Desert Race

Desert Race is a video game in the racing / driving genre developed by Aspirine and published by Aspirine originally released in 1999. It is currently playable on DOS.

Desert Race has the possible distinction of being the first (and only?) animated driving game programmed entirely as a DOS batch file. This involves all the expected limitations: system commands only, no real access to graphics and hardware, and the absence of most useful programming constructs. However, it does manage to implement top-down car racing in ASCII graphics, albeit without continuous real-time play (the game waits for a key press before advancing to the next frame).

There's even a story, in which you embark on a brutal race for survival in a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic setting. The game takes place at night, so you only see part of the road, which fades out at the edges; your only controls are to move left and right to change lanes, trying to avoid oncoming cars as they emerge from the darkness. Colliding with a car (or the edge of the road) will permanently extinguish your road rage.

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.