The year is 2053. Mars has been industrialized by the Colossal Mining Corporation (CMC) - the ultimate capitalist megacorp. The CMC lures Earth's work-starved masses to Mars where they soon become prisoners of history's worst "company store." A model of corporate efficiency, Colossal keeps overhead low by paying its workers slave-labor wages while simultaneously charging them inordinate sums for food, housing and other necessities the self-named "slags" are unable to obtain from any other source.

Despite the CMC recruiters promises of fame and fortune, only a pathetically small percentage of workers manages to break even, let alone earn enough money to return to Earth. For the rest, (the Sub-Zeros) there is only one means of escape: racing in the illegal hovercraft races staged by the notorious profiteer, Freeman Jack.

Each night, Jack invades CMC Command and locks off various segments of the complex to create a race course. Victory leads to freedom, anything less means death.

In more colloquial terms, Red Planet is simply a fantastic game for playing with your friends.

SCORING POINTS

1. Velocity=Victory
   Points are awarded based on the square of your vehicle's velocity. That means that doubling your speed quadruples the points you earn. The "speed points" are awarded automatically any time you're moving, and you get more points the faster you're moving. That's why experienced players are always using their boosters to hit bone-rattling speeds, racking up the really big points.

2. Scoring pad
   The race course is bounded on each end by a well head. Inside each well head is a scoring zone, marked by a blue box on the floor. Flying over the zone sounds the scoring buzzer and earns an extra 500 points.

3. Damage/kills
   If you hit a fellow racer, and that racer crashes within 2 seconds of your collision, you earn points for the kill. The number of bonus points is proportional to the speed at which they meet their demise. This is the way the bigger vehicles pick up a lot of extra points to compensate for their slower speed.

LOSING POINTS

1. Death=Defeat
   Dying is a bad thing, even if (in Red Planet at least) you get to come back again. You know how when you're moving, you increase your points by the square of your velocity? Well, when you crash you lose points at the square of the velocity. Boosting into a wellhead door can take you from first place to last place faster than you can say "CMC sucks!"

2. If you're not movin', yer losin'
   Do we need to say it again? Velocity=Victory. Every picosecond you're sitting still, your adversaries are rackin' up the points. Keep moving, as fast as you can, at all times.