Commander X16

This is a top-down racing game. It will feel familiar if you ever played Rally Speedway for Commodore 64 or Atari. I consider it a late sequel, improved, and hopefully still fun. Two players best play it! I think it is the first and probably only game for the X16 which uses a virtual tilemap that is 256 tiles wide and 256 tiles high.

I have had great help from several people: Graphics are made by mopspear (moptec.net). The music is made by kliepatsch and played with ZSMKit by MooingLemur.  

Try It Now!

Starting the game
All game files should be in the same directory. To start the emulator and directly load and run the game type: x16emu -joy1 -joy2 -prg rallyspeedway.prg -run

If you don't have any game controller, use the following keys:
Left Ctrl - Button A
Left Alt - Button B
Enter - START
Cursor Keys - UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT

With one controller, player 1 will use the game controller, and player 2 will use the keyboard.
With two controllers, player 1 will use the first and player 2 the second.

Controls
Up - Start the race when cars are in position
A Button - Brake (the cars will accelerate to maximum speed automatically)
B Button - Return to the menu when the race is finished
Start Button - Pause game

Further instructions
This is an open-world racing game. For every track, there is a certain distance you have to drive. When you have driven the given distance, you are ready to cross any finish line you happen to find. The remaining distance is displayed in the bottom corner of the screen.
Most of the time you will probably just drive the default route by following the road and continue straight ahead in every crossing if there isn't an arrow to point you in a certain direction. But you can also find your own way. Just remember that every time you crash or get too far away from the other car, the race will pause and you will be brought back to the default route.
For every crash, a penalty of one second is added to your time. This is also the case if you are outdistanced by the other player. You can only be outdistanced as long as the other player is on the road and driving the standard route.

Releases
V 1.0 - First official release Oct 24, 2020.
V 1.1 - Traffic to avoid is added to the roads, and a demo race is displayed when player is inactive. Compatibility with release 41 of the emulator.
V 1.5 - New graphics by mopspear and new music by kliepatsch. Traffic is now randomized. Release date Jan 5, 2023.
V 1.5.1 - "Try It Now" added. Player 1 will always use the keyboard joystick and player 2 the first game controller. This is because release 42 of the emulator, due to a bug, will not tell correctly if there are game controllers present or not. Release date Apr 15, 2023.
V 1.5.2 - Bug corrected. The leaderboard was not saved to disk in R42. Release date May 9, 2023
V 1.5.3 - New release for R43. Now keyboard joystick and game controllers work as intended. Release date May 21, 2023.
V 1.5.4 - The first track is now called Training Track. It is simpler and without traffic. Release date Aug 19, 2023.
V 1.5.5 - ZSound is replaced by ZSMKit to ensure that music will work with both YM2151 and YM2164. Release date March 24, 2024

#R47 - Compatible with release 47 of the emulator

I have added the "Try It Now" feature!

There is also a small software update in 1.5.1. The game used to check how many game controllers that were present and use the keyboard joystick only if necessary. In R42 there is a bug that prevents the possibility to make this check therefore player 1 is currently always using the keyboard joystick and player 2 always game controller 1.

1.5.2 is released. A bug was corrected. The leaderboard was not saved to disk in release 42 of the emulator.

None of the keys seem to work in the 'try it now version'. I can move the cursor up and down, and get past the start screen, but pressing enter, ctrl, or alt doesn't let me select any of the options.

Strange, it works for me. Are you pressing left CTRL (which corresponds to the A button)? Right CTRL does not work.

Yes, I was using the right alt and ctrl. Works now, but this game is hard as nails. Oh well.

You'll get the hang of it : ). Try low speed! Thanks for your post, I have updated the instructions, they now say "left ctrl" and "left alt".

Small adjustment for R43. Now keyboard joystick and game controllers work as intended. There was a problem in R42 with reading which controllers that were present.

A few tips if you think the game is hard:
Try low speed.
Markings in the road tell you which way to turn next. Start turning as soon as you see them.
As a beginner you can use button A to brake to slow things down.

The control scheme makes it hard... real cars don't work like this! Shouldn't it be press the B button (left alt) to accelerate, then press the A button (left ctl) to slow down, with ENTER both starting and stopping the race? 'Cause, you know... the accelerator in a car is on the right, and the brakes are on the left.

When I drive home today, I'll probably be standing on the brake... too afraid to release it 'cause I'll go flying into a bush because the accelerator is floored by default.

Other than that, I like it! It feels like the "screen is too small" and I wanna see farther down the road, but that's the challenge. You have to REALLY know the course before you can go at max speed.

LOL I crashed into the Finish Line. Darn that Dick Dastardly and his dirty tricks!