Games That Weren't 64

Zach Townsend speaks about work on Race Drivin'...

"To be honest, I don’t think it ever got that close to finishing. As I recall, the project was a bit of a disaster from before it started. Let’s be honest – a £40,000 polygon mapped, real-time 3D arcade game was never going to convert that well to the humble C64. Good as it was for its time, the C64’s main strength was its sprites and its sound chip, not its 3D ability.

As it was, I arranged with Domark to organise the C64, Spectrum & Amstrad versions. I personally sub-contracted the people to do the coding & graphics (with me to code the C64). But Domark delayed the actual contract signing for 4-6 months (reasons unbeknown to me), by which time I was running out of money and the people I’d sub-contracted had all been forced to start other projects.

I started the project alone, and probably continued for several months before calling it a day. Stage payments were not forthcoming, and I felt I couldn’t trust them. I had a mortgage, had just got married and needed to get regular income. So the game was never finished, allthough a ‘working’ demo was created, for which I still have the source code (I believe)."

Zach Townsend.