Lost Levels releases NES Hard Drivin' to the public

[BlastProcessing402]

Never saw the point to home versions of Hard Drivin'. The only real draw of the arcade version was that force feedback steering wheel, and you certainly weren't gonna get that on a port. The game itself was pretty meh.

[Greg2600]

If I may ask, is compatibility on the NES Powerpak all right with it?

I haven't tried it myself but others have and it's as glitch-y and unplayable as on emulators like Nestopia. FCEUX works though, but it's still not quite a playable game, it's really a demo. It does go to show you though how innovative the programmers of the 70's, 80's, early 90's were on limited hardware. Plus the interview is cool, because this designer really had NO idea people were interested. I feel this way with a LOT of former game designers. They walk away from the business with this great stuff and stories galore, and don't realize we want to hear about them. So my point is that yes it's great to view/play the game in any form, but we shouldn't forget about the background story that goes with it.

[TheRedEye]

I haven't tried it myself but others have and it's as glitch-y and unplayable as on emulators like Nestopia. FCEUX works though, but it's still not quite a playable game, it's really a demo. It does go to show you though how innovative the programmers of the 70's, 80's, early 90's were on limited hardware. Plus the interview is cool, because this designer really had NO idea people were interested. I feel this way with a LOT of former game designers. They walk away from the business with this great stuff and stories galore, and don't realize we want to hear about them. So my point is that yes it's great to view/play the game in any form, but we shouldn't forget about the background story that goes with it.

Thanks for saying that, it was the whole reason I started Lost Levels: I wanted to save this stuff, but I didn't want it to just be some broken files that turned up in ROM sets. Getting context is REALLY important, especially for an early buggy demo like this one. Otherwise you'd see this popping up on YouTube with people "reviewing" it talking about how it "sucks" because they don't understand how game development works.

[InsaneDavid]

Thanks for saying that, it was the whole reason I started Lost Levels: I wanted to save this stuff, but I didn't want it to just be some broken files that turned up in ROM sets. Getting context is REALLY important, especially for an early buggy demo like this one. Otherwise you'd see this popping up on YouTube with people "reviewing" it talking about how it "sucks" because they don't understand how game development works.

Thank you for maintaining such a great resource of information and developer stories over the years.

[fluid_matrix]

Where is this coming from? Why the hostility around here?
But for the sake of argument, let's see what you said:

"......Saw this late last night. Was going to d/l it to play on my PSP, but after watching the video decided not to. Which is sad, because I really use to enjoy the game......"

The part I disagreed with was that you were going to download it, but saw the video, and then decided not to. (implying it did not impress you and/or interest you)
That is the part I did not agree with. It DID impress me, and it DOES interest me, and I DO want to play it and enjoy it.
So what, other people are not allowed to disagree with your opinions?

Does this drama always happen around here?

People are allowed to have their own opinion, and had I actually stated an opinion, then you would have an argument. However, everything I stated was truthful and in no means up for debate.

[Tanooki]

Agree with almost all of what you said.

I definitely have the same game across platforms in some cases. I also think this was a hell of a feat of programming, and I was super impressed by it.

I understand the argument that the game doesn't stand the test of time or might not be fun to play now, or whatever, but that is just a really great looking piece of work on the NES.

Mind blowing is what it was for me seeing it. The fact he got that kind of a workable engine going on the NES was simply amazing. I used to love marveling over dos era demos from the demo scene showing what a PC could pull off and this is right up there. Sometimes ballsy stuff does make it to market too Ike the 2bit color conversion of the laserdisc arcade dragons lair to the gb color which is stunning and sometimes like hard driving they don't.

[Greg2600]

Thanks for saying that, it was the whole reason I started Lost Levels: I wanted to save this stuff, but I didn't want it to just be some broken files that turned up in ROM sets. Getting context is REALLY important, especially for an early buggy demo like this one. Otherwise you'd see this popping up on YouTube with people "reviewing" it talking about how it "sucks" because they don't understand how game development works.

Which is why you have a great website. More articles!!!

[Ed Oscuro]

I was thinking that a "Hardly Drivin'" joke was going to be a good fit here, but that really is running too smoothly - with the 3D graphics is pretty mindblowing - so I'll forget about it. It's much better than I would have expected, at least as far as the looks go, even given the early state of the game. That they also had some system for implementing drifting (the horrible squealing tires noise) and going off-road (the constant explosion noise) is pretty good too. Of course it's really great just to see some of the 3D terrain appear and disappear in a flash, with correct perspective the whole way through - there's few systems that bring home the value of a polygon like the NES does.

Much appreciated, thanks to all involved!

[davidbrit2]

Kinda neat, but the lack of any left/right parallax perspective shift in the road is pretty jarring. It's rare to see a pseudo-3D engine not do that. But the stunt sequences being pre-rendered probably necessitated that for consistency.

I think the Gameboy version is more impressive, with its full polygonal 3D engine, but the frame rate obviously isn't nearly as smooth.