Roads in Video Games

[mightyace]

Those HomeFront screens look pretty good.

Agreed.  The first picture looks real.  At least, a real picture shown on TV because of the interference lines.

Though, what the heck are California style "FREEWAY ENTRANCE" signs doing in Colorado?

[Quillz]

I dunno. Apparently, a few are showing up in Oregon.

Maybe the game developer is based in California.

[mightyace]

Maybe the game developer is based in California.

That's a good possibility.  Silicon Valley has been home to videogame companies since the beginning.

[Bickendan]

The attention to detail for the signs (even with the mistakes) does make it look like an interesting game, though.

[Alps]

Three guesses as to what's wrong on this sign.

Hmmm....
1. "Oakland Bay Bridge" should be "San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge" or just "Bay Bridge"
2. I-80 is East/West, not North/South
3. California doesn't use separate exit tabs on overhead signs (for the most part)

There is technically a 4th error which is the use of all-caps instead of mixed case but looking at the other screenshots you posted, it looks like all their signs are all-caps.

5. If this is on the route itself, they should be down arrows, not Type A up arrows.

[Interstate Trav]

I would like to see a game where you can drive from city to city via the Interstate System, similiar to Flight Simulator, but one for the roads.

Don't forget to add US 101 and California's state route 1 since those are such scenic highways!  I love Freeway Brent's speeded up videos and would love to have an accurate highway driving simulator in which a person can drive with real life congestion at a real time speed or else change the parameters to "Empty Road" so they can let 'er rip!  Then to go with the highways, one could have a variety of vehicles.  Want to play out the movie "Speed"?  "Smokey and the Bandit"?  Buses, trucks, cop cars, clunkers to massage along to the next town, big limos, Smart Fortwo's, a classic 'Vette from "Route 66"...so far the driving-oriented videogames of today disappoint me with their graphics and inaccuracies.  It's still better to go drive a real car these days but between gas heading for $5 a gallon and the improvement in video games, I hope that someday I can "drive" roads I have never been on and have it be just as good as being there in real life would be without all the expense of actually being on the road!

Rick

I agree, and I like the traffic option, can you imagine driving across the Country and having an option to have normal traffic, or empty the freeway.  I actually didn't mean just the Interstates but every highway really.  It would be fun to drive US 6 in Colorado, or US 395 in California.  Or the Alaska Highway.  It should be designed by a group of people like us that would pay attention to the accuracy of the highway signs, and the amount of lanes. 
So true about the gas prices.

[thenetwork]

Those HomeFront screens look pretty good.

Agreed.  The first picture looks real.  At least, a real picture shown on TV because of the interference lines.

Though, what the heck are California style "FREEWAY ENTRANCE" signs doing in Colorado?

There is at least one place in Colorado where the "Freeway Entrance" signs are located (sans the downward-angled arrows) -- I-70 EB On-Ramp from Horizon Drive, in Grand Junction.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=81506&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.554089,107.138672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Grand+Junction,+Colorado+81506&ll=39.111444,-108.540381&spn=0.001155,0.00327&z=19&layer=c&cbll=39.11142,-108.540409&panoid=dVsCLhkyZw0ouk6d8BnH-g&cbp=12,108.97,,0,5.06

Also on that first Homefront pic:

1) Odd seeing the Montrose control city for I-70 West...One would have to backtrack East on US 50 in Grand Junction for 60 miles to reach Montrose.
2) Nice to see that the I-70 shields have the state name in them, as most of the I-70 overheads are in Colorado.

[triplemultiplex]

I think they slapped Montrose on there because the campaign starts the player there.

What's funnier is that BGS for I-70 west with Montrose and Grand Junction can be seen facing both directions in one place.

[Stratuscaster]

Back in 1999, The Learning Company released Road Adventures USA.

Choose a partner, a car and one of five different adventures, then you are off. Follow the clues across the USA to reach the unknown finish line before you run out of money or time.

Just like a real road trip there are exciting places to stop and things to avoid. You must manage your money, buy food, lodging and gas, as you go. You can play fun games to earn discounts. Make sure you don't run out of gas or food and drive as fast as you want, if you dare!

It featured maps and routes and such - it's been a while, but I do recall that the signage wasn't all that realistic. But as a roadgeek, I found it quite interesting. The game can still be found for sale - Amazon, for example - and it's been confirmed to run on Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Outlaw Golf for Xbox, Gamecube, and PS2 featured some good looking - and I think accurate - BGSs from New Jersey in the first course available to players - can't recall the name right now. I-80 is featured on one, I believe US 46 on another.

[Interstate Trav]

Back in 1999, The Learning Company released Road Adventures USA.

Choose a partner, a car and one of five different adventures, then you are off. Follow the clues across the USA to reach the unknown finish line before you run out of money or time.

Just like a real road trip there are exciting places to stop and things to avoid. You must manage your money, buy food, lodging and gas, as you go. You can play fun games to earn discounts. Make sure you don't run out of gas or food and drive as fast as you want, if you dare!

It featured maps and routes and such - it's been a while, but I do recall that the signage wasn't all that realistic. But as a roadgeek, I found it quite interesting. The game can still be found for sale - Amazon, for example - and it's been confirmed to run on Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Outlaw Golf for Xbox, Gamecube, and PS2 featured some good looking - and I think accurate - BGSs from New Jersey in the first course available to players - can't recall the name right now. I-80 is featured on one, I believe US 46 on another.

I gotta check that out.  I still think a road game designed by roadgeeks would be the best.  just thing of how accurate the signage and how many lanes on any given freeway would be.

[Quillz]

Does anyone remember Cruisin' USA for the Nintendo 64? You started off in San Fransisco and were presumably heading south, except at some point of US-101 you went through the Redwoods, which are far north of the Bay Area. And then directly from there you were in Hollywood and then Death Valley.

[Interstate Trav]

Does anyone remember Cruisin' USA for the Nintendo 64? You started off in San Fransisco and were presumably heading south, except at some point of US-101 you went through the Redwoods, which are far north of the Bay Area. And then directly from there you were in Hollywood and then Death Valley.

I remember that game, I think it still exists in some arcades.  Being a roadgeek I notice a lot of flaws in location's and such.  they also had you on a freeway in Los Angeles, I think it said 101 even though it looked nothing like the 101. 

[iowahighways]

An old-school game that I remember playing was "Truckin'", which came out for the Intellivision in 1983. There were two different games within this game: one involved visiting eight cities in the US and/or Canada in the shortest period of time, and the other involved hauling cargo. Each city was identified by its own two-letter identifier. Some were obvious (Des Moines = "DM", Kansas City = "KC", Los Angeles = "LA") but some were less obvious (St. Louis was "SS" since "SL" was used for Salt Lake City).

Here's a link to the map that came with the game. Note that not all of the Interstate system was included, presumably due to memory restrictions of the time. And since only two highways could intersect in one city due to these restrictions, they made quite a few modifications and omissions to the Interstate system. (I-55 intersecting I-94 in Milwaukee?!)

And here's a short video of how the game worked, from YouTube: Truckin' video

[Quillz]

Does anyone remember Cruisin' USA for the Nintendo 64? You started off in San Fransisco and were presumably heading south, except at some point of US-101 you went through the Redwoods, which are far north of the Bay Area. And then directly from there you were in Hollywood and then Death Valley.

I remember that game, I think it still exists in some arcades.  Being a roadgeek I notice a lot of flaws in location's and such.  they also had you on a freeway in Los Angeles, I think it said 101 even though it looked nothing like the 101. 

Did they actually say what freeway it was? I assumed it to be US-101, but realistically, it could have been any LA-area freeway, like I-110 or I-405. Or maybe it was I-15, since you transitioned directly into Death Valley (CA-127?) from there.

[Interstate Trav]

Does anyone remember Cruisin' USA for the Nintendo 64? You started off in San Fransisco and were presumably heading south, except at some point of US-101 you went through the Redwoods, which are far north of the Bay Area. And then directly from there you were in Hollywood and then Death Valley.

I remember that game, I think it still exists in some arcades.  Being a roadgeek I notice a lot of flaws in location's and such.  they also had you on a freeway in Los Angeles, I think it said 101 even though it looked nothing like the 101. 

Did they actually say what freeway it was? I assumed it to be US-101, but realistically, it could have been any LA-area freeway, like I-110 or I-405. Or maybe it was I-15, since you transitioned directly into Death Valley (CA-127?) from there.

I remember seeing an over head sign that said "101 Los Angeles". 

[Quillz]

Oh, interesting. I remember the game also had a highway that went right through the Grand Canyon, but then you ended up on I-90 near Mt. Rushmore.

[Interstate Trav]

Oh, interesting. I remember the game also had a highway that went right through the Grand Canyon, but then you ended up on I-90 near Mt. Rushmore.

I remember that one.  It's funny how they just ignore the Rocky Mountains and I-70 I-25 I-80 on your way to Mt Rushmore.

[DTComposer]

Here's a link to the map that came with the game. Note that not all of the Interstate system was included, presumably due to memory restrictions of the time. And since only two highways could intersect in one city due to these restrictions, they made quite a few modifications and omissions to the Interstate system. (I-55 intersecting I-94 in Milwaukee?!)

But at least they got I-40 extended to Bakersfield!!

[mightyace]

I remember that game, I think it still exists in some arcades.  Being a roadgeek I notice a lot of flaws in location's and such.  they also had you on a freeway in Los Angeles, I think it said 101 even though it looked nothing like the 101. 

That's fairly typical of the video game world.  There was the Daytona USA series of home and arcade racing games yet nothing in the game looked like Daytona International Speedway let alone NASCAR.

[kharvey10]

The Adventures of Bayou Billy for the NES made a reference to I-10 in the instruction manuals

however it does not even look like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjRfDym50vg

[mightyace]

^^^

That game should be an example in "How Not to Write a Videogame"

[Ian]

Just bought the new map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops. One of the maps (Convoy) involves a short segment of freeway with some button copy BGSs as well as some cat-eye signs on the side streets. In a closer look, I saw some signs that looked awfully similar to those old California State Auto Association signs. I'll need to grab some screen shots later on.

Also, anyone here have Xbox live?

[WillWeaverRVA]

Just bought the new map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops. One of the maps (Convoy) involves a short segment of freeway with some button copy BGSs as well as some cat-eye signs on the side streets. In a closer look, I saw some signs that looked awfully similar to those old California State Auto Association signs. I'll need to grab some screen shots later on.

Also, anyone here have Xbox live?

I do, but I'm rarely on it. I plan to change that soon, though: my gamertag is SyntheticDreamr.

[Ian]

I do, but I'm rarely on it. I plan to change that soon, though: my gamertag is SyntheticDreamr.

Oh cool, just added you (my gamertag is squirrelking95). I just bought my Xbox saturday as I got tired of Playstation Network and their crazy shenanigans. I'm already enjoying it, mostly because most of my friends have one.

[mightyace]

I'm rarely on mine either.  But, anyway my gamertag is close to my here - "mityace"