Ludography
Super Off Road cover

1992 · Port · Leland Corporation · Arcade · Racing

Super Off Road

Port

1989 video game

Released
3 July 1992
Platforms
Amstrad CPCAtari LynxGame BoyGame GearMaster SystemNESSNESSega GenesisZX Spectrum
Genres
ArcadeRacing
Developers
Leland Corporation
Publishers
Tradewest Inc
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Languages
English

About

Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road is a 1989 racing video game developed and published by Leland Corporation for arcades. It was designed and managed by John Morgan, who was also lead programmer, and endorsed by professional off-road racer Ivan Stewart. Virgin Games produced several home computer versions in 1990, with a version for the Nintendo Entertainment System released by Leland's Tradewest subsidiary the same year. It was followed by versions for most major home consoles, including the Master System, Sega Genesis, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

A port for the Atari Jaguar was announced but never released. Some ports lack the Ivan Stewart branding because of licensing issues, and are known simply as Super Off Road.

Keywords

  • retroachievements

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In the game, up to three players (four 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 (twelve in the SMS version and sixteen in the SNES version) and 99 races altogether on most versions (the SNES version loops through 64 races without ending). 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 zero. This is one of the first games where the player could upgrade their vehicle by earning points or money, an idea conceived by John Morgan (although in Atari Games' Sprint series, the player could upgrade their racer using wrenches), a system that is used in many racing games today.

Development

Super Off Road was developed and published by the Leland Corporation (which was acquired by WMS Industries, the holding company of said developers, in 1994).

In the original arcade game, the red, blue, and yellow CPU trucks are "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. John was the game designer and manager, lead programmer, initial track designer and wrote ray tracing software to create all vehicle art. Earl was the assistant software programmer, Hartono Titro was diagnostics programmer.

Reception

Replay Magazine rated the arcade version #1 Dedicated Video in its 1989's Best Videos and Pins Special Report.

Sinclair User rated the arcade version an 8 out of 10 and recommended the game to anyone who enjoyed playing the Sprint games, calling Super Off Road "Super Sprint with dirt".

Legacy

Both the arcade version of the game and the Track Pak upgrade are included in Midway Arcade Treasures 3 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It drops the "Ironman" Ivan Stewart license and as simply known 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), a real-life graphic designer on the original arcade game, continuing the previous tradition regarding the CPU drivers being named for its developers.

Super Off Road is also included in the 2012 compilation Midway Arcade Origins for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
SNES3 July 1992Japan

Editions and related releases

Part of
Ivan ''Ironman'' Stewart's Super Off Road
Port of
Super Off Road: The Baja

Games like this

Collections12 collections

Genres

Publishers

Development status

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.