Speed Devils: Online Racing (2000)

Speed Devils: Online Racing is an updated version of Speed Devils that reuses the tracks and cars from the original game, adds new ones, and puts them into completely new modes with a focus on online multiplayer. The game includes online and offline options. Offline functions as a practice mode for online, and has only two modes: Arcade (for a standard race against AI-controlled opponents) and Ghost (for a one-on-one against oneself). At the start, car selection is limited and further cars can only be unlocked by playing online. The meat of the game is in Online mode. After customizing their online persona, players start with $10.000, enough to buy a car of the lowest class. Money must be earned by racing, enabling players to buy new cars and tune them with new parts. There are three kinds of races: Standard, Trial and Vendetta. Standard races allow various ways of earning money, of which winning is only one: breaking speed limits at certain points and setting race records (highest speed, fastest lap time, leading the longest) also increase cash flow. Trial races involve wagering: a minimum amount is set by the race creator that all participants must pay to take part. The creator also sets between one and four challenges from a pool of 22 possible options. These include similar records as in the Standard races, but also challenges to always (or never) break the speed limit, bust the limit (but never twice on the same radar), get best times on specific laps, always improve times from lap to lap or not take any damage. The wagered money is distributed at the end of the race between all participants that completed their challenges, taking into account the difficulty of the challenge and the final positions of the racers. Vendetta races are always one-on-one, with the winner taking the loser's car. The game includes all the tracks from the first game (7 unique tracks in 12 configurations), adds a "Heavy Winter" configuration to the Canada track and adds one new track (Montreal) with three configurations, for a total of 16 different tracks, all of which can be raced in reverse or mirrored, and with weather and time of day selectable. The number of cars has been doubled from the original, adding an additional eleven.

• Release Date: December 13, 2000