Fatal Racing

Also known as Whiplash, Fatal Racing is a classic PC racing game released by British game devs Gremlin Interactive in 1995. It features 8 cars and 24 tracks, with 8 difficulty levels.

Fatal Racing is notable for its punishing collision physics, insane tracks, and murderous AI. Races are anywhere from 3 to 20+ laps depending on the difficulty level selected, and track obstacles include jumps, loops, corkscrews, giant pits, and various combinations thereof, sometimes all on one track. The teams of AI drivers have individual personalities that run the gamut from professional to psychopathic, and both drivers are capable of working together in order to take a victory from you. You too have a teammate, who will radio in and update you on their current objective and status. You can also issue your teammate race orders, which they will follow if possible. Each vehicle has different stats and handling. You should try them all.

How to Play

Drive like hell.

Your car can take damage both from your opponents and the track itself, and you must drive carefully and pit strategically to avoid being killed by the bloodthirsty AI. The game supports analog controls as well as the keyboard, though binding controls may be challenging, see the section below. The objective of each race is to win with as many kills as possible, like a demolition derby. However, both colliding with your opponents and the stunt tracks are damaging to your car, and damaging your car makes it slower, which makes you even more vulnerable by impacting the way the car handles, so you need to drive with tact and carefully plan your racing lines, battles, and pitstops, like a Formula 1 simulator. Pitting for repairs requires stopping, and stopped cars are vulnerable to being ejected from the pit lane at high speed by opponents coming from behind, as the pitlanes are open and limitless. Furthermore, the ai can drive off it's predetermined racing line to chase down you, the other opponents, or just turn around and drive the wrong way to cause havoc. The teammate commands, accessed with F4-7, allow you to send orders to your own ai teammate to make adjustments, which he will sometimes follow, how he is doing in the race and his position ahead of or behind you determines if he follows your orders or not.

Installation Instructions

Because of its age, Dosbox is required to run Fatal Racing on a modern PC. While you can run the game well on an older Pentium 1 system or better, Dosbox allows you to use modern USB controllers and graphics filters, as well as easily make .webms of crazy racing action.

Copies of the game can be found here (lite version with MIDI music) and here (.bin/.cue image with CD Audio).

The manual and soundtrack can be found here and here

Ready-to-Run

The below resources are somewhat outdated and it is advised to replace the Dosbox 0.74 copy in the included installations with Dosbox-staging which has support for the 3DFX version of the game, as well as significantly improved game performance.

All-In-One /ovg/ Edition

Don't care to screw around with Dosbox configuration?

Download this!

This package includes: Dosbox 0.74 + DosBox Portable wrapper and a Whiplash CD image, preconfigured and tested. Simply run Whiplash.exe.

All-In-One /ovg/ Edition with LAUNCHER!

Download this!

This package includes: Everything in the All-In-One edition plus a launcher application that edits the config file for easy multiplayer setup.

screenshot

Configuration Tips

Be sure to configure the visual settings for best appearance (especially CONFIGURATION -> GFX DETAIL -> SVGA DISPLAY).

Using Controllers

• Open the DOSBox config file (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\DOSBox\dosbox-0.74.conf, or select DOSBox 0.74 Options in the Start Menu).
• Scroll down to [JOYSTICK] and replace timed=true with timed=false. This prevents the ingame calibration bars from jittering around.
• While you're there, set joysticktype to 4axis.
• Note: This is unnecessary if you have downloaded the /ovg/ Edition.

If you are using a wheel/pedals:

• Set steering lock to something like 270 degrees (not 900!).
• Set it to report combined pedals.

In the game:

• Select CONFIGURATION, then CALIBRATE.
• Move all the axes you want to use. Uncalibrated axes will be unavailable for control setting.
• Press enter to save the calibration.
• Configure your controls.

If the game can't detect a button on your wheel/controller:

• Press Ctrl+F1 to open the DOSBox keymapper.
• Assign the button to an appropriate keyboard key.
• Configure as above.

Network Play

• Open the DOSBox config file (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\DOSBox\dosbox-0.74.conf, or select DOSBox 0.74 Options in the Start Menu).
• Scroll down to [ipx] and replace ipx=false with ipx=true.
• Start DOSBox.
• On the first computer type "ipxnet startserver".
• On the other computers type "ipxnet connect [IP address of first computer]".
• Important: mount the CD on at least one of the computers (see above for CD mounting instructions), even if you are running the "lite" version.
• Start the game.
• Under PLAYERS select NETWORK and choose an empty game slot.
• Customise the messages (CONFIGURATION -> MESSAGES) for extra lulz.
  • Quickchat keys are F5-F8 and you can select which player to send messages to (or the whole room) with F1 and F2.

Online Play

• Download the /ovg/ Edition with Launcher
• Run WhiplashLauncher.exe
• In the Network tab, enter IP: 66.55.157.92 Port: 13954
• Launch Whiplash
• At the main menu, select PLAYERS -> NETWORK and choose a game room, preferably one with people in it already.
• Convince at least one other person that you won't just set the track to Bonus 3 and camp the pitlane.

Notes

Whiplash's multiplayer implementation was designed for business-class networks of the mid-'90s, not global online play. The following bugs may occur during gameplay:

• Input lag
• Engine/tire squeal sounds get stuck
• Screen freezes
• NETWORK ERROR
• Game crashes

To reduce the likelihood of these glitches, it is recommended that the player with the most bandwidth join the game room first, making them the host. Best results are obtained if all players are in the same geographic region. Though it is a 16-player game, network errors occur more often after more than 10 players have joined the game.

Gameplay Tips

• You can shift gears manually even with Automatic Transmission selected. When you are stopping to pit, downshift down into neutral, you will stop faster. Shifting up before the tachometer hits maximum also provides slightly faster acceleration, although the timing is tricky and different per-car, as each machine has a different number of gears.

• Watch out for Bob.

• Slowing down before corners and accelerating through them works better than just barrelling around with the pedal to the floor. Shifting down a gear can also help negotiate tight corners or challenging sections like the final turn at Snake Pass or the sharp right hander before the hills of Big Dippa.

• Braking over jumps will generally decrease the angle at which you fly off the jump. Simply downshifting or lifting works too, depending on the angle and speed.

• Cars that can drift can also unexpectedly barrel roll off jumps if they lift off while skidding sideways. You can likewise cancel out a barrel-rolling jump by drifting over it.

• Watch out for Bob. Always pay attention to what the backmarker teams are doing, one teammate is usually the brawler while the other races for the line, but if both cars are down in places or championship points, ANY AI car may decide to turn around and cause havoc.

• There are various cheat codes that can alter gameplay, unlock extra tracks and cars, or produce visual effects. Enter in the NAMES menu as your name. The name will change to the name of one of the developers if entered correctly. You may then re-enter your driver name of choice.
  • Alternate Announcer: TOPTUNES
  • Widescreen mode: CINEMA
  • Faster gameplay: MR ZOOM
  • Fastest gameplay: TACHYONS
  • Icy roads: MRFROSTY
  • Invert colors: FREAKY
  • Invincibility: SUPERMAN
  • Large tracks: YOTARACE
  • Thin cars: TINYTOTS
  • Warp cars size: WARPGATE
  • View credits: ROLL EM
  • View race win sequence: I WON
  • Championship sequence: CUP WON
  • Disable all cheats: REMOVE

• Unlockables
  • Unlock Advanced carset: FORMULA1
  • Unlock PREMIER CUP: GOLDBOY
  • Unlock BONUS CUP: MREPRISE
  • Unlock Death difficulty and damage level: DR DEATH
  • Unlock Duel race mode: DUEL

• Secret Cars
  • Car that can destroy opponents at the press of a button: SUICYCO
  • Car that can flip opponents upside-down: 2X4B523P
  • Nitrous-equipped car: MAYTE
  • Car that can launch opponents into the air: TINKLE
  • Car that turns the road ahead of it to ice: LOVEBUN

AI Names

By default, the AI drivers are all named after famous robots and artificial intelligences from both fiction and reality. However, you can rename them to whatever you like. If you join a multiplayer match, you may find your AI names overwritten by the host's, without any real way to restore them to default. You can delete whip.ini in the FATDATA folder or use this guide:

Ariel 1: SAL (2010: Odyssey Two)
Ariel 2: HAL (2001: A Space Odyssey)
DeSilva 3: SLAVE
DeSilva 4: ZEN (Blake's 7)
Pulse 5: ASH (Alien)
Pulse 6: BISHOP (Aliens)
Global 7: VOYAGER (NASA?)
Global 8: NOMAD (Star Trek?)
Million 9: BOB
Million 10: VINCENT (The Black Hole)
Mission 11: EDDIE
Mission 12: MARVIN (Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy)
Zizin 13: KRYTEN
Zizin 14: HOLLY (Red Dwarf)
Reise 15: ROBBY (Forbidden Planet)
Reise 16: GORT (The Day the Earth Stood Still)

ROLLER

Thanks to /ovg/'s tamed racing driver, kiwifruit and the sentient racing game ai Bob, Whiplash has been successfully reverse-engineered and now has a modern port, and a track editor, as well as tools for decoding the retail game's track files, graphics, and audio. A tutorial on how to use the track editor is here.

Join Whiplash Autism on Mattermost for further information or discussion.

Fatal Racing Beta

Fatal Racing Interplay Beta

This is a prerelease version of the game originally distributed as a demo by Interplay before Fatal Racing was finished and before it became Whiplash. In it, you can play the game as it was originally intended, with slightly slower cars making the stunts more difficult and harsher collision physics and damage. The announcer and fonts are also different.

Enter GOLDBOY as your name to unlock some more insane, half-finished tracks that in some cases cannot be raced on without modification. Some of the other cheats also work, some don't.
Beta Gremlin Cup Drop this trackpack into the FATDATA folder of your retail Whiplash install's root directory.
Warning: this will replace the first 8 tracks with their beta versions. Make a backup of FATDATA before installing. The major changes are Death Drop (Track4) and The Bridge (Track6), though many tracks have different AI lines and some texture differences. The Beta version of the game can also load the Retail version's tracks too, as long as you Unmangle them first with Whiptools or the Track Editor. Since the Beta version has 16 track slots, you can run a full Gremlin or Premier Cup with the Beta physics. As well, the Track Editor can load the broken Beta Bonus tracks, and they can be easily edited to be made drivable, which is also a great way to learn how to use the track editor. Give it a try!

Advanced Techniques and Dumb Tricks

Whiplash has a few quirks and physical limitations that can be exploited to win, or might just cause you trouble.

• When the pitlane gets full, sometimes the AI drivers will stop in the middle of the track instead. Since they aren't in the pits and aren't being repaired, they won't move until rammed.
• Cars that can powerslide can negate the rotation caused by off-camber jumps by drifting fully sideways over the jump. When angled correctly, Zizin and Pulse cars can go off the Million Plus Twister Jumps or the shortcut in Gateway without rolling over at all.
• If you are rolling in the air and hit a wall, you will begin to roll in the opposite direction. Using this, you can spin off a Twister jump in the opposite direction by clipping the end of the wall as you leave the jump.
• If you are drifting, you are more likely to lose control when being rammed, especially, head-on. However, ramming into another car's side with your front end while drifting through a turn will cause the other car to lose control.
• Raised banked track sections such as in Coffin Run, Bonus 5 and Bonus 7 have a gap at the edge which will cause your car to flip over as it bounces off the wall, and if you approach it slowly you can easily fall through the gap. A drifting car won't flip if it contacts the wall with its rear end, but it might still fall through the gap if you ride the edge.
• Driving The Crab backwards and hitting the inverted jump is the game's swingset glitch. If the game does not immediately crash by div0 error, your car will be punted high into the sky from where it will hit the ground with enough force to instantly kill you. If you jump to the left you will be launched into the run-up before the jump, if you jump to the right you will be launched back the way you came, possibly landing in the tunnel or even as far as the pitlane. if you drift sideways off to the left, your car will roll which can allow you to land back on the inverted loop going the other (correct) direction and maintaining your speed. Jumping to the right will almost always kill you immediately on landing.
• Downshifting to first or neutral is a great way to regain control of your car if you find yourself being pinballed or ricochet off an impact.

See also

• Modding Whiplash/Fatal Racing

External links

• Whiplash reverse engineering repos