1989 · Racing · Simulation

Vette!

Vette is an open-world racing game set in San Francisco. The player can choose from a range of Corvette's and race them against a range of European cars on several courses in San-Francisco.

Released: 1989
Platforms: MS-DOS macOS
Genres: Racing Simulation
Developers: —
Publishers: Spectrum HoloByte
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: First person Third person
Themes: Non-fiction
Country: United States

About

Vette! is a racing video game published by Spectrum Holobyte for MS-DOS compatible operating systems in 1989, followed by Macintosh and NEC PC-9801 ports. The objective is to race a Chevrolet C4 Corvette through the streets of San Francisco. The game uses a 3D, flat-shaded polygon rendering of the city, including landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Bay Bridge, and Lombard Street. It was released on three floppy disks in both a black and white and color version.

A Sega Genesis version was planned, but never released.

Keywords

motorcycle
street racing
motorsports
sports cars
in-game anti-piracy effects

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Car damage that affects the engine and handling.

Full control over the game's camera views, including an interior cam with a full working dashboard.

Development

During the development of this game, the attack on protesting Chinese students in Tiananmen Square occurred. In memory of that event, one of the programmers snuck this string into the program executable: "IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO WERE MURDERED IN TIAN-AN-MEN SQUARE ON JUNE 4, 1989. J.P. "

Reception

Tony Dillon of ACE praised Vette! for its "complexity of design combined with clever simplicity in presentation" and its varied gameplay, and opined that the game "doesn't quite have the edge over Stunt Car, but it sure isn't far behind." Peter Scisco of Compute! favorably reviewed the game, describing it as "Falcon AT on the ground."

He praised the game's detail and EGA graphics, only criticizing the lack of sound card support, and concluded that "Vette! surpasses other driving simulations in its scope and realism".