Hi there!

So, you’ve thought the MonsterBike and the TriMonster would be the most weird vehicles in this game right? Well, think again, because this time, I present you… the Gyro Monster!

"Gyro” is for gyroscope, a mechanism used the stabilize devices. 

I’ve talked other times about how TrackMaster is an arcade game, but I try to add some “realistic roots” when I think it fits (a friend of mine who is a big supporter of the game used the term “semi realism” which I like). 

I try to apply this concept (semi realism) also to how the vehicles of the game are supposed to work. A vehicle like the Gyro Monster is not new in video games, but… how a vehicle like this could work in real life? If there are only two wheels in the same axle, the rotation (the torque) of the engine would make the body of the vehicle itself to spin, not the wheels. How to solve this? Well, maybe something based on the way a gyroscope works? I really don’t know if a gyroscope would be enough, but well, that’s the “semi” portion of the “semi realism” concept.

Based on this idea, I came up with the concept of the Gyro Monster. Thanks to it’s unique layout, it can spin in place for a fast change of direction, and it also gives a nice look when it’s moving!

The computer has no idea of how to control the Gyro Monster yet, but I’ll fix it in the next updates.

Also, new track: Intersection!

CHANGELOG:

New Vehicle: Gyro Monster

New Track: Intersection

Select allowed vehicles for the computer – accessible in the TOTAL NUMBER OF VEHICLES MENU: you can now restrict which vehicles the computer can select. I think this allows different fun scenarios like 1 monster truck (the player) against only cars, or one car against only monster trucks etc.

Dust – accessible in the OPTIONS MENU: it's now possible to adjust the amount of dust generated in the dirt tracks. You can set 4 levels of dust amount, including setting it off entirely. It greatly impacts performance (frames per second), but also gameplay, if you don't like the thrill of driving in the middle of a giant cloud of dust, and having a monster truck coming from nowhere to ram you.

New Vehicle type - muscle car with different types of drivetrain: now the muscle car has 3 variations, RWD (rear wheel drive, the only one available till last version of the game), FWD (front wheel drive) and 4WD (four wheel drive). 

They all handle very differently, and it’s fun to try each one. The RWD version is still not the way I like it. It does behave like a RWD vehicle (unstable when full throttling), but it’s not powerful enough, I’m still experimenting with it. 

Since the muscle car in the game has a front engine layout, the center of mass of the vehicle is positioned at the… front of the vehicle, so that a RWD drivetrain makes it very unstable when fully accelerating. That is the tricky part I’m trying to balance, so that the vehicle can be fun to drive without making the player having to worry too much about it.

And finally the table with the game plan: