I’ve finished up Autoduel. In the end, I didn’t have to put that much time into it. The mission in Washington sent me on a chase around the cities. Rather than just give me the mission, I had to go to two other bars at opposite ends of the map and get the mission a bit at a time. Each bar gives me a third of a password phrase, which turns out to be great white whale and I need this when I pick up the package. Driving between all these places would have taken forever. I just caught buses between all the cities, then bought a new car.

The mission was  to carry a new heart between two cities for the presidents transplant operation. There’s no diffiference between this mission really and any other courier job except there seemed to be a lot more cars on the roads. When I get there, they just say “Thanks for the package” and thats it. I completed another mission in the same way. The third mission sent me to a particular bar but when I got there nothing happened. I figured my prestige wasn’t high enough so I went to gamble it up all the way to 99. That mission had vanished by now and I got sent to the FBI in New York instead.

This turns out to be the games final mission. I have to carry evidence of illegal braintaping from Watertown back to New York to put away Mr. Big. There’s not much new in this mission. There are loads of cars on the roads to get past, but I lose most of them by driving straight on, so I don’t have any major trouble. When I deliver the package and there is a brief ending shown in the screenshots.

This was quite a good game. I would have enjoyed it much more back at the time but the gameplay really isn’t bad at all. This is the most open ended game I’ve played so far, and you really can play it any way you want. It would be possible to go straight to Atlantic City at the start of the game, gamble your prestige up to 99 and then just drive the one final mission and win the game. I’m sure the missions for the game will have been added on right at the end as a way to win the game, the game is really about building your cars. Playing it now, the truth is the limits of the Apple II stop it from being a classic. There is an Amiga version which is probably the one I should have gone for.

I’ve had a quick look through the list of games, I’ve got to play through to complete them all. There’s a few more than I expected – 60 in all counting expansion packs as a separate game. So far I’ve managed 9. I’d expect to slow down as some of the games get bigger, there is the likes of Ultima 5 and Privateer to go yet. At best, I might finish them all in a year. I’m still enjoying myself anyway, but I’m looking forward to getting to the PC era with some VGA graphics and MT-32 sound. Theres quite a few games before I get there.

Next: Ultima 4