The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Think racing at high speed on massive sport bikes makes a challenging computer game? Wait until you attempt to weave through traffic like a madman on a tiny bike just to get stuff delivered on time in Rider

© Crest Computer System

Racing purists probably won’t want to play a game where you have to obey the traffic lights (which there are quite a number), get trapped behind a bus or start with a measly 50cc bike with a max speed of 75 km/h (in contrast, my favourite bike, the mighty Suzuki Hayabusa, has a 1300cc engine with a top speed of over 300km/h).

© Crest Computer System

Job of the day. Click on the third button to get to it.

For the more open-minded virtual riders, this game offers you the chance to ride in a city that actually feels alive with a believable number of vehicles on the road as well as pedestrians who cross the road when the lights turn red. The brake and signal lights displayed as vehicles slow down and switch lanes make things a lot more convincing.
To spice up your life as a despatch rider, you got to watch out for aggressive taxis, falling crates from cargo trucks and even bumpy sections of road under repair.

© Crest Computer System

To simplify matters, your destination is always a couple of kilometres straight ahead so you don’t have to worry about navigational skills or having to read a map. Steering the bike is done entirely by moving the mouse within a square recticle : accelerate, brake and turn by moving the cursor away from the centre of the reticle in the desired direction.

You can hold the right mouse button to look behind you before overtaking (do remember you’re still moving ahead while doing this – I lost track of the number of times I almost rammed into the back of a taxi while enjoying the view behind me ) The drivers behind seem to be a patient lot since I haven’t been hit from behind while cutting into their lane without warning. Can’t say the same thing for some of the motorists in front though.

The first delivery (of a total of six) is an excellent intro with relatively light traffic and a choice of using a SK50 or a 50kmh Segway for the environmentally conscious rider.

© Crest Computer System

Running out of time (riding too slowly, being pulled over for exceeding speed limits and speeding past red lights, etc) and over-reliance on ramming manuevers and destroying your bike in the process will automatically cause you to fail a delivery job.

© Crest Computer System

Each successful despatch unlocks a more powerful bike and new delivery job with its particular challenges. With power comes responsibility since it’s much easier to overspeed with the new bikes (especially the 180kmh MAX 1000) and get booked by the policemen stationed at various points with their radarguns (watch out for those hidden under the overhead bridges).

© Crest Computer System

Ticking the left checkbox for the third option (access the options menu with the second button of the main menu) resets the game after you save the chosen options with the left button on the options menu. Useful when you lose a couple of bikes by damaging them beyond repair in any mission.

Check out the official Rider page (Japanese) or download directly via Retro Remakes’ Freeware Database.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Be a Bus Driver!
Russ Schwenkler (dangeruss) – Vexel & 3D Cars and Motorcycle Art
Yamaha Motorcycles Papercraft

Amazing vexel illustrations and 3D renders of cars that could easily pass off as real photos. Take for example, this black Lamborghini Gallardo ‘Nera’ below.

© Russ Schwenkler

Russ Schwenkler aka Dangeruss not only creates and showcases these highly detailed illustrations and renders without watermarks in his DeviantArt gallery but generously provides them in resolutions large enough to use as wallpapers for most desktops as well (personal use only – more details here).

Most of the cars illustrated are tuned Japanese cars but there’s a variety of other cars, supercars and motorcylces of both American and European makes to keep any car and /or motorcycle enthusiast really happy

Below are three of my favourites – more at DeviantArt and his official site at www.dangeruss.net.

© Russ Schwenkler

3D render of a Mitisubishi Evo IX (High Resolution @ DeviantArt)

© Russ Schwenkler

Vexel illustration of a Subaru Impreza WRX (High Resolution @ DeviantArt)

© Russ Schwenkler

3D render of Xanavi Nismo 350-Z JGTC (High Resolution @ DeviantArt)

So how does Russ go about illustrating his cars? View the steps for this Subaru Impreza WRX here or read about his vexel method of illustration on his profile page at www.dangeruss.net.

BTW, Russ also did the illustrations for the cars on the packaging of Xbox 360′s Forza Motorsports 2

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Forza Motorsport 2 Wallpapers
JDM Option Wallpapers
Rally Car Wallpapers & Papercraft
BMW Art Cars

I remember watching this Hanna-Barbera cartoon when I was a kid (created and aired in US in the mid 70′s but only appeared on SG TV during the 80′s). The Chopper Bunch were one of my favourite cartoon troublemakers – not villains though because they weren’t that capable There’s more info on the cartoon (but not much) on the Wikipedia entry)

Three of the mischeivous bikes were standard motorcycles with the smallest one Scrambles bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Honda Motocompo, an interesting artefact of the 80s

© Cartoon Network

From right to left:
Hi-Riser (wearing a toque)
Chopper (wearing the Prussian-style helmet)
Revs (wearing a peaked cap)
Scrambles (the little orange Motocompo)

You can view a relatively new flash animation featuring the Chopper Bunch (with the original voice artists if I’m not wrong) on Cartoon Network’s Web Premiere Toons or view the original cartoon intro at RetroJunk. Brings back good memories when my daily routine consisted only of hours of cartoons

According to Wikipedia, the spinoff comic published by the now defunct Charlton Comics from July 1975 to July 1976, feature some of the earliest published artwork of the famous comics writer/artist John Byrne (Superman, X-Men, The Hulk, etc) in the first three issues. You can view some of his early work for Charlton Comics on his official site here here.

There’s also a nice cover scan of Wheelie & The Chopper Bunch comic #1 on waffyjon’s random thoughts

I recently found some wallpapers of Lara Croft while browsing the Wallpaper section of www.ducati.com.

  
  
© Ducati

You can download these four promotional wallpapers from Ducati featuring Lara Croft from Tomb Raider Legends. Apparently she loves riding the Monster S2R in the deserts or looking at her distinctive red Ducati 999 when adventuring around the globe . Registration is required before downloading these exclusive wallpapers.

You can also download actual wallpapers for the Ducati 999 (Love the futuristic headlight layout – looks great from the front) and Ducati Monster S2R – hmm, not my type of bike .

  
© Ducati

More details in a news article by www.italiaspeed.com from 17 Apr 2006.

Today is Lunar New Year in SG and so this will be the last post for the upcoming holidays. It’s time to take a break from the Internet this 3 days until 21 February.

Yamaha Motors Co (yes, the company that produces motorcycles like the MotoGP YZR-M1 below) has created the papercraft models of some of their motorcycles, rare animals of the world and festive ornaments for download.

© Yamaha

The motorcycle models are more complex and look more realistic than the animal models and there is also currently an ultra-realistic Yamaha MT-01 model in development here. (Incomplete as not all the parts are available for download yet.)

All papercraft models are available as free PDF downloads on Yamaha Motors Japan site. You will need to print them out on thick paper, cut and assemble with glue.

Some of the models available for download:
  
  

Flash video instructions are also available here.