RPM Racing

Engines scream as the monster truck flies into the lead. All four racers spill over the dirt hill and slam onto the asphalt surface. Pushing past the pack in true dune buggy style, the Sandrail hits an ice patch and skids off the track. The Eurocar crashes through the open hole, but not before dropping off a few mines to slow down any slip-streamers.And the race has just begun!Interplay Productions introduces super high resolution graphics in a radical racing action game. Players zoom over asphalt, dirt and ice as they make their way through 24 levels of track difficulty--or they can build and save their own exciting track designs! And racers use their winnings to buy bigger and better equipment, or arm themselves with mines and oil slicks to sabotage the opposition.The challenge is on. It's machine vs. machine in the ultimate race for the checkered flag!

# 2013-11-11 17:33:01 - official description

RPM Racing was preceded by Rareware's RC Pro-Am in 1988 and Electronic Art's Racing Destruction Set in 1985. With the later being the larger influence. It is a precursor to Rock 'n Roll Racing, which was done by the same developer.
Combat, obstacles, and traction on the non-flat tracks play a significant roll. There are 3 vehicle types to choose from that preform differently on pavement, dirt, ice, flat or bumpy tracks. Cars can be armed with oil, nitro, and mines. Additionally, there are 3 levels of tires, engines, shocks, and armor.
There are full race season, single race, and custom track modes. In addition to 4 game save slots, there are 6 custom tacks save slots. 1 or 2 players may compete on the split screen in any mode. In 1 player games, the 2nd player is replaced with one of 8 AI opponents who are each associated with their own vehicle.
In season mode, each track has an entrance fee and cash prize for placing 1st; often lesser cash prizes for lesser placements are also awarded. For an additional fee, racers can opt to move to a higher racing class (levels) where fees and prizes are bigger. Each class has its own set of tracks that the player may choose from. No track is mandatory or unavailable within a class. The player also has the option of going back to a lower class for free, which may become necessary if funds are eaten up be fees without winning prizes. However, going up always incurs a fee, even if the player has been there before. Beating the game requires making it to level 24 then paying 30,000,000 for one last level up. This triggers the end sequence as there is no 25th level, but the player may continue racing the 30 million dollar party. Of note, the player may leave any game mode at anytime between races without penalty, the current game is automatically saved at the conclusion of each race.

Track Editor:
Custom track designing is not intuitive but fairly easy to learn. Players can set the track's laps, gravity, and starting line type. Each track section can be pavement, dirt, or ice. Track sections are laid out like puzzle pieces on a 2D non-isometric grid (Pipe-Mania style). Sections include horizontal and vertical straights, four standard 90° turns, eight T-sections for diverging and converging multiple paths in any direction, and a criss-cross. Either a horizontal or vertical special straight section is used as the starting grid. The staring grid can be oriented forward, reversed, face-off with player 1 forward, or face-off with player 1 reversed. 7 points are used to adjust the 6 slops in straight sections to 5 different heights. Slopes can be flat (0:1), inclined (1:1), or steep (2:1). Non-straight sections can only be adjusted for height for the entire section at once. An isometric view of individual sections is provided to help to orient the section's design to the adjacent sections. If the edge of a section does not match the height of the adjacent section(s), the player is warned immediately but may proceed without correcting the error immediately. But such error must be eliminated before the track can be saved. Also required for a track to be saved is no dead ends, and a starting grid section. The track verification is surprisingly liberal, even allowing diverging and converging paths that are against the flow of traffic (like turning around and going the wrong way up a freeware merging lane). The AI opponents are generally no able to discern the fastest or shortest route and can even be diverted into a path with no natural exit. Or with very clever path designs, valid lap paths can be entirely different for player 1, player 2, and AI players; which can lead to interesting traffic patterns.

Trivia:
Blizzard (formally Silicon & Synapse) claims this is the first Super Nintendo game made in the USA; As it was developed and published by US companies.

(Zerothis) - # 2008-05-03 17:31:11

software: Level editor,

display: raster

has influenced
Rock N Roll Racing (SNES)
Rock 'n Roll Racing (Mega Drive)
Rock N' Roll Racing (GBA)

remake of
Racing Destruction Set (C64)

similar to
Rock N Roll Racing (SNES)
Rock 'n Roll Racing (Mega Drive)
Rock N' Roll Racing (GBA)