An original Star Soft game inspired by Lotus Turbo Challenge 2
A pseudo-3D road racing game across Britain: a 33-stage championship from Cornwall to John o' Groats, in sunshine, rain, fog, snow and at night.
- Genre
- Pseudo-3D road racing
- Plays on
- Computer (keyboard or gamepad), phone and tablet (touch screen)
- Players
- 1, or 2 in split screen on a PC
- Inspired by
- Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 (an original game, not a copy)
- Price
- Free. Plays in your web browser, nothing to install
About the game
GB Rally Turbo Challenge is an original road racing game that runs in your web browser. It is inspired by Lotus Turbo Challenge 2, the Amiga sports-car racer: fast pseudo-3D four-lane roads, hills and bends, a big field of rivals and a driving soundtrack on sampled instruments, with a race announcer.
You choose a red sports coupé (fastest flat out) or a green open-top roadster (quicker away, better in bends), pick EASY, NORMAL or HARD, and race eleven rivals in a championship road trip through Britain. The 33 stages run from the Cornish coast through Exmoor, the Penarth seafront, Wales, the Cotswolds, London, the Peak District, the Lake District, the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands to John o' Groats. Each stage has its own weather and time of day, from sunsets and drizzle to fog, snow, storms and night driving under the northern lights.
Along the way there is everyday traffic (lorries, caravans, tractors, buses and black cabs), roadworks, puddles and sheep wandering across Welsh and moorland roads. The M1 is a two-way motorway, with traffic coming the other way beyond the central barrier. Every stage after the first has a code, so you can carry on where you left off, and each track keeps a table of the best times. Two players can race the championship together, or a single race against each other, in split screen on one PC.
If you loved Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 on the Amiga, GB Rally Turbo Challenge brings back that rush of four-lane roads, rival cars, hills and weather, on a championship road trip through Britain.
How to play
- Finish 6th or better to qualify for the next stage. You start each race in reverse order of your last result: win, and you start at the back.
- Brake for sharp bends and hairpins. Take one too fast and you slide off and lose time.
- Grass and sand slow you down. Clip the roadside scenery and you bounce off and lose speed; slide into it from a bend taken too fast and you lose more. Hit a cone and it goes flying.
- Choose EASY, NORMAL or HARD with DIFFICULTY on the title screen. Easier levels have slower rivals and less traffic, and the rivals give back more of the time you lose in a crash.
- Overtake traffic on the right. Running into the back of a vehicle at speed is a crash.
- Before each stage a map of Britain shows where it is and its code. Write the code down and type it in with ENTER CODE to start from that stage next time.
- Choose your car with CAR on the title screen. The coupé has the higher top speed; the roadster accelerates, grips and brakes better. In two-player races each player picks a car.
- Gears are automatic unless you choose manual on the title screen.
- Two players: choose 2 PLAYERS on the title screen, then CHAMPIONSHIP (if either of you qualifies, you both go on to the next stage) or SINGLE RACE.
Controls
On a phone or tablet, GB Rally Turbo Challenge shows its own on-screen controls.
Keyboard
| Steer | Z left, X right (or the arrow keys) |
|---|---|
| Accelerate | L (or the up arrow) |
| Brake | , the < key (or the down arrow) |
| Gear up / down | Enter / Space (manual gears) |
| Pause | P or Esc |
| Sound on / off | M |
Gamepad
| Steer | Left stick or d-pad |
|---|---|
| Accelerate | A or RT |
| Brake | X, B or LT |
| Gear up / down | RB / LB (manual gears) |
| Pause | Start |
Touch screen
| Steer | On-screen stick, bottom left |
|---|---|
| Accelerate | Hold GO |
| Brake | BRK |
| Gear up / down | G+ / G- (manual gears) |
| Pause | II, top right |
Two players (PC)
| Player 1 (top) | W accelerate, S brake, A left, D right, or gamepad 1 |
|---|---|
| Player 2 (bottom) | Arrow keys, or gamepad 2 |
Tip: press F8 while playing on a computer to change how the picture looks. AMIGA (the default) softens the picture and adds faint scan lines, the way Amiga games looked on a 1980s monitor; SMOOTH keeps the softness without the lines; SHARP shows every pixel crisp and square. The games are drawn to look their best in AMIGA, but choose whichever you prefer: your choice is remembered.
Questions and answers
Is there a free game like Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 I can play in my browser?
Yes: GB Rally Turbo Challenge is a free road racing game in the spirit of Lotus Turbo Challenge 2, and it plays in your web browser. It has fast pseudo-3D roads, eleven rival cars, everyday traffic, rain, fog, snow and night driving, and a 33-stage championship from Cornwall to John o' Groats.
Is it free? Do I need to download anything or sign up?
Yes, it's completely free. There's nothing to download or install and no account or sign-up: open the page and press PLAY. Your best times and settings are saved in your own web browser, on your device.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. On a phone or tablet it shows on-screen controls: steer with the stick at the bottom left, hold GO to accelerate and press BRK to brake. Turn the phone sideways for the biggest picture.
Is it suitable for children?
Yes. There are no adverts, no cookies, no chat and no sign-up, and the game never asks for anything about you. Best times and settings stay in your own web browser, on your device, and never leave it. Crashes just send the car spinning off the road: nobody is ever hurt.
Is it a copy of Lotus Turbo Challenge 2?
No. GB Rally Turbo Challenge is an original game inspired by Lotus Turbo Challenge 2. Its name, cars, stages, art and music are all its own: it aims for the feel of the Amiga racer without copying any of it.
Can I play with a friend?
Yes, on a computer. Choose 2 PLAYERS on the title screen to race at the same time in split screen: one player uses the W, A, S and D keys (or a gamepad), the other the arrow keys (or a second gamepad). You can play the whole championship together or a single race.
Download the code
GB Rally Turbo Challenge is made of plain HTML and JavaScript files: download them to see how it was made, or to play it on your own computer (how to play the code on your computer).
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DOWNLOAD .ZIP (882 KB)
GB Rally Turbo Challenge: the code
The game and the Star Soft engine it runs on · HTML and JavaScript · zip
The code is shared under the Star Soft Non-Commercial Licence: you may play, study, change and share it for free, as long as nobody makes money from it and you give clear credit: Based on GB Rally Turbo Challenge by Star Soft. The zip includes a copy of the licence. Its music is on the MUSIC page.
Credits
- Code, art, sound and music: written by Claude (Anthropic) for Star Soft. Everything in GB Rally Turbo Challenge is original and made in code, unless listed here.
- Intro music: Mars, the Bringer of War by Gustav Holst (public domain), played with samples from the VSCO 2 Community Edition by Versilian Studios (CC0).
- Map of Britain on the stage map: coastline simplified from Natural Earth (public domain), via the world-atlas package by Mike Bostock (ISC licence).
- The race announcer's voice: made with the Kokoro text-to-speech model (Apache 2.0 licence), then turned into Amiga-style speech samples.