 Welcome to Classic Replay. Don't forget if you like this channel, like this video, please subscribe. I can't grow without you. This time we're looking at Star Driver. It was released late in the Amstrad CPC's life in 1994. It's a driving game, the likes I've never experienced on the Amstrad and according to Retro Gamer, they said technically it's brilliant. Baker managed to pull off scaling that was not unlike the SNESY's Mode 7 technique with pixels growing as you got closer and I agree, very impressive. The first time I ever saw this game was in issue 108 as a preview in the mighty Amstrad action. Stephen Long Baker apparently was the author and if you look they mentioned that it's not too dissimilar from Virtua Racing but the comparisons are only being made in the context of the overhead view. It's a single player or two-player game with split screen that sees players driving over a host of asteroids and thanks to the raised overhead perspective. You can see a good deal of the road ahead but warning this is one mother of a difficult game. Sound of exercise. I personally really enjoy playing this game and I find it a real challenge. It's probably a bit too serious for some gamers and there's no decent crashes. Mode 7 owned the Super Nintendo and the experience comes across quite well on the Amstrad CPC and as you can see Amstrad action picked up on that and gave the graphics 80%. Radical software with the people behind Star Driver and many other great games including Fluff which at the time was bounded around as Amstrad's answer to Sonic the Hedgehog. So let's get straight into it. So the asteroid championship is based on simple rules. You've just got to orbit as fast as possible. You get points for an orbit and then bonus points for speed. So this is what happens if you collide with anything. There's no spectacular crashes. You just get bogged down, the car flashes and then you head off into the sunset. But you can only go on to another asteroid, another level if your time is under 60 seconds. So you get points for an orbit and bonus points for speed and we all know what points make. So at the end of each level you can enter into a double orbit in which you have to complete two laps in 100 seconds which really helps rack up those bonus points. Beware though it is a bit of a gamble because if you don't complete it it's game over. There's also a fantastic replay option and if you type the name of the asteroid into the right hand side before each game you can practice on any of the eight levels. You've got to be Colin McRae like on those corners and even more so on the straights where you have to maneuver at high speed. You can use the edge of the grass or other roadside scenery to strategically slow you down to give you that advantage. So it's like a high speed driving game that can be infuriating but at the same time for me it's quite thrilling. I think when you first start playing this there'll be way too many crashes but at the same time it's dead easy to pick up and play and the car I'm not sure what model it is but it's great fun to drive. So we've got future racing with mad tracks this is good-looking in my personal humble opinion. It's fast but an undistinguished car driving game. Most will probably think this is bland and a lonely journey. Get in there look at that. Another intergalactic record broken. But whichever way round I like what I like and I think Amstrad Action got this one wrong. I think this is an aging but respected arcade driving title for the Amstrad CPC. There's not enough tracks though and the two player modes a bit crap. You can also play against the computer but you'll need bags of practice before you even go there. Star Driver does need more more of everything really. I do like the handling of the car in this game and it does feel like a rally game to me albeit off-world but for 1994 you can't help but think there should have been more in way of car customization. Like many driving games allow players to customize their vehicle with different parts and tuning options which I think adds a lot of depth to the gameplay and you see that with games like Gran Turismo but you've got it in earlier games such as Supercars. I also think the idea was to sell this game by the bucket loads and then release Star Driver 2 but when Amstrad Action finally closed its doors I think Radical Software followed suit. You had the hardcore members of the community left including people like Radical Software trying to keep the Amstrad CPC alive the die-hard fanbase but then all hope was lost. So I've got a quote from Retro Gamer magazine issue 83 and this is from Rob Buckley the guy that founded Radical Software. The same year Star Driver was released also written by Baker it was a technically excellent pacey overhead racer with impressive 3d scrolling and a two-player mode but it was poorly received with Amstrad Action giving it only 45%. On the decline of the CPC it went on to say around this time the writing really was on the wall for the CPC in a commercial sense and yet much positivity remained. In April 1993 Amstrad Action ran a three-page article looking at the state of the CPC and it noted that the commercial industry support was limited in comparison to other formats of the time but when you consider that this was being written nine years after the launch of the CPC 464 it showed just how resilient the Amstrad had proven to be. More remarkably Amstrad Action was still selling 21,832 copies at the time showing encouraging and astonishing support from users and readers. Buckley went on to say in many respects it was a weird time because this was the rise of the enthusiast where companies selling PD software or groups doing small hardware projects or selling disutilities were big names. Buckley remembers the CPC landscape was dominated by companies such as Robot PD which was run by talented programmer Richard Fairhurst who wrote for Amstrad Action and radical software they released Fluff in 1995, Ball Bearing in 1993, Masters of Space in 1994, Evil Shadows 1991, Mega Blasters 1994 and a graphics package Smart Plus so they were very active and still great times for those that held on to the Amstrad CPC. So that's it mission accomplished I've set out and completed what I aim to do I'm going to give this one a 7.5 out of 10 so I'm going to leave it here let me know your thoughts let me know what you think of this game let me know what you think of the graphics also please like comment and subscribe and don't forget as well you can ring that bell to get notifications for future videos and you can also show your support with a super thanks which is just a click at the heart at the bottom of this video it's been hard work I must love my punishment but hopefully you'll like this vid and thank you for watching until next time bye