Ivan Ironman Stewart's Super Off Road (NES) - 01 Full Playthrough
2The game doesn't have any sort of satisfying ending, but it does abruptly stop after Race 99, so that was my goal.
There are various other milestones that I hit along the way:
0:18:28 - Qualifiers end/tournament starts (after race 14)
0:29:07 - Max stats (the only speedrun category I've found)
0:40:46 - Race 35 is the last new race (Hurricane Gulch)
0:48:36 - Race 43 is first appearance of last race in reverse
1:42:43 - Race 99 the game unceremoniously ends
There is a lot of misinformation online about how lives work in this game. It is subtle, but your lives are displayed as little trucks on the Ironman Speed Shop just below the cash display. If you pay attention to this you will find that:
1) If you finish first place you will get an extra life (max 3)
2) If you finish any other place you will lose a life
This means the strategy becomes knowing which races you have to win and which you can lose. For me it was:
Must wins - Fandango, Cliffhanger and Huevos Grande
Expected losses - Big Dukes, Blaster and Hurricane Gulch
Must win one or the other: Sidewinder and Wipe Out
If you can keep the above up, you will make it through the game.
Here is the breakdown of all the races and my placement records.
Race 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Fandango 14 1 0 0
Sidewinder 7 1 6 1
Wipe Out 13 0 0 1
Big Dukes 0 0 6 7
Blaster 0 1 4 7
Cliffhanger 11 0 0 0
Huevos Grande 10 0 0 0
Hurricane Gulch 0 0 7 2
Total 55 3 23 18