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Esprit Games
Computer Games featuring
the Lotus Esprit
The Esprit has been around for over two decades and has featured in a few computer games. Tempting little boys in to dreaming of having an Esprit of their own. Never very good (in my opinion) but still addictive to Esprit enthusiast. Just seeing an Esprit is always a site, even if it is on you PC.
Gran Turismo 4
Playstation 2
Project Gotham Racing
This X-Box game features some of the best cars ever built (plus a few others). The Esprit is featured, but not very well. It's been placed in the Grand Tourers group with cars like the Bentley Continental GT, Ferrari 550 and Mercedes SL55 (full list below). If that isn't bad enough, look at the stats below. Apparently the Aston Martin Vanquish handles better than the Esprit. Now I've never driven an Aston, but I doubt they're every built a car that handles better than the Esprit!
We've used our digital camera to take a few pictures (waiting for Bill Gates lawers to knock on the door) to show you the Esprit. Brilliant graphics and looks just like the V8. You can chose from loads of different colours.
I don't want to rate the game as I'm not a fan of driving games (never matches the really thing). But I can tell you the graphics are good and the array of cars is fantasic.
for the Amiga
This is the game that introduced Steve 'Unity' Wright to the Stevens Esprit. Graphics are a little blocky by today's standards, but it's definately an Esprit.
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge
This was released in 1990 on the Commodore Amiga 500. Programmed by Magnetic fields and Gremlin, it was cutting edge at it's time and was the game that inspired my love for the Esprit, (I was born in 82 hence too young to remember the early Bonds). As you can see from the shots, the model used is the Turbo SE.
Lotus Turbo Challenge II
Released in 1991 as the much waited for sequel. The Esprit was dropped from the name as the game now also featured the elan SE. Gameplay was pretty much the same as the original, old school outrun style with a fixed car and a moving track. Not as fun as the original because you can't choose to race the esprit it just does on certain tracks and the elan on others.
Lotus III - The Ultimate Challenge
The final game in the trilogy was released in 1992. Again it was pretty much more of the same featuring the elan and the esprit and newly for this game, the M200. Also featured in this version was a track constructor that allowed new courses to be generated at random by seting the percentage features you wanted (ie hills, curves etc). You could also choose the car you wanted to race (always an esprit of course).
Words by Ben Buckley
Grand Turismo3 for Playstation2
Just a few details about the game from a Lotus point of view as a complete review is available on the net.
I bought this game a couple of years ago after owning both GT1 and GT2 on the original Playstation platform. The GT2 game includes a number of Lotus cars including a 1960s Elan S2, an Elise 190 and a very sexy looking Esprit GT1 in black with racing decals. The only problem with the GT series is you have to gain credits by winning races in slower saloon cars before you can afford to buy a Lotus! Also looking at GT1/GT2 now on my PS2 the graphics are very blocky, the GT3 Game looks brilliant even on a big screen with lots of detail including things like waving flags and lighting effects.
The best thing to do with GT3 is to buy the cheat disc if you can find it from a games shop. This enables you to have zillions of credits to buy Esprits from the Lotus shop. There is even a Sport300 in silver up for grabs. If you are really obsessed you can by a V8 in all of the 12 official Lotus colours! There are also various types of Elise available.
With the credits you have over you can go to the Wheel shop for a new set of alloys, or maybe buy yourself a bigger turbo and lower the suspension. Then it’s of the many circuits to test out you modifications….. Deep Forest, Apricot Hill, Laguna Seca, and the Seattle circuit are some of the best. You can even go to the carwash if you think your virtual baby is looking dusty!
Thanks to Howard Bartrop for supplying these images and report.
Turbo Esprit
by Mike Richardson
FOR SPECTRUM 48K
DURELL SOFTWARE 1985
Mission Brief
An armoured supply car is carrying drugs to the centre of the city. One after the other, four delivery cars will drive in to meet it, and then drive off to their hide-aways. After the fourth pick-up the armoured supply car will leave the city. Your misson is to stop and delivery cars after they have made their pick-ups and before they disappear in their hide-aways, and to stop the armoured supply car after it has passed its drugs to the last car and before it leaves the city. You will score extra points for catching the drug smugglers alive, rather than shooting them. Your vehicle will be a Lotus Turbo Esprit capable of driving at 150mph. You will lose points for injuring the general public. There are traffic lights at junctions which should be obeyed (though the smugglers will probably ignore them), there ae pedestrian crossings where people will have the right to cross, and there are road-works that you should avoid. Drive will. Drive carefully.In 1985 I was 13 years old, and paid £8.95 (a lot!) for this game on tape. Some years later I found the inlay card (minus tape) at my folks, the computer was long dead and I thought I’d never play it again... However, I managed to find a ‘spectrum emulator’ to run on my PC, got a copy of the game and….
They say you should never go back, but this was a magic moment for me! The game itself is very basic but still quite playable. You are a police agent with a 1985 (brand new at the time!) Lotus Turbo Esprit, fitted with machine guns. You drive the city streets looking for drug smugglers, these can be identified by having Blue, Red or magenta cars ( your car and all others are black).
You can check the position of both yourself and the baddies by going to a ‘Map’ screen.
You can shoot all the cars on the screen, so my tactic is to stick to one lane mostly and shoot anyone that gets in my way, ok, not very public spirited but fun! Turning is an art because the L & R keys that you change lanes with, also let you turn corners providing you fire at the same time. This means if you’re shooting at a bad guy, you need to remember to stop shooting to change lanes, otherwise you will turn onto the sidewalk and crash!
The only real clue that its an Esprit based game (apart from the tiny car on screen) is the dash, which someone has obviously paid a lot of attention to. The speedo shows 180mph, but car will only reach the quoted top speed of 150mph, revs go to 6500rpm. As befitting a Lotus, there are garages you can stop at for repairs on route, Did the programmer know something about Esprits or what?
PAUL C
Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge
This game was for the Sinclair Spectrum 48/128k +2. Don't really know any more about it. If you do, email LEW so this page can be added to.
I just wanted to point out that you seem to have missed the 1987 classic "Test Drive" by Accolade. It featured five cars, including a Lotus Turbo Esprit. In the followup "Test Drive II - The Duel" a 1988 Lotus Turbo Esprit is available in the add-on disk "The Supercars".
Test Drive
by AccoladeI just wanted to point out that you seem to have missed the 1987 classic "Test Drive" by Accolade.
It featured five cars, including a Lotus Turbo Esprit.In the followup "Test Drive II - The Duel" a 1988 Lotus Turbo Esprit is available in the add-on disk "/The Supercars/".
You seem to have "Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge" covered both for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Amiga.
It was also available for Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC.Some links:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org
http://www.lemon64.com/?game_id=1548
http://www.cpczone.net/index.php?game=1408
http://www.lemonamiga.com/?game_id=701" Turbo Esprit" was also available for Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC.
Some links:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org
http://www.lemon64.com/?game_id=2724
http://www.cpczone.net/index.php?game=931best regards,
Staffan VIf you have any computer games featuring the Esprit, please send details in to: admin@lotusespritworld.com
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