STUNT CAR racer

» PLATFORM: BBC Master » DEVELOPER: Bitshifters » DOWNLOAD: Kikstart.me.uk/scr-bbc » price: free

Legendary developer Geoff Crammond’s earliest stomping ground was the BBC Micro, where he created a number of well-respected games including Aviator, Revs and The Sentinel which all ran on surprisingly complex 3D engines.

Stunt Car Racer was a later outing and, while the man himself took care of the C64 version, because it arrived late in the 8-bit era the jump to systems like the BBC Micro wasn’t made.

That was how things remained for around three decades as well, until Fandal’s Atari 8-bit port (released in 2018) proved to be an inspiration to Bitshifters’ Kieran Connell – the coder behind Prince

Of Persia for the BBC Micro – who decided it was about time for someone to sit down with a dump of the C64’s code and some development tools in order to fill the stunt car-shaped hole in his favourite 8-bit’s software catalogue.

The races themselves are limited to two competitors and take place on tracks that would leave health and safety inspectors having nightmares. Not only are there no safety barriers to keep vehicles in play, each course is elevated above the ground and constructed from steep hills, banked curves and large ramps so audiences stand a good chance of seeing some spectacular pileups as drivers fail to judge the track, engage their boost and send the car soaring into the air for a moment before it plummets to the ground. Crashing or mistiming a landing causes damage, indicated blemishes across the top of the roll cage that appear with each impact.

It might be based on similar code, but the extra speed offered up by the BBC Master’s faster processor means this version of Stunt Car Racer is quicker on the update than either the Commodore 64 original or indeed the more recent Atari 8-bit port. That does mean the car responds more rapidly to the controls and subsequently requires some acclimatisation to get used to, but regular stunt car drivers should be ready to throw themselves around courses towards the top of the leaderboard in no time.

[Atari 2600] They may be blocky, but there’s certainly lots of them. [Atari 2600] A UFO drifts past as the invaders get perilously low. [BBC Micro] Heading out onto the open road… or open stunt track, at least. [BBC Micro] Hang on a second: is the ground really meant to be at that angle?