''Stock Car'' is an overhead-view

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic raci ...

written by A. W. Halse and published in the UK by

Micro Power Micro Power was a British company established in the early 1980s by former accountant Bob Simpson. The company was best known as a video game publisher, originally under the name Program Power. It also sold many types of computer hardware and s ...

. It was released in 1984 for the

BBC Micro The BBC Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a family of microcomputers developed and manufactured by Acorn Computers in the early 1980s as part of the BBC's Computer Literacy Project. Launched in December 1981, it was showcased across severa ...

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was introduced as a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers, to provide many of the features of that more expensive mach ...

, and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

computers. Although the cassette inlay gives the release date as 1984, some sources state the release date as 1983, and the game is also known as ''Stock Car Racer''. ''Stock Car'' is similar to Atari, Inc.'s ''

Sprint 2 ''Sprint 2'' is a two player overhead-view arcade racing video game released in 1976 by Kee Games, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari, and distributed by Namco in Japan. While earlier driving games had computer-controlled cars that moved along ...

'' arcade game (1976) and ''

Indy 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

'' for the Atari VCS (1977).

Gameplay

The game provides a top-down view of one of six user-selectable racing tracks. One or two human players in red cars compete against yellow computer-controlled cars. Oil slicks can be added which cause the cars to veer off-course, making the game more challenging. The amount of skidding can also be selected by the player. A race consists of anything between 1 and 40 laps. Players can steer their car left and right, but unlike most racing games, there are no keys for directly braking or accelerating. Instead, the player drives by selecting one of four gears (or neutral) and the car will accelerate according to the currently selected gear.

Reception

Tom Bowker describes the game as "primitive", but he "loved it deeply". The game was reviewed in the August 1984 edition of ''

Acorn User ''Acorn User'' magazine was founded by Acorn Computers in 1982, contract-published by Addison-Wesley, to coincide with the launch of the BBC Micro. It covered the range of Acorn home computers, the BBC Micro and Atom at first and later the Elect ...

'' and later briefly mentioned in issue of ''

Electron User ''Electron User'' was a magazine targeted at owners of the Acorn Electron microcomputer. It was published by Database Publications of Stockport, starting in October 1983 and ending after 82 issues in July 1990. Initially it was included as a 1 ...

'' as part of the ten-game ''Micro Power Magic'' compilation, where it was described as "very realistic".

Legacy

Another game, ''Grand Prix'' by S. Merrigan on the ''Triple Deckers volume 1'' compilation was described by Dave Reeder as "a very poor copy of Stock Car".

References

External links

*
Video
of the game on the Acorn Electron
Video
of the game on the BBC Micro {{DEFAULTSORT:Stock Car (Video Game) 1984 video games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Commodore 64 games Micro Power games Multiplayer and single-player video games Top-down racing video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom