Death Rally

aka: Death Race, Death Rally (Classic), Death Rally: Death in the Fast Lane, Hi-Speed
Moby ID: 256
DOS Specs
Buy on Windows
$0.00 new on Steam
Included in See Also

Description official descriptions

Death Rally is a top-down racing game where the player can rely on more than speed to be the number one, and brains must be riding along brawn to get the most from each race.

Starting with only $495 and a lowly car, the player must compete in one of three races (picked from 19 tracks) with increasingly difficult opponents but higher rewards, getting enough money to buy new cars, choosing from six models, and enhance them with one to four upgrades for engine (increase top speed), tires (improve traction, allowing to drift less on turns) and armor (reduces the damage caused by opponents, mines or collisions). But there are more ways to spend money by reaching the underground market where the player can buy land mines (can be dropped to get opponents directly behind or create traps in narrow sections), get some rocket fuel (which increases boost speed greatly at the expense of some damage for both the user car and the ones directly behind) or bribe a mechanic to mess around with the best-ranked opponent car. All these upgrades are valid for one race only.

The race varies in length depending on the difficulty chosen, but follow the same structure: four drivers with the starting grid set according to the championship table, with the worst placed starting in front and so on, and the first to cross the line after the stipulated number of laps wins or the last driver standing wins. At the same time, the fourth place driver gets no points and no money, including pick up bonuses, and lapped drivers get the same luck. The player can use a booster to increase speed for a few seconds, but once the reserve is depleted, the player has to wait it replenishes or pick up icons scattered on the track. Similar items appear to replenish ammo, repair the car or give small money bonuses. Occasionally, large money and repair items appear, which provide a much larger bonus.

Along the money earned in races, there are several bonuses if the player manages to wipe out all competition, complete the race without a scratch, achieve a streak of wins, or fulfill certain missions for some sponsors, such as collecting steroids and winning the race or destroying an opponent. The value of these bonus changes according to the car: a bonus with the Vagabond can be worth as little as $650, but with the Deliverator a mission can be worth 12 grand, regardless of the race selected.

The ultimate goal is to top the championship table, and then defeat the Adversary in a special track.

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Credits (DOS version)

36 People (35 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 79% (based on 13 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 122 ratings with 10 reviews)

Best racer I've ever played.

The Good
OK, so it's not 3D, but it's still much more fun than any racer I've played. The music is simply mind-boggling (Purple Motion, we love you!), the graphics and interface are extremely well made. The controls simply rock and the gameplay is awesome.

The Bad
It can get a bit boring at times.

The Bottom Line
Get it. Play it. Love it.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 1999

Top view racing at its best

The Good
The graphics were nothing compared to our time, but is excellent compared to it's time. The way the head lights affect textures and lighting on walls was amazing, and the cars shining in sun was also an eye catcher. The cars look very good.

Buying cars is fun, as you truly do have a sense of achievement as you get better and better cars. Each car is different from the first, and they all (excluding the first car) look great. Blasting the other cars with 2 guns is a truly great feeling (once you get to 4th car, your car gets 2 guns)



The Bad
You will find that if you are a good gamer, you can finish the game in about an hour. It's not very hard to earn money as for some reason you are always faster than other of the SAME CAR, and you can find cheap ways to get ahead of them (clinging to edges of a turn). I beat a race which had 2 Shriekers (4th car) and 1 sentinel (3rd car) while I was a vagabond (1ST CAR!!), by doing the turn clinging thing.

The Bottom Line
Pretty good game, but should have been extended a little.

<My Rating> ( 4 / 5 )

DOS · by ThE oNe (180) · 2002

Car racing from above. Good game, lots of extras.

The Good
I like the way one can shoot at the other cars. A great racing game, one of the top 10 games I have played.

The Bad
At the start, it take a while to build up money to buy a good car. More tracks are also needed; there are only 4 tracks available.

The Bottom Line
Racing cars game it was meant to be. Great fun. Good Multi-player fun.

DOS · by MajorDad (519) · 1999

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Trivia

Cars

The six cars are all based on real-life cars: the Vagabond is a VW Beetle, the Dervish a Ford Ranger pickup, the Sentinel the Peugeot 405, Shrieker is based on the Chevrolet Camaro and the Wraith is based on the Porsche 911. The only exception is the Deliverator, a rocket car with some similarities with the Mach 5 from Speed Racer.

Copy protection

Death Rally (along with a few other later Apogee CD games) had a HUGE (approx. 500 MB) file on the CD that the program checks for upon startup, meaning effectively that no one could just install the game to their hard drive and just run it...if the file isn't found, the game refused to play, even if the game doesn't need the CD for any normal gameplay purposes.

Freeware release

The free Windows version was released only because the fans really wanted it.

Sales

Remedy's (a Finish game development company) Death Rally has sold more than eighty-five thousand copies worldwide which was an enormous success in Finnish standards.

Working title

The first release of this game to Apogee's beta testers was called HiSpeed. Its name was later changed in the second beta to Death Race, however due to another copyright, that name didn't stick either which lead to the final name, Death Rally.

Information also contributed by Eric Baker, Luis Silva, Picard and Satoshi Kunsai

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tomer Gabel.

Windows added by Picard. Macintosh added by LepricahnsGold.

Additional contributors: Accatone, Xantheous, Frenkel, tarmo888, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, 7HEPOW, MrFlibble, ZeTomes.

Game added August 29, 1999. Last modified February 29, 2024.