MS-DOS Special - Screamer

I Racing Games are a category all their own in the world of video games, where there are no legions of fans for one title rather than another, but they are all remembered with love and affection: think of great classics like Sega’s OutRun or, in more recent times, Namco’s Ridge Racer and Daytona USA, also from Sega. And yet every time the great racing classics are discussed and listed, one major title of crucial importance is often left out: perhaps because it never had an arcade counterpart in the game halls, or perhaps because PC video games are often underrated; the fact is that that Screamer, a masterpiece by Graffiti, deserves much more respect.

The first impact with this Italian racing game is nothing short of shocking: by setting the graphics values to the highest detail, we are faced with a spectacular graphics engine that is still very solid today: already from the intro we can see what Screamer is made of, with the Graffiti and Virgin logos merging into the overtakes of a frantic race taking place on a circuit that is intricate and richly detailed in every part. The cars, in their design, draw inspiration from real dream cars of the past, such as the immortal Lamborghini Countach and its natural rival, the Ferrari F40. Also recognizable are the Bugatti EB110 and the Porsche 911 turbo. The animations are beautifully smooth, the cars drift, overtake one another and even make contact in a series of exciting graphical feats.

We barely have time to recover from the shock of the intro before we’re quickly thrown into the options and then straight onto the track! There are six game modes on offer, and in addition to the classic championship and single race, we can try our hand at Time Attack, Cone Carnage, Slalom, or the excellent Network Game, namely eight players simultaneously in one big exciting and thrilling challenge.

Trimming off the first two modes, which speak for themselves, the others deserve much more attention: in Time Attack you race alone, and the only opponents will be ourselves: in fact, every lap of the track is recorded and becomes our ghost opponent against whom we will measure ourselves. Besides helping us push beyond our limits, this mode is useful for learning the tracks and learning from our mistakes. In Cone Carnage (cone massacre), we get much closer to modern racing games like Project Gotham, where the gameplay involves tricks and stunts in order to continue. In detail, you always race against the clock, because we will have very little time to reach the next row of cones and knock them down, so as to gain other precious seconds of race time: without a good technique for knocking down a series of cones, the ending will always be the same: game over. In slalom, the same concept remains, but it gets closer to ski slalom, so instead of knocking down the cones we will have to pass through them, forcing us to take particular and challenging lines: once again, driving skill and technique are everything.

All modes are contested on six tracks, with the first three available right away, while the remaining ones must be unlocked by winning races of increasing difficulty: you’ll have to sweat blood to make them yours. Speaking of difficulty, the learning curve is well calibrated, with the first races challenging but not impossible: helping you is the driving system, purely arcade and simplified, no Gran Turismo-style technicalities. This does not mean, however, that it will be a walk in the park: mastering all the cars requires a lot of practice, especially when it comes to braking management: a brake that is too hard will lock the rear wheels, causing a spin that will make you lose precious positions on the track, even if the most skilled drivers will use this feature to cut through the tight hairpins of the winding city streets, in what is perhaps the most beautiful circuit in Screamer.

When we are ready for the tournament, we will have to face the AI (artificial intelligence) that commands the opponents controlled by the computer, and it is wise not to underestimate them. Fierce and sometimes not too zealous, they will give you a hard time, and they will not fail to give you little knocks that will slam you against the perimeter walls, making you lose precious seconds: getting past them will not be easy.

On the one hand, your concentration will have to be total; on the other, at times you will sigh because you won’t have time to enjoy the splendid scenery surrounding the tracks. From huge buildings to magnificent monuments that seem to wave at the side of the track, not to mention that these megalithic structures are surrounded by so many moving objects that make everything very real and believable. Then you look up and see the sky. A spectacular blue, it is something incredible even today, probably one of the most beautiful skies ever seen in a video game: losing yourself in its reflection on the windshields of the cars, illuminated differently by the light sources, takes only an instant.

For a racing game, graphics are definitely the most important aspect, and Screamer’s are of a superior quality; even today, they have not aged in the slightest, so beautiful that they outshine, both aesthetically and technically, those of the more celebrated Sega and Namco titles. If we also add the top-class audio, we get all the ingredients for a must-have in its genre.

Nell’arringa finale non ci resta più niente altro da aggiungere, se non un sincero ringraziamento ad Antonio Farina per averci regalato il più bell’urlo dei motori che un utente MS-DOS poteva mai sperare: e chissà se prima o poi Milestone non decida di graziarci di una versione aggiornata di questo grande classico su Steam, dove ormai tutto sembra possibile.