DOS Games Discussion

Right, I've tried to narrow down to find this game on multiple places, but no go. I can't remember the name obviously, or this would've been much easier. Anyway..

It's a racing game where you can buy and use lasers and other weapons to improve your odds of winning races. Most notable is probably the kind of polygonic graphics style of the game, I don't think I've ever seen a racing game of it's narrowed down genre with a graphics style like it.

Another detail I remember was one of the screens, either when you booted up the game or the main menu or something, there was a face there, looking rather crazy.

It was included on a old PC Gamer demo CD, but I'm pretty sure it was a freeware or something along the lines, because it sure didn't feel like a demo. Unfortunately I have no idea where my old demo cds are right now. Any help would be appreciated.

I have this nagging feeling I'd know the game if I just see the name.

Did you drive in the car or see the car from the outside? Sounds a lot like Carmageddon.

Some quick and obvious potentials you've probably already excluded: Carmageddon, AutoDuel, Badlands, Spyhunter.

I'm thinking Hi-Octane.

Death rally or Deathtrack
(check them at mobygames, I cant post links )

Sorry, none of those games are it. I've actually played a lot of them, Death Rally is especially a really nice game.

Anyway, can drive both inside and outside of the car. It's a first-person view or 'behind-the-car' view, depending on what you choose. Hell, you could even drive in a 'from-the-front' view iirc.

Here's a few other notes I thought about last night;
iirc large parts of the race tracks you drove in were half-pipe shaped, the remainder being tubes, where turning actually shifted your car up along the sides of the half-pipes, or in the case of the tube areas, you could go all the way around the tube. As such, there's no actual turning of the cars, rather, the whole car moves sideways up/down the tubes when you use the left/right controls.
Also the game should have been from (provided the game wasn't old when the demo cd was released) the mid 90s, or at the very least somewhere between 95-00. I'm fairly certain it wasn't older than 95. This is no none of these are guarantees ofc, it might've been newer.

And yes, it'd remind you a bit of Carmageddon, since it's principle builds on the same "genre", except that (atleast the ones I've played) Carmageddon games didn't have fire-able weaponry. Also, I'd like to again put emphasis that it was futuristic, with lasers rather than regular guns. There were still missiles though.

Another note I remembered right now is that the full-tube areas were what you might call "high-speed areas", as in that speed automatically ramped up a bit while you were in them and iirc there were also boosters. Oh yeah, speaking of boosters, even the half-pipe part of the race-tracks hade boosters on them. When you successfully drove over a booster-part of the track, it'd announce "Booster" (or something along those lines) in the speakers, in a somewhat muffled, semi-robotic female voice.

Hope that'll help you narrow things down. Even back when I still knew were my demo CDs were, I don't think I'd ever seen this game anywhere, so I'm guessing it's one of those rare gems. No doubt about that it was very original.

Minaro wrote:Anyway, can drive both inside and outside of the car. It's a first-person view or 'behind-the-car' view, depending on what you choose. Hell, you could even drive in a 'from-the-front' view iirc.

Here's a few other notes I thought about last night;
iirc large parts of the race tracks you drove in were half-pipe shaped, the remainder being tubes, where turning actually shifted your car up along the sides of the half-pipes, or in the case of the tube areas, you could go all the way around the tube. As such, there's no actual turning of the cars, rather, the whole car moves sideways up/down the tubes when you use the left/right controls.

I think I've read about something similar at 3D Shooter Legends (Google it), but I can't remember the title at all. The game you describe fits a very popular niche back in the mid-nineties, so hopefully after some searching you'll find it. (Don't be confused by the categorization at 3DSL, they sometimes call "third-person shooters" something that actually isn't that; just look through their database year by year.)

I looked through it all, title by title through all categories for all the years up to 2005 (And I know for a fact that it can't be THAT new, since I first got it before then) but I couldn't find it. Either I was horribly wrong about recognizing the title as I see it, or it wasn't there.

I'm gonna ask my wife when she gets back home, and pray to the gods she didn't convince me to throw away my demo cds at some point, but if we did, I really need help here. If anyone can offer up any information that might help me, shoot!

Sorry for the double-post, just thought I'd let you know I've decided to register.

I found my old demo CD, and it was a game called Tanaka 3D, released in 1999.

Cool, glad you found it! Thanks for letting us know. Wow, I can't find it on Mobygames or google images - except for maybe one screenshot. Nice find.

Yeah, it's a real gem. Doubt I would've ever found it otherwise.

Minaro wrote:Yeah, it's a real gem. Doubt I would've ever found it otherwise.

So share the love, bro.

I know I am following a 3 year old thread but I was also looking for this game for my kids now after having played in in my youth. Has anyone been able to find the window version? If yes, can you please upload/ post a link. I know few people have managed to get the mac version but I don't have a mac.

Here's a Windows demo:
http://volftp.tiscali.it/pub/pc/windows ... pcdemo.zip

I haven't checked if it works though.