Hard Drivin' question...

[Shaun M. Neary]

Here's one for you guys.

I got a stack of compilations during the week and was going through testing them. One of them was TNT, which has Hard Drivin' as part of it.

So I slap the tape in, press play and to my bemusement, it says 'Loading 64k version', which I found kinda strange as my 464 is expanded. Now I didn't think the game was that great anyway, certainly not deserving of the score AA gave it back in 1990. But it's made worse with the fact that there is no sound at all on the 64k version. So I decided to head over to CPC-Power and find a CDT of it and sure enough, there's only a 64k version of the tape dump there too.

So my question to you is this. Was there ever a 128k version of this game available on tape? Or was it strictly disk only. No big deal as I can load it from the M4, it's just a curiosity thing (like the Double Dragon question) and wondering if anyone else ever stumbled across this?

[ukmarkh]

Here's one for you guys.

I got a stack of compilations during the week and was going through testing them. One of them was TNT, which has Hard Drivin' as part of it.

So I slap the tape in, press play and to my bemusement, it says 'Loading 64k version', which I found kinda strange as my 464 is expanded. Now I didn't think the game was that great anyway, certainly not deserving of the score AA gave it back in 1990. But it's made worse with the fact that there is no sound at all on the 64k version. So I decided to head over to CPC-Power and find a CDT of it and sure enough, there's only a 64k version of the tape dump there too.

So my question to you is this. Was there ever a 128k version of this game available on tape? Or was it strictly disk only. No big deal as I can load it from the M4, it's just a curiosity thing (like the Double Dragon question) and wondering if anyone else ever stumbled across this?

I remember it loading loading all levels in one from tape, I think [emoji848] I think Powerdrift was part of that compilation is a great racer on the CPC [emoji1303]


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[Shaun M. Neary]

I remember it loading loading all levels in one from tape, I think I think Powerdrift was part of that compilation is a great racer on the CPC


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There's only one track on Hard Drivin', it splits off into two, a speed track and a stunt track. But the 128k version has sound, the 64k version doesn't.

You're thinking about Wheels Of Fire btw. TNT was strictly Domark/Tengen releases. The other games were Toobin, Xybots, Dragon Spirit and APB.

[zeropolis79]

Never seen a 128k version on tape. Sadly I don't have a tape I can load into my 6128.

[chinnyhill10]

My tape version always said 64k so I am assuming the 128k version was floppy only.

[Shaun M. Neary]

My tape version always said 64k so I am assuming the 128k version was floppy only.

Yeah mine was the same, although I had an unexpanded 464 for many years. I had just assumed there was a 128k version on there too and it autodetected (like Shinobi), etc.

But I think you might be right. Tape was 64k only.

[chinnyhill10]

Yeah mine was the same, although I had an unexpanded 464 for many years. I had just assumed there was a 128k version on there too and it autodetected (like Shinobi), etc.

This is Domark though :-)


My Hard Drivin' cassette was on such poor quality tape the oxide flaked off in places!

[Shaun M. Neary]

This is Domark though :-)


My Hard Drivin' cassette was on such poor quality tape the oxide flaked off in places!

That's probably more likely the fault of Ablex, who were pretty much the leading tape duplicators at the time, and the tapes they often used were utter rubbish. My tapes of Konami Arcade Collection and Taito Coin Op Hits, both of which were 2 tape comps, one of each needed to be recorded to another tape due to the originals being such complete shit!

[chinnyhill10]

That's probably more likely the fault of Ablex, who were pretty much the leading tape duplicators at the time, and the tapes they often used were utter rubbish. My tapes of Konami Arcade Collection and Taito Coin Op Hits, both of which were 2 tape comps, one of each needed to be recorded to another tape due to the originals being such complete shit!

Had hundreds of tape games and obviously we know all the big publishers used Ablex. Of course you could probably specify cheaper formulations to save a few pence per copy and I suspect this is what happened here. For example they did all Ocean's stuff yet I've never had an Ocean tape fall apart.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Had hundreds of tape games and obviously we know all the big publishers used Ablex. Of course you could probably specify cheaper formulations to save a few pence per copy and I suspect this is what happened here. For example they did all Ocean's stuff yet I've never had an Ocean tape fall apart.

Ocean's single game tapes were always rock solid. Their compilation tapes were cack though. Konami Arcade Collection, Taito Coin Op Hits and The In Crowd all had one tape fail on me. Never happened with Elite's, US Gold's or Gremlin's compilations though.