Another forgotten SNES game... TOP GEAR 3000. Check it out!
Some of you know my fascination with SNES games that have special processing chips actually built into the cartridge. The Genesis only had one comparable game… Virtua Racing. The SNES, on the other hand, was host to a bunch of games with a variety of different processing chips that helped the SNES move things along more speedily than its slow CPU could handle on its own.
Today’s game is TOP GEAR 3000, the third and final game for the SNES in the Top Gear series. Unlike the previous games Top Gear and Top Gear 2, Top Gear 3000 was set in the future and contained something special in the cartridge itself… the DSP2 chip.
DSP stands for Digital Signal Processor, and it was used in conjunction with the SNES hardware to produce more advanced 3-D effects, particularly when using the “mode 7” scaling and rotation effects. The original DSP chip was used in games like Super Mario Kart, Ballz, and even a launch title… PilotWings. Nintendo wasn’t stupid! Pilotwings was an impressive technological display for the fledgling SNES, and most consumers didn’t know there was an extra processor in there helping out with the graphics.
The DSP2 chip bumped the SNES processor clock speed from 3.8 Mhz all the way to 8 Mhz and was first used in F1 Race of Champions. It wasn’t installed in many other games… Top Gear 3000 was the only other domestic release to utilize it.
ANYWAY, Top Gear 3000 is a futuristic racer that uses the basic elements of the first two games in the series and infuses them with an F-Zero vibe and the ability to buy a bunch of add-ons for your car that you can purchase with funds from your winnings. It was developed by Gremlin Software (who have made over 70 games including Loaded and Reloaded for PSX, Body Harvest for N64, Zool for multiple platforms) and published by Kemco in 1994.
The game starts off with some tripe about an illegal intergalactic race that occurs ONCE A MILLENIUM… come on now. Who waits 1000 years between races? Silly, I tell you.
Your car select screen lets you alter the color of your car as well as add more powerful engines, turbos, tires, armor, the ability to jump, boosts, magnetic attraction to other cars, weapons, and a host of other things. Unfortunately, these additions do not change the appearance of your car.
Speaking of appearances… Top Gear 3000 looks weird. Almost all the action occurs in the lower ˝ of your screen, and the cars look wide a flat… a departure for the earlier games.
There’s actually a reason for this weird screen layout… the first two games were designed for two players, with both you and your competitor racing on a split screen. In fact, you can choose to race on only half the screen with a CPU car sharing the other. I choose full screen because it moves faster. The impressive thing is that this game supports up to FOUR players racing AT THE SAME TIME with a multiplayer adaptor. I’m not sure how four players affect the speed of the game, but the fact that they pulled it off at all is impressive.
This game moves FAST. Very fast. MUCH faster than either of the previous two Top Gear games, and faster than any other SNES racer than I have ever played. Granted, there’s not a lot of trackside detail. A few trees and bushes, some short buildings, some streetlights, maybe some floating globes. That’s about it. There are various backgrounds in the far distance that rotate as you move, but this game is not about detail. It’s about SPEED. This thing moves so fast on occasion that you just can’t help but crash. The extra processor is really pushing the SNES along!
Handling is pretty precise… buying tires really does help your performance. Unfortunately, the game moves so fast at times that control becomes impossible… you have to slow it down just to stay on the track. Otherwise, no complaints.
All of the add-ons that you purchase with race winnings make a difference, especially the turbos. You can warp for small distances and even make your car jump… a real benefit when you are trying to get past your opponents on the universally narrow tracks. The hard part is shuffling through your varied inventory of doodads whilst flying down the track at 550 kph.
Top Gear 3000 has some pretty fantastic music. In fact, you can get on the web and download some of the music and even listen to some re-mixes. This game’s music seems to have a small following! Very techno, very fast, very good for driving at breakneck speeds. This is no Dirt Trax FX!
While not the best racer on the SNES (that honor goes to F-Zero, dammit) Top Gear 3000 is a solid and fun game that will impress speed freaks with its blinding frame rate and catchy music. Plug it in and take it for a spin!
Unfortunately, Top Gear 3000 wasn’t produced in particularly large quantities and doesn’t show up that often.
It’s a mess when played on an emulator… SNES emulation is still sketchy, and the DSP2 chip confuses the hell out of even the most advanced emulator, though things continue to improve and it’s just a matter of time before we’ll be able to play this super-fast and ultimately satisfying racer on our PC’s.
THE ENTIRE TOP GEAR SERIES
Top Gear for SNES
Top Gear 2 for SNES
Top Gear 2 for Genesis
Top Gear Pocket for GBC (Japan only)
Top Gear Pocket 2 for GBC
Top Gear Rally for GBC
Top Gear Rally 2 for GBC
Top Gear GT Championship got GBA
Top Gear Rally for GBA
Top Gear Rally for N64
Top Gear Rally 2 for N64
Top Gear Hyperbike for N64
Top Gear Overdrive for N64
Top Gear Daredevel for PS2
Top Gear RPM Tuning for X-Box
And there you have it.
Cheers
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Leo_Ames
