HTR HD High Tech Racing

Let me be the first to congratulate you on your appointment as test driver to the High-Tech Racing HD leagues.

As you may not be familiar with how the championship works, let me give you a brief rundown of what to expect from the most modern racer on the App Store circuit.

Unlike 21st century equivalents, HTR runs solely on tracks, not unlike children’s toy Scalextric. There are no such antique devices like steering wheels to bother with - instead, your control over the car extends to a sliding power switch located in the lower-right of your display.

You may wonder why such a simple control scheme could not be extended to take into account other human competitors, but I would like to remind you that this tournament is very much in its infancy, and suggest that you might want to review your contract before talking back to your superior.

A few minutes later

Finished reading? Good. As I was saying, this tournament is still very fresh. Indeed, there was an update that fixed trifling issues like the dysfunctional position counter that went live just before our orientation today.

We are aware that other issues such as the abnormal lap counter, the camera angles not saving in-between runs, and some unfair checkpoints that can ruin your race are still present in the system. I urge you to ignore these minor issues.

Likewise, I recommend you ignore the 'help' screen that says you can manually place your car back on the track by tapping the power icon, rather than waiting three seconds and watching everyone overtake you. This was just a joke message inserted by a rogue engineer.

Tour of the track

Look to your right to see the 14 tracks you’ll be racing on over the course of the season. Yes, the first one is your run-of-the-mill figure-of-eight, but some of the later layouts really are quite devious. Why, I even overheard previous victims test drivers complimenting the league’s designs sandwiched by swearing loudly.

You think you could do better than that? Well, why don’t you strap yourself into the editor later on this afternoon and prove it.

Unlike other obsolete racers, HTR comes with a feature-rich editor that allows you to construct tracks with a high degree of flexibility.

Like with the racing itself, it’s still very much work in progress, and I caution against using too many corners in case you find you can’t attach the road back to the starting line and have to restart from halfway through your construction.

Final preperations

Not every driver’s cut out for the shaky, restart-heavy world of HTR, but I’ve heard that when everything clicks, the driving takes on an almost zen-like quality. You may even start to enjoy delicately balancing the throttle around the corners.

Looks like the race is about to start! Here’s your slightly battered helmet. No, no - he only suffered a minor fatal injury when his car flipped on a straight - nothing to worry about. I’m sure you’ll be just fine…

HTR HD High Tech Racing

HTR HD is rough around the edges and often frustrating, but the inclusion of a track editor and some interesting track layouts ensure some amusing moments
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Will Wilson
Will Wilson
Will's obsession with gaming started off with sketching Laser Squad levels on pads of paper, but recently grew into violently shouting "Tango Down!" at random strangers on the street. He now directs that positive energy into his writing (due in no small part to a binding court order).