SUBJECT		: Skidmarks
TYPE		: Top(ish) Down Racer
AUTHOR		: Steve Fannon
DATE		: March 1994


	Well  people,  I've  got  Skidmarks and I'm proud of it.  We're not
talking  personal  hygiene  here,  you  know,  scary  roller coasters, near
accidents  or  anything  like  that  ( you must have heard all of the jokes
already  )  but  the  latest  example  of  computer entertainment from Acid
Software in the form of yet another racer.

	The  thing  is  that this is not just another racer a la Overdrive,
Micro  Machines, Lotus Turbo etc.  etc.  this is soooo different.  It gives
you an isometric (err...  technical term) view of your choice of car on the
rough  dirt  track,  your  car  being a 3D ray traced (using Imagine) super
smooth moving mean machine.  The track, well that's a choice of 12 circuits
of uneven surface, some with jumps or ramps and all with tight corners, are
brilliant  and there are three other competitors with which to race against
who are all fighting for that same bit of track.

	The  game  play  is one or two player with the remaining cars being
computer  driven,  however  there  is a modem link facility which makes the
game  up  to  four  player and adds a totally new dimension.  I used a null
modem  cable  to  link my A1200 to an A500 and played four player games for
ages having a great laugh, you've got to try it.  Ideally you would need to
buy  the  software  twice  to do this unless you are a "quick disk changer"
swapping them quickly between machines as was the case on this occasion.

	In  general  I  felt  that  the  wider tracks were more fun and the
narrowest  could  be  positively frustrating as you spend much of your time
bouncing between the edges of the track, especially at the faster levels of
difficulty where the speed of the cars becomes just wild!

	The manual offers good and amusing hints and tips but basically the
technique  is  to  go  as fast as you can along the straight bits and slide
your  car around the corners with the power still on, just like stock cars.
I  picked  this  up pretty quickly and the cars seem to have very realistic
handling characteristics but it didn't take long before I had beaten all of
the  computer  teams on all of the tracks, which was a little disappointing
and  as  a  one  player  game  the  thrill  factor  was short lived.  Where
Skidmarks  really  does excel is with multi player games, and where this is
concerned  I  would  put  it  along  side  Sensible  Soccer in terms of its
playability and "the next ones the decider" characteristics.

	Skidmarks  is  such  a good game because it's so playable, fast and
competitive  and  it  hasn't  been  done before, it really is very good, no
mistaking.  The thing is that I feel there is so much potential left in the
game.   Features I'd love to see such as longer wide tracks like Overdrive,
the  ability  to  run  off  the  track  rather than bounce off an imaginary
barrier.   Things  that  are  rumoured  are extra tracks and cars disks and
maybe even a track designer, I can't wait to see these and would definitely
buy  them  providing they were priced reasonably i.e.  under £10 please, at
least.

	On  the subject of price, why pay the full whack for this game from
a  high  street store?  Mail order suppliers bring the prices of games into
the  area  of  realism  for  non  rich  persons like myself, just flick ing
through  my  mags shows me that this game can be picked up for as little as
£18:50  rather  than the £25 asking price in your town centre shops.  There
is a warning against piracy in the manual but is doesn't go along the lines
of  sorrow  and pity like usual, the boys (and girls?) from Acid simply say
that  they'll  remove  your  finger  nails if they catch you, better buy it
hadn't ya!

	But  hey...   what  a  great  game, with the right support of extra
tracks and cars disks to keep the interest this game will be the Scalextric
of  the  computer  world,  what  a shame that those silly buggers with PC's
haven't got it....  or maybe not!

Summary

Excellent but in a two player set up it is fantastic... can not wait for
the update disks !!!


Graphics       - 90% 
Sound          - 84%
Playability    - 87%
Lastability    - 75% (1Player Mode) 95% (2/4Player Mode)

Overall        - 87%


P.S.  shame it isn't 100% HD installable, that would make it even better.