Lotus (series)

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2, and Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge are known " pseudo - 3D" racing games of the early 1990s and were particularly popular on home computers Amiga and Atari ST and then pointing the way for the genre. This was followed by conversions for various other systems. Developed have been the Lotus games of Magnetic Fields, which was distributed by Gremlin Graphics.

The eponymous main vehicle is a Lotus Esprit. Per split screen two players against each other to race, while the screen is split into an upper and lower half. Similarly, it was possible to have two Amiga or two Atari computers to connect using a null-modem cable. This could take part in a race four players simultaneously. The game established by this ability the first widespread precursor of today's LAN parties. The game graphics is comparable to OutRun by Sega.

Lotus III decreed to generate on the then novel way, about five trillion routes by the course designer Racing Environment Construction System ( RECS ), the various defined parameters (frequency of curves, road surface, weather, etc. ) to form an eleven-digit code and then later makes available. Interestingly, grabbed Magnetic Fields for the 1997 International Rally Championship published the idea of ​​a haul generator again.

Games of the series

  • Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge: Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum (all 1990)
  • Lotus Turbo Challenge 2: Amiga, Atari ST (both 1991) Sega Mega Drive ( 1992), Acorn Archimedes ( 1993)
  • Lotus III - The Ultimate Challenge: Amiga, Atari ST (both 1992), Sega Mega Drive, PC (both 1993)

In 1994 Gremlin Graphics brought a compilation of three games out under the name of Lotus Trilogy.

Reviews of the game trade press

  • Lotus 1: 86 % Amiga Joker (11/ 90) / 71 % Powerplay (1/ 91) / 87 % CU Amiga (11/ 90)
  • Lotus 2: 88 % Amiga Joker (12/ 91) / 82 % Powerplay (1/ 92) / 93 % CU Amiga (10/ 91)
  • Lotus 3: 85 % Amiga Joker (11/ 92) / 85 % Powerplay (11/ 92) / 86 % CU Amiga (10/ 92)

Trivia

  • The soundtrack of Lotus III was particularly popular and has been used for many modern remixes.
  • In the intro to Lotus 2 is a sample "You will not copy this game " played (see also: Subliminal messages ).
  • For the PC only Lotus III was implemented. It can now be found as abandonware free on the Internet. To run the game under Windows, but is a DOS emulator, such as the free DOSBox, required.

Offshoot

The released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox Lotus Challenge has with the classic trilogy nothing in common and similar to modern games like Need for Speed ​​.

Magnetic Fields (video game developer) Video game publisher Amiga CD32 MS-DOS MobyGames
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