rec.autos.simulators

Do you remember the golden C64 days? Who still knows REVS by
MicroProse? I recently dug it out, thinking of the funny names that
the computer drivers had.

I always wondered what most of the names say; as I'm not a native
English speaker, I've some natural difficulties in understanding :)

Well, first of all, here they are:

Billy Bumper
Dan Dipstick
Davey Rocket
Desmond Dash
Gary Clipper
Gloria Slap
Harry Fume
Hugh Jengine
Johnny Turbo
Max Throttle
Miles Behind
Percy Veer
Peter Out
Rick Shaw
Roland Slide
Sid Spoiler
Slim Chance
Willy Swerve
Wilma Cargo

Of course, some of them are very obvious, like Hugh Jengine (huge
engine), Max Throttle (sic), Miles Behind (dito) and so on. BUT I'd
like you to help me with all of them, as I'm not completely familiar
with the technical terms, and I don't want to miss anything, even
with the 'Christian names'.

Whose fantasy is big enough to help me? :)

           Juergen.
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==ELITE==  Juergen Athen
 \\\-///   jAmeson on IRC, NightFall
   =^=
    ^

A game I still remember very fondly (great scraps at Brands Hatch)

Well, I've had a go at some of them :-)

Glorious Lap

The English word "Persevere"  

And English expression meaning to "run out" or "dwindle"

Rickshaw (sp). Kind of bicycle/taxi used in the Far East!

Roll and Slide?

Another English expression meaning "not a hope" or "only a small chance"

Will He Swerve?

Will My Car Go?
            _________    ___________________________________________

  A play on "Billy Bunter" strange British children's story character
from the 1930's

  Davey Crocket ?

  Just a bit of aliteration

  Gary Glitter, sad '70s "glam rock" start

  I dread to think

  Fume as in car exhaust fumes

  Persevere - i.e. to keep trying

  Peter out = break down

Revs was a great game on the C64. I had the plus edition with the
extra tracks. I was so mad on the game I wrote a utility to change all
the names and hacked it so that it would store all six tracks in the
C128's unused video ram and load them sequentially so that you could
have a full season's racing on all the tracks instead of just racing
on one chosen track.

What a misspent youth I had !

Anyway, I'll try and decipher these names for you m8...

Here they are:

Billy Bumper - Er, Billy Bumper [as in car bumper I guess]
Dan Dipstick - Hmm, Dan Dipstick [as in car dipstick]
Davey Rocket - Take off of Davey Crocket
Desmond Dash - As in dash, dashing around
Gary Clipper - Uh, don't know
Gloria Slap - Glorius lap [hahahaa]
Harry Fume - Beats me
Hugh Jengine - Yeah, we all know this one
Johnny Turbo - as n Turbo [some of these are really quite poor]
Max Throttle - as in Maximum Throttle
Miles Behind - Hmm, I wonder...
Percy Veer - as in persavere [to keep trying]
Peter Out - as in, well, peter out [to stop working]
Rick Shaw - as in rickshaw [but i've forgotten what it means]
Roland Slide - whatever
Sid Spoiler - as in car spoiler
Slim Chance - slim chance [pretty obvious really!]
Willy Swerve - as in *s**** 'will he swerve'?
Wilma Cargo - as in *roar with laughter* 'will my car go'?

Sorry I couldn't help with all of them, but you get the idea. Geoff's latest joke is obviously the
release date of GP2. Keeping us*** on the wire...
--
---------------------------------------

---------------------------------------
Actually I understand its not up to Geoff when GP2 is released, and as far as I know the game is now
finished!

Brand Hatch
Silverstone
Snetterton
Donington
Oulton Park
Nurburgring - not, I hasten to add, the mammoth GP circuit

Anyone who thinks the AI in Indycar 1 is lousy should see the way the
drivers in Revs behave. The game is truly unforgiving in a way which
just wouldn't wash these days. Still, it was all we had back then. It
almost makes me want to dig my C128 out and play it :) Anyone know of
a decent C64 emulator for the PC ?

www.kuru.com (pub/packages/emulators...something)

It has the emulator AND a copy of Revs (I've just been playing it!)

Have fun ;)

Cheers!
John

                      _________________________________
          __    _____|                                 |_____    __
_________|  |__|    :|          John Wallace           |     |__|  |_________

  \     :|  |::|    :|       Team WW Racing TSW        |     |::|  |      /
    >   :|  |::|    :|_________________________________|     |::|  |    <
  /     :|__|::|____:/         -=Ayrton Senna=-        \.____|::|__|      \
/_______:/  \::/    Racing is in my ***, it's part of me   \::/  \._______\

Does anybody have the "plus edition" in a form usable by a PC C64 emulator?
The C64 Revs I got hold of has only Brands Hatch and Silverstone.

I still have, and still play occasionally, the original BBC version.  This has
an expansion disk called "Revs Four Tracks" with Brands, Snetterton,
Donnington and Oulton Park.  Us BBC owners didn't have the Nuerburgring,
though :-(.  What was the justification for that - was there ever a British
F3 race there?

I don't think there was a British F3 race there. The blurb in the
manual states that it was included because it is "the most challenging
drive in Europe". You don't get a lap rundown like with the other
tracks so maybe it was something that Geoff Crammond was working on
and was put in at the last minute. I always found Brands Hatch to be
the toughest cicuit - Nurburgring was fairly easy.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEW!!!! :-)))
Oh, I didn't hope to really find any answers :-) Thank you so much
altogether :) Revs was the first racing game that I know that earned the
name 'simulation', and I didn't get too skilled only because my C64's
keyboard was so bad. And it's new to me that Geoff Crammond really
programmed Revs! Perhaps someone knows where to write him to, he should
be the best source for the names :)
I didn't know that there was a 'plus' edition - you surely can't do the
RAM trick on the C64 ;-) and as for the emulators, there are a lot in the
mean time! Don't have their locations handy now though. I can look them
up if you like, at least their names so you can have archie search.
One good site should be ftp.gmd.de though.

           Juergen.
\       /
\\     //
\\\ U ///
==ELITE==  Juergen Athen   http://iraul1.ira.uka.de/~s_athen/ja.html
 \\\-///   jAmeson on IRC, NightFall
   =^=
    ^

Do you know how big the ROM was on the C64? We're talking a couple of
minutes for the Emulator and seconds for the game (40k or so).

Cheers!
John

                      _________________________________
          __    _____|                                 |_____    __
_________|  |__|    :|          John Wallace           |     |__|  |_________

  \     :|  |::|    :|       Team WW Racing TSW        |     |::|  |      /
    >   :|  |::|    :|_________________________________|     |::|  |    <
  /     :|__|::|____:/         -=Ayrton Senna=-        \.____|::|__|      \
/_______:/  \::/    Racing is in my ***, it's part of me   \::/  \._______\

Well I just can't help not to comment. The game is the most incredible game
for it's time. I was amazed at the accuracy. I remember taking some of the
fastest corners very fast. The car would have a grip until you about reach
the apex, and then if you are too fast, the back side just slides our.
Fantastic. That was the only game that made my heart race like crazy. My
pulse really went way up when another car was chasing me. I have that c64
simulator now, and I guess I will try to find the game and check it out.
Does anybody outthere have it? And is it legal to copy it now, as I have
isplaced my copy.

And to think it was the master (Crammond) behind that game too - well who
else :)

Well that's enough for now - I really feel sorry for those out there that
never had a chance to expirience REVS!

Domagoj

I managed to track it down last month together with a C64 emulator
and it seemed to work ok.  I used to play it to death on the BBC
Computer around 1985-86 when it first came out, it sure does show
it's age.  

Have fun, mail me and let me know what you think.#

FTP from the following........

www.kuru.com/pub/packages/c64s                        
Emulator is called C64S.ZIP

www.kuru.com/pub/packages/cs4s/d64games/            
REVS game is called REVS2.ZIP

Gary Turner.