California Speed

Overview

California Speed is a car racing game developed and released by Atari Games for arcades in March 1998. It later received a Nintendo 64 home conversion by Midway in March 1999.

Developed by the studio behind San Francisco Rush, California Speed puts players in arcade-style street races throughout an over-the-top version of the U.S. state of California. Unlike San Francisco Rush, the game does not use a sci-fi setting and features likenesses of real cars (similar to Cruis'n USA). It supports four players at once using linked cabinets.

The game's Nintendo 64 conversion is notable for its revamped career mode, where players participate in multi-week "Series" using a limited number of cars and attempt to raise their rank in the standings. It also includes exclusive tracks and cars, the latter of which include a promotional advertisement for Mountain Dew.

Gameplay

California Speed is an arcade racing game, much similar to games such as Cruis'n USA, and San Francisco Rush. The arcade version had a total of 14 different levels, three not included in the N64 version, while the N64 version had five levels not included in the arcade version.

Each level had its own difficulty - easy, advanced, or expert, along with its own unique music track. Certain tracks would have unique traits, such as bombs dropping from a aircraft, or a mall that had pedestrians that could be run over. Multiple tracks would have shortcuts, and would also have traffic that would have to be avoided. After picking a track, several cars were available to choose from, as well as the option to pick from manual or automatic transmission.

A timer would run throughout the entire race, and going through checkpoints would extend time. The arcade version would award a free game for coming in first place.

Stages

Arcade Version

The game includes 14 total tracks to race, most of which can be raced individually (usually in an attempt to get a record time). Three of these tracks are based on actual raceways and are played in three-lap races.

Similar to Cruis'n USA, the game includes an option to marathon all 14 tracks in a specific order (known as "Do the State").

• Silicon Valley (easy)
• Santa Cruz (advanced)
• Monterey (advanced)
• Laguna Seca Raceway (easy, lap-based)
• Highway 1 (expert)
• Central Valley (easy)
• Los Angeles (expert)
• Willow Springs Raceway (expert, lap-based)
• San Diego (advanced)
• Mojave Desert (easy)
• Yosemite (expert)
• Mt. Shasta (advanced)
• Sears Point Raceway (advanced, lap-based)
• San Francisco (advanced)

N64 Version

Although the Nintendo 64 version of the game includes the "Do the State" marathon above (without the three Raceway tracks), it also includes four separate "Series", which put the player in multi-week races against the same set of tracks with a limited pool of cars to choose from. This mode utilizes standings, and players can only progress to the next week (three in total) by finishing in the top three.

Light Series

• Silicon Valley
• Santa Cruz
• Central Valley
• Mojave
• San Diego

Sport Series

Weeks 2 & 3 replace the last track with two new unlockable lap-based tracks: Clover and Fuji.

• Los Angeles
• Mt. Shasta
• Highway 1
• San Francisco
• Monterey (Week 1) / Clover (Week 2) / Fuji (Week 3)

Heavy Series

Weeks 2 & 3 replace the last track with two new unlockable lap-based tracks: Oval and San Andreas. Both tracks are unlockable by clearing them in this mode.

• Monterey
• Yosemite
• Mojave
• Mt. Shasta
• San Francisco (Week 1) / Oval (Week 2) / San Andreas (Week 3)

California Cup

Unlike the other cups, this one has six weeks of three tracks, with each week being a different series of tracks. The final track is a new unlockable lap-based one, California, which consist of a low-fidelity scale model of the state.

• Silicon Valley
• Monterey
• San Francisco

• Highway 1
• Mojave
• Central Valley

• Santa Cruz
• Monterey
• Silicon Valley

• Los Angeles
• San Diego
• Highway 1

• Mt. Shasta
• Yosemite
• San Francisco

• Monterey
• Highway 1
• California

Cars

• Velocity 6000
• Cresta Convertible
• F1
• Predator
• Street Fighter
• SUV
• Wide Hog
• Road Burner
• Kart (known as Golf Cart in the N64 version)
• Dakar (known as Baja in the N64 version)
• Grasshopper (known as Hopper in the N64 version)
• Fairchild