''18 Wheels of Steel'' is a series of

trucking Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of people. In many countries licensing requirements and safety regulations ...

simulator A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

s developed by SCS Software and published by ValuSoft from 2002 to 2011, as a spin-off of '' Hard Truck'', with the first game becoming the third ''Hard Truck'' game released.

Games

''Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel'' 5 Aug 2002/small>

The first installment in the series, released in 2002.

''18 Wheels of Steel: Across America'' 3 Sep 2003/small>

This installment is similar to ''Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel'' except that the graphics were updated, more trucks and cargo were added, and a new map was created that enables users to travel across the entire continental

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

, through 30 cities. In this version, players can choose from 30 trucks and 40+ trailers. Time is made up of a total of 24 minutes in a day in the clock. This game focuses on the delivery of cargo. Players also go against three AI drivers. Unlike its predecessor, ''Across America'' does not feature a sleep timer. There is an improved traffic model as well as

airplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s, and

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

s with authentic sounds.

''18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal'' 0 Aug 2004/small>

In this installment, released in 2004, the user can travel across the entire continental US, and also through northern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and southern

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, through 30 cities. The sleep timer was brought back in this version. It has an improved traffic model. ''18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal'' requires

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...

. It also has the fastest map to date besides ''Haulin and is the first trucking game to feature more than one country.

''18 Wheels of Steel: Convoy'' Sep 2005/small>

In this updated installment, the player can travel through the United States, as well as southern Canada, though it differs from ''Pedal to the Metal'' in that Mexican cities are not present. The player can travel through 30+ cities and choose from 35+ rigs, 45+ cargoes and 47+ trailers. The player has to use the mouse to look outside of the cab at the mirrors. The graphics are also much improved in this version, and users can see drivers in other vehicles and when the trucks are "lugged" under 1500 RPM, they emit black exhaust much like older non-computerized trucks do. Other graphical features such as dynamic dashboard gauges were replaced with simple inanimate textures, although this and minor bugs were fixed with a patch released by SCS Software in 2008. Players can also buy things to protect themselves.

''18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin Dec 2006/small>

This installment adds more cities and has more realistic graphics, but Mexico is gone from this installment, as in ''Convoy''. The ability to use custom soundtracks and save games during deliveries was also added. Users can choose from 32 rigs, 45+ cargoes and 47+ trailers in the game, including double trailers. The game does not require a powerful computer to operate properly since it can run on most older PCs. The game's engine, Prism3d, may not respond on older graphic cards resulting in a game crash on the game's start-up. Countries include the United States and Canada.

''18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul'' Dec 2007/small>

This installment of the game is similar to and has the same gameplay as ''Haulin but features newly renamed companies, 2 new trucks, and 3 cities in Mexico added. The previous 9 cities (Chihuahua, Guaymas, Monterrey, etc.) from ''18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal'' have returned but the map for each was slightly updated.

''18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker'' 3 Sep 2009/small>

''Extreme Trucker'' lets the player deliver cargoes in any of the three main areas of the game:

Yungas Road The Yungas Road, popularly known as the Death Road, is a long cycle route linking the city of La Paz, Bolivia, La Paz with the Yungas region of Bolivia. It was conceived in the 1930s by the Politics of Bolivia, Bolivian government to connect ...

(also known as Road of Death), Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road, and the Australian Outback. This game is quite different from the previous installments as the whole concept was changed. The player can no longer drive around in free roam unless they decide to go around the map during a delivery, but they can only pick a job offer from the selection menu if users have met its requirements of having multiple new trucks and accomplished deliveries. The trucks and cars are modeled after real brands, although users can not own any vehicles through the game and are simply truck drivers seeking various jobs. Still, today's low to mediocre range computer will be able to run the game without getting low FPS. The game was mostly poorly received by critics. Game was criticised mostly for change of series concept, but was well received by players and some reviews were positive towards the game and praised the game for its graphics and gameplay.

''18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker 2'' Jan 2011/small>

Released in 2011, ''Extreme Trucker 2'' is a sequel to ''18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker''. The game has two additional locations:

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, and a few new types of cargo.

Sales

The series sold in excess of 580,000 units by 2003.

References

{{Trucking industry in the United States SCS Software games Trade simulation games Truck racing video games Video game franchises introduced in 2002 Video games developed in the Czech Republic Video games with gender-selectable protagonists Video games set in Australia Video games set in Bangladesh Video games set in Bolivia Video games set in Canada Video games set in Mexico Video games set in the United States Windows-only games Windows games