TURBO OUT RUN

 TURBO OUT RUN is a roadrace simulation from Sega Enterprises and Electronic
Arts. Ported from the arcade hit, TURBO offers very good graphics and race
animation, weather conditions, customizing options at the pit stops, manual and
automatic transmissions, joystick control, and copy protection. The Commodore
64/128 version is the basis of this review.

 TURBO simulates a cross-country roadrace that starts out in New York City on
the East Coast, moves through the Midwest, South, Southwest, and ends in Los
Angeles on the West Coast. The goal is to drive your Ferrari F-40 from Point A
to Point B as quickly as possible.

 The C64 screen display consists of an action screen on which are the road, the
Ferrari, and the scenery. The road and the scenery scroll as you steer the car.
At the top of the screen are score and timer, which ticks off the seconds
available to reach each checkpoint. As long as the Ferrari is moving, the score
counter keeps clicking.

 The scenery consists of cities, deserts, billboards, light poles, and
mountains. There are other vehicles, including police cars and VWs. Weather
conditions include rain and snow. A platinum blonde babe sits beides you. She's
fickle -- all she wants is to be in the fastest car -- as well as irrelevant to
the race, which proves that I'm just an American boy and I love my machine.

 TURBO is controlled with a joystick. Regardless of the transmission you select,
left and right on the stick move the car likewise, forward accelerates, and
backward decelerates. With a manual trans, the button shifts gears and the
Spacebar invokes the turbo booster. With an automatic trans, the button invokes
the turbo booster, which makes little flames blow out of the exhaust pipe and
causes the engine to heat up rapidly (as indicated on the heat bar). Run/Stop
pauses.

 There are pit stops in Chicago, Miami, and Oklahoma City, where you can choose
High Grip Tires, a High Speed Engine, or Special Turbo, which removes heat
faster. You can select each option only once.

 If you don't reach a checkpoint before time runs out, the game ends. The
Continue option lets you keep racing, but only three times, after which you'll
have to start at the beginning.

 The C64 TURBO OUT RUN package comes with one copy-protected disk and an
instruction sheet for all versions.

 TURBO OUT RUN is not at all difficult, and beyond the car and the road, there's
really not much to it. It looks fine, plays well, and as C64 arcade games go,
TURBO delivers the goods as simplistically as possible.

 TURBO OUTRUN is published by Sega Enterprises and distributed by Electronic
Arts.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253