Super Off Road

Super Off Road, fully titled as Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road, is an arcade video game released in 1989 by Leland Corporation. Virgin Games produced several home versions in 1990. In 1991, an NES version was later released by Leland's Tradewest subsidiary followed by versions for most major home formats, including Sega Genesis, Super NES, Amiga and MS-DOS. Inspired by Super Sprint

Gameplay


In the game, up to 3 players (4 in the NES version through use of either the NES Satellite or NES Four Score) compete against each other or the computer in racing around several top-view indoor off-road truck tracks of increasing difficulty. There are eight different tracks and 99 races altogether. All races are raced more than once. First -place results earn the player points to continue in the championship and money with which to upgrade their truck or buy more nitro. The goal is to reach the end of the season with the most money earned. Continues are available but whereas players can get extra money in the arcade version, in the home versions, the player's money is reset to 0. This is one of the first games where the player could upgrade his or her vehicle by earning points or money (although in Atari Games' Sprint series, one could upgrade their racer using wrenches), a system that is used in most arcade-style racing games today.

Licensing
In the original arcade game, the red, blue and yellow CPU trucks were 'driven' by "Madman" Sam Powell, "Hurricane" Earl Stratton and "Jammin'" John Morgan, respectively. The names were taken from the development staff: Sam composed the music, and Earl and John were two of the software programmers. The Track Pack added "Steamin'" Steve High, and "Hot Rod" John Rowe, representing graphics and project direction, respectively. By using these names, this meant that further licensing deals were not required.

The Super NES version was notable for prominently featuring the Toyota brand; the name and logo were displayed on various tracks, and pre-race music was inspired by the "I love what you do for me Toyota" jingle that was used by the company's marketing campaign at the time of the game's release. This version also lacked any licensing or reference to Ivan Stewart, replacing him instead with the late Mickey Thompson in the gray truck. The NES version does have the Toyota label on its cartridge art, but otherwise the ad is not present.

The game was not originally developed or published by Williams, Midway, or Atari Games but by the Leland Corporation (which was acquired by WMS Industries, the holding company of said developers, in 1994). Both the Arcade version of the game and its "Track Pack" upgrade can be found in Midway Arcade Treasures 3. However, it does not have the "Ironman" Ivan Stewart license, and as such is known simply as "Super Off Road", with the white, computer controlled car being "driven" by "'Lightning' Kevin Lydy" (in the original arcade cabinet, the white car is "driven" by Ivan Stewart). While Kevin Lydy is a real person, he is not an off road racer. He is, in fact, one of the graphics staff on the original arcade game, continuing the previous tradition regarding the CPU drivers.

Upgrades
The track pack was an add-on board for arcade units that contains eight brand-new tracks: Shortcut, Cutoff Pass, Pig Bog, Rio Trio, Leapin' Lizards, Redoubt About, Boulder Hill and Volcano Valley. It also gave the brand new ability to choose between either the normal truck or the dune buggy; both vehicles had different characteristics accordingly and added a new element to the game.

Sequels
Super Off Road gained a number of sequels, the first was titled Super Off Road: The Baja. It was released for Super Nintendo and is based on the Baja 1000 race. The format was changed to a third person camera instead of an overhead camera. In 1997 an arcade sequel was released, Off Road Challenge which again adopted the third person 3D driving view and was ported to the Nintendo 64 a year later. The second sequel Offroad Thunder was released in arcades in 1999, but not ported to consoles until the release of Midway Arcade Treasures 3 six years later.