The Top 50 Amiga Driving Games [8/10] - by LemonAmiga.com

Counting down the lower teens as we heard towards discovering the Lemon Amiga fan-voted best driving games of all time!!

0:00 - 15. No Second Prize --- (Ripped: 12th June 2016)
6:15 - 14. Super Hang-on --- (re-ripped: 4th Jan 2017)
11:30 - 13. Nitro --- (ripped: 12th Dec 2014)
17:48 - 12. Test Drive II --- (re-ripped 9th Jan 2017)
23:29 - 11. Indianapolis 500 --- (re-ripped 9th Jan 2017)

Production Notes:
===============
Ripped: 2014 - 2017
Edited: 2015 - May 2017

If part 7 was the shortest time in ripping and the longest time in editing, this part 8 was the other way around. As you know, I ripped most of the games and started editing these in 2014 going into 2015, but after I found out about the NTSC thing, huge chunks of these shows were thrown away and had to be ripped again and re-edited.

Nitro is the exception, as most of this is re-used from the original longplay of the game, which I recorded in March 2015. This footage runs at 30fps, except for the start, because I went back to re-rip the intro and the first level of this game this week; - and this is why the audio quality takes a noticeable dive when we get to the 2015 material, and becomes less smooth.

The rest of the games in this show were recorded many many (many!) times, on different occasions. Super Hang-On was the straw which almost broken the mules back, as this is one of my favourite racers of all time. If you see black borders, or the game area not quite making it to the top and bottom on the screen (as is the case with almost all my other parts), it means the game was recorded in the wrong ratio, as most Amiga games were designed to run inside the whole of the 4:3 screen area. Some driving games run in a smaller window to try to speed them up a bit, but mostly the driving games in this section are NTSC games which we in the west only saw in PAL mode, giving the black borders. I was convinced that the game would be faster and smoother in 60fps mode, so I contacted Shot97 directly and begged for an authentic NTSC version. As it turns out, this games timings are perhaps identical when running on a PAL or NTSC machine, so the only difference this time is the full screen game experience. It took me several versions and tests to find this out.

Test Drive 2 does fall into the 'speeded up in NTSC mode' category, and also the graphics are full screen. The very top line of the screen area shows the progress of the two cars as two tiny dots, and this was always at the very top of my screen when I played this back in the day, as I remember playing this and Lotus 1 in NTSC mode, because of the speed boost. It never occurred to me that the game was meant to be run like this.

Similarly, No Second Prize and Indy 500 were recorded a number of times, and had to be re-edited. So this show was basically rebuilt from scratch. Same goes for Part 9 and part 10 when we get there. But it will be worth it in the end, as 99% of the videos on youtube of these games (especially Test Drive 2) are in Pal widescreen, which I think looks stretched and flat, and not like the games I remember.

Thanks again to Shot97 for all the help, as I ripped my hair out over some of these games. I contacted him waaay last year, so it just goes to prove how long this project has been in the works, that its only just appearing now! Look out for a bonus screen comparison of Super Hang-on to follow. And thanks again everyone for reading this, and likeing my vids. :)

[Starredmediasoft]

Still amazed on how no second prize can be fast on A500

[Shot]

Thanks again for the mention in the comments. Good to see someone else showing off Test Drive II as it had originally been designed. I think my favorite game to watch you play in this set was actually Indy500; Now, I don't really care for that game myself that much; as I can not stand (in real life) any type of track that is a simple oval going in a constant gradual left turn. It's utterly boring in real life, and it's not much better in a game. However; seeing you play this game is that exact way I would have played this game back in the day. Turning myself around and causing destruction. I loved how that was pretty much the first instinct you had as well.

[RobeenaShepherd]

Looking at the artwork in Nitro at 11:50 I'm sure that was from somewhere else, but I can't remember where, maybe a role playing game sold in the 80s?

[LemonTubeAmiga]

No prizes for guessing the top 10, but you can try to guess the order. We know the Lotus games are in there, along with Super Cars II, but which are the others?? Days of Thunder perhaps?? Hard Drivin!

[ericfresh]

The lotus series was my favorite driving games on the Amiga.

[rayforceaddict]

You're playing Indy 500 exactly how I used to :D

[LemonTubeAmiga]

RIP Roger Moore. I wrote a small epitaph for him in the Lemon chit chat section.

[alexgr]

You should check out the driving section of Borobodur game on the Amiga.
I think it's the 3rd level in the game.
A very fast and smooth driving section.

[AtrociousNightmare]

I played and loved all these ones as well <3
I'm surprised to see just how much I played back when I was a kid on the amiga haha
My favorite of these was Nitro, it was just so much fun to play!
Super hang-on too was so cool. You got nice skills on that one!

[raxsavvage]

i look at super hangon and it just seems an inferior version of road rash
that game was unforgiving with its spam of intersections and cars everywhere, and that was only level 4... never got to 5.
ultimately came to resent that game :P

[auritone]

No Second Prize and Indianapolis 500... can't even count how many hours I spent with those. And who didn't challenge themselves have all the cars pile up in a huge crash in Indy?