Download Deathtrack

It starts just like any other race. Lights go on from red to yellow to green, the engines roar and the cars quickly vanish from the sight into distance. But this race is anything but normal, as becomes clear when the first missile crosses the air.

Two minutes and sixteen seconds later, only one car completes the final lap. All that remains of the competitors' vehicles are either burnt-out frames scattered across the race track or small chunks just large enough to be mailed in an envelope.

Welcome to the world of Death Track!

Death Track is a pretty strange game: it's graphics are very primitive VGA sprites coupled with basic vector graphics like those in the first MechWarrior, sufficient for gameplay but quite ugly anyway. The SFX are barely existent and the music consists of two or three very similar tunes whose repetitiveness begins to get on your nerves within a few minutes from starting the game.

Yet, it has that "something" that is so rare to find in games of today: that elusive element that makes you start the game at the evening and then play it till early dawn hours. In other words, it's incredibly addictive.

The basic premise is pretty simple - be the first one to finish the race, over dead bodies of your enemies if neccesary - but that's one of the things that make Death Track so enjoyable.

When you start the game you are given choice between three different cars - fast Hellcat, powerfully armed Crusher and heavily armored Pitbull. To face the truth, however, your choice of the starting car affects practically none but your starting weaponry and upgrades (the HUD looks a bit different, but that's pretty much all).

Yes, you've read it right - upgrades. Because apart from nine types of weaponry, your car also has six kinds of internal components - from tires to engine to armor - that you can modify. There are three levels of parts for each, and let me tell you - it can be a tough choice sometimes: not only because of the initial price or the cost-efficiency, but also because when your car get shot to pieces you'll have to pay for the repairs. And let me tell you, the repair bills on top-of-the-line components can be killer!

Only winners finish the circuit alive, so good shooting and meet you at the top!

Note on running the game in DOS, VDMSound and Windows XP:
You will have to use some sort of slowdown utlity in order for Death Track to run slow enough to be playable. CPU Killer, Turbo et al should do the job.

You have to run it on very low cycle setting, for the same reason as above.