14 days ago, I ended part 1 of my 'My Favorite PC games'-series with the following sentence:
"Next week, I will be back with another PC gaming post."
It's now two weeks later.
Note to Self: I should stop making promises I can't keep.
I had some nice response to my first gaming post though and it was great fun to bring back all these memories, so let's continue with the 1990s. Today I will talk about a 1990 game that I played frantically back in the days:
Lotus
Googling this game, I discovered that there were actually three Lotus games, released between 1990 and 1992:
- Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge
- Lotus Turbo Challenge 2
- Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge.
I'm honestly not sure which version I played, but looking at the pictures and gameplay videos I can find, it was probably the last one: Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge. I might have played two different versions though.
Lotus was originally developed for the Amiga but I remember it as a PC game and I believe the PC version was pretty decent.
Take a look at a screenshot of the menu. How can you not like that? It's really a throwback in time:
There was a one and a two player mode. I will get back to that in a bit.
There was also a 'time trial' option. That could be very frustrating. Not only could you run out of time but - if I remember it well - also out of gas.
And then there were several tracks. I also remember there being different weather types, like snow and rain. I believe they had no influence on the driving itself, but snow and rain certainly obstructed your view.
Multiplayer Mode
I soon figured out that playing it with just the PC keyboard didn't really work. Not just because it was more fun in two player mode - I often raced against a friend or against my younger brother - but also because playing the game with two people on one keyboard wasn't actually that handy. I guess Lotus was probably the first game that made me decide to buy a joystick - or I should say 'gamepad'. It was a cheap one though and I don't believe it worked very well. It gave me a kind of console feel though and I liked that. As I mentioned in my earlier gaming post, I never earned a console
The fact that I never owned a console ( no X-Box, Playstation, Nintendo, Atari or Sega), not even a portable one (no Game Boy or Nintendo DS), contributed to the fact that PC gaming was really my thing. Of course I grabbed my chance to play console games whenever I visited friends, but... the games I remember most, are all PC (MS-DOS) game
so this was as close as I got to having a console experience at home.
Playing Lotus: The Ultimate Challenge, we also tried to let one player use the mouse instead of the keyboard. But it soon became clear that the player with the keyboard had the advantage.
Here's two things that playing Lotus did to me:
Source
It made me fall in love with MIDI music
As I mentioned in my earlier gaming post, I'm a sucker for MIDI music. If you check out the gameplay video that I added at the end of this post, you will see that - before you start the game - you are actually able to select a certain (MIDI-)track. Nowadays, that's pretty normal - and one of the things I love about games like GTA (browsing through the radio stations) - but back then, in the early to mid 90s that option still felt pretty special.
It made me fall in love with the Corvette. Especially the yellow or red one .... ???
Not sure why I wrote the above. That thought is stuck in my memory but it must have been due to a different game. Or - now I think of it - there was a yellow Corvette in our neighborhood, back in the 90s and I might have confused the two. Who knows?
By the way, I'm not a car guy in real life. I'm 36 years old and I'm not even permitted to drive a car. I failed my driving exam twice last year. I love (good) racing games though, from the likes of Micro Machines to Super Mario Kart. From Need to Speed to Burnout. And Lotus was probably the first racing game that I played on the PC.
One more memory:
That awkward moment when my little brother started beating me in games. At first, it was an exception, then it started to happen more and more regularly. At a certain moment, it became normal, routine. These days, I'm happy when I can beat my brother a single time in any game.
Fun fact: my brother is a game developer. He started making games in the early 2000's.
So what about you? Did you play this game yourself and how did you like it? Were you a PC gamer? Or did you perhaps play it at the Amiga? Hit me up in the comments!
Lotus III: Game Play video:
If you like what you see, there are plenty of gameplay vids to find, if you just Google 'Lotus game'.
Image Source:
http://automobil.khobzdar.com/lotus-pc-game/
Possible Further reading, a more extensive explanation and description of the game:
http://www.bunnzy.org/games/arcade/lotus-the-ultimate-challenge-for-pc
hahaha...it was the best graphics then.
Love this..
those graphics were pretty great indeed, a quarter of a century ago :)
Wait, wait, wait...
Aw, yes! I know this stuff.
But I was really bad in it, I think my partner and I was playing that thing almost every day, but we had it on emulator.
The far back for me is c-evo and the Bomberman.
Funny to hear that. At the time, I felt like I was one of few people who played that game. Don't remember other peepz talking about it.
Never heard of C-evo, I see it was based on Civilization. I am familiar with Bomberman of course, the last time I played it was a decade ago on the X-Box or Playstation :)
Haha YES! I remember playing something very similar to this in the arcades on weekends. Would have LOVED to have it at home on my machine!
I'm pretty sure that was Outrun :>)
There wasn't much arcade gaming possibillities for me in The Netherlands. I guess we were - and still are- more of a PC- and at-home-gaming country.
oh my god that's it!!! I remember how i was blown AWAY that her hair would move in the wind. Wow thanks for that memory jog!!
You're welcome :)
How did your 30 day yoga challenge, go?
haha it's STILL going! feels like ages, but only 2 more days left!
I bet it 'feels' like ages ;)
like 10 ages lol
And I'm immediately reminded of Rad Racer on the NES.
Never heard of that title. I just looked it up and it looks 'rad'! ;)
Nice post @vincentnijman. Glad to see another post about old games. I personally still play some old games now. I even set up a DOS emulator on my PC just to play those old games. Great post!
Glad you enjoyed it. You're welcome!
Yeah, I usually post on movies but I must say that I don't mind writing on (old) games at all. I tried my hands on DOS emulators a couple of times, but never had much success with it.
One MS-DOS game I really enjoyed in the 90s and didn't get to play again was The 7th Guest.
Might give it another try one of these days.
You should try DOSBox. It is a great DOS emulator. I never have a problem running MS-DOS game with it.
That's what I tried in the past. Didn't get it to work.
Man! Vince!
Can't believe, it's one of my favorite games... such memories!
It wasn't very easy, but it felt so... can't describe it.
Maybe it's just the nostalgia, but great post.
Thanks for the memories.
Upvoted! Cheers!
You're welcome, Max!
Just as with movies, I probably had dozens of favorite games. Correction, I have hundred of favorite movies, but you get my point. Nevertheless, there were games like Lotus, that I probably played for two years in a row.
Keep an eye on my future posts, I've got plenty of 90s games to reminisce about ;)
I think I might have played a knockoff of this game...
don't remember the name of the game but remebered fighting with my kid brother for it.. LOL
Cool! Whenever you remember its name, please let me know. I'm curious!