Set in a period of late 1950’s / early 1960’s, “Street Rod” introduces you to a world well portrayed in such movies as American Graffiti (made by George Lucas and Francis Ford Copolla) and Rebel Without a Cause (with James Dean and Natalie Wood in the leading roles). “Street Rod”, as you might have guessed it from it’s name, is a racing game placed in the American streets of the mid-twentieth century. This interesting racing game with some management elements (mostly disciplined use of cash when buying parts and cars, and some mechanic skills) kicks off with 750 bucks in your pocket, an empty garage, and mechanic skills that have to be put to the test.

The best way to earn cash is through racing, and to do that you’ll need to have some good driving skills and a nice set of wheels. All the race arrangements are made in the local drive in / malt shop. You get to choose between different drivers (i.e. different cars, because, all
the opponents act the same, it’s the cars that make the difference), different bets and different types of races. Drag race is a race within the city limits (short distance race), and the potential winnings are not high (10 or 50 $, or you can race for fun, which comes as a training mode
of a sort). If you’ve watched the movie The Fast and the Furious, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Unlike drag race, road racing is longer (usually from one town to the next one), and more serious – the bets are higher (25 or 100$, or even your car!), and there’s always the danger of being caught by the police, getting your car wrecked along the way, breaking your engine, or simply running out of gas. But road racing is, of course, the best way to earn money.

I found one little detail quite interesting. You can only push your opponents to the certain limit – challenge them for the same amount of money enough times, and they’ll get more aggressive, by accepting higher and higher stakes and not any of the smaller ones.

As far as the races are concerned, the laws of physics do not seem to manifest themselves properly. Bumping your opponents car leaves no visible damage, every little excursion off the road ends up with a wrecked car (even though you haven’t hit anything), there are no visible differences in AI behavior (they all try to run you off the road if you get too close to them, they all rely on the speed of their cars to get ahead etc) and so on.

With your hard earned money you can buy better cars, new parts and paint jobs. More shopping means more time in the garage for
you. And that’s another good detail – you change and tune up every part manually, you have to check the local adds for the right parts, sell the old parts and cars…

“Street Rod” has ok graphics (16 colors is the max, there was nothing better those days) and beeper sound (only one tune which follows throughout the game, and sounds when filling the tank and hitting into things). This game runs from Win98/95 and needs no slowing down. Jumping in and out of the game is not recommended, because it can crash it.

Even though the game might look obsolete by today’s standards, it is still worth a try. The gameplay is good, and there is replay value (although not that high). Still, I would recommend this game to those of you who would like to (re)experience the atmosphere of the mid-twentieth century. And , if it’s possible, to take some of your time and watch American Graffiti and Rebel Without a Cause.