Time Warp 1980 - Rally-X

On 02/04/2018 at 05:59 PM by KnightDriver

In which, after a recent Dead Kennedys concert and talking to Klaus Flouride about his bass sound on Viva Las Vegas, Klaus asks me about the arcade cabinet he saw me playing before the show.

rallyx

What was that game you were playing? Rally-X, a Namco game from 1980 which was licensed to Midway for North America in '81. You drive around a maze of roads and collect flags, trying to not get caught by pursuing cars or running into rocks. You have a smoke screen that will delay the other cars as a defense. Each level gets harder with more cars and rocks. You also have a map screen to one side so you can see where the flags are outside the scrolling view. You score points from flags and any remaining fuel after you clear a level.

How can I play it at home? Namco Museum Virtual Arcade on Xbox 360. It plays fine but modern controllers are not ideal for maze games. It's always tricky to turn quickly with a stick that has more possible directions than the game allows. Perhaps better is to play on a keyboard in a browser here.

I like that art on the side of the cabinet. I want a sticker of it to put on my bass. This is a sweet decal you can get.

rxd

Right on!

Cary Woodham

02/04/2018 at 10:48 PM

As a kid, I only saw the Rally-X arcade machine once. It was in the front of another grocery store. I played it, but I never caught the name of it so I always remembered it as the race car maze game I played once. That is, until it was on the Namco Museums and I was like, "Oh that's what it was called."

I read that they showed Rally-X and Pac-Man at the same arcade trade show and analysts predicted that Rally-X would be the next big thing, not Pac-Man. Oboviously they were wrong, but I can see why they would think that back then.

I actually like New Rally-X more, as it improves the gameplay and makes it more playable. There's a lot of cool tricks to boost your high score if you can collect the flags in a special order.

Speaking of special, the Special Flag first appared in Rally-X, and has since gone on to be a Namco icon in many other games. You can find it in old games like Xevious and Pac-Land, as well as newer games like Star Fox Assault (made by Namco), and Tales of Vesperia.

I like the Rally-X cameo in one of the PSP Ridge Racer games. Rally-X is a mini-game, and if you can get a high score, you can unlock the Rally-X car in the main game. It's all blocky and when you drift, it even poops out three puffs of blocky smoke behind it!

KnightDriver

02/05/2018 at 11:28 PM

New Rally-X is available on XBO and PS4 as a downloadable. I'll try that maybe next month when I do '81.

Collect the special flag in Rally-X and the next level's flags are double the score, I think I read.

That's super cool about the Rally-X car in Ridge Racer on PSP. I'll have to look into that. I want to drive that car.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/05/2018 at 12:01 PM

It's a holiday in cambodia.

Super Step Contributing Writer

02/05/2018 at 03:27 PM

Looks interesting. How's the bassist?

02/05/2018 at 03:41 PM

Ever since I heard Dead Kenedys Viva Las Vegas in the end credits to the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I was a fan. The bass part has such a great tone - like he was playing through a broken speaker. I loved it and wanted to emulate it.

02/05/2018 at 03:56 PM

I love the music video for that song. I mean, it's disturbing but the band playing is fantastic. So much energy. I frickin' love it.

PixlBit