1992's 'Jaguar XJ220' was a 16-bit tribute to a 200mph supercar

Sometimes the warm hug of nostalgia you receive from playing an old racing game extends to the cars that feature in it. Jaguar XJ220 on the Amiga, and later the Sega Mega CD, is a 16-bit tribute to the Jaguar XJ220, the British made supercar that was, until the McLaren F1 rocked up, the fastest production car in the world. One of those cars that looked the length of a canal boat at the time, but would probably fit into the boot of a 5 Series these days.

Much like the Lotus Turbo Challenge games, this is a pseudo-3D racing game that sees you touring the world, racing through different environments and weather conditions. Unlike the Lotus series, though, this isn’t solely a one-make race. In the Wild West of 1990s video game vehicle licensing, your Jag will be blasting past F40s, Corvettes and Countaches en route to, presumably, a thumping victory that demonstrates the clear superiority of Jaguar’s engineering.

Where Jaguar XJ220 really excelled was in its environment detail. In defiance of the 1990s technology it was running on, tracks featured changing surfaces, so a lap in Egypt might be a mix of sandy desert and waterlogged marshland. Then there were the courses that had you haring along a Swiss mountainside with a dizzying drop to your right, somehow conjuring vertigo using only a handful of pixels. And if the predetermined routes weren’t enough, there was a fully featured track editor included as well.

In fact the only downside of Jaguar XJ220 was the fact that, because of the limitations of that 16-bit hardware, for each race you had to choose between hearing some of the best Amiga chiptune music of the 1990s or the engine note and tyre squeals of your 200mph supercar.