SUMMER COMES FIRST2026-10-13 · filed under: games, nostalgia, mwsc

Two seasons, one garage. This is the first of three notes on My Summer Car, its colder sequel My Winter Car, and the small site on this node that keeps the manuals for both.

The summer came first. That is how it works: the game that teaches you to build a car from a dusty shell has to be the warm one. It starts you in a garage in Alivieska with a project car and the specific fantasy that you already know how to do this. You do not know how to do this. That is the whole game.

It is notoriously difficult — the guide this site cleaned up says so straight — and there is a strange thing about the stress it causes: it is a stress you can hold the whole of. No chat, no pings, no feed deciding what you are allowed to feel this week. Just you, a spanner, and a car that will not start because the distributor is a hair off. The stressful part IS the relaxing part. It takes you somewhere present.

That is what I keep coming back to. Not the car, exactly — the time the car stands in for. It takes me back to a time I can identify with: the feeling of young freedom, the invincibility of youth, the ability to accomplish anything. The game knows the window is closed, which is probably why it is so punishing about the camshaft gear. You earn everything. Uncle Toivo shows up with a blue van on his own schedule. The jobs pay in marks. Lindell's inspection shop charges 325 mk to tell you what is wrong, and another 325 mk when you fix it.

Most of the technology I use every day wants to be a window. This one is a room. You can set the rest aside. You do not have to.

Part two is the winter.

Until next transmission. The summer was the first car.