into a wall, falls into a gap in the track, or hits the opponent's car. If the damage, which is indicated by a crack in the frame at the top of the screen, reaches a certain level, the vehicle is deemed to be wrecked and the driver loses the race instantly. A particularly hard crash will also make holes representing structural damage appear in the frame above the windshield. Holes remain on the car for the rest of the season and increase the rate at which the crack in the frame advances. The player can compete against computer opponents or, at least on the Atari ST and Amiga versions, with another player using two computers connected via a null modem cable, each with their own TV or monitor. Such direct head-to-head racing between players is also made possible by pairing an Amiga computer with an Atari ST computer via the cable. Development and release British developer Geoff Crammond spent three years developing Stunt Car Racer, his second car-based title after Revs in 1984. The project started off as a land-roving simulator for Commodore 64 where one drives on randomly undulating terrain. The physics were then programmed for the car's suspension, and after testing the game himself, Crammond found driving off ramps the most enjoyable. He then added in more ramps on an even stretch of the landscape, but had difficulty locating them. He therefore placed the ramps on a track, which he then elevated to avoid driving onto the field. The track's corners were banked to emphasize the game's speed and the ramps as its main challenge. It was suggested after a magazine interview with Crammond that he was inspired by the arcade game Hard Drivin', but he said that he had seen it only in the final months of his game's development and that it had no impact on its outcome. Visually, the difference between the early 8-bit and later Amiga and Atari ST releases is that the latter use a system for plotting polygons instead of a solid fill technique. Another key difference is that besides racing head-to-head on two linked computers, an Amiga can be connected to an Atari ST computer via the same RS-232 serial port on both machines for cross-platform play, owing to Crammond's experience with outputting data for his other game, Aviator, on the BBC Micro. MicroProse considered adding up to eight concurrent racers