Flathead Summer (Game Boy)

June 15, 1963. School’s out.

You saved up working at your uncle’s shop, and your folks cleared out half the garage. You’ve got 92 days. Buy a car out of the classifieds, bolt on what you can afford, and take it to the Hi-Beam Drive-In. Win ten races and the King will finally line up against you. Beat him on the strip, then take his car on the canyon road, for pink slips.

Flathead Summer is a hot-rod racing and wrenching game made for the original Game Boy.

In the spirit of Street Rod
Flathead Summer is a love letter to Street Rod, the 1989 PC classic published by California Dreams. It was developed by P.Z.Karen Co. Development Group and Logical Design Works, and came out for MS-DOS and the Commodore 64 that year, then the Amiga in 1990. Street Rod dropped you into 1963 with an empty garage, $750 and the newspaper classifieds. You bought a beater, rebuilt it part by part, raced for cash and pink slips at the local diner, and dodged the cops on back-road runs, all to earn a shot at The King before the summer ran out. It got a sequel, Street Rod 2, set in 1969, and still has a devoted following. Flathead Summer takes that same summer-long grind and rebuilds it from scratch for a handheld, with its own cars, town, music and parts system.

In the garage

• Shop the newspaper for cars, new parts at Kessler’s Speed Shop, and used parts that are gone tomorrow
• Pop the hood and swap engines, manifolds and carburetors bolt by bolt
• Three makes, each with its own parts. The banner over your car tells you which ones fit
• Swap gearboxes and tires, set the timing, chop the top
• Tune in the garage radio: 1340 Doo-Wop, 880 Boogie and 540 Rock, all original music

On the street

• Quarter-mile drags at the Hi-Beam and night road races up the canyon
• Lean on your rival, and outrun the deputy past 55
• Three races a night. Wreck it and you’re paying the body shop
• Bet cash, or put your car on the line for pink slips

What you get

• flathead-summer.gb: the full game ROM
• flathead-summer.pdf: the instruction manual
• Battery-backed saves, kept in two copies so a bad save can’t wipe your summer

Plays on

• Any Game Boy emulator, on PC, Mac, phone or handheld
• A real Game Boy, Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance, using a flash cart (such as an EverDrive)

Pay what you want, even $0. If you enjoy it, chipping in helps make the next one. Word is there’s a kid out in Bakersfield building something for next summer…

Published by astrocrate. A jakeyt.art game. Flathead Summer is an independent tribute and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the makers or rights holders of Street Rod.

YOUTUBE PLAYABLES VERSION AVAILABLE SOON

Review By high-voltage.cz! (original review in Czech.)