Reviews

Conversion of the Atari driving simulator style coin-op, which received top reviews in all the Spectrum magazines. The coin-op combined smooth high-res graphics with realistic feeling driving physics and good force feedback steering wheel, in a way unseen before. So converting this to the Spectrum was ambitious to say the least. To be fair, the result is possibly about as good as you could hope for, it certainly could have been much worse.
At first this game is virtually unplayable. it takes some practice to be able to drive in anything approaching a straight line, let alone make a corner. There is no self centring of the steering for some reason, which means you need to pay attention to the 'steering indicator bar thingy', and/or keep jabbing the spacebar to centre your steering wheel. Once you get the hang of it, it can become quite engaging, even 'realistic' feeling, but always infuriatingly hard. I suppose the clue was in the name.
The graphics are impressive, but animation is too jerky to allow you smooth control or a convincing feeling of speed. Also, the road has an annoying habit of breaking up or flickering in front of you. The action replays of crashes are nicely done, and often more fun to watch than trying to control the car. 'Engine noise' on the 128k version is quite good compared to the average Speccy effort, but there is not much in the way of crash sound effects, considering how often it happens.

Hard Drivin' indeed.

This was a popular game among gamers but I found this to be an unplayable mess. The car oversteers all the time and makes driving around the circuit and absolute pain in the ass. It was a brave conversion to do and it certainly looks the part, but it's just not playable. If not for the horrible steering this would have been much much more enjoyable.

A very poor conversion of an Atari game. Spoiled by the difficulty in steering the car. it's not called Hard Drivin' for no reason.