ORIGIN Systems - Autoduel (Gameplay)

This is a little five minute stint in the incredibly addictive world of Autoduel. This is the game I spent the most time on as a child bar none.

The best way to describe Autoduel is by comparing it to Wasteland and adjusting it to modern times.

Wasteland is the Baldur's Gate, with party management, stat based combat, and character interaction, whereas Autoduel is the Diablo, with tons of loot collecting, inventory management (in this case, cars) and killing!

But the thing is, just as Wasteland takes hours of time to complete like Baldur's Gate, so does Autoduel suck up all your free time with just how plain addictive it is, like Diablo of course.

This is an action RPG back when the idea was still pretty far-fetched.

A bit of history. Autoduel was first released in 1985, and was continuously re-released on several different systems up until 1988 because it was just that awesome. As you can tell, this is one of my absolute favorite games of all time. The framework of the game is based on the pen and paper Car Wars, which plops you down in a post-apocalyptic world where the cost of fuel and the lack of food have reduced the entirety of Earth into a car driven society where gladiatorial battles for fame and fortune are common place.

As you'd expect, most of your time is spent in the Arena, although you can go on courier missions and continue with the story at any point. It's a very free roaming game, I'd go as far to say that it's the first real Grand Theft Auto title that was out. You can get in or out of your car at will, and you can purchase a STUNNING variety of crap for your vehicle.
There's a lot of customization, especially for a title this old, and salvaging parts from wrecked bandits and the like makes the game even more fun.

This video details a battle in the Arena (before that I buy some body armor and listen for rumors) me kicking some ass, and then heading off on the road for a couple of seconds after I buy a brand spanking new car.

Sorry for my lack of finesse while battling in the Arena, it's a tactic left over from my childhood. Since you don't actually have to care for the vehicle they land you with in the Arena (it's a piece of crap they just hand you for the amateur night) I tend to just ram it into enemies so they can't move around and waste my ammo, while I pump rounds into them.

Hey, it works.

This is the DOS version, I prefer the 1988 Amiga one because of all the pretty colors, but I wanted to record with DOSBox.

You can nab this title off of Abandonia along with Wasteland and A Mind Forever Voyaging, if you're curious on where you can play these games. There was also a similar title to these released around the same time (I think a bit later) named Roadwar 2000, and then a few years after Roadwar Europa, although those two are turn based and in my opinion not as fun as Autoduel.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Origin
• Game
• Autoduel
• Action

[Maximusmadrica]

You just had mad sex with that first car.

[BloodPigggy]

What.

[Gigas0101]

oh snap, I had this for the amiga. Graphics-wise it was exactly the same but sound wise... I have never forgotten the diamond-hard rock'n'roll of autoduel's opening song. This was a majority of my childhood along with impossibly hard games like Shadow of the Beast and Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon. I was such shit at this game, kept trying to bolt between cities...

cheers for posting this and telling me of Abandonia, I must get there as quickly as possible to get high on nostalgia.

[BloodPigggy]

I know what you mean about getting in between towns, it would start off manageable but soon you'd find tons of bandits on your ass out of nowhere. It kept you on your toes though.

[Adventurestud]

Very nice to see a bit of the past here. I had the C64 version and loading it became a sketchy procedure. It was fun when it would load though. I would love to see some video of a game which hs progressed more. You know, with some beefier cars and firepower. What do you think?

[BloodPigggy]

Sounds good, give me some time and I'll get to the point where I can give some meatier stuff.

[theelusiveone]

@Activsoul Congratulations on winning the game. That's funny what you did.

[Activsoul]

@theelusiveone

I finally won it. However, I was so mad about losing so close to the end on the last one, I created a new character named, "eat my d!&k."

So at the end of the game, the newspaper read, "...thanks to the efforts of a very brave FBI undercover autoduelist, eat my d#@k."

I'm going to have to think of another name just to get some good laughs out of that one.

[theelusiveone]

@Activsoul ACK! You will finish it soon. Let me know what happens in a comment. You can also continue quests after finishing the game.

[Activsoul]

@theelusiveone My batt ran out on the cursed North-South Expressway right at the finish line when I was carrying the evidence against the Big Boss! Have to start over!

Grr!

[elareh]

I REMEMBER CATCHING THE BUS AND GOING TO THE CASINO WITH PEANUTS TRYING TO BUILD MY INDESTRUCTIBLE CAR...MOWING DOWN COWS AND EVERYTHING IN MY PATH...IF YOU CLEANED OUT THE CASINO FOR A MILLION THEY ONLY GAVE YOU 666,666 lol....LORD BRITISH, STEVE JACKSON,JON VAN CANEGHEM.....I SALUTE YOU!!!!!

[Capt777harris]

What year was this game? And is there anyway I can get a copy?

[Mawgrim]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this was supposed to be on Abandonia...

Hope I'm wrong but if I'm not, just let me know and I'll delete this post.

Great vid, love those old Origin games :)

[Tubes12AX7k]

I used to love this game.  The flamethrower was always the most dramatic weapon.

[Episcleritis]

I burned about a year of my life on this game. Ahhh . . . good times.

[NHRA1975]

Very cool old game, I assume most people know of the Atlantic city gambling trick.....it was a way to increase your funds fast!