Route-16 (video game)
Route-16 (ルート16, Rūto 16) is an arcade game released by Tehkan and Sun Electronics in 1981. The game was licensed to Centuri for distribution in the United States. It was ported to the NES and the Emerson Arcadia 2001.
| Route-16 | |
|---|---|
 U.S. Route 16 arcade flyer. | |
| Developer(s) | Tehkan/Sun Electronics |
| Publisher(s) | Centuri |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, NES, Arcadia 2001 |
| Release | 1981 |
| Genre(s) | Maze, Racing |
| Mode(s) | Two players alternating turns |
| Cabinet | Upright, Cocktail |
| CPU | (2x) Z80 (@ 2.5 MHz) |
| Sound | AY8910 (@ 1.25 MHz) |
| Display | Raster, 256 x 256 pixels (Vertical), 8 colors |
Plot
A racing game where the main character is the greed. Several cars battle each other on maze-like rooms trying to get the money bags and avoiding the dangers. In this game, everybody cares just about the money, showing that the money is the "route" of all evil.
Gameplay
The player controls a car which must explore a maze divided into sixteen rooms. He or she must get all the money bags while avoiding the opposite cars and trying not to run out of fuel. Every time the player goes out of a room, a map is shown, indicating the position of every car and all the money bags. There are also flags that can be driven over to invert the roles, so the player can crash the opposite cars and stop them for a few seconds, while getting bonus points.
| Route-16 Turbo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sunsoft |
| Publisher(s) | Sunsoft |
| Platform(s) | Famicom |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Action game, Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| CPU | Zilog Z80  |
Legacy
Route-16 Turbo (ルート16ターボ, Rūto 16 Tābo) is an improved version of Route-16. It is also the Famicom port, which was developed and published on October 4, 1985 by Sunsoft only in Japan.
These are the improvements on Route-16 Turbo over the original arcade version:
- Adjustable difficulty via the title screen (easy, medium and difficult)
- Improved graphics
- Improved music
Later, it was re-released for the two-in-one PlayStation game, Memorial Series Sunsoft Vol.2, which also included Atlantis no Nazo. In the Shanghai series, Sunsoft's character Route-16 made a cameo appearance in the mobile game, Shanghai Musume: Mahjong Girls.
The game saw release on the Nintendo Switch Online service on December 12, 2019, only in Japan.