Show HN: A mod for Grand Prix Circuit (DSI/Accolade, 1988)
marnetto.net
I have built a mod for Grand Prix Circuit, an old 2.5D racing game: the latest episode of a long series of community efforts to reverse-engineer and improve the games made by Distinctive Software (today's EA Vancouver) in the DOS era.
I've been dabbling in hacking old DOS games for almost two years, but this time I think my project is big enough to be worthy of a “Show HN“.
From the gaming point of view, the mod offers a variety of new cars and tracks, from Spa to the Space, and more sophisticated EGA backgrounds than the original game.
From the technical point of view, it was an interesting effort combining reverse engineering, development, design and pixel art, all of which both in classic and LLM-assisted variants.
From the literary point of view, I have documented the making of the game in a series of (fully human-written) posts [1]. There is something for everyone: war stories, hacking techniques, the word “boustrophedonic” and, as bonus, an outdoor game to keep your kids away from the screen for a while.
Grand Prix Circuit is not the most popular game by Distinctive, but I hope my work will awake someone's childhood memories.