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Review: Moto Racer GP: Part 1© Dan Finkelstein
Jul 1, 1997
The problem with arcade racing games is that, in my opinion, it is very hard for the computer to simulate the same sensation of actually playing a real arcade game in a real arcade: The monitor is usually much smaller on a PC, the graphics are almost always much slower and less detailed, and the controllers on the PC are woefully inadequate for playing arcade-type games.
Such is the major problem with Moto Racer GP, a very good attempt to bring the classic Motorcycle racing game from the arcade to the home computer. My main beef with the game is the way you control your on-screen motorcycle. In the arcades, most popular motorcycle games (like the ones from Namco), actually have a special motorcycle rig that you sit on and actually lean to the left and right depending on the direction you want to turn. Unlike in the arcade, controlling a motorcycle with the keyboard is almost impossible. A mouse and joystick is a little better, but it will take most players some time before they actually win a race, let alone finish one without running out of time.
This game, designed by Delphine Software (makers of one of my all-time favorite games, "Out of this World"), is obviously designed for the next generation of 3-D graphics cards, which are finally coming down in price and increasing in performance. The game supports any Direct3D graphics card, although since I don't have one, I can't really say how well it works. The "plain" 600x480 graphics mode is actually pretty fast, although it suffers a noticeable slow-down when you are around several other racers. As usual, I did have problems with this Windows 95 game and Microsoft's DirectX. For some reason, the 600x400 graphics mode produced a strange "double image," which was unplayable. Fortunately, the other graphics mode did not suffer the same problem.
Next Week: The conclusion
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