Tag Archives: Wacky races

Is this real?

That was the first thought I had when certain thoughts crossed the suspected facts that ABC gave me. After finishing last night exercise for Sony, I had a few more thoughts on a ‘European tour’ where those wacky races were staged around world items like the Roman Colosseum, That tower in Paris (the Eiffel tower) optionally, the roman race also went passed the Vatican and the Paris races took us over several bridges, which led me to London where the Tower Bridge was the envy of every racer. Then there was the race from Amsterdam to Stockholm with windmills and all. Then the greek race passed the Acropolis. The idea is sound. With Deeper Machine Learning Sony could complete 90% nearly automatic, and the racers (Mom, Dad and the two kids) can have a learning experience whilst people race, all whilst seeing these amazing places (racing passed it at mach speed) A setting that seemingly no game has and this gave me the idea, that you can unlock ‘photo moments’ that any racer can unlock and after the race you can get a single shot, or a group shot at the bequest of the one unlocking that photo moment. Germany has its own Kodak moments with several points, as does France, Italy Greece, Spain and the Netherlands. Just little funny moments that you can use and it is locked to the racer you unlocked it with. But enough about that. 

ABC gave me (you too, 10 hours ago) that ‘Iran war live updates: Donald Trump says he wants to ‘take the oil’ in Iran’, which is no real surprise as we are given “US President Donald Trump has told US media he wants to “take the oil” in Iran and that the US could also “take Kharg Island”.” I stated 5 days ago 

I did so 5 days go in ‘The price of war’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2026/03/25/the-price-of-war/), so was it hard to make a presumption when some players are so dim that it is all they can see? Do you really think that he had the setting of $200 billion at that point, or was he already counting the barrels with his greedy eyes? Is the United States now so broke that they have to resort to plundering? It is an easy enough question. So whilst we are given “US media reported overnight that the White House was considering such an operation, as the war between the US, Israel and Iran passed the one-month mark.” Whilst he was considering ‘annexing’ states as “He also said the US could capture Kharg Island” we get the scripted version as ““To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the US say, ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,” he said. “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options. “It would also mean we had to be there for a while.”” So as we are called stupid people, I wonder why the media is not investigating how broke the United States really is. I get that I am not a voice you need to consider, but David Kelly gave similar warning and he is a person that should be listened to as a strategist at JP Morgan. The United States President has been so focussed on what some might call money grabbing settings, that his strategy might be seen by a 5 year old, but that is merely my point of view.

The Financial Review gives us ‘Trump says he wants to ‘take Iran’s oil’ like Venezuela’ (at https://www.afr.com/world/middle-east/iran-warns-us-ground-troops-will-be-set-on-fire-as-marines-land-20260330-p5zjrb) where we are given “Donald Trump has said he wants to “take the oil in Iran” and could seize the export hub of Kharg Island, as the US sends thousands of troops to the Middle East. The US president told the Financial Times in an interview on Sunday (Monday AEDT) that his “preference would be to take the oil”, comparing the potential move to Venezuela where the US intends to control the oil industry “indefinitely” following its capture of strongman leader Nicolas Maduro in January. The president’s comments come as the US-Israeli war against Iran has thrust the Middle East into crisis and sent the price of oil surging by more than 50 per cent in a month. Brent crude rose above $US116 a barrel on Monday morning in Asia, near its highest level since the conflict began. Trump said: “To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people.” Such a move would involve seizing Kharg Island through which most of Iran’s oil is exported.” Parts of this were also said by ABC, so not much a surprise there, but it still shows us all that the United States might be a lot more broke than anyone realizes and that is not investigated, even if it was only to debunk people like me and David Kelly, so was I onto something? 

A connected setting is given to us by the BBC who gives us ‘Partial government shutdown becomes the longest in US history’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyv1qpzq5v7o) and that is only in part on the TSA, but the larger setting is “The partial US government shutdown has become the longest in American history, as lawmakers in Washington continue to fight over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).” The last one was in November 2025 and it is now at 44 days. So this bickering is about the funding and as I see it the United States might not have any and in all this people are still fighting over data centers and power supplies (of those centers) and none of it is bringing in the cash as I see it. So whilst the people are lulled in a state of economic safety with “White House border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday TSA agents should start receiving pay early next week after President Donald Trump signed an order attempting to free up cash. It is unclear, though, whether Trump’s executive order will face legal challenges, as the US constitution tasks Congress with authorising spending for the federal government.” There is a nasty shadow at the bottom of that well, it might merely be the floor of that funding, but that is as clear as the statement that come will say is coming in the trend of “The United States has run out of money” and as such I am wondering: “Are these settings real?

It might be oversimplified, but that is where the current media is leading us and there are too many sources leading to this train of thought. And there might be another story, but the media is chasing digital dollars and this does not fit their new mission statement.

Have a great day and consider that if this armed conflict was all about the oil, there are several places in the middle east that will hand the Trump administration a fat bill for damages and in that trend there is every chance that they will tell the Trump Administration to get their bases out of their country, they might replace the United States with a Chinese presence and as such it will increase all kinds of pressures on a global level. A setting that could have been prevented as I personally see it.

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To match an equal

That has been on my mind for a while. You see, Nintendo has Mario Kart and no one has anything to offer against that. Now, that is nothing to be ashamed of. Mario Kart has its own following, I like Mario Kart. But it is a shame that Sony never had its equal on that. A racing game with a little fun. On the SEGA Dreamcast there was Wacky Races and as I was watching some pages, I saw that this original cartoon still has its own following. Even now, after 54 years there are plenty of people that like this cartoon and what is there not to like?

So even as I loved the gamed on the dreamcast, I am proposing that Sony (preferably) makes a few alteration. Not on the graphics or the cars, that is fine, but the setting of the tracks. Especially as the PS5/PS6 have a lot more power than the Dreamcast had 16 MB RAM, 8 MB video RAM, and 2 MB audio RAM, running on a Hitachi SH-4 @ 200 MHz, which had 480 MIPS. The PS5 has 16 GB GDDR6 SDRAM running on a 8-core AMD Zen 2, which has a multitude of the ability of the 

Hitachi SH-4. As such a lot more is possible. So as we consider that Wacky races could really take of on the PlayStation, the setting of this game could be made a lot more rewarding. 

As I see it, the game allows you (in single player mode) to select you first car. This has a consequence. The Roaring plenty gives you the track Chicago to Detroit, The army surplus gives you the track Ft Worth to Houston (Texas), the Varoom gives you the track Los Angeles to San Francisco and so on. And the second setting is that you unlock the track, but if you win that route, you also unlock the number two and three in that race. So you unlock a track with a new racer and you unlock racers by winning. As such you get to expand both elements in that game. Now for the tracks, they are ‘cartooned’ but they are the real roads that these distances have, with optional fuel points and garage locations (for repair and weapons and defense refueling) and as these races continue the game also have a level setting, the beginners level has more fuel and garages and only 50% of the distance, as you go up in levels there will be less garages, so you have to be clever with the attacks, defense is less affected, but there is a limit to what you can counter. 

This setting might take some tweaking, but the setting gives us 11 cars.

#1: The Bouldermobile (running from Santa Fe to Las Cruces) 
#2: The Creepy Coupe
#3: The Convert-a-Car
#4: The Crimson Haybaler
#5: The Compact Pussycat (Penelope Pitstop, running from New York to Providence)
#6: The Army Surplus Special (Running from Ft Worth to Houston)
#7: The Bulletproof Bomb (The Anthill Mob, running from Chicago to Detroit)
#8: The Arkansas Chugabug
#9: The Turbo Terrific (running from Los Angeles, to San Francisco)
#10: The Buzzwagon (running from Calgary to Edmonton)
Finally the #00: The Mean Machine (Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica)

I set out a few tracks, but not all are here. The idea that the game has growth in other ways too could give it the success boost it could. As Deeper Machine Learning sets the roads in a more cartoon way might also simplify what the developers need to do. It also allows for expansions over time. Because new cups could result in new tracks in other regions. I believe that this could be a worthy competitor to Mario Kart and optional other games that offer this entertainment. In this I feel strongly that Mario Kart has a unique place in the gaming world and without attacking this, others could have a real chance in appealing to their audience. 

Will it work? I believe so, but in the end it will be up to the designer of this renewed Wacky Races to appeal to their audience. 

Have a great day, optionally racing route 66.

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Never out of mind

That is the setting. I saw a trailer (I thought it was an AI fluke) but it had the stars and it reminded me of an old game. Wacky Races on the Dreamcast. I thought it was brilliant. SEGA had a competitor to Nintendo’s Mario Kart. Now, I have nothing against Mario Kart. I loved it on the N64, I also loved it on the Gamecube. And when I get the Switch 2, I will love it again. But the setting was that Wacky Races had an approach to counter whatever Nintendo had in those days. Wacky Races was it and as I loved the cartoon, I was instantly hooked. So I was surprised that Sony never bought the rights. So I don’t know what happened to that setting, but at present and especially with the movie apparently coming, Sony has a renewed option to get that title on their PlatStation systems. 

The game had several nice touches and the fact that every car had its own options, makes it a setting that will give renewed replayability. Set the game to several settings and as the game is played on ‘real roads’ the setting could get its own new lease of life. What is better than play your favourite character racing route 66? And that is merely the beginning. The cartoon gave us hilarious settings and that reflects back on the game and even now as this setting is transposed this game could have multiple settings. The famous ‘walks’ could now be the setting of Wacky Races. The St. Frances way (Florence – Rome), the Camino de Santiago walk (Saint JeanPied de Port to Santiago de Compostela) then there is the Nakasendo trail (Kyoto – Tokyo) And not to forget Lands end to John o Groats over the length of the UK. Now we can make the most of it and make it a cartooned version and we can add more. A setting never shown before and as I see it, you can race it eleven time. There were the Boulder Mobile, Creepy Coupe, Convert-a-Car, Crimson Haybaler, Compact Pussycat, Army Surplus Special, Bulletproof Bomb, Arkansas Chuggabug, Turbo Terrific, Buzz Wagon and who could forget the Mean Machine featuring Muttley. 

A wacky race and as the game gets more and more traction Sony could add its own set of tracks. There is no limit to the setting we could add and Sony had an advantage for the longer of times. There is even an option to add the Iceland ring road to these tracks. The quality of Deeper Machine Learning is almost perfect to add these tracks to their arsenal and Google Maps was kind enough to add these rides to the spectrum and now they only need to set the filters to adapt the tracks to a more cartoon setting. Was it that hard to think out of the box? 

But without fail there is always someone who can do better than me, that person (preferably at Sony) merely needs to raise his (or her) hand and start the setting and now that there apparently is coming a Wacky Races movie in 2026, there is an added reason to take up the baton of crazy gameplay on the PlayStation. There is of course a need to put it on the streaming systems too (Amazon Luna and whatever Tencent has). A setting we tend to forget about but the time is now to make that dent in the competitors. Should you see the need to add to this, my advice is to take a serious look at Fur Fighter (Dreamcast), the Playstation 2 made a mess of that game. Two titles and they were largely ignored. And with the stage of original games at a all time low, the need for quality gaming is now and the stage of these walks are a new ride, that besides the stage that you could also add tracks to this, perhaps Monaco, Francorchamps, Le Mans and a few other tracks like Daytona and the Gold Coast track. All options overlooked and now there is a larger setting to make it work.

Have a great day and when you go for coffee today, outside of the gaming world we do have speed limits, no matter how desperately you crave your coffee.

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