SpecialEffect's accessible GameBase

PC Windows - Kitchen's Inc (freeware)

Mach 1 is an audio game heavily influenced by the Namco classic Pole Position 3D Formula 1 race game.

As with most Kitchen's Inc games, this is fun and has a good sense of humour. It must be said that you will need to familiarise yourself with the controls and audio cues before you will be able to play this well. It's worth the effort though.

Your Mach 1 race car will start and automatically accelerate.  When you hit about 75 miles per hour you will want to shift into high gear by pressing the up arrow key.  As you move left or right on the track you will hear the echo of your car off of the wall.  The closer you get to either wall the louder the echo sound will be.

If you are right in the center of the track you will hear no echo sound at all.  When you hear a whooshing by sound out of the right speaker it means that a right turn follows. The same but opposite applies when you hear a whooshing sound out of the left speaker.  You will
hear a stereo sound out of both speakers to mark the end of each turn. If you hear a bumping sound out of one speaker it means that you have gone off of the track and onto the gravel on that side of the track.  Turn away from the sound to get back into the center of the track.  If you get too far off the road you will hit the wall at which point you will crash.  After a crash you will want to shift-down and turn back towards the center of the track.

Keyboard controls: Cursor keys: UP = high gear and DOWN = low gear. LEFT and RIGHT = steer. SPACE = brake.

Swotting up on the README file is pretty essential for this game, as is a set of stereo headphones or well spread apart speakers and fast reactions.

Download link: Kitchen's Inc.

Race alternatives? Try Drive or Homer on a Harley.