Ironman - found it sluggish and annoying to control and judge the corners with the terrain throwing you around.

[Vimster]

After watching part 6 I had a go at Supercars for the first time in a good 20 years. To be honest I don't think it has aged that well. It takes too long to get to a point where it feels good to play, initial races are slow and the handling itoo stiff. Did they improve that in Supercars 2.

 

BTW Part 7 added to first post.

[Dudley]

The handling is basically identical between the two from my memory of playing both a year ago.

[matt0]

Stunt Car Racer, No Second Prize, Super Skidmarks, Indy Heat, Vroom/F1 and the Lotus games are all quality, I'd happily still play them today but I'm not sure there's 50 games on the Amiga full stop that are worth playing in 2017.

 

ATR was okay I guess. Micro Machines is a bit rough compared to the console versions but still a great game.

[gone fishin]

1 hour ago, matt0 said:

Stunt Car Racer, No Second Prize, Super Skidmarks, Indy Heat, Vroom/F1 and the Lotus games are all quality, I'd happily still play them today but I'm not sure there's 50 games on the Amiga full stop that are worth playing in 2017.

 

ATR was okay I guess. Micro Machines is a bit rough compared to the console versions but still a great game.

Those are definitely the best racing games that have aged well. 

 

ATR is good, but it's not quite as polished (the CD32 version is good). I'd also add Roadkill to the list, the handling is pretty much spot on (yeah Supercars 1 and 2 move like treacle, but they were mind blowing at the time - especially when coming from a Speccy). Roadkill has that nice "slippery" feel to it that good overhead racers have. Bump N Burn on the CD32 is also quite good fun, although it's more like Buggy Boy than Mario Kart. Talking of which Buggy Boy has aged well (and I'm not sure the original was ever emulated in Mame?) One more is the Crazy cars III reskin on the CDs32 (Lamborghini Challenge?) It came as a magazine cover disc and although there's no extras over what a basic amiga could do, as a behind the car racer, it's still good fun.

 

There are sone stinkers though, even though they seemed decent at the time. I went back and played Xtreme Racing and it's just horrible. Can't believe I really liked it at the time! Top Gear 2 is also a pile of dung. God knows what Gremlin were thinking of releasing that after the subliminal Lotus Trilogy on the CD32! 

 

I'm not sure if it would count, but Wacky Races is good - although it's more of a side scrolling platformers. As is Carv-Up by Core...

[DarhkFox]

ATR was a great overhead racer - very difficult though. Roadkill got a decent amount of playtime too.

 

Xtreme Racing, like most early amiga 3d games just looks naff now. I used to spend some long playing it along with gloom, breathless, fear etc but everything is pretty unplayable now.

[gone fishin]

Gloom is still pretty playable, but probably because I don't see it as a Doom clone, it's a first person version of Smash TV! The CD32 version was the best IMHO

 

 

[Anne Summers]

On 2017-5-24 at 14:03, matt0 said:

Stunt Car Racer, No Second Prize, Super Skidmarks, Indy Heat, Vroom/F1 and the Lotus games are all quality, I'd happily still play them today but I'm not sure there's 50 games on the Amiga full stop that are worth playing in 2017.

 

ATR was okay I guess. Micro Machines is a bit rough compared to the console versions but still a great game.

 

How can you have missed out Supercars 2?

Pretty sure you are wrong about there not being 50 games worth playing. I think I could find them. Maybe not 100 or even 75 might be a struggle but I bet there are an easy 50. 

I find a lot of the games are still very playable today, definitely more so than Spectrum games or earlier computers. 

 

[matt0]

29 minutes ago, Anne Summers said:

 

How can you have missed out Supercars 2?

Pretty sure you are wrong about there not being 50 games worth playing. I think I could find them. Maybe not 100 or even 75 might be a struggle but I bet there are an easy 50. 

I find a lot of the games are still very playable today, definitely more so than Spectrum games or earlier computers. 

 

 

Everyones mileage is going to vary but there's a lot of games that had decent Amiga versions back in the day but in 2017 when you can emulate everything just don't stand up next to the PC, arcade or console versions.

 

It's a very good 50 or so games in my eyes but there aren't that many games that stand the test of time and had definitive versions on the Amiga for me. 

[Anne Summers]

2 hours ago, matt0 said:

 

Everyones mileage is going to vary but there's a lot of games that had decent Amiga versions back in the day but in 2017 when you can emulate everything just don't stand up next to the PC, arcade or console versions.

 

It's a very good 50 or so games in my eyes but there aren't that many games that stand the test of time and had definitive versions on the Amiga for me. 

Yeah, if you say the Amiga version has to be "definitive" then that cuts it down a lot - loads of stuff, particularly the US stuff, was amazing on the Amiga but was always going to be better on the PC with 256 graphics and HD as standard. Monkey Island, Dune 2, Eye of the Beholder etc. 

But if you take the real creme de la creme of Amiga-first stuff - Sensible Software, Bitmaps, DNA Design, Team 17 - I think you can get 50 games that stand the test of time pretty well.