Monster Truck Madness (abbreviated as MTM or MTM1, codenamed Metal Crush, pre-release name: Heavy Metal Truck[1]) is a monster truck racing PC game developed by Terminal Reality and published by Microsoft, in 1996. A racing game, Monster Truck Madness allows players to select a truck and compete with AI players in one of four modes - Drag, Circuit, Rally and Tournament. It is also possible for human players to race against one another via DirectPlay.
Voice Acting
Throughout the game, commentary is provided by "Army" Armstrong, purportedly the Murray Walker of the monster trucking world. Of note is the modular way in which race calls are structured, such as Grave Digger / is doin' it / in the air!
Community
MTM communities are now largely inactive. However, the game enjoyed significant popularity among casual gamers in the late 90s, and its success was largely carried through into the 21st century. Sources indicate that the game's popularity reached its peak during 1999; in this year, 776 custom tracks were submitted to the unofficial fan site MTM2.COM, compared to 456 tracks in 1998 and 464 tracks in 2000. Popular activities within MTM communities include the making of custom tracks and trucks, and the organization and running of MTM Racetournaments.
Available trucks
Drags
Circuits
- A Crazy Eight
- Canyon Adventure
- Mud Pies
- Round and Round
- Winding Way
- A Crazyer eight (addon track)
- King of the Hill (addon track)
- Sierra Logging Run (addon track)
Rallies
Monster Truck Madness 2
Trucks racing on "Tinhorn Junction" track
A sequel to the original and released in 1998, Monster Truck Madness 2 (abbreviated as MTM2, codenamed Metal Crush 2) offers improved graphics, an updated interface, new trucks and tracks and the addition of variable weather conditions. However, the game engine is essentially the same as that utilized in the original game. A testament to their similarity is the fact that most custom trucks and tracks are compatible with both games.
This game was one of the first to utilize online play capability. The "Summit Rumble" king of the hill tracks could only be played if one intended to compete online.
Again, "Army" Armstrong provides commentary for the game. However, his race calls have been updated, and new ones have been added.
Although nearly a decade has passed since the game's release, there are still hundreds of people playing Monster Truck Madness 2 and they have accounted for over 4,000 tracks and 4,900 trucks that have been published.
Just like its predecessor, it contains an inaccessible truck, "Chuck's Car" (a Chevrolet Camaro). It was intended to be unlocked by typing in "CHUCK" in a race. The game still displays this message when typed: "Restart the game to drive Chuck's Car." However, if one restarts the game, it isn't there.
Available trucks
Circuits
- Farm Road
- The Heights
- The Graveyard
- Scrapyard Run
- Crazy '98
- The Excavation
- Breakneck Ridge
- Torture Pit (secret track)
Rallies
- Sidewinder Canyon
- Voodoo Island
- Tinhorn Junction
- Tumbleweed Flats
Summit Rumbles
- Arena Rumble
- Pyramid Rumble
- Hypercube Rumble
Beyond MTM
Terminal Reality reused many of the elements and a greatly updated version of the game engine to produce their title 4x4 Evolution. The game was highly anticipated by Monster Truck Madness users, but the tracks and trucks from the two lines ended up not being compatible.
The 3D objects that could be placed in custom tracks were of the same format as objects in another of Terminal Reality's titles, Fly!, and the ones from Fly! could be placed into tracks using the editors. An user-created 3D model editor for MTM2 was released, called BinEdit. [1]
The program shipped with a DOS-based track editor, but as it was difficult to use, players developed their own editor named TRAXX [2], which had more of a Windows WYSIWYG GUI.
The game contains assets from older TRI games, like Hellbender and CART Precision Racing.
External links
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