Best Racing Games For PC Archives

Another few thousand DOS Games are playable at the Internet Archive! Since our initial announcement in 2015, we’ve added occasional new games here and there to the collection, but this will be our biggest update yet, ranging from tiny recent independent productions to long-forgotten big-name releases from decades ago.

To browse the latest collection, hit this link and look around.

The usual caveats apply: Sometimes the emulations are slower than they should be, especially on older machines. Not all games are enjoyable to play. And of course, we are linking manuals where we can but not every game has a manual.

If you’ve been enjoying our “emulation in the browser” system over the years, then this is more of that. If you’re new to it or want to hear more about all this, keep reading.

A Recognition of Hard Work, and A Breathtaking View

The update of these MS-DOS games comes from a project called eXoDOS, which has expanded over the years in the realm of collecting DOS games for easy playability on modern systems to tracking down and capturing, as best as can be done, the full context of DOS games – from the earliest simple games in the first couple years of the IBM PC to recently created independent productions that still work in the MS-DOS environment.

What makes the collection more than just a pile of old, now-playable games, is how it has to take head-on the problems of software preservation and history. Having an old executable and a scanned copy of the manual represents only the first few steps. DOS has remained consistent in some ways over the last (nearly) 40 years, but a lot has changed under the hood and programs were sometimes only written to work on very specific hardware and a very specific setup. They were released, sold some amount of copies, and then disappeared off the shelves, if not everyone’s memories.

It is all these extra steps, under the hood, of acquisition and configuration, that represents the hardest work by the eXoDOS project, and I recognize that long-time and Herculean effort. As a result, the eXoDOS project has over 7,000 titles they’ve made work dependably and consistently.

Separately from the eXoDOS project, I’ve been putting a percentage of these games into the Emularity system on the Internet Archive for research, entertainment and quick online access to the programs. The issues that are introduced by this are mine and mine alone, and eXoDOS is not able to help with them. You can always mail me at jscott@archive.org with questions or technical concerns.

This should be all that needs to be said, but since the Archive is doing things a little strangely, there’s a lot to keep in mind before you really dive in (or to realize, when you come back with questions).

That Hilarious Problem With CD-ROMs

Putting these games into the Internet Archive has, over time, brought into sharp focus particular issues with browser-based emulation. For example, keyboard collision, where the input needs of the emulator are taken over by the browser itself, and the problems of a program needing a lot more horsepower to run in a browser emulator than a user’s system can handle.

Some of these have solutions that aren’t always great (Buy faster hardware!) and in some cases the problem is currently terminal (these programs have been taken offline for a future date). But the most obvious and pressing is that games based off CD-ROMs take a significant, huge amount of time to load.

CD-ROMs were a boon to the early-to-late 1990s, allowing games to have audio and video like never before. Depending on the tricks used, you got full-motion video (FMV), the playing of CD audio tracks for background music, and levels and variation of content for the games far beyond what floppy disks could ever hope.

But it was also a very large amount of data (up to 700 megabytes per CD) and it’s one thing to have the data sitting on a plastic disc in a local machine, and yet another to have a network connection pull the entire contents of the CD-ROM into memory and hold it there as a virtual file resources. This is going to be an enormous lean on the vast majority of Internet users out there – downloading multi-hundred-megabyte files into memory and then keeping them there, and then losing it all when the browser window closes. Network speeds will improve over time, but this is probably the biggest show-stopper of them all for many folks.

If you find yourself loading up one of these games and facing down a hundred-megabyte download, consider one of the smaller games instead, unless it’s a title you really, really want to try out. Maybe in a few years we’ll look back at cable-modem speeds and laugh at the crawling, but for now, they’re pretty significant.

Some Jewels in the Mix

Luckily, there are some smaller-sized games in this new update that will load relatively quickly and are really enjoyable to look at and to play. Here’s some of my recommendations:

First, a game special to me: the IBM DOS version of Adventure, calling itself “Microsoft Adventure”. It’s actually a small rebranding of the original start of the text adventure world, “Colossal Cave” or ADVENT, by Don Woods and Will Crowther. Remixed to be sold by IBM and Microsoft, this is how I first got into these, and it boots up instantly, providing hours of fun if you’ve never tried it before.

Mr. Blobby, a 1994 DOS Platform game, has all the hallmarks of the genre – bonkers physics, bright and lovely graphics, and joyful music. Be sure to redefine the keys before you try to play it, because besides running and jumping, you can spin and take things. The game does not get less weird as you go along.

Super Munchers: The Challenge Continues is a 1991 remix of the original educational game that sent your “muncher” gathering up words representing a given topic or idea. The speed of the game, along with the learning aspect, make this one of the more zesty “edutainment” titles available from the time.

Street Rod is a wonderfully compact 1989 racing game where it’s the 1960s and you’re going to buy your first hot-rod, tune it up, and race it for money to buy better and better rides. It’s a mouse-driven interface and loaded with all sorts of tricks to make the game fit into a “mere” 600 kilobytes compressed. Initially simple and then well worth the effort!

Digger from 1983 is a Dig-Dug-Clone-but-Not that came out right as IBM PCs were starting to take off, and it’s a lovely little game, steering around a mining machine while avoiding enemies and picking up diamonds. The most unintuitive thing is you need to fire using the “F1” key, so hopefully your keyboard has one.

I’m also going to suggest Floppy Frenzy from Windmill Software because it’s so much closer to the beginning of the IBM PC’s reign and you can see the difference in what the authors were comfortable with – the graphics are simpler, the game movement a little more rough, and the theme is geekiness incarnate: You’re a floppy disk avoiding magnets to leave traps for them, so you can gather the magnets up before the time runs out. If you don’t make it, an angel comes down and brings you to Floppy Disk Heaven. Again, F1 is the unusual key to leave traps.

There’s many more and I suggest people browse around and try things out, really soak in that MS-DOS joy. (And feel free to leave comments with suggestions.)

Thanks so much for coming along on this emulation journey!

• Jason Scott, Internet Archive Software Curator

Midtown Madness (also known as Midtown Madness: Chicago Edition) is a 1999 racing gamedeveloped by Angel Studios and published by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows. The demo version was released in April 1999. Two sequels followed, with Midtown Madness 2 released in September 2000 and Midtown Madness 3 released in June 2003 for the Xbox. The game is set in Chicago; the object is for the player to win street races and obtain new cars.

Unlike racing games that restrict the player to a race track, Midtown Madness offers an open world recreation of Chicago. This setting was said to provide "an unprecedented degree of freedom to drive around in a virtual city".^[1] Players can explore the city using one of several modes and can determine the weather and traffic conditions for each race. The game supports multiplayer races over a local area network or the Internet. The game received generally positive reviews from gaming websites. Angel Studios developed another video game featuring open-world recreations of cities, Midnight Club: Street Racing.

Gameplay[edit]

Midtown Madness features four single-player modes: Blitz, Circuit, Checkpoint, and Cruise.^[2] In Blitz mode, the player must swing through three checkpoints and drive to the finish line within a time limit. Circuit mode curtains off most of the city to resemble race tracks and pits the player against other cars. Checkpoint mode combines the features of Blitz and Circuit modes and has the player race against other cars to a destination—but also adds the complication of other traffic, such as police cars and pedestrians.^[3] In Cruise mode, the player can simply explore the city at their own pace.^[2] Each mode except Cruise is divided into missions—completing one unlocks the next. Environmental conditions found in each mode include: weather (sunny, rainy, cloudy, and snowy), time of day (sunrise, afternoon, sunset, and night-time), and the density of pedestrians, traffic, and police vehicles. The heads-up display includes information about the race and a detailed map, but this display can be turned off.^[3]

Players start off with five vehicles; five more are unlockable.^[2] The available vehicles range from a Volkswagen New Beetle and a Ford F-350 to a city bus and a Freightliner Century truck.^[3] Unlocking vehicles requires completing goals^[2][4] such as placing within the top three in any two races.^[3] If the player has previously won a race mission, they can change the race's duration and the weather when replaying it. The Checkpoint mode allows players to set the frequency of traffic, police cars, and pedestrians. Vehicles can accrue damage from collisions, and can be disabled if excessive damage is accrued, resulting in premature failure of Blitz or Checkpoint races, or several seconds of time lost before the vehicle is immediately restored in Circuit races and Cruise.^[5][6]

The game's city environment is modeled after Chicago, including many of its landmarks, such as the 'L', the Willis Tower (then known as the Sears Tower), Wrigley Field, and Soldier Field.^[7] The streets feature a number of objects the player can crash into including trash bins, parking meters, mailboxes and traffic lights.^[7] In Checkpoint mode other vehicles move in accordance with traffic lights, but the player is under no obligation to obey them.^[3]

Midtown Madness supports multiplayer games on a local area network, the Internet, or by serial cable connection. The Multiplayer mode was originally supported by Microsoft's MSN Gaming Zone, but this service was retired on June 19, 2006.^[8] It is now supported by similar services such as GameSpy Arcade and XFire, via DirectPlay.^[9][10] The Multiplayer mode includes a Cops and Robbers mode, a capture the flag-style game in which players form two teams and each team tries to steal the opposing team's cache of gold and return it to their own hideout.^[11]

Development[edit]

Midtown Madness was one of the first games that Angel Studios developed for the PC.^[1] Microsoft planned to publish sequels to racing computer games with the word Madness in the title, including Motocross Madness and Monster Truck Madness. According to project director Clinton Keith, the concept behind the game came to two Microsoft employees during an attempt to cross a crowded Paris street.^[11] They proposed their idea to Angel Studios, which had tried to sell Microsoft a 3D vehicle simulator. Initially, Angel Studios was hesitant to accept Microsoft's offer given the magnitude of the proposed undertaking.^[11] They ultimately agreed and decided to use Chicago for the setting because the city was featured in several famous car chases in films, including The Blues Brothers. The development team asked Chicago residents to playtest the game to ensure that the city was recreated faithfully. PC Gamer reported that the re-creation was mostly accurate, although certain landmarks were moved to enhance gameplay.^[11]

Angel Studios and Microsoft included regular cars in addition to the "overpowered Italian sports cars" often seen in racing games.^[12] The developers obtained permission from manufacturers to use the likenesses of selected vehicles. Microsoft received authorization from Volkswagen for the New Beetle, and Ford, for the Mustang and the F-350 Super Duty.^[11][12] The decision to make only half the cars available at the outset was intended to promote a sense of competition.^[13] Microsoft staff asked Angel Studios employees to prevent players from hitting pedestrians. Angel Studios (after deciding against rendering pedestrians in two dimensions) developed 3D pedestrian models that could run and jump out of the way. Midtown Madness included an option to remove pedestrians, as they do not alter gameplay but may affect system performance when in a group; consequently, the game does not require a 3D graphics card.^[11]

Microsoft's marketing team expressed interest in including Taco Bell restaurants in the game to run promotions that would involve giving away free burritos, according to project director Clinton Keith, but the feature was requested too late in development for Angel Studios to make the change.^[14]

A demo version was released for download on May 1, 1999.^[15][16] It featured three vehicles (a Mustang, a Panoz Roadster, and a bus), and all driving modes except Circuit.^[17] In December 1999, Angel Studios reported that they were considering a race designer for players, but ultimately this feature was not added.^[13] The finished game was released on May 27, 1999.^[18][19]

Midtown Madness is distinct from other racing games of its time, especially those influenced by the Need for Speed series, in providing an open environment rather than a closed circuit.^[1] Project director Clinton Keith said that an open world makes the gameplay more diverse and adds "element[s] of discovery" such as finding shortcuts.^[1]Gary Whitta described the game as open world racing. "[Y]ou still have checkpoints to hit, [but] you don't have to follow the A-B-C-D standard to do it."^[11]

Reception[edit]

Reviews of Midtown Madness were generally positive, with video game critics praising its gameplay. The IGN review noted that the game "doesn't rely heavily on driving authenticity; this game's all about fun." The review also praised the simplicity whereby players can "pick a real-world car and go".^[27]GameSpot's reviewer wrote that "it's fun to be able to drive like a maniac [...] because you know you can't in real life."^[26]Computer and Video Games' review remarked on the game's humor, provided by other drivers, police, and competitors (described as maniacs), praising the "carnage that unfolds before your windscreen".^[6]PC Zone's reviewer recommended the game, calling it highly refreshing; Total Video Games reviewer said the game seemed a good choice, but suggested that it would be outdone by GT Interactive's Driver, released soon after.^[32] The AllGame reviewer called it a "must-buy for the driving game enthusiast" and said that it would also appeal to players who are not necessarily fans of the racing car genre.^[21]Next Generation Magazine concluded its review by stating that Midtown Madness was not innovative, but that "it'll stay on your hard drive for a while and keep you playing".^[31]

IGN's Tal Blevins gave high marks to the game's graphics, saying that "the downtown portion of Chicago is portrayed very accurately" even though other parts of the city looked more generic.^[27]Next Generation Magazine's reviewer said the graphics were impressive and praised the "thoroughly detailed" random occurrences of "cars hurtling in front of you" and "cringing pedestrians when you lurch onto the sidewalks".^[31]GameSpot's reviewer approved of the variety in third-person, the first-person dashboard, and the widescreen driving views. However, they complained of the game suffering from "choppy frame rates" and unconvincing visual effects.^[26]

A heavily damaged Cadillac Eldorado hitting oncoming traffic while being pursued by a police car. Moments like this earned the game praise for making it "fun to be able to drive like a maniac [...] because you know you can't in real life."^[26]

PC Zone''s Steve Hill praised Angel Studios for avoiding gimmicks, instead presenting "accurately modelled cars and a meticulously recreated city" to the player.^[29] AllGame's review said Midtown Madness "possesses superb, immersive graphics", using the different times of day and weather as an example. However, it complained that cars not controlled by the player were lacking in detail.^[21] Kim Randell of Computer and Video Games said that as well as being "structurally and visually consistent", the Chicago setting in Midtown Madness was "brought to life"—for instance, a "city bus legitimately pulling out at a four-way junction" can end the race for a player by destroying their car.^[6] However, Total Video Games' review called the game's presentation "far from optimal" even with the recommended system requirements. Reviewer Noel Brady pointed out "a serious lack of detail" and called the screen "blocky", especially without a graphics card. He was critical of the AI, declaring that cars often drive "without noticing [the player] at all".^[32] In his book AI Game Engine Programming, Brian Schwab described Midtown Madness' gameplay as "arcade style" and "fast and loose", and said the in-game traffic was satisfactory.^[33]

IGN's review described the in-game narration as "a nice touch", but noted some glitches among the otherwise "distinctive engine and horn sounds".^[27] Calling the game's sounds exceptional, GameSpot's review praised the variety of car noises such as the back-up beeper for the bus.^[26]PC Zone's Steve Hill praised the in-game radio system and the support for external media players.^[29] AllGame's review said players "get a dose of reality" with other drivers and pedestrians "hurling insults and exclamations your way".^[21]

The editors of PC Gamer US nominated Midtown Madness for their 1999 Best Racing Game award, which ultimately went to Re-Volt. They wrote that Midtown Madness "lays down a racing milestone by creating a living, breathing 3D city — and then letting you trash it."^[34] It was also a nominee for Computer Gaming World's Racing Game of the Year award, but lost to Need for Speed: High Stakes.^[35]

Legacy[edit]

Midtown Madness spawned a three-title series of the same name, the second entry of which, Midtown Madness 2, was developed by Angel Studios and released in September 2000.^[36] Another sequel, Midtown Madness 3, was developed by Digital Illusions CE for the Xbox and published in June 2003.^[37] The games' most-acclaimed elements were the detailed open-world environment, distinct visual presentation and sophisticated artificial intelligence.^[26][37][38]

In 2000, Angel Studios and Rockstar Games created Midnight Club: Street Racing, a PlayStation 2 video game also featuring open world recreations of urban cities.^[39][40] Its critical and commercial success spawned the Midnight Club series of street racing-themed games.^[41]

References[edit]

External links[edit]