If you were a fan of ’90s arcade racing games, start revving up your engines, because that same brand of intuitive, intense, fast-paced fun is headed to Apple platforms with The ’90s Arcade Racer (working title). Influenced by coin-op classics such as Sega’s Daytona USA and Indy 500, The ’90s Arcade Racer is being built to blend old-school design sensibilities with modern technology.
Thanks to its promise of colorful visuals and high-speed thrills, the game has already found success on Kickstarter, where independent developer Antonis “Pelikan13” Pelekanis has surpassed his £10,000 goal with six days to go. Now publisher Nicalis (probably best known to Mac users for publishing Cave Story+) has stepped onboard to handle publishing duties and bring the game to numerous platforms, including iOS and Mac OS X. Nicalis will also be assisting with programming, physics, and other aspects of game design and production.
“To me, the golden age of racing games falls somewhere in the '90s when the technology was able to catch-up to the imagination of developers,” comments producer/designer Tyrone Rodriguez. “That's when we saw games like Ridge Racer, Daytona, Virtua Racing, and Super GT. Not only for nostalgic reasons, but because of their outstanding quality, the racers of this era hold a special place for me and that was the driving force of why we wanted to be involved with this game.”
The ’90s Arcade Racer will challenge drivers with three car classes (supercar, stock car, and formula), two modes (arcade and championship), and three tracks (Short/Beginner, Medium/Amateur and Long/Professional), each with two distinct routes. Each track can also be driven in normal or reverse mode. All of this should add up to a game that separates itself from the modern racing pack.
“Racing games, at least the bigger-budget games, have gone the route of licensing cars, tracks, and a pseudo-sim feel—even though they're not sim at all,” observes Rodriguez. “A lot of the personality that we saw in games like Daytona, Cruis'n USA, and San Francisco Rush are absent from the typical high-end racing game. With The '90s Arcade Racer, we're still aiming for incredible visual quality and fidelity seen in big-budget games, but with more of the character and personality that was prevalent prior to the rush towards licensed racers.”
The ’90s Arcade Racer is currently scheduled for release toward the end of 2013, when it should be released for Apple platforms, as well as PC, Linux, Android, and Wii U.
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