I was obsessed with this game when I was 10 or so, although I played the Nintendo version, not the one in the arcade. I was only able to beat it with the power that was Game Genie.
A couple things to note about this game:
- Roadblasters was one of the few games I ever saw that would let you skip levels. You could start at level 1 and slowly progress, or go straight to (I believe) level 30. Not that this helped much...The game had a crazy number of levels, which all began to look the same after a while.
- One of the features (glitches?) of the Nitroglycerin bonus was that you could use it to keep moving even after you ran out of gas. Very helpful for when you're down to the wire, and especially useful with the Game Genie cheat to give you infinite nitro.
- One of the worst endings in the history of Nintendo. It literally takes hours upon hours to beat, and at the end you get the word "Congratulations" with a few wimpy fake fireworks in the background. Ranks up there with the ending to 1942 for lameness.