Highway 2000 (1981)

"A game of automobile conflict in the 21st century"

People create their cars and fill out Vehicle Control Sheets, then pick a scenario (all of which take place on a 5-lane highway) and start attacking each other. Players normally take one car each, or a cycle pack, picked randomly with a die roll on the encounter chart. (Used for generating random traffic.)

Mechanics are a lot simpler than most games of this type - movement is composed of making lane changes and moving forward based on your speed. Acceleration/deceleration and movement is plotted secretly, then simultaneously revealed - each turn each car will move one space forwards or sideways for each 10 MPH of speed, broken up into four phases. (Scale is 20 feet per square.)

Only one car (or two motorcycles) is allowed per square - if two cars try to move together they 'bump' and start rolling for critical damage. Players can roll to make 'emergency' changes to their plotted movement (which is restricted, for example a 'right' move can never be changed into a 'left' move.)

Combat occurs at the end of every phase. Drivers can fire one turret, (a group of weapons mounted in one of eight directions) gunners can fire two. Any/all weapons can be fired each phase, which makes for a lot of shooting opportunities, which is good since weapons only fire in a straight line (front/back/right/left/diagonals.)

Scenarios include the basic duel, "Rush Hour" where there is a chance for random traffic to enter the highway (is what the on-ramp is used for) and a Death Race with 3 to 5 players racing sets of identical cars.

The game comes in a small box, closed with a folding flap like a satchel, complete with 3 highway boards (so you can put the rear board in front and keep driving) counters for the cars, lots of charts & tables, car control sheets and a rule book.