This game is practically forgotten but was 'the' Unreal of the arcade racing games back in the old days. It run's fine on 3dfx cards so I used it primarily as a 3dfx-benchmark. According to the readme.txt it can also works good onthe ATI Rage Pro (but with far lower image quality compared to 3dfx), Intel i740, Matrox G200, Matrox Mystique / MY220, Nvidia Riva 128, Permedia 2 and Power VR. It'll be an interesting benchmark for these cards.My benchmark methodConfigure maximum detail at 60 FPS in the game's menu. Use a resolution you like and quit the game. Then start it with the /p parameter (see screenshot down below). After the first track has been benchmarked I noted the score.Whenever you want to re-run the benchmark in a different resolution/setting and the configuration screen doesn't pop up, do the following: go to the Registry editor (Start > Run > regedit) and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Melbourne House\Dethkarz and remove the Device entry.
Dethkarz Game
PC gaming, left for dead by the console industry, has settled into a decent niche that is still very much alive. Independent developers have created a lot of good, and successful games. Steam, the online game store/environment/host/social network, has made box and disc purchases all but obsolete, just as GOG has done for the bargain oldies bin at CompUSA.
Graphically, Dethkarz is slightly above average compared to contemporary games of its genre. The racing machines are polygon-based but didn't notice any cutouts or disappearing modules that tend to plague similar games. The scenery is very good although there are only four raceways, each divided into three increasingly difficult tracks and featuring its own "look" and character.
Dethkarz features a good techno soundtrack and a number of good sound effects. The music is definitely a big part of the game as it is with other successful combat racers. Each power-up has its own associated sound and most of them are typically cartoon-like effects.
Dethkarz offers multiplayer support but there is no server set up to allow Internet play. Therefore, unless you know other players that own copies of the game, your multiplayer options are reduced quite a bit.
The only real drawback is the game's repetitiveness. When you take away the weapons, the game is really about racing cars in a poorly formed circle. No matter how you dress that up, when it gets old, it gets old fast. So, while Dethkarz is one of the better combat racers available (c. 1998), it can still get boring.
Dethkarz is an excellent futuristic racing game that rivals, if not exceeds, UBI Soft's better-known POD in the fun department. The game's name purposefully sounds like "Death Cars" to signal its style as a "combat racing" game: futuristic cars equipped with weapons to fire opponents off the track. The usual cross-the-finish-line-first objective is augmented with having to pick up power-ups and upgrade your car with better weapons.
As good as the game looks, the gameplay it not flawless. For one thing, it is extremely difficult, at least to novice racers. The cars tend to slide across the road very easily, which makes cornering next to impossible without slamming on the brakes. Since none of the tracks are guarded by rails, this means you will often see your car slip right off the edge of the tracks at sharp corners, losing you valuable time, until you either master the controls or give up playing entirely. Another shortcoming is the limited selection of power-ups: you will find plasma balls, but little else besides these uncreative weapons. The last major downside in my opinion is that you can play only four tracks at a time, gaining access to the next group only when you finish in the top three for each race of the first four tracks.
As with most racing games, though, Dethkarz becomes much more fun once you master the controls and once braking hard at corners becomes second nature. While it is definitely not the best futuristic racing game you will ever play, the slick graphics, semi-realistic and furious action, and a good track selection make for a game that deserves much more credit - at least as much as POD if not more. Highly recommended, but with some caveats.
Dethkarz works on Windows 7. The only thing is, it doesn't work smoothly. My desktop PC barely manages to keep gameplay smooth (on reduced visibility setting, and there are still lags in some spots) while my netbook can't handle it at all.
So, in attempt to fix the problem, I've installed zeckensack's Glide wrapper. On my netbook it fixes the issue 100% as the game is now smooth and looks just as lovely as on Directx. The thing is, my netbook has the maximum 4:3 resolution of 1024x768, which is the maximum available resolution of the game when running on Glide. So on the netbook everything fits nicely.
With my desktop, however, I need a 4:3 resolution of 1280x960 in order for the game to fit nicely, which is only possible with Directx, on which the game lags. Fortunately, the Glide wrapper comes with the option to upscale resolutions. So if I turn that option on and select 640x480 in the game, I effectively get 1280x960, which makes everything sharp again. But, it's still an upscaled small resolution so the HUD is huge and is rather distracting.
So, I figured that if there was a way of making the game run smooth on Directx, there would be no problem at all. The way I see it, if there was some kind of a directx6-to-directx9 wrapper, I could pull it off. Anyone heard of such a thing by any chance?
When I forced high resolutions with zeckensack's Glide wrapper, I could only choose 640x480 since only that one, after upscaling, added up to 1280x960. Higher resolutions resulted in the game being stretched off my screen, because my screen is too small for those resolutions.
In nGlide, no matter which resolution I pick in the game, it's still scaled to the exact one I want. So I set nGlide to force 1280x960 and set Dethkarz to 1024x768 which means I am now running the game in the proper resolution for my screen and the HUD is no longer huge.
I just install the game and use the Direct3D driver built-in to the game. Looks just as good and is butter smooth. I have the European version which would not run in 64-bit Windows so I found an exe that allows the game to run in Windows 7 64. One of my all time favorite battle racers. Split/Second also called Split/Second Velocity being another arcade racer for Windows that I just can't get enough of.
Great game! I can play this game under Windows 7 x64 at 1920x1080 using dgVoodoo2_53 and it's perfectly smooth, but it would be even better if someone could come up with a aspect ratio hack as widescreen is stretched.
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WindowsThis is a Windows game. Sometimes it should be run on an older Windows version or at least a 32-bit Windows. You could use VMware player (free) and install an older Windows on a virtual machine. e.g. I have installed my old Windows XP 32bit on VMware. More info on that you can find over here.
The game's name purposefully sounds like "Death Cars" to signal its style as a "combat racing" game: futuristic cars equipped with weapons to fire opponents off the track. The usual cross-the-finish-line-first objective is augmented with having to pick up power-ups and upgrade your car with better weapons.
As good as the game looks, the gameplay it not flawless. For one thing, it is extremely difficult, at least to novice racers. The cars tend to slide across the road very easily, which makes cornering next to impossible without slamming on the brakes. Since none of the tracks are guarded by rails, this means you will often see your car slip right off the edge of the tracks at sharp corners, losing you valuable time, until you either master the controls or give up playing entirely.
As with most racing games, though, Dethkarz becomes much more fun once you master the controls and once braking hard at corners becomes second nature. While it is definitely not the best futuristic racing game you will ever play, the slick graphics, semi-realistic and furious action, and a good track selection make for a game that deserves much more credit - at least as much as POD if not more.
Reminiscent of Twisted Metal, DethCarz pits players against each other with 25th century battle cars. The game features a total of four different environments, split up into 12 tracks. Rather than the usual straightways, tunnels and curves of most racers, the design goes for wild track layouts with incredible jumps and stunts and tons of obstacles. Although players select from only four different cars, each vehicles attributes can be tinkered with to achieve unique handling, combat abilities, and racing characterisitcs. 2ff7e9595c
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