It is the late 1970's. The world is reeling from the effects
of high oil prices and the ensuing economic hardship. A major
source of oil consumption, private automobiles, have been targeted
as the first line of action against the tyranny of the oil producing nations.
Smaller is better. Big is sinful, and must be eliminated at any cost.
The highways and junkyards are overflowing with the big, hulking behemoths
that were so popular over the past 25 years. So many, in fact, that it is
impossible for the s***metal processors to even put a dent in the number
of these monstrosities in existence. What to do with them? Creative as
human beings are, they decide to start boosting them to the moon.
Out of sight, out of mind, right? The first to go are the most massive,
hulking
suburban American family vehicles - the station wagons.
After a few months of these launches, some of the pilots (who happen to do
hobby stock oval track racing in their free time) decide that hey, these things
are just piling up around here on the moon, doing nothing but sitting useless
for all eternity. They decide that they could probably throw a few of
bottles of oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen in the back of these things, run some
lines to the carb, and go moon racing! And so they did. What a great time
they
had! Imagine what would happen if you ran one of those 400 cubic inch V8
motors on a hydrogen/oxygen mixture. 1000 horsepower perhaps?
Couple that with a huge, massive vehicle (which once moving would
have tremendous kinetic energy and therefore be impossible to
slow down in an effective manner), and a fraction of the earth's gravity
(not much contact force with terra firma at any speed). Add to that mix the
narrow, worn out
bias ply tires (to keep things somewhat unstable even in when traveling
in a straight line), worn out shocks (to give that nice smooth, slow reacting,
slow to stabilize big car "bobbing" effect whenever a bump is encountered),
and a center of gravity that is a wee bit too far to the rear, which makes
slide angles past, say, 10 or 15 degrees all but impossible, culminating in an
uncontrollable spin.
Is this a premise for a driving sim? Could be.
It would be interesting for maybe a single evening of screwing
around. Is this the next release of the Interstate 76 series from
Activision? No. Is it already available? Yes, believe it or not,
it is. It is not, however, called Station Wagons on the Moon.
The names and faces have been changed to protect those who
probably toiled very hard to produce a first rate product,
but haven't quite gotten there yet.
It is known to the rest of the world as the GPL demo.
Karl Heinz
