Personal Computer News


Motocross

Author: Bob Chappell
Publisher: System 3
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Personal Computer News #105

MOTOCROSS

Motocross is an American import and is a cross between Pole Position and Full Throttle, and lets you do a ton on two wheels. Here you're driving through a scorched desert.

Down at the bottom centre of the screen is the rear view of a forward-crouching, left-leaning, white-garbed motor-cyclist. A closer look just about reveals that he's hunched astride a motor-bike; a growling engine sound confirms it.

Your route across this trackless waste of solidified gravy is marked out at regular intervals by hay bales. A slight push on the joystick and the engine tone rises, the figure straightens up the bike and roars away.

Motocross

Actually, he stays where he is. It's the hay bales that start moving toward you, giving the illusion that you're racing along. The illusion is intensified by the background scenery (mountains and clouds) scrolling swiftly to the left or right.

The game offers automatic or manual transmission, the latter with three gears. The scrolling of the track and landscape is very smooth and moves at a rate of knots when your bike's going flat out. If you are to look up, you'll see a magnification of your handlebars at the top of the screen, complete with working instruments.

Even better is the option to race on an empty circuit or against other computer-controlled cyclists. The whine of another bike as it races up behind, and then past you, is pretty unnerving.

The sense of speed is excellent and the engine noises first rate. Speed freaks, Motocross is the one for you.

Bob Chappell

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