Atari: Four-player racing with Dirty Rally Speedway
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Up to four riders can simultaneously share the excitement of motorcycle racing with Dirty Rally Speedway, a unique game for Atari 8-bit computers.
Wojtek «Bocianu» Bocianski (programming and graphics) and Piotr «LiSU» Lis (music) bring us this multiplayer program, where we use a single button to turn the motorcycle around corners.
Speaking to Atariteca, Bocianski recalls that he based his game on “Zuzel”, a popular PC game in Poland during the second half of the nineties, when he was still studying programming.
“We played it on all the computers at the universities. It was fun because you could play against three other people with just one keyboard. It was fast, difficult and addictive. So I tried to make a remake of it on my favourite Atari,” he explains.
“Bocianu” recalls that his first computer was an Atari, which he used around 1986. He then moved straight to a compatible computer in 1993. “I didn’t use an Atari for almost 20 years; and then, in 2015, I bought an 800XL computer. My first two games were written in CC65 and assembler; and then, in 2016, I discovered Mad-Pascal.”
On the XL/XE series machines, two players can compete using the joysticks and a third player can use the space bar. Atari 400/800 owners can use four paddles. This speedway simulator also supports the multi-joy interface for four players at once.
As for the controls, the bike automatically accelerates in a straight line, but slightly slows down when cornering. To turn left, you must hold down the trigger button; the longer you hold down the button, the greater the turn. You must be careful not to end up off the track and thus be disqualified.
Dirty Rally Speedway allows for a “quick race”, where you can choose the number of laps (between 1 and 9 rounds) and the number of players. The game also remembers the best times for each number of laps and the best time for a single lap.
As if that were not enough, the program detects the availability of POKEY stereo and can use it, both during music playback and during gaming.
Dirty Rally Speedway for Atari computers
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