Stunt Race FX (known in Japan as Wild Trax) was quite an impressive feat when it launched. Sure, it looks hopelessly crude by modern standards, but back in the early '90s when 3D visuals were still in their infancy, it really turned heads – lest we forget, consoles like the SNES simply were not designed for this kind of three-dimensional trickery.
Another system that was never created with 3D graphics in mind was the Game Boy, but amazingly, someone has managed to produce a Stunt Race FX tech demo for the classic handheld. Sure, it has no gameplay (you can steer the car but that's it), but the fact that it's running at all is something to be marvelled at.
Elmar Krieger's demo certainly puts to shame the many attempts at 3D visuals which were produced during the Game Boy's lifetime, although it's important to remember that titles like Dylan Cuthbert's X did a lot of pathfinding at a time when 3D visuals on any console were a novelty.
If you fancy checking out the demo, you can download it here.
Thanks to Paul Murphy for bringing this to our attention!
[source youtube.com]
Comments 26
Very cool, presumably this works without any additional hardware like the original Stunt Race FX for the SNES did?
Demo scenes don't usually resemble proper gameplay like this does, but take the form of some visual spectacle that makes really clever use of the limited processing power of the system.
Race Drivin' says 'Don't you forget about me...'
@CartoonDan
Race Drivin' got an SA-1 patch that makes the game actually playable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9_4mwd7cYg
@RupeeClock Thanks for the info. I will have to try it. To be honest, I have the origin cart and it is one of my favorite gameboy games even with the slow framerate.
@RupeeClock That is the Super Nintendo version. I actually prefer the GameBoy version, but I will have to try the Super Nintendo patched version to see if that helps it.
@CartoonDan
I didn't even know there was a Game Boy version of Race Drivin'.
I thought you were referencing the SNES game in reference to the title Stunt Race FX.
This looks surprisingly good considering its a GB. Framerate is decent too.
What kind of modern day voodoo is this?
move over Donkey Kong Land, this here is a real visual treat
I'm pretty sure this isn't 'true' 3d - the camera only has one axis of movement (the X axis - i.e. tilt) and I expect a lot of the image is really made up of scanline tricks rather than polygon filling. Makes comparing it to actual Stunt Race FX, or even X, a bit unfair, but it's cool to see something more involved than the usual 2d indie productions we see on the GB(C).
Stunt Race FX in the absolute vaguest sense
Did no one play Race Drivin' for the GB?
@RupeeClock The GB version of Race Drivin' was made by Argonaut. Runs at a smoother framerate than both the stock SNES and Genesis versions.
@brianvgplayer It is a great game but sadly it doesn't save your best race times.
Reminds me of Stunt Car Racer on the C64, that game was seriously impressive!
@brianvgplayer
The GB version of Race Drivin' being developed by Argonaut explains a lot, as they played their part in the development of X, and Star Fox / Star Wing.
The SNES version was developed by Beam Software.
Cool tech demo, they could easily turn it into a full game by making three long tracks with varying challenges. That would be awesome. Race Drivin' is garbage on any platform, even the arcade and playable fan modded console versions sucks.
From the screen shot, I actually thought it was Buggy Boy
@Cwiiis I spotted exactly the same thing and reached the same conclusions. I'd go out on a limb and say not a single filled polygon is truly drawn here, and the angle changes can only come in very specific places (hense non playable demo). Still very impressive recreation of the style though, looks better than any attempt of faking 3d I've seen on the stock GB!
However this was achieved, it's quite impressive in its results. I've always had an appreciation for seeing limited hardware pushed in interesting ways, including the Game Boy and GB Color back in the late 1990s even though I didn't have a GBC. And I remember being intrigued at the idea of Donkey Kong Land on the GBC when that was coming out. It's just an idea that appealed to me. It's even more impressive considering they had to make it look good in four shades of grey.
Ah, Elmar Krieger, the guy who brought Prehistorik 2 and Super Cauldron to the good old Amstrad CPC in the 90s. Met him once at a CPC computer party in 2001. Nice that he is still in cool things.
What I find most interesting is this demo runs better than Stunt Race FX ever did on SNES. I understand it appears to be more trickery with sprites than an actual 3D engine but it just looks like it plays better, smoother, and that's seriously impressive to me especially as this is just a demo.
It's incredible what the little grey brick that could is capable of in the hands of a skilled coder. The Game Boy's long lifespan meant a lot of developers pushed it pretty hard. I'll have to check out Race Drivin', I've never heard of it. Cheers @CartoonDan for the heads up.
I recently replayed and completed Stunt Race FX on the Switch SNES service. It actually holds up quite well considering and I really enjoyed my time replaying it. I remember the day I picked this up originally, couldn't put it down for months.
@CartoonDan I remember both games were sitting next to each other recently at my local Half-Price Books. $5.99 for either game. Sadly, neither game has aged well.
Game Boy did have one of the earliest first-person shooters in Faceball 2000.
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