Elon just traced over the oncoming traffic in Hard Drivin' and stuck a Tesla badge on it.

Yes, it was exciting times seeing that. Okay, it didn't have the feeling of speed that Super Monaco Grand Prix had, but this was revolutionary.

I feel the developers would have preffered you to say Nice Drivin' but thank you!

All very true. The arcade game was choppy and the MegaDrive version was very similar. Running the MegaDrive and Speccy versions side by side through my editing software shows that the Speccy was doing a really good job. It’s not as quick, but then it has no business being as quick as a 16 bit console.

Yes, a double figure frame rate would have been smashing.

I might have asked the question whether it was the worst value game, but for me it probably was good value. As were most of the arcade ports I bought. I'm pretty sure I would have saved money in the long run buying a game rather than trying to perfect it at the arcades. SEGA Rally, Daytona, Virtua Racing, Ridge Racer, Outrun....I spent a fortune in the arcades on those, but nowhere near as much as I might have done if I didn't get the console versions to perfect my times on.

Once you learned to keep the steering straight and the speed roughly where it tells you to, they're all pretty easy. Only traffic coming up on the loop or the banked corner ever really caused any issues.

It was basically a playable demo for future games.

You've not finished any game? Not even a Sonic or a Mario?

There you go, I've saved you thirty quid.

Hey Slick, hope you're well. Yeah, it does kinda play like a Jamiroqai video doesn't it?

@@ToughMonkey all good thanks buddy. Loved watching go through the Prodigy program - excellent stuff👍. Thanks for these trips down memory lane 🙂

Well, that was all you really could do wasn't it?

Did it? I've not played the ST version so don't know for sure. It wasn't Stunts you're thinking of is it, as that was loosely based on Hard Drivin' and had a course builder.

@@ToughMonkey might have been hard drivin 2. The grey matter doesn't work that well anymore!

Yeah, I got my driving kicks around that time from Super Monaco GP and F1. It was fun for a short blast, as it still is.

The graphics look trash now but it was the early days of a style of graphic that would lead to Virtua Racing, so I can forgive it. And yeah, most of the fun came in finding ways to crash the car.

I marginally preferred the Saturn version, but I'm not sure I can pinpoint why. I had the Saturn wheel which was awful. On the PC though I had the Logitech Momo Force back then when playing driving games. I still have it, but it's been replaced three times over.

I'll have it on disk somewhere as I bought a big box of Amiga games a few years ago. A few hundred games so I'd expect it's probably in there....but doesn't sound like I should bother looking!

You’re right. The first time you try to play it the controls blow your mind. But after ten minutes or so you become accustomed to it.

I loved Virtua Racing. Still do. Had it on MegaDrive and Saturn at the time and have since had the 32X version which I think is probably the best version. I’ve played all three through completely in the last year. As for Hard Drivin’, I have a warm place for it. It’s incredibly short but I still love it. Probably a nostalgia thing as it brings back good memories.

Yes, this game takes me right back to the 90’s. It might not have had the outright fun that Sega Rally or Demolition Derby gave, but it felt like a proper real driving experience.

It took a good half hour of practicing to do this in a single take while I got used to the controls, so it at least elevates it to the longevity of many other Speccy games.

I've rarely ever parted with a game after I bought it, even after completing it and it sitting in a box somewhere for years. I keep finding things, not just games, from my childhood. Top Trumps, Scalextric, remote controlled cars, Lego. That said, I'm also good at losing things. I've got my original Sega Saturn and a GameGear that I have no idea where they are. Or my original ZX Spectrum 128k +2. I've replaced them all, but no idea what happened to the originals.

Yeah, I that was more fun back then...causing chaos.

I'd assume that's because it was based on Hard Drivin' and developed the idea. Hard Drivin' was the original though, so I give it some slack.

@@ToughMonkey uhm... Hard driving 1989, 4D sports driving 1990. You are right on publishing times, but Stunts seems to be based on a completely different engine

@@baccy81 oh yeah, it’s got nothing to do with Hard Drivin’, Atari or Tengen. It’s a completely different developer so they had to build it themselves. But Hard Drivin’s concept was what they based their game on.

Well it had to be done didn’t it?!

It would be a heck of a lot smoother for a start. I know it’s been the basis for other similar games, such as Stunts, but I wonder how good this could be made with much larger tracks.

@@ToughMonkey Thanks for the quick reply. You mean this same handling model just on bigger tracks?

@@Mandarin9900 they’d probably need to tighten up the handling a little. It’s a bit wooden in the original game. Get some suspension on the car would be a good start.

It’s one of the few formats I’ve not played it on….but it would have to be truly dismal to be as eye-gougingly atrocious as the Commodore 64 version. I did a video a couple of days ago of the ZX Spectrum version which, other than horrific controls, isn’t actually that bad.

@@ToughMonkey yeah I’d say it ran at about 5fps if that. From memory as a young kid it was black and white as well but I could be wrong.

As a side note the Amstrad days were fuckin wild. There was a game called, and I quote, “How to be a complete bastard”

@@murphyebass7837 I’ve got that, and the book it was based on. It was by Ade Edmundson of Bottom and The Young Ones fame.

The surprise is that it just about works. The controls are very difficult to get your head around, but I think it plays better than several other games that people talk about fondly.

It was incredible playing it for the first time. I’m pretty sure I’d gone to watch Back to the Future 2 with my dad and sisters and saw it in the lobby of the Showcase cinema. I was more excited about that than the film…..and the film is great.

Yep, we all did that at some point! Trying to launch the car as far as possible. The instruction manual even encouraged exploring what the game could do.

Thanks, I’m pleased with how it turned out. They’re mostly just spares as I’ve got a box under my desk I keep the every day controllers in, it they’re all accessible should I need additional controllers.

Yep. Once you figured out how to control it then that’s all she wrote. It was great fun, but just so short.

@@ToughMonkey wow I am impressed with how short it is then! So to be clear this is not a demo or a physics trial this is a fully functional game that was greenlit and put into production for millions of people to enjoy?

@@XOTICXPATRIATEyes, this was a full production game that was very popular in the day. It’s not unique in the sense that many arcade ports at the time were direct replicas of the content found in the arcade machine. Fortunately developers started to realise the home gamer needed a bit of extra depth for their money and future arcade ports would usually have additional content.

@@ToughMonkey thank you for explaining that to me but still it might be best to keep this on the down low don't want companies like sweet baby inc., EA, and Ubisoft ect to catch on to this shortening stuff. They are already doing a good enough job with the lack of quality control so its best not to give them any ideas.

@@XOTICXPATRIATE very good point. Although I think they might have already started by leaving out content and selling it on as loot boxes.

You could well be right. Many top games can trace their roots back to much earlier games. Outrun and Sega Rally are still the inspiration for many developers.

I didn’t know they did it on GameBoy!

@@ToughMonkey it is a very impressive port. Runs pretty decent too.

It was a technical showcase, certainly, but still lacked content expected of a home port. Sega, for example, would add additional content to most of their 16 bit ports but Atari / Tengen didn’t feel the need. The SVP didn’t come along for a couple more years after Hard Drivin’, and only appeared on Virtua Racing that I was waving around near the start of the video. Granted some people are happy to spend money on something that looks good, but you still want a bit of depth to a game. For what it’s worth, I loved the game and still play it regularly with a smile to this day. And that’s coming from both a hardcore lifelong gamer and a tech head.

Yeah, they just went for a simple port and that was it. Sega generally added extra content to their ports of arcade games but Atari / Tengen didn’t feel the need to bother here.

Until Race Drivin’ came along which was practically identical!

I was referring to how I was connecting it, by coaxial socket. My mammoth old CRT died many years ago, and took three of us to shift it, but I do still have a colossal plasma TV but it was getting burn-in so stopped using it along time ago. I don’t have room for a CRT anymore as my games room is also the office I work from home in every day so there’s just no room. Besides which, I used to hate CRTs anyway. They used to trigger migraines regularly with their flickering which most people can’t see but was like going to a rave for me. Yeah, they’re great for retro gaming on original hardware….but frankly I’m glad they’re extinct. Hateful things.

£90 in the UK but with a 30% voucher applicable so £63 as of 28/09/2024.

And loads of consoles under my desk too. Always been a big part of my life. Met my wife through gaming. Became a real world race driver through gaming. Started this hobby of making KZbin videos because of gaming. Just occasionally I find time actually game!

I think that’s how many remember it. Controls were difficult, although after playing it again on my Spectrum I can tell you they’re so much easier to operate on the Megadrive.