Motor City Online
Encyclopedia
Motor City Online was a racing
massively multiplayer online
computer game
released by Electronic Arts
on May 11, 2001. The point of the game was to buy classic cars (mostly American muscle car
s) ranging from 1930s to 1970s models, tune them up, and race them against other players. The game went offline on August 29, 2003 so EA Games could focus on their current online game at the time, The Sims Online
. EA, however, developed a new online racing game, called Need for Speed: World. Many fans of Motor City Online consider Need for Speed: World a Spiritual successor of Motor City Online, although EA has denied any direct link between the two games.
Originally conceived as part of the Need for Speed series
under the title Need for Speed: Motor City, all single player elements that may have been developed for the game were discarded in favor of an online-only model. The game featured some RPG elements, such as levelling up after completing tasks (e.g. winning races), and a functional, supply and demand
economy
for players to get involved in.
Aside from EA focusing on The Sims Online, another contributing factor to MCOs demise was the game's technical setup. Lag, as with most online games, was a problem, with cars acting unpredictably during times of high latency. Falling subscription rates (from an alleged peak of 36,000) and a lack of new interest in the game eventually led to its downfall. Previous Motor City Online users were offered access to The Sims Online
, Ultima Online
, or Earth & Beyond
. However, while Motor City Online was dead, an MCO fan developed Motor City Offline, a version of the game designed for play offline. It contains 34 converted car models from the original game. Motor City Offline was built using a modified version of the NFS High Stakes engine.
, sedans and station wagons of the 1930s to 1950s, to muscle cars from the 1960s and 1970s. Later in the games life, 3 classic truck's were available. Most of the vehicles could be cosmetically modified by chopping the roof, removing bumpers, which gave the vehicle an additional suffix on its name (i.e. "Ford Ranchero Chopped", "Ford Coupe Bumperless & Fenderless") painting the car different colors or with Scalloped/Flamed paint jobs. You could also add little trinkets like fuzzy dice, and even change the sound of the horn. Convertible versions of certain cars were available, as well as specialty and ultra rare paint jobs on cars. These paint jobs couldn't be purchased from the modification shop, the car had to be purchased with the paint job already. Some of these cars came as shells only if they
were particularly rare. The cars in the game are as follows:
Racing game
A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
massively multiplayer online
Massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
computer game
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
released by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
on May 11, 2001. The point of the game was to buy classic cars (mostly American muscle car
Muscle car
Muscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high-performance automobiles. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines muscle cars as "any of a group of American-made 2-door sports coupes with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving." Usually, a large V8 engine is fitted in a...
s) ranging from 1930s to 1970s models, tune them up, and race them against other players. The game went offline on August 29, 2003 so EA Games could focus on their current online game at the time, The Sims Online
The Sims Online
The Sims Online was a massively multiplayer online variation on Maxis's highly popular computer game The Sims. It was published by Electronic Arts and released on December 17, 2002 for Microsoft Windows. In March 2007, EA announced that the product would be re-branded as EA-Land and major...
. EA, however, developed a new online racing game, called Need for Speed: World. Many fans of Motor City Online consider Need for Speed: World a Spiritual successor of Motor City Online, although EA has denied any direct link between the two games.
Originally conceived as part of the Need for Speed series
Need for Speed
Need for Speed is a series of racing video games published by Electronic Arts and developed by several studios including Canadian-based company EA Black Box and British-based Criterion Games...
under the title Need for Speed: Motor City, all single player elements that may have been developed for the game were discarded in favor of an online-only model. The game featured some RPG elements, such as levelling up after completing tasks (e.g. winning races), and a functional, supply and demand
Supply and demand
Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers , resulting in an...
economy
Economic system
An economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...
for players to get involved in.
Aside from EA focusing on The Sims Online, another contributing factor to MCOs demise was the game's technical setup. Lag, as with most online games, was a problem, with cars acting unpredictably during times of high latency. Falling subscription rates (from an alleged peak of 36,000) and a lack of new interest in the game eventually led to its downfall. Previous Motor City Online users were offered access to The Sims Online
The Sims Online
The Sims Online was a massively multiplayer online variation on Maxis's highly popular computer game The Sims. It was published by Electronic Arts and released on December 17, 2002 for Microsoft Windows. In March 2007, EA announced that the product would be re-branded as EA-Land and major...
, Ultima Online
Ultima Online
Ultima Online is a graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game , released on September 24, 1997, by Origin Systems. It was instrumental to the development of the genre, and is still running today...
, or Earth & Beyond
Earth & Beyond
Earth & Beyond was a science fiction massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Electronic Arts . The game was released on September 24, 2002 in the United States. EA shut down Earth & Beyond on September 22, 2004...
. However, while Motor City Online was dead, an MCO fan developed Motor City Offline, a version of the game designed for play offline. It contains 34 converted car models from the original game. Motor City Offline was built using a modified version of the NFS High Stakes engine.
Cars
The vehicles featured in Motor City Online were all American models, ranging from coupes, coupe utilitiesCoupé utility
The coupé utility automobile body style, also known colloquially as the ute in Australia and New Zealand, combines a two-door "coupé" cabin with an integral cargo bed behind the cabin—using a light-duty passenger vehicle-derived platform....
, sedans and station wagons of the 1930s to 1950s, to muscle cars from the 1960s and 1970s. Later in the games life, 3 classic truck's were available. Most of the vehicles could be cosmetically modified by chopping the roof, removing bumpers, which gave the vehicle an additional suffix on its name (i.e. "Ford Ranchero Chopped", "Ford Coupe Bumperless & Fenderless") painting the car different colors or with Scalloped/Flamed paint jobs. You could also add little trinkets like fuzzy dice, and even change the sound of the horn. Convertible versions of certain cars were available, as well as specialty and ultra rare paint jobs on cars. These paint jobs couldn't be purchased from the modification shop, the car had to be purchased with the paint job already. Some of these cars came as shells only if they
were particularly rare. The cars in the game are as follows:
- 1932 Ford Model B CoupeFord Model B (1932)The Model B was a Ford automobile with production starting with model year 1932 and ending with 1934. It was a much updated version of the Model A and was replaced by the 1935 Ford Model 48...
- 1940 Ford De Luxe CoupeDe Luxe FordFord Motor Company introduced its De Luxe Ford line in 1938 as an upscale alternative to bridge the gap between its base model and luxury Lincoln offerings...
- 1947 Cadillac Series 62Cadillac Series 62The Series 62 was a series of cars produced by Cadillac, designed to replace the Series 61 in 1940. It remained in production through 1964, having been renamed Series 6200, when it was replaced by the Cadillac Calais name.-1940–1941:...
- 1948 Cadillac Fleetwood Station WagonCadillac FleetwoodLawrence P. Fisher was the Fisher brother most closely involved with Cadillac in its early years. In 1916 he joined the Fisher Body Company which had been formed by two of his brothers in 1908. Larry was one of four of the seven Fisher brothers who brought Fisher Body Corporation under the General...
- 1949 Mercury Sport SedanMercury (automobile)Mercury was an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company launched in 1938 by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, to market entry-level luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick brand, and Chrysler's namesake brand...
- 1953 Ford Crestline
- 1955 Buick CenturyBuick CenturyBuick Century is the model name used by the Buick division of General Motors for a line of full-size performance vehicles from 1936 to 1942 and 1954 to 1958, and from 1973 to 2005 for a mid-size car....
- 1957 Chevrolet Bel AirChevrolet Bel AirThe Chevrolet Bel Air is a full-size automobile that was produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1950–1975 model years. Hardtops in the Chevrolet Deluxe Styleline model range were designated with the Bel Air name from 1950–1952, but it was not a distinct series of its own until...
- 1957 Chevrolet Corvette C1
- 1957 Ford Fairlane
- 1957 Ford ThunderbirdFord Thunderbird (first generation)Ford unveiled the Thunderbird at the Detroit Auto Show on February 20, 1954. The first production car came off the line on September 9, 1954, and went on sale on October 22, 1954 as a 1955 model, and sold briskly; 3,500 orders were placed in the first ten days of sale...
- 1957 Ford RancheroFord RancheroThe Ford Ranchero was a coupe utility produced between 1957 and 1979. Unlike a pickup truck, the Ranchero was adapted from a two-door station wagon platform that integrated the cab and cargo bed into the body. A total of 508,355 units were produced during the model's production run...
- 1958 Chevrolet ImpalaChevrolet ImpalaThe Chevrolet Impala is a full-size automobile built by the Chevrolet division of General Motors introduced for the 1958 model year. Deriving its name from the southern African antelope, Chevrolet's most expensive passenger model through 1965 had become the best-selling automobile in the United...
- 1959 Cadillac EldoradoCadillac EldoradoThe 1953 Eldorado was a special-bodied, low-production convertible . It was the production version of the 1952 El Dorado "Golden Anniversary" concept car, and borrowed bumper bullets from the 1951 GM Le Sabre show car...
- 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray C2
- 1963 Ford ThunderbirdFord Thunderbird (third generation)1961 saw new and much sleeker styling for the Ford Thunderbird. Sales were strong, if not quite up to record-breaking 1960, at 73,051 including 10,516 convertibles. A new, larger FE-series V8 was the only engine available . The Thunderbird was 1961's Indianapolis 500 pace car, and featured...
- 1964 Chevrolet Impala 2-doorChevrolet ImpalaThe Chevrolet Impala is a full-size automobile built by the Chevrolet division of General Motors introduced for the 1958 model year. Deriving its name from the southern African antelope, Chevrolet's most expensive passenger model through 1965 had become the best-selling automobile in the United...
- 1964 Ford GalaxieFord GalaxieThe Ford Galaxie was a full-size car built in the United States by the Ford Motor Company for model years 1959 through 1974. The name was used for the top models in Ford’s full-size range from 1959 until 1961, in a marketing attempt to appeal to the excitement surrounding the Space Race...
- 1964 Ford Mustang ConvertibleFord Mustang (first generation)The first-generation Ford Mustang is the original pony car, manufactured by Ford Motor Company from 1964 until 1973.It was initially introduced as a hardtop and convertible with the fastback version put on sale the following year...
- 1966 Pontiac GTOPontiac GTOThe Pontiac GTO is an automobile built by Pontiac Division of General Motors in the United States from 1964 to 1974, and by GM subsidiary Holden in Australia from 2004 to 2006. It is considered an innovative, and now classic muscle car of the 1960s and 1970s...
- 1966 Shelby Cobra 427AC CobraThe AC Cobra, also known colloquially as the Shelby Cobra in North America, is an Anglo-American sports car that was produced during the 1960s.-History and development:...
- 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 427Chevrolet ChevelleThe Chevrolet Chevelle is a mid-sized automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors in three generations for the 1964 through 1977 model years. Part of the GM A-Body platform, the Chevelle was one of Chevrolet's most successful nameplates. Body styles include coupes, sedans,...
- 1969 AMC AMXAMC AMXThe AMC AMX is a two-seat GT in style and approach sports car that was produced by American Motors Corporation for the 1968 through 1970 model years. The AMX was also classified as a muscle car, but "unique among other American cars at the time due its short wheelbase"...
- 1969 Chevrolet Camaro RS/SS
- 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28/RS
- 1969 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray C3
- 1969 Dodge Charger ConvertibleDodge Charger (B-body)The Dodge Charger was a mid-size automobile produced by Dodge. The 1966-1974 Chargers were based on the Chrysler B platform. The 1975-1978 Chargers were based on the Chrysler Cordoba.-Origin of the Charger:...
- 1969 Dodge Coronet Super BeeDodge CoronetThe Coronet was a full-size car from Dodge in the 1950s, initially the division's highest trim line but, starting in 1955, the lowest trim line. In the 1960s, the name was transferred to Dodge's mid-size entry.-1949:...
- 1969 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet 429
- 1969 Ford Torino GT Fastback
- 1969 Oldsmobile 4-4-2Oldsmobile 442The Oldsmobile 442 was a muscle car produced by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors. It was introduced as an option package for F-85 and Cutlass models sold in the United States beginning with the 1964 model year. It became a model in its own right from 1968 to 1971, then reverted to an...
- 1969 Plymouth GTXPlymouth GTXThe Plymouth GTX was introduced as the Belvedere GTX in 1967 by the Plymouth division to be a "gentleman's" muscle car.It's most notable appearance in modern popular culture is in the television series Angel, in which the title character drove a black 1967 model.-1967:It was to be an exceptional...
- 1969 Plymouth Road RunnerPlymouth Road RunnerThe Plymouth Road Runner was a muscle car built by the Plymouth division of the Chrysler Corporation in the United States between 1968 and 1980. In 1968, the first muscle cars were, in the opinion of many, moving away from their roots as relatively cheap, fast cars as they gained options...
- 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SSChevrolet ChevelleThe Chevrolet Chevelle is a mid-sized automobile produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors in three generations for the 1964 through 1977 model years. Part of the GM A-Body platform, the Chevelle was one of Chevrolet's most successful nameplates. Body styles include coupes, sedans,...
- 1970 Chevrolet El Camino SSChevrolet El CaminoThe Chevrolet El Camino is a coupe utility vehicle produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1959–1960 model years in response to the success of its rival, Ford Ranchero. Production resumed for the 1964–1977 model years based on the Chevelle platform, and continued for the...
- 1970 Chevrolet Nova SS
- 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429Ford Mustang (first generation)The first-generation Ford Mustang is the original pony car, manufactured by Ford Motor Company from 1964 until 1973.It was initially introduced as a hardtop and convertible with the fastback version put on sale the following year...
- 1970 Plymouth BarracudaPlymouth BarracudaThe Plymouth Barracuda is a 2-door car that was manufactured by the Plymouth division of the Chrysler Corporation from 1964-1974.The first-generation Barracuda, a fastback A-body coupe based on the Plymouth Valiant, had a distinctive wraparound back glass and was available from 1964-1966.The...
- 1970 Plymouth Duster 340Plymouth DusterThe first Plymouth Duster was a semi-fastback version of the Plymouth Valiant automobile, produced in the US from 1970 to 1976.The Duster name was later revived for optional trim packages on certain versions of the 1979-1980 Plymouth Volare, 1985-1987 Plymouth Turismo, and 1992-1994 Plymouth...
- 1973 Pontiac Firebird Trans AmPontiac FirebirdThe Pontiac Firebird was built by the Pontiac division of General Motors between 1967 and 2002. The Firebird was introduced the same year as the automaker's platform-sharing model, the Chevrolet Camaro...
- 1993 Toyota SupraToyota SupraThe Toyota Supra is a sports car/grand tourer that was produced by Toyota Motor Company from 1979 to 2002. The styling of the Toyota Supra was derived from the Toyota Celica, but it was both longer and wider. Starting in mid-1986, the Supra became its own model and was no longer based on the Celica...
- 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSXMitsubishi EclipseThe Mitsubishi Eclipse was a coupe that was in production since 1989 for left hand drive traffic markets. According to Mitsubishi, the car was named after an 18th century English racehorse which won 26 races, and has also been sold as the Eagle Talon and the Plymouth Laser captive imports through...