shiccup.

Patch notes

FlatHead Summer: Tokyo updates

Every update to FlatHead Summer: Tokyo, newest first. Now on v0.5.43, updated Oct 23, 2026.

Play FlatHead Summer: Tokyo

October 2026

v0.5.43

Real weights for engines and cars

  • Every engine now weighs what its real-life twin did, with manifolds and carburetors (most are 5 to 20 kg lighter than before), so an engine swap changes the car's weight the way it really would.
  • Four cars now weigh what their real-life twins did: the '78 Takara Kasumi HT (90 kg lighter), the '81 Nikko Tekka RS (50 kg heavier), the '88 Hayate Cypher V-R (136 kg lighter) and the '89 Meisho Vortex RZ (40 kg lighter).
  • Taking the bumpers off saves 26 kg on cars up to 1979 (chrome steel) and 21 kg from 1980 (plastic), instead of 23 kg on every car. The deep-dish mesh wheels save 10 kg.
  • The '85 Nikko Shiranui ZT and Jakey T's '84 Kagerou are two-seaters: taking their seats out removes only the passenger seat.
v0.5.42

Sell parts off the shelf with no car

  • With no car in your stall, the parts shelf now shows under "Your stall is empty", so you can sell what's on it toward your next car. The garage's SHELF sign takes you there.
v0.5.41

Takahashi's catalog costs ¥1,000,000

  • Takahashi Speed Works' complete-car catalog now costs ¥1,000,000 (it was ¥200,000), so building any car to order is something you save up for.
v0.5.40

Bolts on the engine, a look under the rival's hood, seats out

  • Under the hood, the four bolts you tap to pull the engine now sit on the engine itself, placed for each of the 29 painted engines, on phones and computers.
  • At the Night Stop, Look under the hood shows a small picture of the rival's engine bay next to yours instead of a list.
  • The body shop can take the seats out: the passenger seat and the back seat come out (29 kg lighter; a two-seater loses 16 kg). It's free and you can put them back, but a patrol car that looks inside has a reason to stop you.
  • The race view now comes fully straight on a straight in under a second after a bend (it could stay a few degrees off for a second and a half).
  • Lowered cars no longer show a second set of tires behind the wheels, and the ram-air scoop sits properly on the hood.
  • When a car has more power than its tires can hold, the garage and the Speed Works catalog now say so: flat out the tires spin, so more power can make the zero-yon slower. Stickier tires fix it.
  • The last two new cars, the '69 Ise Kogarashi and the '89 Hayate Tsurugi, are painted now, and four engines got cleaner icons.
v0.5.39

Painted pictures for ten of the new cars

  • Ten of the twelve new cars now have hand-painted pictures in the anime look, like the rest of the lineup: the kei cars, the hot hatches, the turbo sedans and coupes. The last two, the '69 Ise Kogarashi and the '89 Hayate Tsurugi, keep their drawn pictures until their paintings are redone.
  • All thirteen new engines have painted icons too.
v0.5.38

Twelve new cars, a used car guide and cars built to order

  • Twelve new cars from four new makers (Towa, Enshu, Seto and Ise) plus new models from Nikko, Hayate and Hokuto: tiny kei cars on yellow plates, hot hatches, turbo sedans and coupes. The '89 ones arrive on August 1. Their pictures are drawn for now; painted ones are coming.
  • The Weekly always has one cheap car, one in the middle and one dear one, and never two of the same model.
  • Engine swaps work like the real thing. A car takes engines up to one size bigger than its own, so no six in a kei car. YAMI-ICHI's back room modifies the bay for one other maker's engines, and switching to another maker costs the fee again. A tubular front clip takes an engine of any size, but it isn't street-legal.
  • The Used Car Guide (¥50,000 a year, a new edition each month) lists every car's weight, power, zero-yon and what its engine bay takes, every engine, and a tuner's page for the lightest car with the biggest engine.
  • Takahashi Speed Works' catalog (¥200,000, once) builds any car on sale with any parts to order, bay work and front clip included, at twice the shop price, in your garage 5 days later.
v0.5.37

A calmer view in street races

  • The view in street races no longer wobbles back and forth as you steer. It still turns a little the way the car is going, but a tap of the wheel now turns it about 2 degrees instead of 7, and it settles more gently.
v0.5.36

Big brakes, body shop numbers, and pushing rivals

  • YAMI-ICHI's back room fits big brakes (¥90,000, while you wait): four-piston calipers, bigger rotors and braided lines. Your car stops about 8% shorter, so you can brake later into every bend. The King has them too.
  • The body shop shows what each change does. Every part's row lists its numbers (weight, drag, grip, width, scraping, police), and under the car the plan shows what it changes: weight, zero-yon time, top speed, cornering, width, the chance of a patrol car and scraping.
  • A car at the Hi-Beam Night Stop now waits about a minute on its own clock, with the time left on its card. Go look at your car in the garage and it's still there when you come back. Looking under its hood shows your own engine, manifold and carburetors beside theirs.
  • Pink slips: your wins count now. Each win adds 3% to what your car counts for (up to 10 wins), on top of what it's worth and how it looks. When a rival won't bet their car, the sheet shows the sums: what theirs is worth, what yours needs to count for, and what yours counts for.
  • Side by side with a rival, steer into them to push them across, and into the wall if you keep at it. The wall costs them speed. A heavier car shoves harder, the best drivers push back, and rubbing dents your car too.
  • The view turns with the car: steer early on a straight and the view swings that way, instead of staying pointed down the road while the car slides across.
  • A longer run to the line after the last bend: 210 m on Tenjin Pass (was 140) and 170 m on the Harumi loop (was 110).
v0.5.35

YAMI-ICHI, the midnight market, and bigger bets

  • A second paper: YAMI-ICHI (闇市), the midnight market. Buy today's copy for ¥10,000 at the body shop's back counter (the garage's Body view, right under Ride height) or on the paper page. It's good until dawn, so buy it again each day you want it.
  • The paper page now switches between The Pier 9 Auto Weekly and YAMI-ICHI.
  • Every day YAMI-ICHI carries 2 built cars (kits, lowered, often overfenders on wide tires, stepped-up carbs and gearbox, sometimes a built engine or another make's engine), 3 hot parts at 50-60% of the new price, and 2 built engines.
  • Hot parts have no paperwork: each one on your car brings out more patrol cars, and a ticket takes every hot part off the car you raced. They sell for half.
  • Wide tires: wide high-grip radials and wide S-compound semi-slicks, about 4% more grip than the narrow sets. They only fit under the Overfenders kit, and the overfenders stay on while they're fitted.
  • Built engines: about 12% more power, and they wear half again as fast.
  • The back room's engine-bay work (¥150,000, 3 days): after it, any make's engine fits your car. The manifold and carburetors go by the engine's make; the gearbox stays the car's.
  • Race bets now grow with the rival: the better their car, the more money rides on it (the top street bet is about a quarter of what their car is worth, never under ¥100,000). Each rival's card shows how much they bet up to. The first rivals of the summer bet the same as before; by the end the best bet over ¥700,000. The King's money race comes at two sizes: the old ¥50,000, or his big one.
  • The King's engine is built too, so he stays a little faster than the best car you can build.
v0.5.34

Smooth steering

  • Smooth steering is now the game's steering on the street and on Tenjin Pass. Hold ◀ or ▶ into a bend and the car follows the curve, easing gently toward the inside instead of snapping into the wall; let go and it runs wide toward the outside, so you still steer every corner. Take a bend too fast and you run wide even on full lock.
  • Drifting: lift off the gas or touch the brake as you turn in and the tail steps out. Back on the gas and the slide holds itself, even with your hands off; steer into the bend for more angle, the other way for less, and lift to grip again. Turn into the next bend of an S and the slide flicks straight across.
  • The view leans a little in the bends, more in heavy cars, and looks into the tight ones toward their exit.
  • Uncle Ken's tips and the help pages now teach the new steering. Rival drivers drive as before.
v0.5.33

Smooth steering test

  • The steering test version on shiccup.com has a new design. Let go of the steering and the car holds its line through a bend, as far as the tyres can hold it. Hold ◀ or ▶ to move across the road; no more tapping to stay off the walls. Take a bend too fast and you still run wide.
  • Drifting in the test: lift off the gas or touch the brake as you turn in and the tail steps out. Stay on the gas and the slide holds itself; hold into the bend to tighten it, counter-steer to open it, lift to grip again. Turn into the next bend of an S and the slide flicks straight across.
  • In the test the view leans a little in the bends, more in heavy cars, and looks into the tight ones toward their exit.
  • The normal game is unchanged. Rival drivers drive the same in both.
v0.5.32

Real steering test

  • A test version with real steering, on shiccup.com only: the car goes where its nose points, and the steering turns the nose. Let go in a bend and the car runs straight on toward the outside wall, the way a real car does. Try it as the "Real steering" version on the game's page.
  • In the test the view looks where the car points, so it swings as you steer, and tyre grip sets how fast the nose can turn: a bend taken too fast still runs wide even on full lock.
  • Drifts work in the test too: turn in a bit fast and the tail slides out; counter-steer to hold it.
  • The normal game is unchanged. Rival drivers drive the same in both.
v0.5.31

Real gearboxes

  • Every car now comes with the gearbox it had in its day. Most '60s and early '70s cars have a four-speed, two old sedans keep a three-speed on the column, the '77 Kasumi is an automatic, and every car from 1978 on has a five-speed.
  • Five-speeds are in the Speed Works shop now, and each maker builds its own. Toho's sport box has its gears close together: quick through the gears, a lower top speed. Naniwa's heavy-duty box is made for big turbo power: tall gears, slow to shift, the hardest to break. Kanto's quick-shift box is the fastest road box to shift.
  • The racing cross-mission box is a five-speed now, with the gears packed close and the quickest shift of all. It beats every car's stock gearbox on the drag strip.
  • The four-speed starts from the same first gear as the three-speed, so it really is quicker. It used to be slower on small cars.
  • Rival drivers' cars get the same gearboxes, and their upgrades climb the same ladder.
v0.5.30

Catch the slide

  • Drifting works like the real thing now: go into a bend a bit fast and turn in, and the tail slides out. Then catch it with a tap the other way (counter-steer) to hold the slide round the bend. Held like that it is the fastest way through the tight corners.
  • Keep turning in during a drift and the car over-rotates and scrubs off speed. Catch it too hard and the tyres grip again.
  • The DRIFT timer counts while the car is really sliding sideways, not while you hold the turn button.
  • Street races: the turns are smooth. The drift used to flick on and off many times a second on full lock with the gas held, and each flick jolted the view sideways.
  • Uncle Ken's drift lesson and the race tips teach the counter-steer.
v0.5.29

Try it on before you buy

  • Body shop: tap a roof cut, paint, stickers, body parts or ride height to try them on your car. The picture shows the result straight away, and nothing is paid until you press Do it. One bill covers the lot, with the shop days. Start over clears it.
  • With a mouse, just hover over a choice to see it on the car.
  • Your car stays in sight while you scroll the body shop list. On a computer or a phone held sideways it sits beside the list.
  • Zero-yon: the bay behind the pier is one wide view now (the docks, the water, the tower), not three sets of docks in a row.
  • Fixed: a big empty space under the list beside the garage, station and Night Stop pictures on wide screens and sideways phones.
v0.5.28

Sharp cars everywhere

  • The painted cars are drawn sharp everywhere they show up: the Body view, the paper's ads, the junk yard and the garage list.
  • Wheels turn on their hubs. On some cars they wobbled because the hub was measured a few pixels off.
  • Fixed: a faint box showed behind a few cars where their painting's background was not fully cleared.
  • Fixed: Daiki's '70 Nikko Hotaru 1200 drove into the Hi-Beam backwards once its roof was cut off.
  • The garage buttons (Car, Under the hood, Transmission, Tires, Body, Parts shelf) stay in the same place on every garage view.
  • Fixed: on a phone held sideways the car's numbers in the garage ran over each other. They sit two across now.
v0.5.27

A gentler launch, a painted garage

  • On the line the rev needle moves half as fast, so you can hold it in the green band with a thumb on GAS.
  • Flooring it off the line is fine in a small car now. Big engines still spin their tyres if you leave on the limiter (up to about half a second lost in the '88 Toho Seiran 3.0GT).
  • The garage close-ups are painted: an engine bay under the hood, the underside of the car for the transmission, and the shop floor for the tyres.
v0.5.26

Ready for YouTube Playables

  • On YouTube Playables, a short ad can play as you leave a race's results, at most once every 3 minutes of play. The game freezes and goes quiet while it plays. No ads on shiccup.com.
  • No ad ever plays during a race, in the garage, or in Uncle Ken's practice run.
v0.5.25

Launching off the line

  • Fixed: holding the gas flat through the lights bogged the car. The shift light came on while the clutch was still slipping off the line, so a tap on UP put second in at walking pace. The shift light now waits for road speed.
  • Every car has a launch band, lit green on the tach while you wait for the lights. Leave inside it for a GOOD LAUNCH. Too many revs and the tyres spin (smoke and a squeal) and lose up to about 0.6 s over the quarter mile; too few and the car bogs down.
  • Small engines want lots of revs, big ones want few: the '70 Nikko Hotaru 1200 wants 5,000 rpm or more, the '88 Toho Seiran 3.0GT about 2,600.
  • Uncle Ken tells you on the line whether the revs are too high or too low, and how the launch went.
  • Rivals leave at their own car's best revs, or a little low the less skilled they are, and their tyres smoke when they spin them.
  • The zero-yon time in the garage is from the car's best launch.
v0.5.24

Every car painted, and the wheels turn

  • Gemini painted the last seven cars in the ANIME look: the '88 Nikko Shiranui Twin Cam, the '85 Nikko Shiranui ZT, the '89 Nikko Sylphid Open, the '88 Toho Seiran 3.0GT, the '86 Azuma Midstar, the '89 Meisho Vortex RZ and the '88 Hayate Cypher V-R. Every car in the game is painted now.
  • The '81 Tekka RS, the '83 Seiran XX, the '85 Chuo Tourer and the '85 Kaido GT have their rear painted too, so they look right from behind in a race.
  • Cars pulling into the Night Stop, driving past it and leaving it turn their wheels as they roll.
  • A dark stripe or sill on a painted car shows in the car's own colour, darker, instead of purple.
v0.5.23

Clay's birthday, painted

  • On Clay's birthday (July 7) the Night Stop has its own painting: Clay, Wyatt, Mat and Jakey T sitting out front with Kiya, and balloons tied to the pop machine.
  • Its signs read the same as on any other night. The day after, the Night Stop looks the way it always does.
v0.5.22

Nineteen more painted cars

  • Gemini painted 19 more cars in the ANIME look: Mat's two (the clean coupe and the black wagon), Jakey T's two-tone coupe, and 16 of the cars in the paper and at the Night Stop. Body kits fit them all, and your paint colour still shows through.
  • Four of them (the '81 Tekka RS, the '83 Seiran XX, the '85 Chuo Tourer and the '85 Kaido GT) have only their side painted so far; seen from behind they keep the old look until their rear is painted.
  • Getting ready for YouTube: when YouTube pauses the game it now saves and freezes everything until you come back, and a save that fails to load can never overwrite your real one.
v0.5.21

In gear on the line

  • A new start: you are in gear from the moment the lights come on. Hold GAS to rev through the countdown and the car goes by itself on the green. No more red lights, and a tap on UP right at the green is not counted as a shift.
  • Fixed: an automatic launched with the gas held all the way down ran up to top gear before it moved, and lost about 5 seconds on the quarter mile. It now shifts on road speed.
  • Wyatt drifts every bend in a street race now, with tyre smoke and the body swinging out, easy to see from behind.
  • Smoother bends: the road no longer jumps a little every few metres through a turn, and the picture moves evenly on 90 and 120 Hz screens.
  • Fixed: on a lot of the cars the front wheel arch cut away the fender over the wheel, so the front of the car looked missing. Every car has its fenders back.
v0.5.20

Pink slips at the party

  • On Clay's birthday you can race the four for their cars too: tap a face, then a drag race or a street race, just for fun or for the car.
  • One race for a car with each of them per birthday; after that it is just for fun.
v0.5.19

Off the wall

  • Fixed: a car that came to a stop against a wall or the guardrail could stay stuck there. Steer away with the gas on and it drives back onto the road.
  • Leaning slowly on a wall counts as one hit, not a crash every moment.
v0.5.18

A birthday race

  • On Clay's birthday (July 7), tap one of the four out front of the Night Stop to race just for fun: a drag race or a street race, no money and no pink slips.
v0.5.17

Race the four your way

  • Clay, Wyatt, Mat and Jakey T now race like everybody else at the Night Stop: a drag race (just for fun, ¥10,000, ¥50,000 or the car) or a street race (¥25,000, ¥50,000, ¥100,000 or the car).
  • A race for money leaves the car on offer: they stick around the lot that night, so you can still race for the car.
v0.5.16

Clay's '83, hand-painted

  • Clay's white coupe is hand-painted in the ANIME look again, now in its real colors: the sunset band, the red tail, the white spoiler and black wheels, from the side, from behind and with the roof off.
v0.5.15

Clay's '83, like the real one

  • Clay's white coupe now wears its real colors: a yellow, orange and red band sweeping back from the door, a red tail, a white trunk spoiler and black wheels.
  • Its hand-painted ANIME version is being repainted to match; until then it shows in the sharp pixel style.
v0.5.14

Painted rival cars, part 1

  • Clay's white coupe, Clay's red rocket and Wyatt's sedan are hand-painted in the ANIME look, from the side, from behind and with the roof off. The rust comes with them.
v0.5.13

Small print

  • The paper's front page is back to the usual news. Read the classifieds all the way to the bottom now and then.
v0.5.12

Buttons that look pressed

  • The race buttons go darker and push in while you hold them, by finger, mouse or key: hold the brake key and the Brake button lights up.
  • A tap on a shift key lights Up or Down for a moment.
v0.5.11

Fog on the bay

  • One night in late June a fog rolls in off the bay. Keep an eye on the paper after that.
  • If you met the four at the Hi-Beam, the end of the summer has one more line.
v0.5.10

Clay's birthday

  • On July 7 it's Clay's birthday: Clay, Wyatt, Mat and Jakey T sit out front of the Night Stop with balloons tied to the pop machine, and nobody races for pink slips that night.
  • Wish Clay a happy birthday and each of the four has something to say.
v0.5.9

Keyboard: J and K, your own keys

  • J shifts up and K shifts down, next to Space and Z.
  • New Keys button at the top (Settings on a small window): pick "arrows drive, Space shifts" or "W A S D drive, arrows shift, Space brakes", or add and take off keys for each control.
  • The key names on the race buttons, Uncle Ken's tips and How it works follow the keys you actually press.
v0.5.8

Mat talks like Mat

  • Mat says "oh, for sure" now, and Kiya rides shotgun in the wagon too.
v0.5.7

The rare rivals: junkers, kept cars and Minnesota

  • Clay, Wyatt, Mat and Jakey T talk like home now: ope, uff da, you betcha. Every one of them has new lines on the drive-in card and in the race cut-ins.
  • Clay's white coupe, Mat's white coupe and Jakey T's Nikko are kept like new. Clay's red rocket, Mat's black wagon and Wyatt's faded blue sedan are rusted junkers. Wyatt's sedan has a long stripe down each side. Those aren't racing stripes.
  • Wyatt's sedan is an automatic now, the only one of the six: four speeds, it shifts itself and can never drop its gearbox, but it takes 11.8 s to reach 100 km/h.
  • Parts nobody sells, the rare rivals' one-offs, never break: a blow-up still loses that race, but the part runs again at 99% worn.
  • Fixed: a race against Mat's wagon could not draw the wagon.
v0.5.6

Tenjin Pass: the mountain and the drop

  • Tenjin Pass now runs along the side of the mountain: a rock face on your right with the forest above it, and on your left a guardrail with a long drop into the valley behind it.
  • Brush the guardrail and you scrape along it. Slide into it hard, going much too fast for a bend, and you go through it and over the edge: the car is wrecked and the race is over. Braking in time, or holding a clean drift, keeps you on the road.
  • Uncle Ken warns you when you are on the guardrail or the rock, and How it works explains the pass.
v0.5.5

Hand-painted cars: the first two

  • ANIME mode is getting hand-painted cars, each true to the real car it stands for. The first two are in: the ’89 Raijin GT-X (the King’s car) and the ’83 Hachi-Go Apex. They take whatever colour you paint them, from the side in the garage and from behind in a race. The other cars follow as they are painted; until then they keep their current look.
  • On those two cars the body shop’s parts are painted too: a big wing, riveted box flares, a jutting chin spoiler, a front lip, side skirts, tall chrome pipes and gold deep-dish mesh wheels. Take the roof off and you get the painted open car.
  • A lowered car’s brake lights now sit on the lights, not a little above them.
v0.5.4

Real drifting, roof-off cars and a tougher King

  • Drifting works now. Go into a bend a little fast and keep steering into it: the tail slides, the view swings into the bend and DRIFT counts the seconds you hold it. A held drift is the quickest way round. Rear-drive and mid-engine cars drift best, 4WD a little, front drive not at all.
  • Going in much too fast no longer pays. RUNNING WIDE warns you that the car is sliding out of the bend: lift off and brake, or it hits the wall. Wall hits cost more speed the harder you hit, and holding the gas into every wall now wrecks the car.
  • Uncle Ken's drift lesson: a street practice run on the Harumi loop, with nothing on it. Find it in How it works. With his tips on, he talks you through the bends in real street races too: when to brake, when to turn in, and how to hold the slide.
  • The result sheet of a street race shows each driver's longest drift.
  • Take the roof off at the body shop and the roof really comes off: an open car with a short windscreen and the seats showing, from the side and from behind. From the driver's seat you see the night sky overhead.
  • The King now runs a boosted engine too, so a boost alone no longer beats him: at the zero-yon his car is as quick as the best car you can build, and winning takes a good launch and clean shifts.
v0.5.3

Phone controls by thumb

  • New phone controls: your left thumb steers and changes gear, your right thumb stays on the gas. Steering is on the left, UP (with DOWN under it) in the middle, GAS on the right with BRAKE under it. Drag races and street races now use the same layout.
  • Tapping UP lifts the gas for you for a split second, so you can keep your right thumb on GAS through every shift without breaking the transmission. A quick flick up on GAS still shifts too.
  • Held upright, the controls are bigger and sit higher on the screen, with the dash just above them.
  • A touch the phone takes back mid-race (for example as a double tap) no longer lets go of the pedal while your finger is still on it.
v0.5.2

Jakey T's portrait, left-hand drive and new Smooth paintings

  • Jakey T has his portrait in the ANIME look.
  • The rivals' cars are left-hand drive: win one and you sit on the left, with the stereo and the boost gauge on the other side of the dash.
  • Smooth mode has newly painted, sharp pictures of the gas station, the night stop and the junk yard, with every sign lettered crisp. The gas station office has a new roof sign.
  • The rivals' cars are sharp in ANIME and Smooth too, and cars parked at the night stop now show their sharp art without waiting for a race.
v0.5.1

Sharp cars and a sharp street

  • In ANIME and Smooth, the cars, the roadside buildings, neon signs, lamps, billboards and your car's hood are drawn at four times the detail, so they stay crisp on big screens and in full screen.
  • VGA and EGA keep the pixel art.
v0.5.0

Rare rivals: the Funakoshi brothers and Jakey T

  • Once in a while a rare rival rolls into the Hi-Beam Night Stop: Clay, Wyatt or Mat Funakoshi (Mat's dog Kiya rides along), or Jakey T in his '84 Nikko. They only race for pink slips: beat them and their car is yours.
  • Each brother brings worn-in cars, a story in the paper and a portrait in the ANIME look.
  • In ANIME, every engine, manifold, carburetor, gearbox and tire set in the paper and the garage is a sharp new picture.
v0.4.4

ANIME is the default look, and a sharp street in races

  • The game now starts in the ANIME look: painted places, portraits and race cut-ins. Your save switches to it once; the graphics button still cycles ANIME, Smooth, VGA and EGA.
  • In ANIME, races draw the street at your screen's full resolution: the road, the walls, the city skyline and the pier are sharp on big screens and in full screen instead of blocky.
  • On phones the race cut-in no longer makes the page slide sideways.
v0.4.3

Sharp places in Smooth mode

  • With graphics set to Smooth, the garage, the gas station, the night stop and the junk yard are sharp, detailed pictures at full size, with every sign lettered crisp. Big screens and full screen look clean instead of blocky.
  • VGA, EGA and ANIME look the same as before.
v0.4.2

Jake's fonts are back, and a painting of the junk yard

  • The game uses Jake's original typefaces again: the newspaper serif in the paper, the condensed sans on buttons and headings, and smaller, easier-to-read text everywhere. Japanese text keeps its own font.
  • Yumenoshima Wreckers now has a painting at the top of the yard page: old Okada's lot at night, the roof sign and the chalkboard.
v0.4.1

A sharp dash on big screens

  • In a race, the cockpit, the dash readouts, the stereo and the steering wheel now draw at your screen's full resolution, so they stay sharp in full screen and on big monitors. The road and the city outside keep their pixel look.
  • EGA mode dithers the sharp dash to its 16 colours; VGA, Smooth and ANIME show it as painted.
v0.4.0

Uncle Ken shows you how to fix it, and the junk yard

  • When a part breaks, Uncle Ken walks you through the fix one step at a time and lights up what to tap: where to buy another one, each bolt to take out (the carburetors before the manifold, the manifold and the wiring before the engine), the empty spot to fit the new one, and the bolts to tighten.
  • He explains the paper's All makes button: the parts pages only list what fits your car, and All makes shows every make, though other makes won't bolt in.
  • The first time you break a transmission with his tips on, Ken has a spare in the back and puts it on your shelf.
  • New: Yumenoshima Wreckers, at the very bottom of the parts pages. Old Okada lets you into his yard to pull parts off crashed cars yourself, bolt by bolt, then you pay what his chalkboard says at the office. Prices are the same for every make, so a good engine is a find. New wrecks come in every day.
  • Bolts are easier to tap on phones.
v0.3.2

Fills a big screen

  • In full screen or a big window the whole game scales up to fill the screen, instead of a narrow column with empty space on both sides.
  • Text, buttons and pictures grow with it and stay sharp. Phones are unchanged.
v0.3.1

Painted cockpit and skylines in every race

  • The cockpit is a painting now, centred on the driver, with the gauges, stereo and boost gauge built into the dash.
  • Each race place has its own painted skyline: Tokyo with its tower in the city, the harbour lights at the pier, and the ridges of Tenjin Pass.
  • ANIME mode uses its own anime-style versions of all four.
v0.3.0

Uncle Ken shows you how it all works

  • New to cars? On a new game Uncle Ken offers to walk you through buying a car, fixing it and your first race. His card on each place says what to do next, with a Show me button that takes you there.
  • If your car won't run, Ken says what is wrong and how to fix it, and takes you to the right garage page.
  • During a race Ken calls out the start and every shift: hold the gas, wait for green, tap Up, shift on the light. After the race he says what went right or wrong.
  • How it works (the ? button, or ≡ on phones) explains the page you are on, how a car works and how to race, and has a practice run against Goro with nothing at stake.
  • Ken's tips can be switched on and off from How it works at any time.
v0.2.11

Wide screens use the whole width

  • On a laptop, desktop or full screen the game now widens to 1280 px instead of stopping at 1000 px.
  • Each place shows its picture big on the left with the words and buttons beside it, so nothing hides below the fold.
  • Phones look and play the same as before.
v0.2.10

Reiko, Yumi, Mari, Miki and Haruka get the right words

  • The night stop now says her and she for the women racers instead of him and his.
  • Two racer descriptions no longer assume who is behind the wheel.
v0.2.9

ANIME mode: painted gas station and night stop, a face for every rival

  • In the ANIME graphics mode, the gas station and the Hi-Beam Night Stop are now hand-painted like Uncle Ken's shop, signs and all. The HI-BEAM neon still flickers.
  • All fourteen rivals and Goro now have hand-painted portraits in ANIME mode: on the night-stop card, at the start and end of a race, and on the result sheet.
  • The gas pump in the picture now counts litres and yen, the same as the price on the sign.
  • Nothing else changes in the other graphics modes.
v0.2.8

One wing per car, and the '89 models arrive in August

  • Cars that come with a factory spoiler now swap it for the GT wing when the body shop fits one, instead of wearing two wings. Two cars that could buy a wing without it ever showing now show it.
  • The hatchback's roof spoiler sits on the roof instead of floating just above it.
  • The new '89 models reach the dealers on August 1. Until then only the King has one, and the Weekly reports the day they arrive.
v0.2.7

The car stereo works

  • Tap the stereo in the dashboard during a race to flip between three late-80s stations (City Pop, Eurobeat and Fusion), or switch it off. It remembers your pick.
  • Win a race and a short victory tune plays.
  • New sounds: older cars ring a two-tone chime past 105 km/h, a soft tick tells you it is time to shift, and gear changes clunk.
v0.2.6

ANIME mode comes to life

  • Pick ANIME in the graphics button (after Smooth) and Uncle Ken's shop becomes a hand-painted late-80s anime background, with your car inked to match.
  • Faces: the King, Reiko Takahashi and Uncle Ken now have anime portraits on the night-stop card, the race results and the endings. The other drivers, the gas station and the night stop get theirs next.
  • Races play like an old TV episode: your rival cuts in over speed lines to call you out and again when the race is decided, and the green light flashes. None of it gets in the way of your thumbs.
  • Arriving at a place, the camera eases back to show the scene. Phones and computers set to reduce motion skip all of this.
  • The race results table no longer runs off the side of narrow phone screens.
v0.2.5

More road when you hold your phone sideways

  • Held sideways, the driving buttons now sit in one row (steering on the left; Down, Up, Brake and Gas on the right), so the road and the dash get more of the screen.
  • Body kits look better: hatchbacks get a proper rear wing, the wing on sloped-back cars now sits on the tail instead of floating over the glass, and front lips and chin spoilers are big enough to see.
  • Art packs in a zip now open without an internet connection.
v0.2.4

Easier-to-read rev counter

  • The rev counter's yellow and red zones now show all the time: a yellow and red strip runs under them, and their unlit bars glow faintly, so you can see where to shift. The warning ends of the temperature and fuel bars do the same.
v0.2.3

Boost-up

  • Turbo and supercharged cars can get a boost-up under the hood: about 15% more power for ¥40,000, but the engine wears twice as fast.
  • Fuel injection stays as the top carb on Toho cars. The full tuning shop test has ended. Thanks for trying it.
v0.2.2

Fuel injection, and a tuning shop to try

  • Toho cars now top out with fuel injection instead of racing throttle bodies: the same power on about a fifth less fuel.
  • Test version: switch to "Full tuning shop" on this page to bolt on headers, ROM tunes, boost-up, intercoolers, a limited-slip diff and more under the hood, each with a catch. Tell us which one you like better.
v0.2.1

More room on phones

  • On phones the top bar is one slim row: the date sits over your cash, and graphics, sound and the art pack live behind the ≡ button.
  • The four places fit in one row of tabs, and on a phone held sideways they move up into the top bar, so the scene gets more of the screen.
  • The speed shop's ad on the paper's front page now takes you straight to its parts list.
  • A shiccup billboard now stands along the pier, the city loop and the pass, and there's a shiccup sticker on the garage wall.
v0.2.0

Street races, real cars and a 1989 night

  • New paintings of Uncle Ken's shop, Taiyo Service and the Hi-Beam Night Stop: purple neon, wet streets and one Tokyo Tower, with every sign lettered in proper Japanese.
  • Street races on the Harumi loop through the city, with the tightest turns at the end. Tenjin Pass races are rare, and the King's final is on the pass.
  • Drifting is simply a faster way round a bend when you get it right. There is no drift score.
  • Every car drives like its real-era counterpart: weight, power, front-, rear-, mid-engine or four-wheel drive, and width. Wide cars meet the city walls sooner, and anything over 1,700 mm wide wears a 3 plate.
  • A body shop with 1989 aero parts (lip, side skirts, wing) and old-school kaido gear (overfenders, chin spoiler, takeyari pipes), deep-dish wheels and three ride heights. Cut springs scrape and draw the police.
  • The cockpit view has a 1980s digital dash: bar tachometer, digital speed, shift light, boost needle, stereo and clock, and a charm on the mirror that swings with the car. Cars up to '86 chime at 105 km/h.
  • Phone race controls are bigger and easier: steer on the left, pedals on the right, flick up or down on Gas to shift without letting go, and slide a finger between pedals.
  • Petrol costs ¥118 a litre, and the car paper has more 1989 sellers.
  • There is a hidden fourth look in the graphics switch.
v0.1.0

First demo: summer 1989 in Tokyo

  • Jake's Flathead Summer moves to Tokyo in the summer of 1989: Uncle Ken's shop in Shinonome, Taiyo Service on Route 9, and the Hi-Beam Night Stop under the expressway.
  • 25 Japanese cars from nine makes, each drawn with its own pixel art, and new engines from 1.2-litre fours to twin-turbo sixes and rotaries.
  • Two kinds of race: the zero-yon, a 400 m sprint down the pier, and Tenjin Pass, a mountain road of tight hairpins where light cars corner better than heavy ones.
  • Play in English or Japanese: the switch sits next to the graphics switch at the top.
  • Prices in yen, speeds in km/h, and a weekly car paper full of 1989.
  • On phones every button is big enough to tap, and a phone on its side shows the scene beside the buttons and more of the road in a race.