Exidy's Death Race

[Dire 51]

I've been looking for info on this one for a while, ever since I read about it back in the early '80s. Has it been emulated yet? Does anyone know where I can at least find screenshots of it? KLOV only has a couple cabinet shots and a marquee for viewing.

Better yet, has anyone here even played the actual arcade game?

[norkusa]

I'm not sure how emulation works, but I remember reading that Death Race cannot be emulated because it uses special chips which makes it impossible to extract the game data from (or something like that)

A couple years ago, someone in one of the Vectrex newsgroups was working on a port of Death Race for the console. Doesn't look like it ever got made though.

[Dire 51]

If that's the case, that just sucks. I'd really like to see the game, just to satisfy my curiosity (not to mention finally answering my question of "just what does the game look like?" after 20 some-odd years).

[Goodwill Hunter]

I've been looking for info on this one for a while, ever since I read about it back in the early '80s. Has it been emulated yet? Does anyone know where I can at least find screenshots of it? KLOV only has a couple cabinet shots and a marquee for viewing.

Better yet, has anyone here even played the actual arcade game?

I'm having flashbacks to the bowling alley of my youth...Death Race was part of the triad of games that ate our quarters before and after bowling (Asteroids and Galaxian were the other two). Death Race played like a black and white, 2-player destruction derby...except you and your opponent had the only cars...everyone else on the track was on foot ;).

They would walk around the screen until you or your opponent ran over them, at which point they would turn into tombstones...whoever had squashed the most people by the end of the game was the winner. Controls were simple...a steering wheel and a gearshift that put you in forward or reverse. The rest was pure evil fun...thanks for the flashback, here's a pic I found on the web.

Rich

http://www.retrogoodness.com/shrine/graphics/0045.jpg

[Kid Fenris]

I'm not sure how emulation works, but I remember reading that Death Race cannot be emulated because it uses special chips which makes it impossible to extract the game data from (or something like that)



Wow. So Death Race is a real-life Lucky Wander Boy?

Actually, I was just thinking about Death Race myself. Wasn't it the first video game to stir up real controversy over its level of violence?

[atomicthumbs]

This won't help you much, and I hope this is the same death race, but I have an interesting little story. I work at a Blockbuster Video (since they still carried Genesis games) and I found a used copy of Death Race at another local video store with my store's used sale label on the back from years before. I was very excited (paid $8 for it) and took it home, and found that it was defective. Or so I thought. I had taken it back to the store I got it from and exchanged it towards a copy of Chrono Trigger that night. A few days later, I found out from some friends that it wasn't the game that was defective, my system was to new and had the 3rd party lockout chip installed. CRAP! Anyway, I tried to get the game back, though they had already tossed it. Ended up getting a copy off of ebay a few weeks later after I got an older NES. Oh-well. Sorry for the rambling. -_-

[atomicthumbs]

Whoops. Wrong Death Race... sorry...
:duh:

[Scoots]

There's an unlicensed version of this game for the NES too. It's crap, unfortunately.

[DEBRO]

I don't know if you're into the Atari 2600 but Glenn Saunders and Thomas Jentzsch are working on a Death Race port called Death Derby (http://www.atariage.com/development_page.html?InDevelopmentID=58).

A demo of it was shown at PC4 (http://www.atariage.com/features/atariage_pc4/demos.html).

[atomicthumbs]

True... The game is crap... But, I still liked it for some reason. x_x

[Kid Ice]

Better yet, has anyone here even played the actual arcade game?

Yes, but I was like 6 years old. It had a steering wheel control. It was pretty funny. Of course, a lot of stuff is funny when you're six.

I played it at the arcade in Cape May, NJ. The stand alone one, not the one at the end of the boardwalk with the nut shop. The last time I ever saw that game I couldn't have been older than 9 years old.

[Jorpho]

If I am not mistaken, Death Race did not use special chips - it simply used discrete components. Such a setup cannot really be emulated, only "simulated".

This is why Pong (which also used discrete components) was taken out of the official MAME a long time ago. The MAME developers wanted to remain focused on emulation, not simulation.
________
Fetish barefoot (http://www.fucktube.com/categories/505/barefoot/videos/1)

[Aswald]

This was one of the first games to have been banned for violence. This being 2003, think about that for a moment.

[grayejectbutton]

Yes, Death Race was indeed the first video game to stir up controversy about violence in games. Death Race was released in 1976 but, because of the violence in it, most places refused to carry it. Consequently, only about 500 cabinets were built - if you can get your hands on one, you've got something Rare with a capital R. The game came out 27 years ago - remarkable to think how long ago the issue of violence in video games first came about. It makes the Mortal Kombat controversy seem like yesterday!

[Dire 51]

AT LAST! Now I know what the damn thing actually looks like - thanks, Goodwill Hunter!

DEBRO - A 2600 version, eh? Any idea if it's going to be released as an actual cart? I'd get one just to have it (oh, and I am into the 2600 - not as much as I was in the early '80s, but I still pull it out and play it every so often).

I recall reading about the controversy it caused in VG&CE about 14 years back, plus the old Craig Kubey book "The Winners' Book Of Video Games" had a small section on it, which is where I learned about it initially. Come to think of it, I still have my copy, and it's in great shape for a book that's 21 years old.

[Flack]

Here's a bump from the past.

Had I seen this thread before this weekend, I might have picked this one up.

http://www.robohara.com/videogames/articles/121804_auction/121804_001.jpg

There it is on the far left at the auction I attended this weekend. As you can see the marquee was there and complete, and the side art was the "white on black" and not the "black on white" that some cabinets had. The game was up and working at the auction.

http://www.robohara.com/videogames/articles/121804_auction/121804_006.jpg

A head on shot of the cabinet (with a dumb reflection).

Bids got up to $600 but the game did not sell, so the reserve must've been higher than that.

[Aswald]

I've been looking for info on this one for a while, ever since I read about it back in the early '80s. Has it been emulated yet? Does anyone know where I can at least find screenshots of it? KLOV only has a couple cabinet shots and a marquee for viewing.

Better yet, has anyone here even played the actual arcade game?

Sure, right here at KLOV:

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=D&game_id=7541

Hmmm...I actually played this game. Believe it or not, it was banned because of its violence.

[98PaceCar]

If I can find it, I have a version of mame that plays this at home. As was mentioned above, it's not true rom images but from what I can tell the simulation is pretty much perfect. I'll try to dig it up tonight.

Oh yea, if anybody wants pics, I know where there's a cab. Non working, but complete. I doubt I'd be able to do it before new years, but I can get there and take some pics of the art. It's a sweet cab!

[Dimitri]

If I am not mistaken, Death Race did not use special chips - it simply used discrete components. Such a setup cannot really be emulated, only "simulated".

That is correct, good sir. Many of the oldest arcade games used descrete electronic parts (Pong is a prime example) and no ROM chips, so accurate emulation would be extremely difficult to create. Not to mention the fact that according to MAME's discrete sound guru (Derrick Renaud for those who care) even if someone were to create an accurate emulation of a game like Pong, you'd still need an incredibly fast computer to play it. We're talking more CPU-intensive than, say, Seattle or ST-V here.

Some games (Like Donkey Kong and Turbo) used discrete component for the sound effect, which is why samples had to be used in MAME for these games until recently. Just getting these simple sound systems working properly is quite an ordeal, consisting of gathering schematics, running tests on the hardware, setting up "modules" within the MAME architecture, etc...
I'd go on, but this is likely already far more than anyone cares about anyways... -_-

[Leo_A]

"Hmmm...I actually played this game. Believe it or not, it was banned because of its violence"

It was banned, where? There was no national US federal ban on this or any other videogame. Perhaps locally it might've been banned somewhere, or in another nation.

[SoulBlazer]

I don't think he means 'banned', just 'pulled'. It WAS pulled from many places because of the nature of the game.

[Dire 51]

Heh... I forgot all about this. I still haven't played it yet, though...

[inconstants]

For those interested in an authentic remake for PC I've created one that's pretty true to form. Here's the link: https://inconstants.itch.io/death-race

[Graham Mitchell]

Hey cool! I'll check that out.

[Nz17]

Death Race TV news report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U44UsfzM_s