Update: Tranz Am

This was actually the second game I ever began to develop using GameMaker, dating all the way back to 2003/04, and I felt at the time I was making pretty good progress with it. However, after some serious issues with the running speed of the game, the 2004 Retro Remakes contest (the rules of which required a game to be started from scratch) got in the way and put development on hold.

And I have never really gone back to it.

This was one of my very favourite games from the early days of the ZX Spectrum, and and I still don’t feel there has been a remake that truly captures the spirit of it, so I am now determined to have another go. Not that I expect to capture that spirit any better than anyone else, but you can only try.

The game is something of a re-imagining and, rather than use the entire map of the US of A, my idea was to split the game down into levels based on separate states in the union, starting with Nevada (which is a desert like the original of course). That would allow me to intriduce different environments, different enemies to avoid, some more urban environments meaning navigation between buildings as well as vegetation and (the bit that I didn’t know how to do … and still don’t) different behaviours for your vehicle.

You know … Alaska … ice … that sort of thing.

Having sat untouched on my HD for the best part of 5 years now, I have decided to dust off my coding to date and (even though remake quality has risen exponentially in the last few years) have another go at bringing this one to a conclusion.

Wish me luck!!

Cheers,
JD