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Armchair Racing-Z style?


TomoHawk

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A perennial subject this time of year, is what to do all winter for the guys, like me, who are stuck indoors. I literally sit in my wooden armchair with the notebook computer stuck to one hand and remote to the other.

 

Online car racing!

 

Maybe it's possible to get some software, hook up a joystick (or some driving controls) and get online for action. Maybe it's even possible to customize your virtual car (Z of course) with V-8, flares, big brakes (get real), or whatever.

 

I don't know of anything off the top of my head, but I haven't looked yet, either. Maybe somebody knows of some good software that's not too expensive (saving money for mods) or maybe even free?

thx.

 

"This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds."

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Guest plainswolf

Now that sounds fun! Makes me wonder as well..

 

I know there is a really nice flying combat sim called 'Aces High' thats quite a blast, but it would be alot of fun to have some of the same features in a driving simulation such as online arenas where you could roadrace, dragrace, or other things against other online players in an arena or even by yourself....

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There was a game a little while ago that I came across called Racer X or something of the sort. It was completely free, but you needed to put your own skins on the cars and find, or make, tracks. It was really interesting, because you have complete control over the look and feel of the car. The physics worked so well, that guys would program their dragster Mustangs in, and do wheelies in the game, just like real life. You could do some searching on the web and see what pops up. For those that like the DIY project, this one might be interesting.

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Guest bastaad525

Tokyo Extreme 3 out already?? And $20 already?? heh.... gonna have to go find a copy of that. I had part one and two... I actually found they were kinda realistic, in that it was a good portrayal of what I've heard on how people do highway racing in Japan. Just you and one other guy, going as fast as you can on a traffic filled highway late at night, until one of you gains a substantial enough of a lead to be declared the winner. The money part is unrealistic of course but they had to give you some way to beef your cars up... I find that that game, unlike most other racing games I've played, really tends to encourage you to stick with one car and fix it up as much as possible, only moving on when you hit a wall where you just cant make it any faster and need to move up into a higher league. But rarely did I ever own more than one car at a time in that game. And it had a 240 :)

 

Sega GT 2002 has been out for a while now, but was just rereleased with online capability last month. This game is for the Microsoft Xbox video game console, and you need Xbox Live (their own ISP) and a broadband connection to play it online. It has a few 240 variants, also Z32's and 350Z's. You can turbocharge most anything in the game but that's about it, no motor swaps.... Only one game I've played lets you swap motors, I'll get to that in a second. As for Sega GT... I really didn't like the handling of the cars or the feel of the controls on this game, and there are only a limited number of tracks to race on, and all of them are far too winding... no real long straights on any of them which I didn't like... no opportunities to hit 200+ mph in my turbo 240 :-P There is a great selection of cars in this game, both modern and classic, japanese and american, and a few european. Most of the popular US or japanese cars are represented. Tuning is limited to buying lots of bolt ons but very little can actually be adjusted once it's on the car. No adjustable gear ratios and suspension dampening etc. like in Gran Turismo. However, a few cool things are like... the ability to buy used bolt ons (which many times end up breaking mid race!) and the fact that parts like tires, brakes, suspension, and engines are all wear items that every so often need to be rebuilt/replaced. Turning the boost up way high will usualy have you replacing engines every race :) Cool stuff that should be used in every race game....

 

Then there's Auto Modellista. This game is for the Playstation 2 video game console. It can also be played online, for free, if you have the Playstation 2 internet adapter. This game is also broadband only. It's a very japanese flavored game, and looks kinda cartoony. It has a good selection of cars, Japanese and US, not as many as Sega GT (and neither has anywhere near as many as Gran Turismo) and not very many classics... a few old japanese cars (including 240's and old skylines), everything else is 'new'. This game is GREAT in the customization department. Every car has a wide range of body kit parts to choose from, and also paint schemes. It is also the only game I've played so far that lets you swap engines on a car. The downside is you may only use engines from the same manufacturer as the car... great if you want to drop and RB26DETT into your 240, not so great for you Chevy loving guys. I loved the 240 body options, which were very true to real life, choices such as 240 hood or 280 style vented hood, head light covers, front air damns just like what you see on many 240s, and the option of removing the front and/or rear bumper. I was able to make my in-game car look EXACTLY like my real life 240... always cool :) Now the downside... this game is VERY unrealistic, the physics of the game just plain suck. The game is heavily biased towards drifting... to the point that it always feels like you're driving on ice :-P Just about everyone who's played the game feels the same about this aspect, and most game magazines gave it bad reviews for this very reason. Tuning is also not quite as deep as gran turismo... but there are a lot more adjustable parameters than Sega GT. And no amount of tuning gets rid of the driving on ice feeling. Racing online is DA BOMB though... I love that the deep level of body customization lets every car look unique, and recognizable.

 

Gran Turismo 4 is supposed to be out by Xmas, however, the date has fluctuated back and forth a few times.. I predict we wont see it til early next year. I was working for a video game store until a couple months ago so I got to go to E3 (big video game convention in Los Angeles) and play this game among others... it seemed exactly like Gran Turismo 3, but now the 240 Z is back in the game... more than enough reason for me to buy it :) Oh and online racing is going to rock... unfortunately it still doesn't look as if you will be able to customize the bodywork on the cars in GT so everyones car is gonna look showroom stock. Still... GT is the king and is by far the most realistic, deep, best handling/controlling, and enjoyable racing game there has ever been.

 

If you want to drag race online for free go to Nitto's website, they have a little flash drag racing game... it was recently remade... i used to play the old version, but the car selection sucked... something liek 6 cars (no Z...). I haven't checked it out since being redone.

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Guest bastaad525
I used to hack GT2 saved games a while back... I created this beast:

 

http://www.boogiebus.net/redrum69/v8z2.avi

 

 

Good lawd what did you do to that thing!!! Did it really have a V8 in it? I dont think I ever got my GT2 240 that quick... your's rolls a lot in the corners too but you can really 'drive' that thing... I thought I was good at GT but you put me to shame. Think I'm gonna go play a little now :)

 

GT2 is STILL the best... even though GT3 makes it so sooo painful to the eyes. I only HOPE that GT4 puts back in all the great features of GT2 that got cut out of 3.

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there was a game called "motor city" that was an online game where you could group up with other people on line and start car clubs, an djust drive around the virtual city and meet people and race them for money, so you could afford more perfomance parts and such. but I just checked the website http://motorcityonline.com and it says that it is all over, no more. but it would have been cool.s

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there was a game called "motor city" that was an online game where you could group up with other people on line and start car clubs, an djust drive around the virtual city and meet people and race them for money, so you could afford more perfomance parts and such. but I just checked the website www.motorcityonline.com[/url'] and it says that it is all over, no more. but it would have been cool.s
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just to let all of you GT fans out there know, I am undefeated against human players. So if yall would like to meet up at the west coast nats, or the ZCCA show and challenge me, I give you fair warning. you will be walking away with your head down in shame.. 8)

 

on a lighter note :-D

 

Cant wait until gt4 comes out, or for that matter, play station 3. Also, Have any of you ever played Tokyo highway battle? its a really old game that came out on PS1 years and years ago, I think that its the first "midnight club/wangan midnight" game because the final car is a black porsche 911 called the backbird. anywho...you can find it for 10$, its still fun for being so old..but its easy to beat.

 

I would like to see a game that you can dowload cars from a website in order to add to your collection. then you could customize your car(S) or even build your own (or dowload from another player that has your car)

It should be realistic, and the swaps and modding should be the same..ie...more $$$ = more speed and handling. it should have several modes of play, including: city street street racing, drag racing, drifting competitions, head to head racing on famous tracks (again, some on the disc, and some downloadable (how bout the entire Nurburgring?) you should, in the street racing mode, be able to race for money, bragging rights, or pink slips. same with all the other battles. you should have different city "arenas" that are as life like and close to the actual city as possible (memory intensive yes..but these would be located on a central gaming server) complete with AI cops, and other drivers, even traffic at certain times of the day.

 

also, I would love to see a cross country battle available (or maybe just intrastate) so that you, and other players could wager a certain amount to see who could race from houston to dallas as fast as possible. you could plan your route using roads from a real atlas before hand, then enter your route into the computer so your "navigation" system could guide you while racing.

 

new york to LA anyone? I will bet my RB AWD 70 240Z that i can get there the fastest.

 

would that not be awesome!!

 

I would pay damn good money for that.

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Good lawd what did you do to that thing!!! Did it really have a V8 in it? I dont think I ever got my GT2 240 that quick... your's rolls a lot in the corners too but you can really 'drive' that thing... I thought I was good at GT but you put me to shame. Think I'm gonna go play a little now :)

 

GT2 is STILL the best... even though GT3 makes it so sooo painful to the eyes. I only HOPE that GT4 puts back in all the great features of GT2 that got cut out of 3.

 

Yup, it had the V8 from the 67' cougar in it.. :twisted:

I left the suspension stock, so the body rolls like that. I think it just looks cooler in replays. :D

 

Full lap AVI (12MB) is here:

http://www.boogiebus.net/redrum69/v8z.avi

 

However... I dont really play GT anymore, as Im too busy playing Live for speed. Live for speed is the entire reason I dished out some $$ and bought a logitech momo force wheel for my PC. The game... err simulator really deserves MUCH more attention!

Another shameless plug: http://www.liveforspeed.net

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