By Kieron Gillen on October 21st, 2009 at 11:40 am.
This is really quite sweet. Way back in the day, when Max Payne was happily married and didn’t expect everyone he loved to have been killed to give him motivation to shoot dudes (slowly), Remedy made a racing game. It was called Death Rally. They’ve updated it from the DOS to work on modern systems and made it freely available to download. It features both death and rallying, so is adroitly named. My favourite feature is how you can run over the people watching the actual event, which probably explains track-attendance figures slipping in recent Death Rally years. Now, Remedy! Get back to working on Alan Wake. You’ll find some Youtube Death Rally DOSbox footage below…
In other news, someone should make a game called Death Race. Or another one.
21/10/2009 at 11:44 Wolfman says:
Looks a lot like the old Supercars on the Amiga to me??!?
-wolfman
21/10/2009 at 11:49 roBurky says:
I can remember playing that. Not sure if it was the full thing or a demo.
21/10/2009 at 11:50 TotalBiscuit says:
Nice ninja-edit on the article there Keiron ;) Death Rally, not to be confused with arcade classic Deathrace – http://www.arcadeflyers.com/flyers_video/exidy/23470301.jpg
21/10/2009 at 11:53 Jay says:
Death Rally was made of win!
21/10/2009 at 12:02 Baboonanza says:
Yeah, looks like SuperCars. Only shit.
21/10/2009 at 12:44 Zerotime says:
It was a lot prettier and more fun to play with in 1996. Much like your mother, actually.
22/10/2009 at 05:51 MD says:
*high-fives Zerotime*
21/10/2009 at 12:06 Baboonanza says:
Alan Wake is ‘finished’ apparently. Harrah! I hope it’s good.
Also, the Wake link is forked.
21/10/2009 at 12:09 Jon says:
Did anyone else notice the names of the drivers? At one point you’re racing against Duke Nukem…
21/10/2009 at 12:09 Heliocentric says:
Isn’t alan wake 360 only?
21/10/2009 at 12:13 Jim Rossignol says:
Alan Wake has be semi-de-confirmed for PC, yes. And that means it might still come out on PC, but isn’t coming out on PS3.
21/10/2009 at 12:16 pepper says:
I remember playing this a long long time ago from one of those demo-1000 games CD’s.
21/10/2009 at 12:17 pignoli says:
Yup, the former poster child of DirectX 10 gaming is now restricted to a DX 9 and a bit console in the era of DX11. Funny world eh?
21/10/2009 at 12:47 Heliocentric says:
Anon coward? *cries*
21/10/2009 at 12:20 KngShango says:
Carmageddon
21/10/2009 at 12:22 Monchberter says:
Micro Machines and Skidmarks? I used to love these top down racers.
As for automotive mayhem. Noone’s still topped the original Carmageddon.
Steam update and release please. In the Dunia Engine for true off-track mayhem.
21/10/2009 at 12:31 rocketman71 says:
Alan Wake?. Bah.
Death Rally 2?. Hell yeah!
21/10/2009 at 12:47 DMJ says:
Hasn’t Alan Wake taken more time to develop than Windows 7? As in, promised before Vista’s release but still undelivered as the Win 7 release draws nigh?
I’m not sure if that says something bad about Remedy or Microsoft…
21/10/2009 at 12:58 Sunjumper says:
As Max Payne also took several millennia to be made I am not in the least surprised that Alan Wake is also taking its sweet time.
21/10/2009 at 12:48 Jonas says:
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Death Rally is one of my greatest nostalgia-objects! It was the very first game I got on CD, and I played it for hours and hours and hours. Beating Duke Nukem was EPIC. I haven’t been able to play it since the rise of Windows XP, but now I shall have to go back and play it again because it is AWESOME.
I can haz remake?
21/10/2009 at 13:03 Junior says:
Oh how I loved Skidmarks, every other litte car game is compared to that wonderful benchmark in my mind.
21/10/2009 at 13:06 Lu-Tze says:
Nonsense, Carmageddon 2 was amazing. I can't recall anything about TDR2000, except I played it and then decided Carmageddon 2 was the height of the series.
I just can't imagine it existing as a game today.
21/10/2009 at 18:35 Monchberter says:
Carmageddon 2 was good. But it was of the unfortunate early 3D era where everything looked so ugly compared to sprites. I liked the utter sense of lunacy that accompanied the original that the second game did away with in favour of challenges,
21/10/2009 at 13:08 mirdza says:
Very awesome game. Will download.
21/10/2009 at 13:21 notlimahc says:
I’m going to be the pedantic individual who points out Skidmarks wasn’t a top-down racer, it was isometric.
21/10/2009 at 13:45 Schmung says:
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Wasn’t the final vehicle some batman alike with spikes on the front bumper? Probably had a ludicrous name like devastator or something. Anyways, getting and indeed playing.
21/10/2009 at 13:51 -F. says:
Oh man, I’m feeling 13 all over again :-)
21/10/2009 at 13:53 JW says:
FUCK YEAH DEATHRALLYYYY
21/10/2009 at 14:05 Matosh says:
Brilliant game, played it a LOT in my younger days.
You know what the best bit is though? The music. Jonne Valtonen really knows his stuff. It’s that oldskool demoscene-type music that games just don’t use anymore, back from when trackers were still the best way to do it. The main menu theme is brilliant.
21/10/2009 at 14:09 Catastrophe says:
I loved this game. Fond memories.
21/10/2009 at 14:13 Pijama says:
Great game, wasted a good part of my wee years on it! Now let’s see if I can make the old Vagabond roar again as it used to…
21/10/2009 at 14:24 jalf says:
Death Rally was *awesome*. So was SuperCars. Surely, there’s room in the world for both.
People hating on either of them make me sad :(
21/10/2009 at 14:46 Fede says:
Lovely game, played the demo to death back then :)
21/10/2009 at 15:05 nine says:
oh no! We broke the link!
21/10/2009 at 15:09 Rane2k says:
Sweet, I loved the game back in the day, downloading now!
Secret tip:
Skip the 4th car (Wraith), if you have it the opponents with the 5th car will race in the medium races more frequently. Save up to the Deliverator and the first few upgrades.
21/10/2009 at 15:10 Theoban says:
I bought this when it came out and could never get it running. NOW I SHALL HAVE MY REVENGE
21/10/2009 at 15:11 Rane2k says:
Edit: Oops, got the names mixed up, skip the 4th car (Shrieker), and save up to the Wraith.
21/10/2009 at 15:25 army of none says:
Oh my god, this game was AWESOME. Many hours spent playing this as a wee chap with my dad! Time to replay this…
21/10/2009 at 15:26 damien says:
now i have tricky stuck in my head…
21/10/2009 at 15:43 Heman says:
Oh noes!! No LAN-multiplayer?! :(
21/10/2009 at 16:19 Grey_Ghost says:
I’d rather play Death Track from 1989.
21/10/2009 at 16:29 Glove says:
Man I played the *shit* out of that game as an (even) young(er) ‘un. Saw this yesterday; best news in a long, long while. Such a damned great game.
21/10/2009 at 16:47 RuySan says:
Death rally was ok but way low in the grand picture of super-sprint clones. I rate Super Off-Road, Skidmarks and Super Cars 2 higher. And Indy Heat and Badlands as well (yes i’m serious).
21/10/2009 at 16:59 P7uen says:
Destroying my brother at Super Off-Road was superb. Also Rally Sport, also to be found for DOSBox, continues to be the best rally game I’ve ever played.
22/10/2009 at 14:34 terry says:
Some guy released a Java port of Supercars 2, with some new tracks and whatnot. It still plays great and has the essential “DUNNDUNNN DUNN DUNNN” intro sequence.
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jotd/supercars3/
Just in case someone else was hankering for some Cats against the Bomb action.
21/10/2009 at 17:39 Matzerath says:
I played this way too late into the evening last night.
21/10/2009 at 17:58 edosan says:
I LOVED Death Rally — I’ll have to d/l this when I get home.
21/10/2009 at 18:11 phredi_j says:
With music by purple motion (jonne valtonen) ! FTW ! =D
21/10/2009 at 20:39 Tackle McClean says:
I was just going to say that!
Purple Motion = awesome
21/10/2009 at 18:50 Carra says:
Damn, I thought the trailer of the game was in done with the game engine.
Kind of disapointed to see the 2D flat cars after that :)
21/10/2009 at 19:22 Phoenix 2.0 says:
Oh man, Death Rally. Childhood memories flooding back. So awesome.
21/10/2009 at 19:24 Marcin says:
I still have the original disc for this. It’s one of the few that I keep in a place of honor. ^_^
There’s a 360 “remake/successor/tribute/whatever” version coming soon to XBLA, Scrap Metal. I think it may even have been brought up on RPS … I’ll hold out for that because well, things like Death Rally don’t age well.
21/10/2009 at 21:30 Woop says:
Ignition was, and will forever be, the greatest top-down racer in my opinion. No guns, no boosts, just insane tracks and that magical glimmer that teleports you from certain death back onto the racing track.
21/10/2009 at 22:14 ACESandElGHTS says:
No honorable mention for Racing Destruction Set (EA, 1985) ? OutRAGEOUS!
21/10/2009 at 22:55 AlpineViper says:
omgomgomgomg I was just thinking about this game the other week! Along with trackmania its the only car racing game I’ve ever given a stuff about, and it was AWESOME
22/10/2009 at 02:08 Tony M says:
I remember this game was actually more fun when you turned off weapons and played it as a straight racer. I think it was better than the “micromachine” racers from the same period because you could see a little further ahead so you weren’t relying so much on memorising the track to do well.
22/10/2009 at 03:23 Spacewalk says:
Death Rally for free? If that doesn’t get the sex wee leaking I don’t know what will.
22/10/2009 at 05:31 Popular Energy Drink says:
Remedy is like the apprentice of Valve when it comes to “it’s done when it’s done.”
That or he has surpassed the master. I have no idea anymore. Valve Time is a formidable beast still.
22/10/2009 at 07:31 lonkero says:
Played this one a lot when I was younger, and I still have a copy hanging around somewhere… the neat thing about said copy is that I still have all the old high scores, including many made by my uncle (introduced me to gaming). Of course I’ve beaten most of those ^^.
And btw the original works fine with DOSBox, no problems whatsoever, and even on plain XP if you give up on sound (which you don’t want to…)
23/10/2009 at 19:37 lio says:
wooohooo! downloading! loved the game back then all those years ago!
23/10/2009 at 21:13 Crescend says:
Oh yes I can remember playing this as a kid alot, I’ve been trying to find this game again ^^
24/10/2009 at 15:08 Caiman says:
This game has not aged well, sadly. Someone get Supercars working so we can all happily drift around corners again.
01/11/2009 at 05:26 alipang says:
Downloaded and finished in one sitting. :) Loved this back in the day. Certainly not advanced but it has quite nice mechanics.