Name: Race Drivin'
Platform: Sega Genesis / Mega Drive
Region: USA
Media: Cartridge
Controller: Gamepad
Genre: Racing
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1993
Developer: Polygames
Publisher: Tengen
Players: 1 or 2 Alternating
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Here it is... the amazing conversion of the smash arcade sensation brings screaming-fast car racing to the Genesis! Pound the pedal and grind those gears, down the straights and around wicked hairpin turns. Whip through hairy S-curves, gut-flipping loop-the-loops and crazy corkscrews! With three cars to choose from, multiple music tracks and cool sound effects, Race Drivin' brings arcade-style auto speed competition to the Genesis!

Gameplay:

The gameplay resembles a driving game, featuring a car similar in appearance to the Ferrari Testarossa. The screen shows a first person perspective from inside the car, throgh the windshield. To separate it from other driving titles of that era, stunt loops and other road hazards were added. The game generally consists of 1 or 2 laps around the stunt track. In certain modes, the player races against the computer controlled car, Phantom Photon. The game challenges the players in a daredevil fashion and broke away from traditional racing games like Out Run or Pole Position. Stunts, a racing game produced later, has similar visuals, controls and tracks.

It also features a realistic manual transmission mode and force feedback steering wheel, in which the driver would have to properly operate the car as they would in real life.

A notable feature of the game is the "instant replay" display that is presented after a crash, which sets Hard Drivin' apart from most driving games of its time, which after a crash would just put the player back on the road, stopped, and let them accelerate again. Before resuming play after a crash, Hard Drivin' would run an approximately ten second animation, captioned "Instant Replay", which showed a wide aerial view of the movements of the player's car and surrounding vehicles leading up to the crash, with the player's car always centered on the screen. During the replay, the player could not change the action on screen, but the replay could be aborted to immediately get back to active gameplay. The replay would continue for about two or three seconds after the crash, showing a polygon-rendered fireball and the movement of the car, including any spinning, flipping, or bouncing off the struck obstacle.

The replays add to the appeal of the game and actually add a motivation to crash in spectacular ways in order to see them played out from the aerial view. Besides collisions, a non-survivable landing after going airborne (even if the car landed right-side up), or even going too far off-road, could cause a crash which would be replayed like any other crash, with the car even exploding into the same orange fireball. The game tracks the player's progress around the track by invisible waypoints (denoted by flags on the course map showing the player's progress when the game ends due to time running out), and after a crash, the car is placed back on the track at the last waypoint passed; this sometimes is a significant distance back from the point of collision. (One of the waypoints on each track was the marked checkpoint about halfway around, which when passed granted the player extra time.)

Race Drivin's approach to collisions or unrealistic events-putting the car back on the road at a standstill-was the norm for driving games until later games such as Cruisin' USA and its successors introduced intentionally artificial physics to force a car to always stay near the road and land right-side up pointing forward.

After going goes off-road, the player has ten seconds to return to the road, or else he will be stopped and returned to the road, at a standstill, at the last waypoint passed (just like when a crash occurs, but without an instant replay.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Drivin%27
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/home/586409.html