Deathtrack (DOS)
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Published by

Activision, Inc.

Developed by

Dynamix, Inc.

Released

1989

Platform

DOS

Genre

Action, Racing / Driving

Perspective

1st-person

Gameplay

Shooter

Vehicular

Automobile, Track Racing

Setting

Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi / Futuristic

...

Critic Score

100 point score based on reviews from various critics.

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User Score

5 point score based on user ratings.

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Description

In the future, races are held across America where the drivers race for money, and their lives. You are the rookie. Welcome to Deathtrack.

Starting off the game with a meager sum, you can choose from three cars (either speedy, plenty of firepower or heavily-armored) and begin practicing for your races against the other drivers.

Your opponents have all been captured in 16-colour digital photo splendour. Featuring 3D polygonal cars racing against each other, they try their best to remove you from the race, permanently.

Your winnings can be used to upgrade your car's armor, weapons and parts to make you car impervious to harm, a juggernaut of firepower, hurtling down the 10 available tracks.

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Screenshots

Deathtrack DOS Plowing down the track in Seattle

Deathtrack DOS Title Screen (High-res CGA)

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Promo Images

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Part of the Following Groups

User Reviews

Mad Max on wheels.	Trixter (9123)
Fun and antisocial - shame about the (lack of) ending.	Colin Rowsell (45)	unrated
Move over punk! Here is the Roadwarrior.	Roedie (5252)
The best car shooter of the time.	Mickey Gabel (379)

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Critic Reviews

The Games Machine (UK)	Mar, 1990	82 out of 100	82
Power Play	Apr, 1990	72 out of 100	72
100 aktuelle PC-Spiele	1990	6 out of 10	60
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Feb, 1990	Unscored	Unscored

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Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Sequel/remake will be here soon - Looks great!	3	xroox (3970) Mar 23, 2008

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Trivia

Development

Designer notes from the manual:

The Creators of DeathTrack: Tom Collie, Mark Brenneman, Darek Lukaszuk, Bryce Morsello

It was a cool autumn day when we all sat down to find a fun game concept that would excite players into that emotional catharsis that results only from that unique combination of speed and maneuverability delivered by a car-racing game. And, more importantly, a game concept that would let us pose in front of a Ferrari looking nonchalant. With that solid premise we set to work on DeathTrack—after, of course, convincing everyone that we were qualified to create a game about motorsports.

Mark: “I know cars, man. I spent seven years off the coast of Alaska, so I know cars.”

Bryce: “The Ferrari Testarossa is the serious mad-racer’s choice. You can very well race without power windows, can you?”

Tom: “I really know vintage cars. I’ve got a 1978 Ford Fiesta that works as well now as when it was new.”

Darek: “I own a Mercedes, man. What more do you want?”

After dazzling them with our innate sense of automible racing, we went for it. Darek wrote the code, Tom did the art and Bryce sound effects, and Mark built all the 3-space objects. Jeff got us pizza late nights and ran errands (he was also company president in his spare time).

Drive safely and remember: “Porsche” is a two-syllable word.

Pit crew:
Piotr “11mm” Lukaszuk for fast graphics Dave “Wiz” McClurg for 3-space etc. Paul Bowman for playing foosball with us Jeff “Really, I am the president" Tunnel Steve “Is yesterday too soon?” Ackrich

Dedicated to the memory of Enzo Ferrari.

Moral Support: W.L., T.L., T.R., A.T., C.T., T.H., S.S.

Thanks to Steve Wendell for the red Ferrari (we’ll probably return it soon).

Special thanks to Terry Ishida.

References

Game designer Peter (Piotr) Lukaszuk makes a cameo as the cape-wearing gangster.
The Lukaszuk brothers, Darek and Piotr, who wrote the game and designed the graphics, come from Poland and placed a reference to that fact: one of the drivers in the game is named "Wrecker Niszczyciel" (translated, this means, literally - Wrecker the Destroyer), he's from Warsaw, Poland, and his motto is given in Polish (the Lukaszuk bros even retained the national characters in it). Translated to English, Wrecker's motto means: "Sausages are best when fried with laser guns".