doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (05/13/86)
Richard Petty's Talladega -- Cosmi Curb
C-64 disk & cassette both in one package -- $?? list, $12.90 discount
If you like playing Pole Position, and/or you're a NASCAR stocker
fan, you'll probably like this one. If you're both (like me), you'll
probably like it quite a bit.
If you're neither, you probably won't like it. It comes up short on
modern sophisticated pizzazz. The graphics are, well, Pole Position
class. The sound effects are really bush league -- sort of like you
get out of the old Atari 2600 VCS video game.
There's no question that the underlying, basic concept here is good
ol' Pole Position. You've got the qualifying lap stuff, and the
graphics are obvious substitutions: stockers instead of open-wheel
racers, flags and turn markers instead of billboards, etc.
But the game play in Richard Petty's Talladega is considerably more
sophisticated than in Pole Position. And that's what makes this
program interesting. [There's no way to avoid comparing Talladega
with Pole Position, so I'm not even going to try.]
In ordinary C-64 Pole Position the game play is pretty straightforward:
accelerate to max speed and try not to run into anything for 4 laps. If
you use the brakes, you'll never win. If you crash, you are given a new
car and can continue on.
In Talladega, you have to complete 30 (yes, thirty) laps to finish. And
you frequently need to use the brakes to keep from running into the
other cars. Some of the other drivers are pretty aggressive. And
in contrast with Pole Position, if you crash your race is over. This
is really depressing after you've been racing for 15 minutes or more...
The standard track is the tri-oval. You can also have the program
concoct a random track. Either way, it's 30 laps. And there's no way
to pause the game.
Pole Position is a race against the clock: you try to finish the 4 laps
as fast as possible. Talladega, on the other hand, is a race against
the competition. You are trying to get into first place, ahead of all
the other cars. Of course, those other cars are each trying to get
ahead of their competition, too. Each of the other drivers has his own
"personality"; you quickly learn which ones are fast, which are slow,
which will do their darnedest to keep you from passing, and which will
simply let you drive past.
Talladega "drives" quite differently from Pole Position. For one thing,
the *button* on the joystick is the accelerator pedal. This seems kinda
silly at first, since it would seem to make more sense to have "stick
forward" be the accelerator. But it makes sense from a practical point
of view. It makes it easy to accelerate and turn at the same time, and
you can actually tap the brakes without lifting your accelerator "foot".
The optimum cornering technique is to cut the corner, and the program
will take you smoothly through the corner if you hit it just right. It
essentially has a "special mode" for corner cutting. You'll get a lot
of chance to practice this in qualifying -- you've got to cleanly cut at
least one corner in order to qualify at all.
Talladega also recognizes the technique of "leaning" on a competitor's
car (Dale Earnhardt would approve). This is mainly of value in the
turns, where you can get beside another car and really rub sheet metal.
A lesser degree of leaning is permitted on the straightaways. Of
course, if you lean too hard you crash out of the race.
Drafting is also possible. Just drive up behind the car you want to
draft and keep the accelerator button pushed. But watch out for the
next corner -- drafting through a turn is risky stuff.
There's no way you're going to make 30 laps on the 22 gallons of fuel
that the car holds, even with drafting. So pit stops are important.
In the pits, you can choose to add fuel, replace the tires, and/or
check/fix the motor. The pit-stop graphics are kinda cute. You watch
a crewman walk up to the car with a gas can while another removes and
replaces a tire, and a third crawls under the front of the car. This
is about the only really original graphics work in the program.
When the work is done, you can drive out of the pits. An interesting
option you have is to leave before the work is done. This means you
can make a "take on minimum fuel" stop late in the race if you want.
How long your tires last depends on how frequently you end up at the
edges of the track. For me, tires tend to be the limiting factor on
how long I can go between pit stops. Obviously, I gotta work on this.
The other cars can crash, too. It is really exciting to come blasting
out of a turn and find a wreck dead ahead. Sometimes you see the yellow
flag first. Just like NASCAR rules say, when the yellow comes out you
race until you reach the start/finish line. Say, was the wreck that
caused this yellow flag behind you or ahead of you on the track? Once
across the "stripe", you are automatically put in the pits for a quite
leisurely pit stop.
What would I change if I could? First, remove a few of the amateurish
things like the screens that say "loading title program" and "loading
game program". Put in some decent music and sound effects. And clean
up some of the more juvenile facets of the game [like make up
real-sounding names for the drivers instead of names like I. M. Fast].
I'd provide a pace lap before the green flag comes out; right now when
the racing screen comes up you're instantly "green flag". I'd add an
information field that tells how many seconds you're behind the car
you're chasing (you're already told which car that is). And I know
that this is a matter of taste, but on a program that takes 15 minutes
or more to complete a round, I really like to have a game pause feature.
Still, it's a lot of fun to play, and at an unusually low price.
--
Doug Pardee -- CalComp Display Products Div, Scottsdale AZ --
{elrond,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug (soon to disappear from the net)