4D: Sports Driving |
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Stunts (also distributed under a title 4D: Sports Driving) is a racing game from 1990. It was developed by Distinctive Software, Inc. and published by Brøderbund for DOS. The influence of the classic game Test Drive (also by DSI) is easy to spot because of the similar graphics and game structure. The game was originally made for IBM PC and then ported for Amiga. Amiga version has superior sound and music, but is quite slow on the most common Amiga models if all graphical details are used.
The game spawned a free software game called Ultimate Stunts, an attempt to make a modern Stunts-alike game from scratch.
Description
On a big square area defined and surrounded by a fence you can race on a track (or off the track) in different cars, with either automatic or manual transmission. You can either race against the clock or choose between six different opponents. The goal is to go from start to finish as quickly as possible. A great thing about this game is that you do not have to race only the racing tracks that come with it: there is a built-in track editor that lets you design your own tracks with different track parts in a very simple way. The game is called Stunts because of special track parts such as loops, jumps (over tall buildings!), slalom roads and corkscrews. You can save every race you drive as a so-called "replay", and then watch them again and again afterwards from several different perspectives.
Stunts today
Although the game is obviously more than 15 years old it is still greatly loved all over the world. When close to the end of the 90s the game was first declared abandonware and then finally declared freeware by the game developers themselves, many people discovered it again. Already in the middle of the 90s the first websites about Stunts and the first online Stunts downloads were created. First of all, the game spread quickly over the Internet because the game size is less than 1MB when zipped.
When the first online competitions (in which the competition master would receive race replays on certain tracks per email) started, the game began - considering its age - to boom. Even today there is a world-wide Stunts community. Several competitions are active right now, and there are hundreds of Stunts websites, a very active Stunts forum and a Stunts chatroom. In early August of 2004, the first World Stunts Meeting took place in Budapest, Hungary.
Cars in the game
- Acura NSX
- Audi Quattro Sport Coupe
- Chevrolet Corvette ZR1
- Ferrari GTO
- Jaguar XJR IMSA Race Car
- Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary Edition
- Lamborghini LM002
- Lancia Delta Integrale
- Porsche 962 IMSA Race Car
- Porsche Carrera 4
- Porsche March Indy Car
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