· Commodore 64Ruote Fumanti 1.1: ten seconds to take out the police
Two versions in two days, and they really change the game.
1.1 redoes the whole end of the stage. Before, the police car turned up, leaned on you for seven seconds and left: too soft, and the players told me so. Now the road empties, the message HIT POLICE 3 TIMES AND RUN AWAY! appears and you have ten seconds. Leaning isn't enough: the police car has to be charged. It flashes red and swerves at you; dodge it and it skids, and that's your moment. Three hits and it's wrecked, and only then does the finish line appear. Fail and they catch you, and you lose a car.
1.1.1, the day after, taught the traffic to stay on the road. Testers said the other cars kept crashing on their own, and they were right: they picked lanes at random, blind to the narrowings, and at that speed one wheel on the grass was enough. Now they look at the road ahead, slow down before tight curves and stop in front of water. The number is clear: cars that wrecked themselves went from 76 out of 167 to 12 out of 189.
There's an NTSC version too, for North American machines: the game used to run twenty per cent too fast there, with the music out of tune.