''Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat'' is a 1991

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a motor racing, racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more re ...

developed and published in arcades by

Leland Corporation The Leland Corporation was an American video game company formed on June 5, 1987, from the assets of Cinematronics. It was a subsidiary of arcade and home game producer Tradewest, which acquired those assets out of the former company’s bankrup ...

. It stars American

Indy car IndyCar, LLC (stylized as INDYCAR), is an auto racing sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The organization sanctions two racing series: the premier IndyCar Series with the Indianapolis 5 ...

driver

Danny Sullivan Daniel John Sullivan III (born March 9, 1950), better known as Danny Sullivan, is an American former racing driver. He earned 17 wins in the CART Indy Car World Series, including the 1985 Indianapolis 500. Sullivan won the 1988 CART Champions ...

, and features the tracks of the

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen, or even smaller animals such as goats or large dogs. A handcart ...

series of the early 1990s. Home versions of the game were released for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

, and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

Gameplay

''Indy Heat'' featured three-player capability for the arcade version (four-player capability for the

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

), and was similar in gameplay to '' Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road''. Players earned money based on their race finishing positions, which was spent on improving their car. The race season culminated with the Tradewest Speed Bowl, which loosely resembled the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly shortened to Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indian ...

Tracks

There are 14 tracks in the arcade version, all of which are based on actual Indy car circuits. The NES port includes nine of those tracks though all were renamed. Pocono, which is based on

Pocono Raceway Pocono Raceway (formerly known as the Pocono International Raceway in early years) is a tri-oval track in Blakeslee, Pennsylvania. The track has held a variety of events since its opening in 1969, including NASCAR, IndyCar Series, and IMSA GT ...

, has been inexplicably moved to Illinois. Indianapolis has been renamed Tradewest after the publisher of the NES version. The NES Michigan track is not the same as the arcade-exclusive track of the same name. * Phoenix (arcade exclusive): 8 Laps *

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

(West Canada on NES): 5 Laps *

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

(Tradewest on NES): 8 Laps, 12 Laps on NES and final arcade race *

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

(S. California on NES): 5 Laps *

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

(Michigan on NES): 5 Laps * Pocono (Illinois on NES): 8 Laps *

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

(Ohio on NES): 5 Laps * East Rutherford/Meadowlands (New Jersey on NES): 5 Laps *

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

(East Canada on NES): 5 Laps * Michigan/Brooklyn (arcade exclusive): 8 Laps * Lexington/Mid Ohio (arcade exclusive): 5 Laps * Elkhart Lake (arcade exclusive): 5 Laps * Cook's/Monterey (arcade exclusive): 5 Laps *

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

(Colorado on NES): 5 Laps

Ports

The arcade game was later ported by Rare and published by

Tradewest Tradewest, Inc. was an American video game company based in Corsicana, Texas that produced numerous games in the 1980s and early 1990s. The company was the publisher of the '' Battletoads'' and ''Double Dragon'' series in North America and the PAL ...

for the

in 1992. ''Indy Heat'' was the third NES game to be released that featured an American Indy car driver, the others being '' Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing'' and '' Michael Andretti's World GP''. As well as the NES, the game was also ported by

The Sales Curve SCi Games Limited (formerly The Sales Curve Limited and SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Limited) was a British video game publisher based in London. The company was founded in 1988 by Jane Cavanagh and floated on the stock exchange in 1996. In Ma ...

(now Square Enix Europe) for the

and the

the same year. Due to Danny Sullivan's promotion expiring, the racing game was released for the latter simply as "Indy Heat". A Sega Genesis version was developed but never officially published, though a number of reproduction copies were released.

Reception

British gaming magazine '' The One'' reviewed the arcade version of ''Indy Heat'' in 1991, calling the game's tracks "very prettily constructed" and praising its gameplay, noting how the player may choose to drive carefully to have minimal pit stops, although going slower, or drive "like a maniac" to go faster, but risking breaking down. ''The One'' furthermore praises the player's ability to buy upgrades with the prize money from races in-game. ''The One'' expressed that "it's this level of dynamic strategy within and between the races that makes this my game of the month".

References

External links