My friend wrote a simple, but rather addictive, racing game in Java, with emphasis on physics and network play. RacingGame is released under the GPL, so that anyone can have a look at the source code. I recommend that you download RacingGame from his website before experimenting with the Track Editor, although there are some tracks that you can download anyway.
The simple Track Editor, also written in Java, makes the process of creating a track much easier than the alternative (creating it by hand). The program was written in my spare time over the course of two or three days, so it's unpolished and the source code's not very clear, however it does work, which is the main thing.
As you can see, the interface is pretty basic. The track segments at the top are buttons, and the three buttons to the right are Undo, Save and Clear.
Download compressed ZIP file containing everything you need to use the Track Editor (11KB)
Individual files
Source code is available on request.
Tracks
Here are some tracks that I have created with the Track Editor. You'll probably have to right-click on them and "Save Target As..."
Extract (or save) the files to a directory. Install a Java Virtual Machine (runtime environment) if you haven't already got one. Run the trackeditor by typing "java -jar TrackEditor.jar" at the command line.
Command line options:
TrackEditor [direction] [x y]
where:
direction = up|down|left|right
x = initial x co-ordinate (default 640)
y = initial y co-ordinate (default 480)
Use the command line options to optionally specify a different starting direction than the default, and if necessary, the co-ordinates that the first track section should be located at.
When the application is running, click on the track-segments along the top to add that segment to the track. You should not add segments that do not follow the flow of the track (e.g. a horizontal straight followed by a vertical straight), but the application will not stop you.
If you make a mistake, you can Undo the last track segment, or Clear the whole track and start again.
Save will bring up a file dialog to allow you to save your track somewhere as a .track file.
Please email me if you have any problems, comments or questions about the track editor, at: 
11th May 2001
