''Days of Thunder'' is a

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

racing simulation video game loosely based on the

movie ''

Days of Thunder ''Days of Thunder'' is a 1990 American sports action drama film released by Paramount Pictures, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Tony Scott. The cast includes Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, C ...

''. The game utilized elements from the movie, using a movie license from

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

for its graphical elements, plot, and music soundtrack. It was released for the PC, the

NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

, the

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same ...

, and many other formats. It was created by

Argonaut Software Argonaut Games PLC was a British video game developer founded in 1982, most notable for the development of the Super NES video game ''Star Fox'' and its supporting Super FX hardware, as well as for developing '' Croc: Legend of the Gobbos'' and ...

and distributed by

Mindscape Group Mindscape was a video game developer and publisher. The company was founded by Roger Buoy in October 1983 in Northbrook, Illinois, originally as part of SFN Companies until a management buyout was completed in 1987. Mindscape went public in 1 ...

. In 2009

Freeverse Freeverse Inc. (originally Freeverse Software) was a developer of computer and video game and desktop software based in New York City which was acquired by Ngmoco in 2010. Ngmoco was itself acquired later that year, and shut down in 2016. Hist ...

released an updated version for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

Gameplay

In the PC version, gameplay consisted of setting up the car, qualifying, and then the actual race event. If the player finished in a high enough position, they would progress to the next circuit. Damage was calculated not by realistic damage displayed on the car but a "cracked dashboard" bar indicator, with cracks appearing along the dashboard when the player hits something (the same as that used in the 1989 release ''

Stunt Car Racer ''Stunt Car Racer'' (published as ''Stunt Track Racer'' in the United States) is a racing video game developed by Geoff Crammond. It was published in 1989 by MicroProse, under their MicroStyle and MicroPlay labels in the United Kingdom and in ...

'').

Development

Prior to the version developed by Beam Software, a version of the game was in development at Mindscape by

Chris Oberth Christian H. "Chris" Oberth (died July 16, 2012) was a game programmer who created early titles for the Apple II family of personal computers, handheld electronic games for Milton Bradley, and games for coin-operated arcade machines published in ...

. At some point, Oberth's version was cancelled and the work transferred to Beam Software. Oberth's version was recovered from floppy discs in 2020 after his death by the

Video Game History Foundation The Video Game History Foundation is a non-profit foundation founded by Frank Cifaldi. The primary aim of the foundation is the archival, preservation, and dissemination of historical media related to video games. History In a talk given at th ...

and its source code was made available in June with permission of Oberth's estate. Additional versions of Beam Software's game were ported to the PC in 1990 and to the Game Boy in 1992.

Reception

* According to website Lemon64, Commodore 64 magazine

Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine ...

gave the C64 version of ''Days of Thunder'' a 52 out of 100.Lemon - Commodore 64 Heaven!: Days of Thunder
Retrieved on August 10, 2006

References

External links

* *
Source code for an unreleased NES version
at Video Game History Foundation {{NASCAR video games 1990 video games Amiga games Argonaut Games games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games DOS games Game Boy games IOS games NASCAR video games Nintendo Entertainment System games Video games based on films Video games developed in Australia Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by David Whittaker ZX Spectrum games Commercial video games with freely available source code Simulation video games Mindscape games Multiplayer and single-player video games Tiertex Design Studios games Creative Materials games

Gameplay

Development

Reception

See also

References

External links