Deathtrack

Last updated: January 11, 2026

Overview

Deathtrack is a futuristic vehicular combat racing game released in December 1989 for MS-DOS, developed by Dynamix and published by Activision¹. The game presents a dystopian vision of motorsport where traditional car racing has been replaced by armed combat on the track, asking the provocative question: “What if everyone on the road had weapons?“². Set in a near-future America where drivers race for both money and their lives, players compete across ten tracks in ten cities, upgrading their vehicles with increasingly deadly weaponry and armor³.

The game’s central philosophy is encapsulated in its memorable tagline: “There are two ways to win a race: be the first, or be the only one”⁴. Players begin as rookies with $10,000 and must balance their investments between speed, firepower, and protection⁵. Deathtrack was part of Dynamix’s series of 3D vehicular action games that included titles like Arcticfox, MechWarrior, and A-10 Tank Killer⁶. Despite not achieving the commercial success needed to resolve Dynamix’s financial difficulties, the game earned recognition from Computer Gaming World as “an outstanding new action game… gratuitous violence at its therapeutic best”¹ and was later ranked #124 in their 1996 list of the 150 Best Games of All Time³.

The game has been described as “Mad Max on wheels”³ and established itself as a precursor to later combat racing games such as Quarantine and Interstate ‘76⁷. Its combination of first-person 3D racing with strategic resource management and unbridled vehicular mayhem created an addictive gameplay loop that has earned it a devoted following among retro gaming enthusiasts⁸.

Game Info

Developer: Dynamix, Inc.¹ Designer: Terry Ishida, Dariusz Lukaszuk¹ Publisher: Activision¹ Engine: Custom Vector Engine³ Platforms: MS-DOS¹ Release Year: December 1989¹ Series: Death Track Protagonist: Unnamed Rookie Driver Sierra Lineage: Dynamix (later Sierra subsidiary)

Story Summary

In the near future depicted by Deathtrack, traditional car racing has become a thing of the past². The ability to handle vehicles in difficult conditions and pure sporting competition have ceased to matter. Instead, an era of destruction has begun, one that has spawned heavily armed machines loaded with various means of extermination from bumper to roof².

Races are now held across America where drivers compete not just for prize money, but for their very lives⁹. The player assumes the role of a rookie entering this brutal world of vehicular combat, starting with minimal resources and facing off against a roster of colorful and dangerous opponents¹. The player must work their way up through the circuit, surviving each race while accumulating enough winnings to upgrade their vehicle and stay competitive against increasingly deadly rivals⁵.

The game features a cast of ten rival drivers, each with their own distinctive vehicle and personality. These include characters like the Preying Menace, Crimson Death, Killer Angel, Megadeath, Mafiozo, and the enigmatic Slye³. The competition is brutal and unforgiving—opponents actively try to remove the player from the race permanently, using the full arsenal at their disposal⁹. Only winners finish the circuit alive, making every race a fight for survival as much as a contest of speed⁵.

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

Deathtrack presents racing action from a first-person perspective behind the wheel of the player’s vehicle⁴. The game utilizes keyboard controls for acceleration, braking, steering, and weapon deployment¹⁰. Players navigate 3D polygonal tracks while managing their vehicle’s systems and engaging opponents with various weapons. The controls have been noted by some players as challenging, with one reviewer describing them as feeling “like wrestling a shopping cart on ice”⁴, though this adds to the game’s frantic intensity.

The interface includes displays for speed, damage status, fuel levels, and weapon systems. Players can cycle through their equipped weapons during races and must monitor their vehicle’s condition, as damage affects performance⁷. The game uses EGA 16-color graphics with digitized photographs of opponents displayed during races and at various menu screens⁹.

Structure and Progression

The game features a circuit of ten tracks across ten cities in America, with each track having both day and night variations⁷. Players progress through the circuit by earning prize money and using it to improve their vehicles. The Boston track is notable for running backward compared to other DeathTracks¹¹.

Starting Options:

• Hellcat: A speedy vehicle prioritizing raw speed⁸
• Crusher: A car with substantial firepower⁸
• Pitbull: A heavily armored vehicle for survivability⁸

Players must strategically choose their initial vehicle based on their preferred playstyle, then invest their $10,000 starting fund wisely⁵. All cars begin with a 3/4 fuel tank¹¹, requiring pit stop management during longer races.

Puzzles and Mechanics

While not a puzzle game in the traditional sense, Deathtrack requires significant strategic thinking in its resource management systems. Players must balance investments between:

• Armor: Protection from enemy weapons and collisions⁵
• Weapons: Including machine guns, particle beams, lasers, missiles, caltrops, and mines⁷
• Engine upgrades: For improved speed and acceleration⁵
• Repairs: Maintaining vehicle condition between races⁷

Weapons range from conventional machine guns to exotic particle beams and Falcon missiles². Players can equip tire slicers to shred opponents’ wheels, drop mines beneath pursuing vehicles, and use caltrops as an economical defensive measure⁷. One player strategy involves selecting the Pitbull, selling its weapons, and purchasing the best engine available for a fast, heavily armored start⁷.

Pit stops allow for repairs and weapon restocking, adding a tactical layer to race management⁷. Car damage directly affects performance, so players must decide when to pit for repairs versus pressing their advantage on the track⁷. The game also features a contract system where players may be paid to eliminate specific opponents—though as one reviewer noted, “the funny thing is—you’d have done it anyway!“³.

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

Computer Gaming World praised Deathtrack enthusiastically, calling it “an outstanding new action game… gratuitous violence at its therapeutic best”¹. The publication would later honor the game by including it at position #124 in their November 1996 list of the “150 Best Games of All Time”³.

The game was recognized for bringing “a whole new dimension to the world of car racing”¹ and for having more weapons than any other race-and-shoot game released at the time¹². Contemporary reception acknowledged the game’s pure entertainment value, even if the concept was deliberately over-the-top.

Modern Assessment

Modern players and retrospective reviewers have been largely positive about Deathtrack. MobyGames aggregates a Moby Score of 7.0/10 with 71% from critic reviews (3 reviews) and 3.5/5 from player reviews (32 reviews)³. The game has been called “one of the most underrated sci-fi racing games of all time”⁷ and “the best car shooter of the time”³.

User reviews consistently highlight the game’s addictive quality. One reviewer noted that it possesses “that ‘something’ that is so rare to find in games of today: that elusive element that makes you start the game at the evening and then play it till early dawn hours”⁸. Another described it as having “a pure, antisocial quality to it that most others lack. No storyline, no complications—just round-the-track adrenaline”³.

Aggregate Scores:

• MobyGames: 7.0/10 (71% critics, 3.5/5 players)³
• Abandonware DOS: 3.92/5.00 (52 votes)⁴
• My Abandonware: 4.69/5 (45 votes)⁷
• GameSpot User Average: 8.2/10¹³
• DOS.Zone: 5/5¹⁴
• Free Game Empire: 3/5¹²
• GamePressure Users: 3.9/5²

Development

Origins

Deathtrack emerged from Dynamix’s expertise in 3D vehicular simulations⁶. The company, originally named Software Entertainment Company, was founded by Jeff Tunnell and Damon Slye, graduates from the University of Oregon¹². Dynamix had established itself with 3D action games like Arcticfox and would go on to create numerous vehicular simulations⁶.

According to MobyGames trivia, the development team “convinced management of car expertise with humorous claims”³. The game was designed with Jeff Tunnell’s philosophy that games of the era were “too complicated and punished the user”—Deathtrack was deliberately designed to feel very “easy” to play while remaining challenging to master³.

Production

The game was developed during a financially challenging period for Dynamix. Published by Mediagenic (the corporate name for Activision at the time) in December 1989, the sales for Deathtrack and other Dynamix titles “were not enough to relieve Dynamix from financial difficulties”¹⁵. This would eventually lead to the company’s sale to Sierra On-Line in August 1990¹².

The development team employed an innovative EGA digitizing technique to capture actors and city pictures for the game’s portraits and backgrounds³. This gave the opponents a distinctive photorealistic appearance within the EGA color limitations of the era⁹.

Development Credits:³

• Designers: Terry Ishida, Dariusz Lukaszuk, Tom Collie, Mark Brenneman, Bryce Morsello
• Composer: Russell Lieblich
• Producer/Founder: Jeff Tunnell

Technical Achievements

Deathtrack featured 3D solid graphics with polygonal cars racing against each other in a first-person perspective². The game showcased true up-and-down motion and realistic explosions for its time¹¹. The vector engine, while primitive by modern standards, “runs fast” and delivered smooth gameplay on period-appropriate hardware³.

The technical approach represented a significant achievement for 1989, combining 3D racing with combat elements that few games had attempted. Dynamix’s experience with 3D vehicular games from titles like Arcticfox and Skyfox II informed their approach to rendering and game feel⁶. The 16-color EGA graphics, while limited, were used effectively to create distinctive track environments and opponent vehicles⁹.

Technical Specifications

MS-DOS Version:⁹

• Resolution: EGA (16-color), Tandy (16-color), CGA (2-color hi-res), Hercules MDA (2-color)
• Audio: AdLib/OPL2, Roland MT-32 support¹⁶
• Media: 3.5” Floppy Disk, 5.25” Floppy Disk³
• Input: Computer keyboard¹⁰

Soundtrack Information:¹⁷

• Main Theme: 0:32 duration
• Racing Theme: 1:40 duration
• Total Runtime: 2m 12s

The game notably uses AdLib music only, not Sound Blaster¹⁶. If the game detects a Roland MT-32 MIDI interface, it assumes that hardware is present and may play incorrect instruments without proper configuration¹⁶. PC speaker sound was also available but was described by players as “very annoying”⁷.

Cut Content

A Game Boy version of Deathtrack was in development by Argonaut Software but was ultimately never released¹. No other significant cut content has been documented.

Version History

Version	Date	Platform	Notes
1.0	December 1989	MS-DOS	Initial release1

Technical Issues

The most significant technical issue with Deathtrack is its speed sensitivity on modern hardware. The game “runs ludicrously fast on anything past a 386/33”³ and was designed for much slower processors. Players attempting to run the game on modern systems report that even slowdown utilities like MoSlo do not adequately address the speed issues³.

For emulation, DOSBox is the recommended solution, with the game supported on DOSBox version 0.70 and later⁷. However, specific configuration is required to properly enable AdLib music—the game can incorrectly detect MIDI hardware and output wrong instruments¹⁶.

Additional reported issues include:

• Bad AI that sometimes causes opponents to behave erratically³
• Music configuration problems in DOSBox-X requiring specific setup¹⁶
• Tandy/PCjr graphics support present but never utilizing the built-in sound chip³

Easter Eggs and Trivia

Deathtrack contains several notable Easter eggs and pieces of trivia, many related to the development team:

• Designer Cameo: Game designer Peter (Piotr) Lukaszuk makes a cameo appearance as the cape-wearing gangster character Mafiozo³
• Polish References: The Lukaszuk brothers included Polish cultural references, including driver “Wrecker Niszczyciel” from Warsaw with the motto “Sausages are best when fried with laser guns” (in Polish: “Kietbasa smakuje najlepiej, gdy przysmazysz ja laserem!“)³¹¹
• Dedication: The game is dedicated to the memory of Enzo Ferrari³
• Character Quote: The character Sly has the memorable quote “Gravity really gets me down…”¹¹

Money Exploit:¹³ A exploit exists in the weapons shop:

1. Purchase a level 3 weapon (e.g., machine gun)
2. Select the level 1 version of the same weapon
3. Scroll to other weapons so the selected weapon is not visible
4. Press Purchase and dismiss the warning
5. Money increases with each purchase click (more level 3 weapons = bigger payout)

Voice Cast

The game features digitized photographs of opponents portrayed by various individuals:³

Character	Portrayed By
Preying Menace	Sher Alltucker
Wrecker	Will Brennan
Megadeath	Roger Emmert
Killer Angel	Emi Foster
Crimson Death	Angela Heng
MotorManiac	David Littlejohn
Mafiozo	Piotr Lukaszuk
Lurker Logan	Jake Shimanek
Slye	Damon Slye
Melissa	Kim Sweeney

Note: Damon Slye, one of Dynamix’s co-founders, portrays the character “Slye” in the game³.

Legacy

Sales and Commercial Impact

While Deathtrack received positive critical reception, its commercial performance was insufficient to resolve Dynamix’s financial difficulties¹⁵. The game was published during a challenging period for the company, which would be acquired by Sierra On-Line in August 1990¹². Despite modest initial sales, the game developed a cult following and remained popular among DOS gaming enthusiasts for years after release.

Collections

Deathtrack has been preserved and made available through various abandonware and retro gaming sites including:

• Internet Archive (browser-playable version)⁹
• My Abandonware⁷
• Abandonware DOS⁴
• DOS.Zone¹⁴
• Classic Reload¹⁸

Sequel

A sequel titled Death Track: Resurrection was developed by Russian studio SkyFallen Entertainment using “TheEngine”¹⁹. Release dates varied by region:

• Russia: February 22, 2008 (published by 1C Company)
• Europe: March 24, 2009 (published by 505 Games)
• North America: March 31, 2009 (published by Aspyr Media)

The sequel was also released on PlayStation 3¹⁹. Reviews were mixed, with GameSpot scoring it 5.5/10, IGN giving 6.7/10, and GameRankings aggregating 53.87%¹⁹. The Russian release notably included MegaFon advertisement with a brand sticker on the first car, while the North American release was DRM-free¹⁹.

Fan Projects

The game’s concepts have been adapted for tabletop gaming, with fan resources created for games like Car Wars, Axles & Alloys, and Outrider¹¹. A fan-created “Deathtrack Driver’s Survival Guide” was published online in 2004 (updated 2015), adapting game content and manual information for tabletop use¹¹.

Related Publications

• Deathtrack Driver’s Survival Guide: Fan-created tabletop gaming adaptation (2004, updated 2015)¹¹
• Original Game Manual: Included with retail release, approximately 37 KB in digital form⁸

Critical Perspective

Deathtrack occupies an important position in the evolution of vehicular combat games. While not the first to combine racing with weapons (games like Spy Hunter preceded it), Deathtrack’s 3D perspective, economic management, and uncompromising brutality helped establish conventions that would influence later titles in the genre⁷. Games like Quarantine, Interstate ‘76, and the Twisted Metal series owe a debt to the formula Deathtrack helped codify.

The game exemplifies late 1980s PC gaming design philosophy—technically ambitious, unapologetically violent, and focused on pure entertainment over narrative complexity. As reviewer Colin Rowsell noted, the game has “a pure, antisocial quality to it that most others lack”³. Jeff Tunnell’s design philosophy of making games that didn’t “punish the user” resulted in an accessible yet challenging experience that still holds appeal decades later.

The game’s 1996 inclusion in Computer Gaming World’s “150 Best Games of All Time” list at #124³ demonstrates its enduring reputation among PC gaming historians. While the 3D graphics have aged significantly, the core gameplay loop of racing, destroying opponents, and upgrading vehicles remains fundamentally satisfying. For fans of retro gaming and combat racing enthusiasts, Deathtrack remains a touchstone of the genre.

Downloads

Download / Preservation

• Internet Archive - Browser playable
• My Abandonware - DOS download
• Abandonware DOS - DOS download
• Classic Reload - Browser playable
• DOS.Zone - Browser playable

Manuals & Extras

• Game Manual - 37 KB PDF available at Old-Games.com⁸

Series Continuity

Deathtrack stands as the original entry in the Death Track series. The game established the core vehicular combat racing formula that would be revisited nearly two decades later. While Dynamix never produced a direct sequel (the company was absorbed into Sierra and eventually closed), the intellectual property was revived by Russian developer SkyFallen Entertainment.

The 2008-2009 sequel Death Track: Resurrection updated the concept with modern 3D graphics and expanded multiplayer options, though it received lukewarm critical reception. The original Deathtrack’s influence extends beyond its direct sequel to the broader vehicular combat genre, with spiritual successors appearing throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

• Next: 2008 - Death Track - Resurrection

References

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia – Deathtrack – release date, developer, publisher, designer, composer, CGW quote, CGW ranking, Game Boy cancellation ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

2. GamePressure – Deathtrack – game description, marketing quotes, dystopian setting description ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. MobyGames – Deathtrack – ratings, voice cast, awards, technical details, trivia, development notes, user reviews ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸

4. Abandonware DOS – Deathtrack – ratings, tagline, controls description, sequel information ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Alchetron – Deathtrack – starting money, designers, CGW quote ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

6. The Digital Antiquarian – Dynamic Interactive Narratives of Dynamix – Dynamix history, 3D action game series ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. My Abandonware – Deathtrack – user ratings, gameplay features, weapons list, strategies, genre predecessor status ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

8. Old-Games.com – Deathtrack – car types, addictive quality quote, technical specs ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

9. Internet Archive – Deathtrack – release date, technical specifications, game description, 16-color graphics ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

10. Wikidata – Deathtrack – input device, platform, basic metadata ↩ ↩²

11. Deathtrack Driver’s Survival Guide (Fan Site) – starting money, fuel levels, Boston track direction, Polish references, character quotes ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

12. Free Game Empire – Deathtrack – Dynamix history, weapons variety, Mad Max comparison ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

13. GameSpot – Deathtrack Cheats – user rating, money exploit ↩ ↩²

14. DOS.Zone – Deathtrack – user rating, browser playable status ↩ ↩²

15. Sierra Fandom Wiki – Dynamix – financial difficulties, publication details ↩ ↩²

16. Reddit r/dosbox – Deathtrack Music Problem – audio specifications, MT-32 detection issues, AdLib configuration ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

17. KHInsider – Deathtrack Soundtrack – soundtrack track listing, durations ↩

18. Classic Reload – Deathtrack – game description, futuristic America setting ↩

19. Wikipedia – Death Track: Resurrection – sequel information, release dates, review scores, platform details ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴