Koryo Tours Pyongyang Racer or Pyongyang Racer is a 2012 racing video game developed by Nosotek and published by Koryo Tours. The player drives a Hwiparam II car around Pyongyang and visits several of its sights while collecting fuel and avoiding other vehicles. The game was created as an advergame for Koryo Tours, a travel agency organising tours to North Korea, by the outsourcing company Nosotek in collaboration with students from the Kim Chaek University of Technology. As one of North Korea's few video games, Pyongyang Racer was released by Koryo Tours through its website in December 2012. Reviewers criticised the game's gameplay, graphics, controls, and music.
Pyongyang Racer is set in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. The player controls a Hwiparam II car (from the North Korean manufacturer Pyeonghwa Motors), using the arrow keys to accelerate, reverse and steer, as well as the space bar to sound the horn. They are tasked with driving along a pre-determined route around the city, starting and ending at Kim Il-sung Square, and visiting several of its sights, including the Ryugyong Hotel, Arch of Triumph, Chollima Statue, and Potong Gate. Passing a sight grants the player a stamp of the location and displays information about the object.
During their drive, the player has to repeatedly collect fuel tanks to counter a steadily depleting gauge. Colliding with stationary vehicles three times causes the game to reset. There are no pedestrians in the game. Steering onto the wrong side of the road sees the player reprimanded by traffic police, while driving off the street places them back onto it. The game records the time the player takes to complete the tour. Koryo Tours maintained a leaderboard of players' times and updated it when a player sent in a screenshot of their results via an email.
Pyongyang Racer is one of few games developed in North Korea. It was reported as the first aimed at an international audience. The game was developed by Nosotek, a German–North Korean information technology company founded in 2007 and based in Pyongyang. One of the company's major operations was the development of mobile and Adobe Flash-based games on an outsourcing basis, several of which were released by the Berlin company Exozet in Germany. Games previously developed by Nosotek include The Big Lebowski Bowling, Men in Black: Alien Assault, and Bobby's Blocks.
Pyongyang Racer was commissioned as an advergame by and for Koryo Tours, a British-run, Beijing-based travel agency that primarily organises tours to North Korea. The idea emerged when Nick Bonner, the manager of Koryo Tours, asked Nosotek's Volker Eloesser for a "fun, nonviolent and nonpolitical" game designed alongside North Korean youths. With support from the government of North Korea, the developer worked with students from the Kim Chaek University of Technology to create Pyongyang Racer in Adobe Flash. According to the game's website, it was "not intended to be a high-end technological wonder hit game of the 21st century, but more a fun race game (arcade style)".
Koryo Tours released Pyongyang Racer via its website on 19 December 2012 at no cost and accessible worldwide. The game became popular among people interested in North Korea for its oddities, and the website had several outages in the days following the release.
《平壤赛车》(韩语:평양 레이서,英语:Pyongyang Racer)是一款于2012年由Nosotek制作,并由高丽旅行社发行的一款的竞速游戏。在该游戏中,玩家可在平壤市周围驾驶Hwiparam II汽车并在收集燃料与避开其余车辆的同时参观若干景点。该游戏作为一家组织赴朝鲜旅游的旅行社高丽旅行社的广告游戏而制作,并由外包公司Nosotek与金策工业综合大学学生联合开发。作为朝鲜为数不多的电子游戏之一,《平壤赛车》于2012年12月由高丽旅行社通过其官网发布。游戏评论家们批评了该游戏的玩法、图像、操控和音乐。
《平壤赛车》的游戏地点位于朝鲜首都平壤市,玩家负责操控一辆Hwiparam II型汽车(由朝鲜汽车制造商平和自动车负责制造),使用方向键加速、倒车和转向,使用空格键鸣响汽车喇叭。玩家的任务是沿着游戏预定路线在平壤周围行驶,起点与终点均为金日成广场。并途中参观几个景点,包括柳京饭店、平壤凯旋门、千里马铜像以及普通门,游戏通过一个视线,授予玩家该位置的印章,并显示有关该对象的信息。
在驾驶过程中,玩家必须多次收集油箱以防止油量表的自动耗尽,与静止的车辆发生三次碰撞则会导致游戏重置。游戏中没有行人,若玩家转向了错误的道路则会被交通警察训责,而当玩家开车离开错误车道时会被放回街道上。游戏以计时赛的方式记录玩家完成游戏所需的时间,高丽旅行社会为玩家的游戏时间保存一个得分记录。并在玩家通过电子邮件的方式发送游戏结果的屏幕截图时更新该记录。
《平壤赛车》是少数由朝鲜开发的游戏之一,据媒体报道,该游戏为朝鲜第一款面相国际玩家开发的游戏。该游戏由2007年创立的德国-朝鲜合资信息技术公司Nosotek制作,总部设于平壤市,主要业务之一即在外包的基础之上开发手机游戏和基于Adobe Flash系统的游戏,其中一些游戏则由德国柏林公司Exozet发布。Nosotek之前开发的游戏包括《The Big Lebowski Bowling》、《Men in Black: Alien Assault》以及《Bobby's Blocks》。《平壤赛车》是受高丽旅行社委托为其制作的广告游戏,高丽旅行社是一家总部设立于北京市的英国旅行社,主要负责组织赴朝鲜旅游。该游戏的创作灵感始于高丽旅行社的经理尼克·邦纳(Nick Bonner)向Nosotek公司的沃尔克·埃洛瑟(Volker Eloesser)提出合作为朝鲜的青年设计一款“有趣的、非血腥和非政治性”的游戏,并在朝鲜民主主义人民共和国政府的支持下,开发商与金策工业综合大学学生合作在Adobe Flash系统开发了平壤赛车游戏。根据游戏官方网站的说法,《平壤赛车》“并非旨在成为21世纪令人惊奇的具有高端技术的游戏,而更多会成为一种有趣的竞赛游戏(街机风格)”。
《平壤赛车》于2012年12月19日通过其官方网站免费发布该游戏,并向全球开放访问。该游戏因其古怪之处而受到对朝鲜感兴趣的人的欢迎,网站访问亦曾多次遭到中断。