Trackmania
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''TrackMania'' is a series of
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s for
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developed by Ubisoft Nadeo and Firebrand Games. In ''TrackMania'' the player can create their own tracks using a "building block" process similar to games that existed before the first TrackMania game, such as the 1984 game ''
Excitebike is a 1984 racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was ported to arcades for the Nintendo VS. System later that year and Famicom Disk System in 1988. In North America, it became one of the ...
'', the 1985 game '' Racing Destruction Set'', and the 1990 game ''
Stunts A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Befo ...
''. ''TrackMania'' games typically have a
time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...
format, with medals awarded for beating set times in single-player mode, as well as the ability to submit times to various online rankings. Players may choose to
respawn Spawning in video games refers to the process by which entities, such as player characters, non-player characters, enemies or items, are generated and placed into the game world. Closely related concepts include respawning, which involves reint ...
(retire) after crossing a checkpoint, for example if they land upside down, leave the track, get off to a poor start, or want to improve their position. Multiplayer races operate as concurrent time trials; players' cars visibility can be turned on and off on the same track at the same time, but cannot physically interact with one another.


Games


''TrackMania (2003)''


''TrackMania Sunrise''


''TrackMania Nations (Electronic Sports World Cup)''

On January 27, 2006, Nadeo released ''TrackMania Nations'', also called ''TrackMania Nations ESWC'' partly as a promotion for the Electronic Sports World Cup, and also for ''TrackMania'' itself. This free, stand-alone game had one new environment, "Stadium", and many of the ''Sunrise'' edition features, including the advertisement panels, which show ads from sponsors streamed from the internet. The game contains 100 single player tracks, the earlier ones relatively simple in both design and gameplay, but it is largely pitched as an online game. One of the main attractions is the leader board, where players compete for the best times and points. The top five players can be seen on the game's homepage. ''Nations'' quickly became popular with almost 1 million registered online players within weeks of its launch), largely due to the wide availability of the freeware game.


''TrackMania United''

On June 30, 2006, ''TrackMania United'' was announced, a version that amalgamated all previous ''TrackMania'' editions into a single game that includes all the environments from the earlier games, and subsequently future installments of the series. ''TrackMania United'' features a peer-to-peer networking system allowing players to share custom content more easily, and a unified ranking system. The updated graphics engine includes a
shadow mapping Shadow mapping or shadowing projection is a process by which shadows are added to 3D computer graphics. This concept was introduced by Lance Williams in 1978, in a paper entitled "Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces." Since then, it has b ...
acceleration system, which is used in the most recent ''Stadium'' version. The new engine allows for more realistic shadows on high end systems while the ''Stadium'' environment has double the number of blocks featured in the free version, including dirt paths, water, and indoor sections. The game featured four game modes; "Race", "Platform", "Puzzle", and 'Stunt'. Focus announced on November 9, 2006, that 10,000 copies of ''TrackMania United'' could be bought and pre-loaded online then activated from November 16, 2006 onwards. The game became available in retail outlets in France, Canada, Australia, Belgium, the French-speaking part of Switzerland and Russia later in 2006, then on February 23, 2007 in Germany, then on March 9, 2007 and later in other regions. The game is available in the UK and was made available in the US via download for $49.99 on March 23, 2007 and $39.99 on April 17, 2007. As of September 7, 2007, the game is available for $29.95. It was made available for pre-order and pre-load on
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
on June 7, 2007 and unlocked on June 14, 2007. Players who previously purchased ''TrackMania'' or ''TrackMania: Sunrise'' can earn a daily copper bonus in ''TrackMania United'' by registering their product keys through the game.


''TrackMania United Forever & Nations Forever''

On October 7, 2007, Ubisoft Nadeo announced that they were working on updated versions of ''TrackMania United'' and ''TrackMania Nations''. Both new versions have ''Forever'' added to their name, and are network compatible. ''TrackMania Nations Forever'' includes the new stadium blocks and physics system introduced in ''TrackMania United'', which allow ''TrackMania United Forever'' and ''TrackMania Nations Forever'' players to compete on the same (Stadium) servers. It included the three gamemodes from ''TrackMania United'' in addition to the "Stunt" gamemode from ''TrackMania Sunrise eXtreme''. Nadeo has stated that because they want the game to have a long lifespan, they are working on the engine and user interface rather than adding new content. ''TrackMania United Forever'', for instance, no longer requires the CD to be in the drive due to different copy protection and anti-cheat systems. They also warn players that some features may not be the final versions. ''TrackMania United Forever'' was released on April 15, 2008, with the
free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...
variant ''TrackMania Nations Forever'' released the following day. As of 9 December 2010, following the closure of the company used for providing in-game advertising, Nadeo introduced the "FreeZone" system to the game. This meant that Nations Forever players could only play on specific FreeZone servers or normal servers that they manually added to their in-game favourites list. Additionally, Nations Forever players were forced to spectate every one in five races. These changes were made as an incentive for players to upgrade to the paid ''TrackMania United Forever'' version as Nadeo could no longer make money from in-game advertising. There were also plans to add additional environments, like Toy and Moon, but they were scrapped.


''TrackMania DS''


''TrackMania Turbo'' (DS)


''TrackMania: Build to Race''

On June 30, 2009, a ''TrackMania'' game for the
Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
, titled ''TrackMania Wii'' was announced by jeuxvideo.com in an interview with one of the developers. The game features all the environments from ''TrackMania United'' apart from "Bay", due to the complexity of its scenery. The game was supposed to be released in North America under the title ''TrackMania: Build to Race'' on July 20, 2010 but on July 19, 2010, Michael Mota of Dreamcatcher Interactive, TrackMania Wii's publisher, told th
Examiner
"We made the announcement to the major retailers about the TrackMania delay; I’m not sure why that hasn’t been changed. The game has been delayed until December." The game eventually came out in North America on March 24, 2011. It has a more primitive online play system than the PC line of games and also uniquely features a special "F" class of tracks unlocked after a certain amount of medals are accrued. An updated Wii release date on the Nintendo website for the UK version published by
Focus Home Interactive Focus Entertainment (formerly Focus Home Interactive) is a French video game publisher based in Paris. It is a subsidiary of PulluP Entertainment Group. Founded in 1996, Focus has published and distributed original titles such as ''Sherlock Holm ...
has been given as September 23, 2010. The game was released in Europe with the ''Build to Race'' subtitle removed.


''TrackMania2''


''TrackMania2: Canyon''

Like previous ''TrackMania'' games, players can race on tracks while doing various stunts as well as build their own tracks. The game features a new environment, Canyon, as well as two modes, Race and Platform. Platform mode is featured in the free extension pack, TrackMania2: Platform. Besides the new environment, the game also includes a split-screen mode, and a scripting language called "ManiaScript" which lets players add their own new features to the game.


''TrackMania2: Stadium''

''TrackMania2: Stadium'' was announced on November 2, 2012. This environment was opened to the public with an open beta on February 27, 2013. The game features the classic Stadium environment that was introduced in ''TrackMania Nations''. There have been some improvements to the graphics and some new added blocks in the editor. It uses ManiaPlanet's client and interface. The game was released on June 20, 2013.


''TrackMania2: Valley''

''TrackMania2: Valley'' was announced on November 2, 2012. This environment became available on ManiaPlanet on July 4, 2013.


''TrackMania2: Lagoon''

''TrackMania2: Lagoon'' was announced on May 9, 2017. This environment became available on ManiaPlanet on May 23, 2017. With this environment ported from TrackMania Turbo (2016), ManiaPlanet was given a large update called "ManiaPlanet 4".


''TrackMania Turbo'' (2016)

Announced at Ubisoft's E3 2015 conference, ''TrackMania Turbo'' is a spin-off heavily inspired by 90s arcade racers. The game has been released in North America on March 22, 2016 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and on March 24, 2016 for Microsoft Windows.


''Trackmania'' (2020)

A remake of ''
Trackmania Nations ''TrackMania'' is a series of Racing video game, racing games for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo DS, and Wii developed by Nadeo, Ubisoft Nadeo and Firebrand Games. In ''TrackMani ...
'' was announced for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
on February 29, 2020, and was due to be released on May 5, 2020, but was delayed until July 1, 2020, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. It was released on consoles and cloud platforms on May 15, 2023. The base game is
free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...
, with additional content available with a paid
subscription model The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century. It i ...
, including a more advanced in-game track editor, online events and car customization.


Reception

Due to the success of the ''TrackMania'' series,
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...
awarded the games six world records in the ''Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008''. These include "Biggest Online Race", "Most Popular Online Racing Sim" and "Largest Content Base of Any Racing Game", with hundreds of thousands of user-created tracks and hundreds of unique cars available for download.


Copy protection system

The PC games in the ''TrackMania'' series used a
copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any measure to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on vid ...
system called
StarForce The Starforce is a supervillain team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Its first appearance was in the comic ''The Avengers (comic book), Avengers'' #346 released in 1992, as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" st ...
, which silently installed a driver with all versions of ''TrackMania Original'', ''TrackMania Sunrise'' and the original ''TrackMania Nations''. Many sources falsely reported that ''TrackMania Nations'' updated the StarForce drivers only if they were already installed, although versions released after May 28, 2007, installed the StarForce drivers on all computers even though ''TrackMania Nations'' is freeware. The original ''TrackMania United'' features StarForce restrictions built into the executable to check the software's key, but it does not install the driver. Although
Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...
originally included it in the system, on June 29, 2007, the company announced that the version of ''TrackMania United'' distributed via their Steam digital distribution platform would no longer include StarForce. ''TrackMania United Forever'' and ''TrackMania Nations Forever'' do not include StarForce. If they are applied as upgrades to version of ''TrackMania United'' or ''TrackMania Nations'' which include StarForce, they attempt to remove it.


Spin-offs

As the TrackMania games have grown in popularity, Nadeo started plans for two completely new games; namely, they began work on
role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing ...
and
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
games. These were first announced in 2009 through TrackMania United Forever, where the player's loading screen was replaced with images announcing either ''Shootmania'' or ''Questmania''. On 19 February 2012, Nadeo officially announced ''Shootmania''. On 10 April 2013, Nadeo released ''Shootmania'' on Maniaplanet. Questmania, however has not been released yet.


See also

*'' Racing Destruction Set'' *''
Stunts A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Befo ...
'', a similar game *'' GripShift'', a similar game *'' Build 'n Race'', a similar game *''
ModNation Racers ''ModNation Racers'' is a 2010 kart racing video game developed by United Front Games and San Diego Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. User generated content is a central aspect o ...
'', a track-building game *'' Hot Wheels Track Attack''


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trackmania Multiplayer hotseat games Multiplayer online games Puzzle video games Racing video games Ubisoft franchises Focus Entertainment games Video game franchises introduced in 2003 Video games developed in France Video games with stereoscopic 3D graphics Wii games Windows games