18 Wheels of Steel
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18 Wheels of Steel (sometimes abbreviated as 18 WoS) is a series of trucking simulators published by ValuSoft and developed by SCS Software. The series currently has 8 installments. Despite being released as budget games, the series has surprisingly high production values.
Versions
There are eight versions of 18 Wheels of Steel from 2002 to 2011.
Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel [Aug 22, 2002]
Hard Truck: 18 Wheels Of Steel is a game developed by SoftLab and SCS Software in 2002. Hard Truck 18 Wheels Of Steel is the sequel to Hard Truck 2: King of the Road. Hard Truck also has three maps, which are 'Midwest', 'West', and 'Rockies'. There are 15 towns and each of the three maps and the game has only 6 trucks. 'Midwest' is a map which consists of Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Cincinnati, West has San Francisco, Reno, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. Rockies has Denver, Helena, Boise, Cheyenne, and Salt Lake City. In the game, at least half of the trucks can go over 100 mp/h. Also, you are racing against the load time and the driver energy time. e.g. time from San Francisco to Reno for one load is 9:45 but you have 9:43 driving energy time left. Note: that will be a challenge and some thinking to do. Countries: United States
18 Wheels of Steel: Across America [2003]
This installment is very similar to Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel except that the graphics were updated, more trucks and cargo were added, and a new map was created that enables users to travel across the entire continental U.S., through 30 cities. In this version, players can choose from 30 trucks and 40+ trailers. The trucks each blow brownish coloured exhaust from their stacks when their engines are operated above 2500 RPM. This feature makes no sense and when the camera is set to follow the truck, the smoke makes it hard to see sometimes. Time is made up of a total of 24 minutes in a day in the clock, and goes by rather quickly. You will also battle 5 AI drivers.
This game focuses on the delivery of cargo. Unlike in Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel, the sleep timer was removed from the simulation. There is an improved traffic model as well as Planes, helicopters, and trains with authentic sounds. This game also features the fastest fuel consumption when driving a truck.
Countries: United States
18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal [Aug 30, 2004]
In this installment, released in 2004, the user can travel across the entire continental US, and also through northern Mexico and southern Canada, through 30 cities. The sleep timer was brought back in this version. It has an improved traffic model. 18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal requires OpenGL This installment is he original. It also has the fastest map to date besides Haulin' and the first trucking game to feature more than one country. Countries: United States, Canada, and Mexico
Canada: Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Thunder Bay, and Edmonton
Mexico: Chihuahua, Monterrey, and Gu
18 Wheels of Steel: Convoy [Sep 1, 2005]
In this updated installment, you can travel through the United States, as well as southern Canada, though it differs from 18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal in that Mexican cities are not present, this might be considered as the bad part of the series since it didn't improve much from its predecessor except for minor additions. You can travel through 30+ cities and choose from 35+ rigs, 45+ cargoes and 47+ trailers. You have to use your mouse to look outside of the cab for your mirrors. The graphics are also much improved in this version, and you can see drivers in other vehicles and when the trucks are "lugged" under 1500 RPM, they emit black exhaust much like older non computerized trucks do. However, other graphical features such as dynamic dashboard gauges were replaced with simple inanimate textures, although this and minor bugs were fixed with a patch released by SCS Software in 2008. You can also buy things to protect yourself. This version is considered the worst in the series because of lack of improvement and several glitches. Also, you cannot save the game during a delivery. Only before the delivery or after the delivery. Countries: United States and Canada
18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin' [Dec 8, 2006]
This installment adds more cities and has more realistic graphics, but Mexico is gone from this installment, as in Convoy. The ability to use custom soundtracks and save games during deliveries was added also. Users can choose from 32 rigs, 45+ cargoes and 47+ trailers in the game, including double trailers.The game doesn't require a very powerful computer to operate properly since it can run on most older PC-s(RAM 256MB, processor 1.4 GHz,64MB video card). The game's engine, Prism3d, may not respond on older graphic cards resulting in a game crash on the game's start-up. Countries: United States and Canada
18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul [Dec 3, 2007]
18 This installment of the game is very similar to and has the same game play as Haulin' but with renamed companies, 2 new trucks, and 3 cities in Mexico added. The previous 9 cities [Chihuahua, Guaymas, Monterrey, etc] from 18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal have returned but the map for each was slightly updated. Countries: United States, Canada, and Mexico
18 Wheels Of Steel: Extreme Trucker [Sep 23, 2009]
Extreme Trucker lets you be the brave trucker and deliver cargoes in any of the three main areas of the game: Yungas Road (also known as Road of Death), Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road, and the Australian Outback. All three maps are "extreme" in their ways: Driving on the icy and snowy roads of northern Canada can be a tough challenge no matter what you deliver. The Australian long distance routes will let you drive "road trains", up to 5 multiple trailers attached. The South American area is known for its narrow roads, a moment of lack of caution and you find yourself dropping off the edge of a cliff. This game is quite different from the previous installments and the whole concept is changed. The player can no longer drive around in free roam unless you decide to go around the map during a delivery, but you can only pick a job offer from the selection menu only if users have met its requirements of having multiple new trucks and accomplished deliveries. The trucks and cars are this time made after real brands, although you can't own any vehicles through the game, and you are simply a truck driver seeking for various jobs. Still, today's low to mediocre range computer will be able to run the game without getting low FPS (1.9 GHz CPU,1 GB RAM,256 MB graphics accelerator). Continents: North America, South America, and Australia
18 Wheels Of Steel: Extreme Trucker 2 [Jan 6, 2011]
Extreme Trucker 2 is a further development of the 18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker, which has two additional locations: Montana and Bangladesh and a few new types of cargo. It has better graphics than 18 Wheels of steel Extreme Trucker and more optimized gameplay. Continents: North America, South America, Australia, and Asia. Montana has narrow forest roads , Yungas road has Narrow roads in mountains with no fence! Bangaldesh in Asia Has it's curves and Australian Outback in the dust desert. Said to be the hardest of the series, but good.
Modification
Much of the game's data is in a file named "base.scs". This file can be extracted with most zip compression software. Within the new folders are most of the game textures, including terrain, truck skins, backgrounds, and others, as well as code for cities, trucks, and other in-game objects. While the game's publisher, ValuSoft, does not provide support on exactly how to "mod" the game, there are several communities and sites dedicated to that purpose, creating even new maps and trucks.