Software:TOCA World Touring Cars

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Short description: 2000 video game

TOCA World Touring Cars
European PlayStation cover art
Developer(s)Codemasters
Spellbound (GBA)
Publisher(s)Codemasters
SeriesTOCA
Platform(s)PlayStation, Game Boy Advance
ReleasePlayStation
  • EU: 25 August 2000
  • NA: 3 October 2000
  • JP: 9 November 2000
Game Boy Advance
  • EU: 7 March 2003
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

TOCA World Touring Cars is a 2000 racing video game developed and published by Codemasters for PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. It is the third game in the TOCA series.

TOCA World Touring Cars features various Touring Car championships from around the world, but despite carrying the TOCA name, a fully licensed British Touring Car Championship (TOCA) series was not included. This upset a lot of fans of the series, but success continued. The gameplay overall became more "Arcade" and the replacement of qualifying laps with random grid positions together with the omission of penalties for bad driving made the game much more playable for the casual gamer. Unlike the first two titles in the TOCA series, World Touring Cars was not released in a Windows version.

For the North American market, the game was released as Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing, with the cover art featuring NASCAR drivers Jason Jarrett and Justin Labonte.[1]

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic80/100[2]
Review scores
PublicationScore
Edge8/10[4]
EGM8.67/10[5]
Famitsu27/40[6]
Game Informer7.75/10[7]
GameProStarStarStarHalf star[8][lower-alpha 1]
GameSpot8.9/10[1]
IGN8.3/10[9]
OPM (UK)10/10[10]
OPM (US)StarStarStarStar[11]
Award
PublicationAward
OPM (UK)Star Player

The game received "favourable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[2] In Japan, where the PlayStation version was ported and published by Spike under the name WTC: World Touring Car Championship (WTC ワールド・ツーリングカー・チャンピオンシップ, WTC Wārudo Tsūringukā Chanpionshippu) on 9 November 2000, Famitsu gave it a score of 27 out of 40.[6]

The PS version was a bestseller in the UK,[12] replacing WWF SmackDown!. In the media, once again the franchise was compared to the Gran Turismo series and TOCA was warmly received by much of the specialist press, most notably scoring 10 out of 10 in Official UK PlayStation Magazine.[10] The detailed and smooth graphics were of particular praise, and it had "an ideal mix of driving, crashing and career progression".[13]

The same console version was a runner-up for GameSpot's annual "Best Driving Game" award among console games, losing to Test Drive Le Mans.[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ GamePro gave the game two 4/5 scores for graphics and sound, and two 3.5/5 scores for control and overall fun factor.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 MacDonald, Ryan (9 October 2000). "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing Review". CBS Interactive. https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/jarrett-and-labonte-stock-car-racing-review/1900-2638280/. Retrieved 22 August 2015. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing for PlayStation Reviews". CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/jarrett-and-labonte-stock-car-racing/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation. Retrieved 22 August 2015. 
  3. ↑ Linn, Demian (10 October 2000). "Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing [Incomplete"]. CNET. Archived from the original on 4 December 2000. https://web.archive.org/web/20001204234700/http://gamecenter.com/Psx/Reviews/Jlsr/. Retrieved 3 June 2021. 
  4. ↑ Edge staff (September 2000). "TOCA World Touring Cars (PS)". Edge (Future Publishing) (88): 100–1. https://archive.org/details/edgeuk088/page/n93/mode/2up. Retrieved 29 January 2021. 
  5. ↑ EGM staff (November 2000). "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Ziff Davis) (136). 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "WTC ワールド・ツーリングカー・チャンピオンシップ [PS"] (in Japanese). Famitsu (Enterbrain). https://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_h_title&title_id=19260&redirect=no. Retrieved 27 January 2020. 
  7. ↑ McNamara, Andy (January 2001). "Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing". Game Informer (FuncoLand) (93): 103. 
  8. ↑ Vicious Sid (November 2000). "Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing Review for PlayStation on GamePro.com". GamePro (IDG Entertainment) (146): 168. Archived from the original on 7 February 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050207115342/http://www.gamepro.com/sony/psx/games/reviews/7462.shtml. Retrieved 22 August 2015. 
  9. ↑ Perry, Douglass C. (17 October 2000). "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing". Ziff Davis. https://www.ign.com/articles/2000/10/18/jarrett-and-labonte-stock-car-racing. Retrieved 22 August 2015. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Davies, Jonathan (September 2000). "TOCA World Touring Cars". Official UK PlayStation Magazine (Future Publishing) (62): 106–8. https://archive.org/details/opm062/page/n105/mode/2up. Retrieved 29 January 2021. 
  11. ↑ "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine (Ziff Davis) (38). November 2000. 
  12. ↑ "Loading: OPM Charts". Official UK PlayStation Magazine (Future Publishing) (65): 24. December 2000. https://archive.org/details/official-uk-playstation-magazine-65-december-2000/page/24/mode/2up. Retrieved 29 January 2021. 
  13. ↑ "TOCA World Touring Cars (Preview)". Official UK PlayStation Magazine (Future Publishing) (58). May 2000. 
  14. ↑ GameSpot staff (5 January 2001). "Best and Worst of 2000 (Best Driving Game Runners-Up)". CNET. Archived from the original on 6 December 2002. https://web.archive.org/web/20021206134100/http://gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/bestof_2000/p4_04.html. Retrieved 29 January 2021. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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