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Post by flatapex on Jul 9, 2017 0:21:23 GMT
Well this should be a popular one....... Dust down your ms2's (because codemasters carts don't work with the model 1), its time to play micro machines. Lets talk about what is undoubtedly the greatest multiplayer game ever, and a favourite at sega8bit events   |
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Post by Stan on Jul 9, 2017 2:26:02 GMT
Bruh, where's all the images and vids and such? Go pro.
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Post by flatapex on Jul 9, 2017 13:39:02 GMT
I was nearly asleep when I wrote it. I'll sort asap
edit- sorted
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Post by Maxim on Jul 9, 2017 17:59:25 GMT
I've been researching this game for a while now, there's a few new cheats if you haven't kept up, and I may be able to answer arcane questions about the game mechanics. Also, I love this game and I always win  |
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Post by flatapex on Jul 9, 2017 18:40:23 GMT
Also, I love this game and I always win This is true, my only loss in a head to head since the mid 90s came courtesy of you. Rematch at the meet? |
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Post by Transatlantic Foe on Jul 9, 2017 19:28:31 GMT
I'll hit this up in Fusion later in the week, thankfully the weather is due to cool down so my PC will sound less angry!
I've played this before, on PC DOS and Mega Drive, and... I didn't really enjoy it. Now I know that makes me sound like I'm allergic to fun, but it starts off as "not my thing" by not being a simulation or at least an arcade game with interesting handling mechanics (Daytona et al). Circuits are very memorise-based, which okay is kind of common to all racing games, but here it can feel more luck than judgement if you don't know the track and its obstacles. It's fast (a very good thing!) but gives you such a limited time to react to obstacles, it's luck not judgement unless you're a seasoned player. And when you have one person with an exceptional visual memory (as I do) it gets trivial to win against others (my friends have always sucked at video games). Add to that, the game can be inconsistent when it comes to the 2 player mode - you can force your opponent off-screen and "win" in some cases by going off track, which is a bit broken.
If it's any consolation, I'm not too fond of Mario Kart's rubber-banding "anyone can win" style either, because it seems to actively punish being good at driving. Maybe I am allergic to fun...
Still, I'll give the SMS version a go and who knows I might have mellowed with age!
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Post by Retrobob on Jul 10, 2017 8:01:28 GMT
Yes! What a cracking game this is.
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Post by Kaunisto on Jul 10, 2017 14:07:19 GMT
I have a love-hate relationship with driving games. I've played many with top difficulty - unlike games of almost all other genres - but they sure got me swearing.
I can imagine MM could be fun with other player, but I've always lacked that luxury. As single player game, this would really quick get on my nerves.
On quick try (on emulator) I got to the sand level in both modes.
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Post by Retrobob on Jul 10, 2017 15:10:30 GMT
That's a good start. I don't really like driving games much (hated Super Moncao GP on Mega Drive) but this is more fun, being top down makes it different, plus the level design.
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Post by playgeneration on Jul 10, 2017 19:50:46 GMT
I bought the game back in the day for the Amiga, and wanted to like it but found it a bit too annoying. The SMS version is a pretty much faultless conversion, but like the other releases is a bit of a letdown in single player I feel. The game really comes to life in two player though where the more frustrating elements of the game make for funnier competition between you.
It does work on later versions of the MK1 console, typically if it has Hang on&Safari Hunt or Alex Kidd built in.
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Post by soup on Jul 11, 2017 18:42:52 GMT
I must confess, I don't think I've ever played this on the SMS. I have it on the Mega drive and love it on that, in fact it was actually my partners game. (Though she still can't beat me!) In going for a full collection I will at some point pick a copy up but when I find one on the cheap.
It's a lot of fun in multiplayer, and I remember a number of comical arguments caused by it. I'll have to play through the single player on this again sometime as I find my memory very limited on this.
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Post by Maxim on Jul 11, 2017 20:45:24 GMT
To be fair the two player handicap system doesn't work too well, it would be better if it tweaked the handling a bit instead of the top speed. It does come down to memorising the tracks, but then the short cuts and tricks come into play which breathes life into it. In one player mode, there is some mild rubber banding - the opponents can drive a bit faster when they're behind, but that is relative to a configured top speed for each opponent in each race, which is often slower than the human player. In later tracks it gets quite challenging and you need to use short cuts to make up for your lower speed. The cheats add a lot of replayability too. Their exact meaning has been a bit unclear over the years, the page at www.smspower.org/Cheats/MicroMachines-SMS covers my current understanding. The only major bug I know of is that the bonus tracks' timer runs super slowly. This is easy to fix, and makes them a bit challenging. For some reason they did not make all the tracks playable in two player mode. I made a hack at github.com/maxim-zhao/micromachinescompetition to open this up to all playable tracks. There are some remnants in the code of the helicopter tracks. They are presumably missing because they would be a bunch more work, they would be a nightmare with the SMS controller, and they aren't much fun anyway on other systems. (Likewise we could live without the tanks...) |
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Post by Melanogaster on Jul 13, 2017 2:29:12 GMT
You guys are lucky to have this one... unfortunately, as we know, it never made it down here on Tectoylands. I used to play the MS-DOS version a lot with family and friends back in the day, always experiencing that fine mixture of fun and hatred and joy and anger and laughter and finger-pointing that only the multiplayer mode can provide us -- especially with one keyboard for three simultaneous players...
I think they've done a very nice job with the SMS conversion, given the system's constraints; the pace isn't the same, as we would expect, but it's got a nice flow and the challenge is there, for the most part. The kids on my block would surely have appreciated a good living-room-crowding alternative for California Games.
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Post by Centrale on Jul 28, 2017 18:36:00 GMT
Finally had a block of time to play this! What can I say... it's a masterpiece. The controls are tight and responsive, the drifting is fun and it's apparent when you're on different surfaces with various amounts of slipperiness. The collisions with other drivers usually feel fair in the way they bounce you and/or your opponent, and I started to relish the opportunity to shunt my rivals into obstacles. The race courses are creative and it's easy to imagine that the developers really enjoyed themselves as they made this game. It demonstrates a good command of the Master System's capabilities without straining it. Codemasters really has a fine legacy of racing games and this one has stood the test of time. I'd love to have the opportunity to play it multiplayer... surely when my daughter is a bit older she'll give this one a try with me.
A side note, maybe the technical experts among us can confirm or deny this... I recall reading somewhere years ago a description of how the developers handled the AI of the CPU racers. They said something to the effect that the background is comprised of unseen tiles that are essentially arrows pointing in directions that will influence the CPU drivers as they cross them. I thought this was a clever pathfinding solution as, depending on the speed of the drivers the arrows might have more or less influence, thus creating the impression of some fallibility.
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Post by Transatlantic Foe on Jul 29, 2017 14:34:30 GMT
Finally gave this a go and it's more or less as I remembered, only with dodgier collision detection and some truly dreadful music! There is also some supremely offensive rubber-banding in single player, where an opponent suddenly gets twice your maximum speed to appear out of nowhere and bump you off into something. It looks great though, apart from some flicker, and handling is perfect - outside of the confusing hitboxes.
In the "bonus" stages you have a truck that seems to have a giant rectangle hitbox outside the sprite and the obstacles have the same deal... but barely any of your truck has to hit water for you to fall in. You are given an age to complete these stages but man is it not fun trying to navigate invisible rectangles around invisible rectangles. Add the predominantly brown colour scheme and these seem like penalty stages not bonus stages!
This has so much more mileage in multiplayer, it's a shame they couldn't balance single player between stupidly easy and borderline unfair, but that was my experience with the Mega Drive version too.
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