I had a lot of toy cars as a young child. I used to set them up in starting grid formation and then race them in a long line snaking through the house, moving them one or two at a time in turn-based fashion. Dramatic overtakes and crashes happened all the time; the sense of order and contrasting chaotic narrative I could play out within it appealed to me.
I’m reminded of those races by Super Skidmarks, the latest in our line of expansions-as-sequels marking the end days of the Amiga’s presence in this story. A racing game viewed from a distant point overhead, similar to BMX Simulator way back in 1987, it takes place in a stylised world of miniature squared-off simplicity. All the cars in each race are identical except for each being a different single colour, and they bounce off walls unharmed. The tracks are three-dimensional and show rises and dips through a complicated topography of overlapping shaded triangles that looks even more painstakingly put together than everything else. As each car crosses the line at the end of the race, it flies into an ordered line at the side of the track to show the results, as if picked up by an invisible child’s hand.
The only visual disturbance to the careful flawlessness is the skidmarks of the title. Sliding round corners leaves a delicate trail, more visible on some surfaces than others. There are races on tracks surrounded by snow, possibly there to best show up the effect. The cars are light and easy to fling around and going into massive slides while accelerating is the best way to drive them, so the visual feedback acts as a nice little confirmation. The tracks are designed with plenty of opportunities to do just that, and loops to do that plus have the chance for the chaos factor in crossing the paths of other cars (up to seven of them).
There are a couple of factors that undermine the feeling of everything in its right place, admittedly. One is the way that I found the modes the game pushes you towards far too easy or far too difficult, with the former making for a little bit too chill of a win and the latter meaning enough speed to leave me struggling to stay pointing the right way at any point. It took a bit to find something balanced. The other things is that trying out different options is a pain because of one of the worst cases of multiple disks yet – there are some EIGHT of them and if you want to change car and track you might end up needing to put in two new disks for the pleasure.
The end result of all of that effort, when it works, takes me right back. There was a successful series of games that were literally about toy cars, of course, and Skidmarks wasn’t it. Its cars race on tracks, not bedroom floors. I’ll get to a Micro Machines game a couple of years on from 1995. While it isn’t that, though, Super Skidmarks is much closer to an idealised version of what I imagined back with all my cars.
Gallup home computer chart, Computer Trade Weekly 17 April 1995 (chart for week to 8 April 1995)