Super R.C. Pro Am
Ages ago, my Dad was awesome enough to have found me an amazing deal on a used Gameboy. I'm talking about the original grey brick. He scored one that came with a case, a bunch of games and a full set of Nuby accessories. I had a ton of games to start with and though I don't remember what they all were, I do remember that one of them was the unique R.C. racer, Super R.C. Pro AM.
Most racers at the time were pretty similar. Your car basically shifted from left to right as the track scrolled towards you. It was a reasonable way of faking car driving when it was very difficult to simulate it any other way. But R.C. Pro Am decided to move the camera into a third-person orthographic view, suggesting the player is watching his or her car from above the track. A similar camera view to what you would have seen in PaperBoy. The upside with this is that you get a better appearance of 3D and you can actually judge upcoming corners because you can actually see further down the track than just 5 feet.
I had no idea Rare made this game. (Yes it's all over the title screen..) Simply because I didn't know who Rare was at the time. But that explains why it was such a smart game for it's time. In fact, it's still a pretty smart design and I'd love to see Rare make a more updated version on the Nintendo 3DS handheld. It would actually be quite perfect. A number of companies have cloned this design in the past, the best I've seen to date would be the R.C. version of Motorstorm from Sony and Evolution Studios. It may look more up to date, but is essentially the same game. Camera placement is of course, key, since it really drives the control style, implied scale and the concept that you are in control of the cars from the outside.
R.C. Pro Am was also just fantastic because the time time, R.C. cars were really out of reach for most kids. Nowadays you can get a decent remote control car for nothing. But when I was a kid, unless you paid top-dollar remote control cars were pretty much useless. First off, the remote was tethered to the car with a wire. Terrible. Secondly, most cars I got only had two modes; Forward and reverse plus turn. Basically, you pushed a button to move forward and when you released it, it move backwards while turning in a circle allowing you to re-aim the car and then move it forward. It was nothing like you envisioned and it was heartcrushingly useless. I had one great R.C. car once that my dad got me for christmas. I love it, but it went through batteries so fast that I almost never got to use it and then one day it got lost, maybe in a move or something.
Anyway, the point is that all I really wanted when i was a kid was a super cool radio controlled car and having R.C. Pro Am got me at least half way there.
Super R.C. Pro Am worked great as a racer on the classic portable Nintendo system. I played it a ton since I always had a love for racing games even back when I had first started playing video games. Everything from Hard Drivin' to Super Monaco GP and the super crappy Cruisin' USA, I just plain loved simulated driving. Although it exists, there's just something both zen and non-violent compared to what else was going on in electronic gaming and R.C Pro Am was a great example of that.
Ages ago, my Dad was awesome enough to have found me an amazing deal on a used Gameboy. I'm talking about the original grey brick. He scored one that came with a case, a bunch of games and a full set of Nuby accessories. I had a ton of games to start with and though I don't remember what they all were, I do remember that one of them was the unique R.C. racer, Super R.C. Pro AM. Most racers at the time were pretty similar. Your car basically shifted from left to right as the track scrolled towards you. It was a reasonable way of faking car driving when it was very difficult to simulate it any other way. But R.C. Pro Am decided to move the camera into a third-person orthographic view, suggesting the player is watching his or her car from above the track. A similar camera view to what you would have seen in PaperBoy. The upside with this is that you get a better appearance of 3D and you can actually judge upcoming corners because you can actually see further down the track than just 5 feet.
I had no idea Rare made this game. (Yes it's all over the title screen..) Simply because I didn't know who Rare was at the time. But that explains why it was such a smart game for it's time. In fact, it's still a pretty smart design and I'd love to see Rare make a more updated version on the Nintendo 3DS handheld. It would actually be quite perfect. A number of companies have cloned this design in the past, the best I've seen to date would be the R.C. version of Motorstorm from Sony and Evolution Studios. It may look more up to date, but is essentially the same game. Camera placement is of course, key, since it really drives the control style, implied scale and the concept that you are in control of the cars from the outside. R.C. Pro Am was also just fantastic because the time time, R.C. cars were really out of reach for most kids. Nowadays you can get a decent remote control car for nothing. But when I was a kid, unless you paid top-dollar remote control cars were pretty much useless. First off, the remote was tethered to the car with a wire. Terrible. Secondly, most cars I got only had two modes; Forward and reverse plus turn. Basically, you pushed a button to move forward and when you released it, it move backwards while turning in a circle allowing you to re-aim the car and then move it forward. It was nothing like you envisioned and it was heartcrushingly useless. I had one great R.C. car once that my dad got me for christmas. I love it, but it went through batteries so fast that I almost never got to use it and then one day it got lost, maybe in a move or something. Anyway, the point is that all I really wanted when i was a kid was a super cool radio controlled car and having R.C. Pro Am got me at least half way there.
Super R.C. Pro Am worked great as a racer on the classic portable Nintendo system. I played it a ton since I always had a love for racing games even back when I had first started playing video games. Everything from Hard Drivin' to Super Monaco GP and the super crappy Cruisin' USA, I just plain loved simulated driving. Although it exists, there's just something both zen and non-violent compared to what else was going on in electronic gaming and R.C Pro Am was a great example of that.
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