The Great American Cross-Country Road Race

The Great American Cross-Country Road Race (UK re-release title: American Road Race)[2] is a racing video game written by Alex DeMeo for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Activision in 1985.[1] It was ported to the Apple II and Commodore 64. The game is in part an adaptation of an earlier Activision game Enduro, created for the Atari 2600 console, but with design, graphics and sound expanded to fit the capabilities of the more powerful computers.

The Great American Cross-Country Road Race
Developer(s)Activision
Publisher(s)Activision
Designer(s)Alex DeMeo[1]
Platform(s)Atari 8-bit, Apple II, Commodore 64
Release1985
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay
Next city ahead

The game puts the player in the position of a driver of a high-performance car, racing across the United States while passing through its major cities. Obstacles include weather, road conditions, limited fuel, and the highway patrol. The changing time of day affects gameplay, because the other cars drive faster at night.

Players are given the option of choosing their routes from city to city, allowing them to, for example, take a northern route through the snowy Midwest. Every route has its own scoreboard for the top ten fastest times to complete each route.

Development

The Great American Cross-Country Road Race was designed by Alex DeMeo, who had been inspired by the film The Gumball Rally. DeMeo programmed the original version of Road Race on an Atari 800 including sound, music and some graphics. The game's title sequence was based on an introduction screen of another Activision video game Master of the Lamps.[3]

Reception
Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
Zzap!77%[4]
Info[5]

"After further playing I found this was in fact a good little road race." – Julian Rignall in Zzap!64 issue sept. 1985[4] Info rated the game three stars out of five, stating that it "feels pretty familiar" with "pretty standard" graphics and sound, and comparing it to Turbo.[5]

gollark: On the magic pyramid of magic this is approximately "gotchas".
gollark: Lots of things are arguments! Just really bad ones!
gollark: ·······
gollark: It looks like a train. It has rails and such.
gollark: Ah.

See also

References
  1. Hague, James. "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
  2. "The Great American Cross-Country Road Race". Atari Mania.
  3. "Help for Great American Cross-Country Road Race", Activision's Commodore 64 15 Pack, Activision, 1995, p. Game History
  4. The Great American Cross-Country Road Race review in Zzap!64 issue 5, Sept. 1985, pp. 108, 109, ISSN 0954-867X here
  5. Dunnington, Benn; Brown, Mark R. (December 1985 – January 1986). "C-64/128 Gallery". Info. pp. 4–5, 88–93. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
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