''E-Type'' is a clone of

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 ...

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 * ...

driving game ''

Out Run (also stylized as ''OutRun'') is an arcade driving video game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics, nonlinear gameplay, a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi (comp ...

'' for the

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a ...

, and

Acorn Archimedes Acorn Archimedes is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, Cambridge, England. The systems are based on Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and the proprietary operating systems Arthur and RISC OS. The fi ...

. It was written by Gordon J. Key and published by The Fourth Dimension. Instead of the

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

from ''Out Run'', the player drives a blue

Jaguar E-type The Jaguar E-Type, or the Jaguar XK-E for the North American market, is a British sports car that was manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd between 1961 and 1974. Its combination of beauty, high performance, and competitive pricing established the m ...

. In addition to the game a separate track designer was released which allows players to make and save their own tracks. A pack of extra tracks entitled ''The Extra 100 Miles'' was available.

Gameplay

The objective of ''E-Type'' is to cover as much distance as possible in the given time limit over various stages, avoiding static obstacles such as roadworks, oil slicks, trees and postboxes. If the car hits such an object both the driver and his blonde female passenger are thrown upwards from their seats, with the car's wheels falling off on their landing. The car is then automatically reset and moved to the centre of the road for the player to restart. Additionally, other cars can also be seen driving along the roads and need to be avoided - collisions here also add damage the car. When the car has had too many hits, the passengers fall into their seats and the car's bumper falls off, meaning that the game is over. On parts of some tracks, the road is surrounded by water - if the car drives onto the water, it will submerge and the game is over. The player can earn extra time for a stage by driving under a Time Bonus banner (to the sound of a bell) or by running a policeman over. The stages can be played at individually or as a set, with the player needing to complete a stage in order to progress. Players who get the best distances are able to enter their names into the ''Hall of Fame'' hi-score table.

Controls

On the Archimedes version, the player takes control of the car using the

mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

. The three Acorn mouse buttons represent (from left) the

Clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...

Brake A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction. Background ...

and Accelerator. This adds to the "realism" of the game as this corresponds to the typical layout of the car's foot pedals. Definable keyboard keys were used for gear changes (in Manual gearbox mode). The version for the BBC is controlled by the keyboard, with the player given the option to redefine the keys once the title screen is shown. The Automatic gearbox mode is omitted so the player must change gears manually with the defined keys.

Legacy

The ''E-Type Compendium'' later combined the original game with the track designer and ''The Extra 100 Miles'' track collection. ''E-Type 2'' was released in 1994 and contained a few additions to the original, including a 2-player

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), ''Split Screen'' (TV series), 1997–2001 * Split-Scree ...

mode. The 2nd player appears as the blonde female passenger from the first game, behind the wheel of a pink E-Type Jaguar. Other features include tunnels, three-lane roads, bad weather conditions, police radar traps, overheating cars and various weapons for attacking other cars. Separate versions of ''E-Type 2'' were released for the

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse (;; ) was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse in Sicily. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists ...

and the

Risc PC The Risc PC is Acorn Computers's RISC OS/ Acorn RISC Machine computer, launched on 15 April 1994, which superseded the Acorn Archimedes. The Acorn PC card and software allows PC compatible software to be run. Like the Archimedes, the Risc PC co ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:E-Type (Video Game) 1989 video games Acorn Archimedes games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games The Fourth Dimension (company) games Racing video games Single-player video games Video game clones Video games developed in the United Kingdom