Racing Destruction Set is a game released by Electronic Arts in 1985. It is a car and motocross racing game developed for the Commodore 64, and later released on the Atari 8-bit. At the time, this game was known for its innovative track editor and vehicle choice and customization. It was Electronic Arts’ third best-selling Commodore game as of late 1987. It received much critical praise, including that from Zzap!64 magazine that gave it a “Sizzler” rating of 95%. In the years following, its release, it saw numerous remakes and copycats.
Like other racing games, has the objective to beat your opponent in a lapped race. Unlike other racing games of the time, it wasn’t a view from the driver’s seat or top down. This was an isometric view that gives a great view of your vehicle, the track and the illusion of depth enhanced by the usage of shadows. This is clearly apparent when the vehicle is launched into the air. What set RDS apart even further from its contemporaries and gives it continual fun today is that this game has a whole construction set of creative entertainment. Not only do you have a multitude of tracks to choose from, you also have the ability to customize, design, build and play those tracks.
This is a look back at this 1985 “classic” but with a new appreciation.
References
Zzap!64 Issue 6, 1985, Racing Destruction Set review
Racing Destruction Set on single 1581 disk image
Racing Destruction Set Cartridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPM_Racing
https://www.giantbomb.com/racing-destruction-set/3030-7458/
https://magazinesfromthepast.fandom.com/wiki/Racing_Destruction_Set
Glad to read that I am not sitting alone in my thoughts of 1980 something in regards to this game, loved it! Omg, just think if commodore could of made it, what would the world look like today, besides 8-bit?
I think about that too. Commodore was innovative but I feel like it lost its way and was too focused on cutting prices and less on innovation. The engineers made the company succeed, the business team squashed it. Very sad. I think that much of the advantages that the Amiga gave us in the 90s have essentially translated itself completely into the x86 technology today with the multiprocessor setup. The fact that there are specific graphic and audio processing that relieves the CPU of much of the workload is a testament to the Amiga architecture.