Track Blaster Pro

A typical TB session. Notice the terrain edition tools and the presence of some non-standard track constructs - roads over water and a large corner fitted along a hill edge.

Also known as TB, this is a track and terrain creation utility made by Mark Nailwood.

This is the most used external track/terrain editor. Latest version is v5.3. Original name of this tool was Track Blaster, but name was changed to Track Blaster Pro at the release of v5.

This program is both a track and terrain editor, with a display of the full terrain (30x30), but has no mouse support.

The use of this tool is quite upsetting at first, as you have to switch from track to track elements selection with keypad and SHIFT key, which is not user-friendly.

But, once you understand how it works, it is a powerfull tool with numerous possibilities because this editor doesn't have game engine limitations. That's why it allows you to put some bugs like standard roads on water terrain for example, while the in-game track editor allow only elevated roads on water terrain.

Also, with this utility the multiple squares track elements are separated into simple square elements. Therefore, it allows to create illusion tracks by adding a part of a multiple square element close to the real track.

Also, this TB has an automatic scenery feature, for the track creators with no idea for their scenery, and it has a track comparison feature.

This program is a native DOS one, so it can be used under Win 3x or 9x without problems. It also works fine under Win XP with setting Win 9x compatibility. In order to use it under Win Vista, you will have to launch it using DOSBox as Vista doesn't allow full screen DOS programs.