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Auto Duel (Arcade Adventure)
Compatibility: 64K Apple II series
Requirements: One disk drive, joystick
It is the 21st century, a time when national governments have dissolved into a kind of controlled anarchy. Cities and the larger towns maintain order within their boundaries; but outside, along the vast, vital network of roads and super highways, only the strong survive, and right-of-way goes to the biggest gun! Marketed by Electronic Arts, Origin Systems "Auto Duel" gives you a shot at fame, fortune, and, just maybe, the chance to carve out a few legends.
Set in the Northeastern U.S. of 2030 A.D., the adventure embraces sixteen cities and a highway system spanning eight states and the District of Columbia. Unless continuing a saved game, you begin in New York, on foot, with $2000. Your first priority is a decent set of wheels; but two grand will barely pay for an unarmed deathtrap. It will, however, take care of several days room and board, buy a suit of body armor, and cover practice fees at the local auto dueling arena. Here a quick check of the events schedule reveals that tonight is "amateur night" (what luck!); and you can risk your neck in an arena-supplied, one-gun "killer cart" for the $1500 prize money.
Thus begins your career as an auto duelist, with days spent traveling from city to city by bus and nights filled with deadly competition. Success brings prestige, boosts in "driving" and "marksmanship" skills, and money for the sort of machine you can take out on the road or enter in more advanced, higher payoff, dueling events.
As a full-scale adventure, "Auto Duel" incorporates much the same character/equipment development, buying and selling, and exploration elements one normally expects to find, plus a very strong arcade action emphasis. Except when moving around in a city, you view a combat-type display showing your car (and any others nearby) on smoothly scrolled scenery along with a small radar screen and indicators for weapons and armor status, speed, and mileage.
While any single, primary goal is left for players to discover, an interesting feature is that the three occupations appear to be viable routes to different kinds of 'ultimate' success. As a duelist you can aim to win city championships, perhaps at all nine arena locations. As a courier you can graduate to mysterious "special assignments"; and as a road warrior/scavenger your main target is the elusive outlaw known only as "Mr. Big".
Supplied with detailed manual, reference card, and even a neat little toolkit, "Auto Duel is innovative and attractive, but also seriously flawed. Resuming a saved game wipes out your saved character, only resaved via a "QUIT" (whereupon everything simply freezes)-- so hours of progress can be lost to a power glitch or by getting killed (all too easy).
Such 'rough edges' are annoying; but the real problem is with combat. Unresponsive controls, mediocre weapons effects graphics, and lackluster sound put a real damper on fun. Evidently, your low initial "driving skill" number CAUSES your car to handle like a boat-- that is, a beginning driver must actually demonstrate more arcade ability than an experienced duelist to achieve the same result! Very promising and thus all the more disappointing, "Auto Duel" is hardly a wreck; but it's not a 'performance machine' either.
Available from Electronic Arts: 2755 Campus Drive, San Mateo, CA 94403. (415) 571-7171. $49.95
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