''18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker'', known in Japan as , is an

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

developed by

Sega AM2 previously known as is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including ''Hang-On'' and ''Out Run'', was the first manager of th ...

and distributed by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

. The game was released in

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

s in 2000 and

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...

to the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

in 2001. It was released for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

in 2001 and

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

in 2002 by

Acclaim Entertainment Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game publisher based in Glen Cove, New York. Originally formed by Greg Fischbach, Robert Holmes and Jim Scoroposki out of an Oyster Bay storefront in 1987, the company established a worldwide d ...

. Sega followed up on the success of ''18 Wheeler'' with a sequel, ''

The King of Route 66 ''The King of Route 66'' is an arcade game developed by Sega AM2 and distributed by Sega, released for arcades in 2002-2003, and ported to PlayStation 2 in 2003. It is the sequel to '' 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker''. Reception The PlayStat ...

'', which was released in the arcades in 2002 and ported to the PlayStation 2. This was one of the final arcade games to be ported to the Dreamcast after its discontinuation, before Sega became a third-party developer.

Gameplay

The main purpose of the game is to make it to the finish line with the truck's cargo. Players are given a set amount of time, but can ram into special vans that will add three seconds to the timer. There are several characters to choose from, each with a unique truck and attributes. The game starts out in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and players travel across the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

, ending in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. After Stage 1, the game gives the player a choice of trailer. One trailer is harder to haul, but provides a bigger payoff while the other choice is easier to haul but provides a smaller payoff. Money is deducted from the total when the trailer is hit. Players can sound the truck's horn to make other cars on the road yield and

slipstream A slipstream is a region behind a moving object in which a wake of fluid (typically air or mustard) is moving at velocities comparable to that of the moving fluid, relative to the ambient fluid through which the object is churning. The term slip ...

behind large vehicles to gain a momentary speed boost. In addition to the time limit, players also compete with the "Lizard Tail", a rival trucker. Crossing the finish line before the Lizard Tail yields additional money. In between levels, players can park the truck in a

minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than th ...

to earn more cash and upgrades for their truck, such as an improved

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

Ports

The first port of the game was released on the

. Released by Sega, it is faithful to its arcade counterpart, but the

voice actors Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

for the characters were changed and it lacks the arcade's cross-country map loading screens. One of the selectable truckers in the arcade version, Nippon Maru, was now made available as an

unlockable character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not contr ...

. A

split screen Split screen may refer to: * Split screen (computing), dividing graphics into adjacent parts * Split screen (video production), the visible division of the screen * ''Split Screen'' (TV series), 1997–2001 * Split-Screen Level, a bug in the vid ...

multiplayer mode was added, allowing two players to race against each other. The game was released by

(who also released Sega's ''

Ferrari F355 Challenge is a racing simulation arcade video game based on the actual race car and Ferrari event. It was developed by the AM2 division of Sega for the Sega Naomi Multiboard arcade system board under the direction of Yu Suzuki, and was later ported ...

'' on the Dreamcast) on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube after Sega stopped making consoles and became a software based company.

Reception

The home versions of the game received "mixed or average reviews" according to the

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website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. Jake The Snake of ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

''s July 2001 issue said of the Dreamcast version, "Your rig handles well, taking into account the weight of your load, and the driving action is great, with lots of mayhem as you run through cars and buildings. But while four levels were plenty for the quarter-munching arcade version of the game, they go by pretty fast at home; the four Score Attack courses and variable difficulty modes don't add much replay. So it'd be a good idea to rent this gem first to see if you'll still want to play after beating it." Ten issues later, however, Pong Sifu said of the GameCube version, "Is ''18 Wheeler'' worth renting or playing at a friend's house? Sure. Does it warrant a $50 price tag? No way." Rob Smolka of '' NextGen'' said that the former console version was "definitely worth a weekend rental, but its lack of online play and limited number of stages in the arcade game flatten its tires." In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave the same console version 29 out of 40. Also in Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed the arcade version in their March 15, 2000 issue as the second most-successful dedicated arcade game of the month. Jon Thompson of ''

AllGame RhythmOne , previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went publ ...

'' gave the same arcade version three stars out of five and wrote that it "does have a fairly thorough scoring system that some will take to, but it lacks the gameplay that great arcade titles such as ''Crazy Taxi'' possess. That isn't to say it's a bad game: it's beautiful to behold and twill give you short term thrills, but it isn't one that you'll find yourself coming back to again and again after you've thrown down a couple of dollars playing it. In the end, it's a fun but short ride." He later gave the Dreamcast version two stars out of five, saying, "The game's graphics are crisp, although not as impressive as the arcade version. The music is fun, and the voices that come over the 'CB radio' are fairly entertaining. Still, the decent aural and visual package have little to do with the gameplay, and become dressing on a title with limited entertainment value. It is hard to even recommend this title for a rental -- those who wish to try it out are advised to find it at a local arcade instead." Scott Alan Marriott gave the GameCube version a similar score of two stars out of five, saying, "Without at least ten more routes in the main game, additional modes of play, bonus vehicles, or incentive to attain high scores other than for posterity, ''18 Wheeler'' cannot be recommended for a purchase. The simple, straightforward nature of gameplay is over far too quickly and the appealing aspect of smashing into buildings and cars is largely neglected. In the end, this payload is too basic to keep players occupied for the long haul."

Notes

References

External links