Street Rod 2: remember this?

Old DOS games hold a special place in my heart, this is one that got me into cars way, way, way back. A really fun game that, although cheesy by today’s standards, is actually better than most sim games today. Why? Let’s look. 

First off, you are given 1200$. See that newspaper in the bottom left corner? That’s the classifieds. It’s where you get your hot rod, and your hop up parts. The game is set in the summer of 1969, so the classified prices reflect that. 

Next to the classifieds is the creeper, when under the car you can change things such as the rear end (only real life ratios here!), the exhaust system, the headers, etc. 

next to the creeper is the tire jack, then the paint gun, the fuel tank (which you click on to drive up to the gas station and pump YOUR OWN FUEL! 

You can also click on the car and change out parts, tune the engine, check the health of things, chop the top, remove bumpers, etc. Of note, when changing parts, you actually have to click on the bolts and nuts and ground wires to connect them or cinch them down. Granted there are not every bolt represented, but c’mon! This game was 1989 DOS! 

Very neat game. 

The drag racing was good too. No staging or burnouts. Heads up, run what ya brung. 

You could also challenge people for various amounts of money, and for different types of races. 

Once flying down the strip, any number of things could happen. The opponent might try and side swipe you off the road, if you launch too hard, you could blow a motor or drop a trans. 

Or worse yet, run off road and die. 

Building the car is honestly the funnest part. The drag racing is fun, but once your fast, no one can touch you. The mulhollland drive and aqueduct races are really hard, and I’ve never gotten good at them. If you figure out the secret, let me know! 

I think this game would be incredible if they recreated it with today’s tech. Overall, This is a grassroots game, built for the guy that knows a thing or two about cars, and probably has a built car in his garage, made from parts from the classifieds. 

Of note- I use images from street rod 1 and street rod 2, but they all convey the same gameplay ideas. 

Yeah, I remember it.  You could even set the timing in the cars.  Searching the newspaper want adds for cars was fun.

I'm too young to remember it when it was recent, I've played the emulated version a couple years ago though. Spent entirely too much time on it. I need to look and see if I can find it again. 

Games can be found here (abondonware):

http://www.abandonia.com/en/search_abandonia/street+rod

You can play them on DOSbox or use D-Fend (basically a front end for DOSBox)

http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/

FYI:

There are two ways to control your street rod: by keyboard or by mouse.

Keyboard Controls

• Up key: Gas
• Down key: Brake
• Left key: Steer left
• Right key: Steer right
• Space Bar: Gear shift

Mouse Controls

• Right button: Gas
• Left button: Gear shift
• Move left: Steer left
• Move right: Steer right

Oh man, I played this back in the day and actually beat it! The top dog is a guy with a blown Mustang, and you race him on the aquaduct. The trick was you could only find the blower for a Ford like once in a blue moon in the classifieds, which you needed to build a mirror match Mustang.

I always had good luck using a Ford Falcon.  It was about the smallest/lightest thing you could wedge a big block into.

If you are looking for a modern immersive car building game, check out My Summer Car.

Its almost too immersive, it will eat up hours of your time. You have to assemble your car from scratch. 

I havent even successfully built the car yet after several attempts at starting the game. Lol