18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker

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18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker is an arcade racing game in which players drive a tractor-trailer across the country. Ports were released for Dreamcast, GameCube and the PlayStation 2.

An indirect sequel to the game is The King of Route 66.

Contents

1 Gameplay
2 Power-ups and the Lizard Tail
3 Stages
4 Ports
5 References
6 External links

Gameplay

The main purpose is to make it to the finish line with your cargo within a given time. The game gives you a choice of five characters:

Asphalt Cowboy — He has the best all-around truck, and is perfect for beginners.
Long Horn — His truck is the slowest of the group, but it's also the toughest, most durable vehicle.
Stream Line — His truck is the weakest in the group, as it is prone to heavy damage.
Highway Cat — She has the fastest truck, but also has poor acceleration.

In addition, there is a hidden fifth trucker, Nippon Maru (Nihon Maru in the arcade version), a Japanese trucker who drives an art truck. Normally available in the arcade version, he can be unlocked in the console versions by completing the cross-country journey with all four regular truckers.

Nippon Maru — He has a balanced truck but has less traction and slides on turns, as well as having different trailers in arcade mode.

You can also unlock your rivals truck by completing arcade mode with Nippon Maru

Lizard Tail — He has maximum everything at the start and has the same trailers as the four starters, but your rival is Nippon Maru

There are special vehicles that you can ram into that will add three seconds to your time. They look like purple Chevy Astro Vans. After Stage 1, the game gives the player a choice of trailer. One trailer is harder to haul, but provides a bigger payoff while the other choice is easier to haul but provides a smaller payoff. Money is deducted from the total when the trailer is hit.

Power-ups and the Lizard Tail

On your cross-country trek, you also have to compete with Lizard Tail, an arrogant trucker who will try to distract you by shouting various insults over his CB radio. If you beat Lizard Tail, you'll go to the bonus stage, in which you'll try to get the following Power-ups:

Stage 1 — Horn

To get this Power-Up, you have to take a sharp right turn into a green parking space. Start out moving forward, but don't go too fast, especially when going into the turn. Start braking as soon as the view pans up. If you position your truck into the green space (no part of the truck can go outside the designated green line), you win the horn. You'll need this to warn other drivers of your presence as traffic gets more congested in the later stages.

Stage 2 — Muffler

This Bonus Stage is the same as Stage 1, but with two sharp turns this time, one to the left, and the other to the right. Maneuver carefully through these turns, and be prepared to brake when the green space comes up. The muffler will help you build up your speed even more.

Stage 3 — Engine

You have to back in a straight line into the green space. Use extreme caution so your truck won't drift too far away from the green space. If you succeed into putting your truck inside the green space, you'll win the engine power-up. This will help you attain your top speed more quickly.

Stages

Stage 1, Trailer: Fuel Tanker, New York City to Key West — This is a cruise down Interstate 95. The course is straight most of the way, and has very few hills, if any. Near the end, there is a fork in the road that will take you down a beachfront street.

Stage 2, Trailer: Car transporter/Log Trailer, St. Petersburg to Dallas — This course starts out on a lightly-traveled boulevard, and the first time you see Lizard Tail, he bursts through some buildings as he enters the boulevard. The boulevard turns into a slightly heavier-traveled highway. The first fork gives you a choice of going through a residential neighborhood to the left or taking a dirt road to the right. Near the end, there's a tornado that tosses vehicles all around. Dodge them if you can, and weave through them if you have to. The tornado dies down at the second fork.

Stage 3, Trailer: Container/Big Rig, Dallas to Las Vegas — The journey continues through the Southwestern desert. Lizard Tail enters the course taking out cacti planted in the median of a rural highway. A dirt road forks off to the right, with rolling boulders hitting your truck. This is the most congested course, so you'll need plenty of "slip streams" to have a chance of beating your rival here.

Stage 4, Trailer: Dump Trailer/Cable Car, Las Vegas to San Francisco — The final segment of the trip starts out at dawn in Vegas. As soon as you enter the freeway, Lizard Tail bumps you from behind. At the fork in the road, there are three possible routes to take: into oncoming traffic to the left, going with the flow of traffic on the right, on onto an unfinished freeway bridge that's marked as a construction zone straight ahead. If you take the bridge, watch out for construction equipment. You'll also find a bonus van parked on the edge of the bridge. You then go through a tunnel, and at the end of the tunnel is San Francisco, where you race your rival down a hilly street. On the Golden Gate Bridge, you'll find two bonus vans headed towards the finish line.

Ports

The initial port of the game was released on the Sega Dreamcast. Released by Sega, it is fairly faithful to its arcade counterpart, but the voice actors for the characters were changed and the arcade's cross-country map loading screens were made more simple looking as well. A two-player mode was also made available. The game was released by Acclaim Entertainment (who also released Sega's Ferrari F355 Challenge on the Dreamcast) on the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.

References

External links

[18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker] at Coin-Op Museum

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