MegaRace

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MegaRace
Developer(s)	Cryo Interactive
Publisher(s)	The Software Toolworks
Designer(s)	Remi Herbulot
Platform(s)	MS-DOS, Sega Mega-CD, 3DO
Release date	PC March 28, 1994 March 28, 1994 Mega CD/Sega CD July 30, 1994 3DO September 5, 1994 September 5, 1994
Genre(s)	Retro/Third-person shooters/Racing
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB (For MS-DOS: Kids to Adults ESRB (For Sega Mega-CD): MA-13
Media	CD
Input methods	Joystick, Keyboard, Mouse

MegaRace is a video game created by Cryo Interactive, released in 1994. It features pre-rendered 3-D graphics and over twenty minutes of full motion video of fictional game show host, Lance Boyle. It was released for MS-DOS on March 28, 1994, for the Sega Mega-CD/Sega CD on July 30, 1994 and for the 3DO on September 5, 1994.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Objective 3 Gameplay 4 Cars 4.1 The Enforcer's Cars 4.2 Speed-Gang Cars 5 Speed-Gangs 5.1 Other Speedgangs 6 Speedways 6.1 Worlds 6.2 Speedways 6.3 Bonus Speedway 6.4 Penalty Speedway 6.5 Prizes 7 Symbols 8 Lance Boyle 9 Music 10 Sequels 11 Trivia 12 References 13 External links

[edit] Plot

MegaRace takes place in the distant future, where the player is a contestant on a game show, called "MegaRace". MegaRace is on the VWBT (Virtual World Broadcast Television) television channel where they play a live-or-die race match against Hells Angels-like speed gangs. MegaRace's host is the eccentric Lance Boyle (played by Christian Erickson). He guides you throughout the game, introducing new levels and enemies to you and tries to discourage you. In Lance's own words:

• "Do you ever wonder what it's like to race a real high-performance sports car? You know, like the ones those punk speed-gangs drive on the freeways? Those guys really think they rule the road, right? I mean, where do they get off intimidating law-abiding citizens and tax-payers? You know what I mean? And you know something else, you are absolutely right!"
• "So you say, 'Somebody ought to DO something about them criminal highway gangs!' And VWBT says, 'Oh yeah?! Well, why don't YOU do something, mister big-mouth!'. You don't have the car? We'll give you the car! You don't want to get arrested for taking the law into your hands? Not a problem! You know why? Because it AIN'T REAL! It's a whole lot better than real, baby! It's virtual television: reality's worst nightmare!"
• "Here's the deal: our chosen candidate—and everyone with a death-wish is free to apply, including men and women of either sex—our candidate, who we call, 'The ENFORCER', gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to terminate a whole lotta slime-balls, and there's nothing anybody can do about it. You see what I mean? Because it all happening right here on VWBT; where the cops move over and the Enforcer takes over!"

• "We have fourteen amazing race tracks in five totally different environments. We have cars, you'd sell every drop of blood in your body to own! We have exclusive contracts with five—yes, I said 'FIVE' vicious speed-gangs each with a 'pack-leader' you don't ever wanna meet. Believe me, I did and I still feel sick."
• "Wait till you hear this! Every time you kill a pack-leader—and when I say "kill", I'm talking virtuality, not reality, okay? In MegaRace, nobody actually dies—it just looks and feels like it, and that makes you feel a whole lot better about yourself, now doesn't it? Every time you kill a leader, you not only score big time, you also win some major bonus prizes. His personal music CD and his customized car are both yours!"

[edit] Objective

The object in MegaRace is to kill all of the speed-gang members in each race before you complete three laps. The first race starts out with a small number of speed-gang punks but more of them come back in each upcoming race. There are three ways to kill your opponents: you can slam them into the sidewall of the track, you can mow them down with the missiles mounted on your car, or you can pass them, putting enough distance between you and your opponent that they are forced to explode. Missiles are more effective; however, you can run out of ammo, so be careful. If you do not kill all of the opponents within the three laps, you lose and you have to start over, unless you saved your game. (As Lance says, "We just stamp "chicken" on his face and send him home to mommy!") If you DO terminate all of the opponents, you move on to the next race.

[edit] Gameplay

Megarace is an Vehicular combat game with arcade gameplay, similar to that of RoadBlasters and Spy Hunter. However, this game is also a rail shooter, in which the player does not really control the car (i.e. he cannot fully stop the car in the game) and the speedway is actually a pre-rendered full-motion video playing on a loop. You (the player) do move the car from one side of the speedway to the other. Not only do you have to kill the opponents, but you have to avoid or run over "symbols" or markings on the speedway itself. These symbols either improve or harm your car's performance for a short time when it drives over them. Almost every symbol on the speedway has a corresponding symbol with an opposite effect (e.g. a "Speed Up" symbol and a "Slow Down" symbol). It is quite difficult to make optimal use of the symbols in some levels, particularly Paradise Valley.

[edit] Cars

There are a total of 8 cars in the game. Three of the cars (the Enforcer's) are available to choose from at the very beginning.

[edit] The Enforcer's Cars

• Ouzbel takes damage well and has good weapons but very bad armour and poor handling.

• Luis is not the easiest car to control, but has good weapons and armour.

• Jose has poor weapons and armour but excellent shields and handling.

[edit] Speed-Gang Cars

• Ramon ("The Vultures") takes hard turns and fires her weapons well but has poor shields.

• Maria ("The Sharks") has average weapons and armor, perfect handling and not-so-great shields.

• Hooper ("Big Bob and the Power Tools") has good armor, shields and handling but lacks good weapons.

• Omega ("King Cool and the Master Class") handles well and has perfect shields but poor weapons and armor.

• Paloma ("The Scabs") has excellent armor and weapons and good shields but is hard to control.

[edit] Speed-Gangs

• The Vultures - The first speed-gang you meet, the packleader's name is 'Jailbait'. They control the NewSan levels -Uptown, Sunset Boulevard and The Golden Gate Speedway- and drive RAMONs. This speed-gang has a lot of rage and they like to liberate those feelings by smearing people across the highways.

• The Sharks - The second speed-gang you meet, the packleader's name is 'Hammerhead'. They control the Magical Maeva levels -Atlantis, Aqualand and The Blue Lagoon Funworld- and drive MARIAs. This speed-gang was actually bought because Maeva didn't have any vicious speed-gangs. Hammerhead wants to either nail the Enforcer to the side walls or bite the Enforcer's legs off.

• The Power Tools - The third speed-gang you meet, the packleader's name is 'Big Bob'. They control the Factory Land levels -Industrial Park, The Snake and The Big Zero- and drive HOOPERs. They don't like robots (because they are putting humans out of employment) and they don't like robot-lovers (like the Enforcer).

• The Master Class - The fourth speed-gang you meet, the packleader's name is 'King Cool'. They control the Fractalian Space levels -Belly Of The Beast, Particle Accelerator and Paradise Valley- and drive OMEGAs. They come from the finest families, rich kids with attitude, and they're tired of the ugliness that they see all around them, to the point that they want to blow it all away.

• The Scabs - The fifth and final speed-gang you meet, the packleader's name is 'Rabies'. They control the Terminal City levels -Wasteland and Orbital Junkyard- and drive PALOMAs. They are a degenerate bunch of people that want the Enforcer to put them out of their misery.

[edit] Other Speedgangs

There are at least two other speed-gangs that are not named, these two control The Skyholder and The Can levels. The first appear to be driving LUISs, the latter drive PALOMAs. Of course both of these speed-gangs could be completely virtual with nobody controlling them except VWBT.

In the Sega CD version there is a packleader on the Hall Of Fame with the name of 'Wolfgang' with a score of 20,000 on the Orbital Junkyard track.

[edit] Speedways

There are fourteen speedways in five worlds. This does not count two extra races, The Skyholder and The Can. Depending on your difficulty setting -'Novice' or 'Hard'- The tracks will look different, the tracks outside will be night-time, while the tracks inside are different colors, the symbols on the tracks will also be different.

[edit] Worlds

• NewSan - (Futuristic San Francisco)
• Maeva - (Underwater levels, also known as 'Magical Maeva' or 'The Aquatube')
• Factory Land - (Various Construction Sites)
• Fractalian Space - (Various Alien Locations)
• Terminal City - (Landfill, Suburb of NewSan)

[edit] Speedways

in the words of Lance Boyle.

• Uptown - "I think you'll enjoy VWBT's incredibly expensive Uptown speedway. Sit back and dream about the wonders of an elegant nightlife, while our enforcer does battle with the very brutal gang they have down here!"

• Atlantis - "They couldn't find the legend, so they built it. Right here in the wonderful water world of Maeva! And they called their legend ATLANTIS! And it was good! And.. Kinda wet."

• Industrial Park - "If you have a hardhat at home, you may wanna put it on now, as MegaRace visits Factory Land! This track we call, Industrial Park. A name rich with the atmosphere of.. Burning truck tires."

• Belly Of The Beast - "Well now, I bet you're starting to get the feeling you've been swallowed whole. Get your breath back baby, cuz you're gonna need it. Few have escaped the BELLY OF THE BEAST!"

• Wasteland - "We've persuaded the authorities to let us build this billion dollar race track for our exclusive use right here in Wasteland."

• Sunset Boulevard - "Will you take a look at that? VWBT did, and poured billions of dollars into building the superb Sunset Boulevard speedway. Go-oin' down!"

• Aqualand - "Viewers at home will experience a world of undersea delights and thrills, while the enforcer hunts down the deadly shark gang, and cleans up the aqua-tube for law-abiding tube users everywhere."

• Particle Accelerator - "Welcome to Fractalian Space, where rich people come to relax some more, and where we will unleash our very own psycho-mutant enforcer into the particle accelerator!"

• The Snake - "The official name for this part of Factory Land is Extraction Facility 17. But once you've checked out the unbelievable racetrack we've got down here you'll know why we call it the snake!"

• Orbital Junkyard - "You like driving round in the dark, enforcer? Well, your dream comes true. We're high over Terminal City, in a scientifically acclaimed miracle called, the Orbital Junkyard!"

• The Blue Lagoon Funworld - "VWBTs 20 billion dollar underwater raceway is the perfect spot for a family vacation for dolphins!"

• The Big Zero - "So far, nobody has beaten Big Bob and his bad boys on this track. Legend has it that his is the Robots burial ground. Certainly, its where most Enforcers bite the dust."

• Golden Gate Speedway - "Take a dawn drive over VWBTs special tribute to OldSan. Watch out for The Vultures circling, or you will be old news."

• Paradise Valley - "A vision of unspoiled loveliness. Count your blessings. This may be the last thing you will ever see."

• Note: If you beat Lance Boyle's score (120,000 points), play for a sufficiently long time, and come in second, third or (occasionally) fourth, Lance will let you move on to the next track. Usually, coming in any position other than first either ends your game or forces you to play the "Last-Chance Speedway" (a.k.a. The Can, Tokyo). In this situation, Lance says, "You were lucky to finish that race alive, Enforcer. If I let you drive another one, you'll get splattered all over the track!"

[edit] Bonus Speedway

• The Skyholder - An entirely virtual speedway where the Enforcer's brakes have been removed, resulting in high speed, and he/she must dodge oncoming cars. Your opponents appear to be driving LUISs. As Lance says, "You're on your own for this one, tough guy. Two laps, and the only thing you're hunting is points, lots and lots of score."

The purpose of The Skyholder is score bonus points. As usual, the Enforcer scores 100 points for driving over a light-colored "bonus points" symbol, or loses 100 for driving over a dark-colored "penalty points" symbol. The Enforcer also scores points by causing an enemy to crash other than by passing them, but the Enforcer also crashes in this situation, since no weapons are available in this level.

[edit] Penalty Speedway

• The Can (Also known as 'The Last Chance Speedway' or 'Tokyo') - A circular speedway in Tokyo. Your opponents drive PALOMAs. Lance introduces this track, "Fact is, you're starting to smell like a loser, baby, say goodbye to your friends. Now, it seems you did just about enough to win yourself a ride on our last-chance speedway. So it's welcome to the Can. Got your waterwings ready, Enforcer? This could be where you get flushed away."

The Can (AKA Tokyo) is a last-chance speedway, meant only for a last chance; if you do not win this race, your game will be over. The only ways known to race in Tokyo are to:

• Finish 'Belly Of The Beast' in second place.
• Finish 'Particle Accelerator' in second place after finishing first in all other races.
• Finish all 14 speedways on both difficulties and select Tokyo in the level select menu.
• Play from beginning and beat Lance Boyle's score and come in second place on any track without losing.

(Note: to reach these milestones, a new game must be started; the above options are not available via a saved game).

[edit] Prizes

Throughout the game you will win prizes for each race that you win. To win a prize, you must win the race and score at least 8,000 points from that race. Any score from 8,000 to 11,999 points from a race wins a prize from Gallery #1, and a score 12,000 points or more from a race wins a prize from Gallery #2. The prize you win is totally random, there is no way to tell which one you will get. Prizes have no effect on the final outcome of the game; these sequences are just for show.

Gallery #1

• Car-seat covers ("If I was a contestant, I'd love to win those... I really would.")
• A watch ("Now, if anyone asks you the time, you'll be able to answer... how about that?")
• A trip to the Seychelles islands ("Hey, aren't they supposed to be islands or something?")
• An invitation to spend the evening out with yourself ("All expenses paid by Y-O-U.")
• A biography on Lance Boyle - the camera then reveals nothing inside the cover ("Don't worry, it's a fake.")

Gallery #2

• A fully qualified Dolphin dentist ("Open wide, you won't feel a thing.")
• A genuine Scottish accent ("Tested by a qualified Scotsman.")
• A second pair of arms ("Now you can eat two hamburgers at the same time!")
• A fully functioning scientist's brain ("Floating in its own nutritious chemical bath.")
• Invisibility cream ("They won't even know you're there.")

[edit] Symbols

MegaRace has so-called "Symbols" scattered throughout each track. The player must attempt to utilize any positive symbols, while naturally avoiding the large swarms of negative symbols that generally pollute each track. Most symbols in the game have a counterpart that have the opposite effect. Enemy cars are not affected by symbols, and as such, enemy cars will unintentionally drive over negative symbols and force the player to cease attacking them.

• Booster+ - Gives the player a boost of speed for a short amount of time. Some tracks, such as the Golden Gate Speedway, utilize this symbol as a trap rather than a benefit.

• Booster- - Applies the car's brakes causing it to suddenly lose speed. Also causes the player's car to jerk involuntarily, disrupting the player's aim.

• Points+ - Gives the player more points. The amount of points is determined by the amount of point+ symbols hit. This is the only symbol that can be found, other than the point- symbol, on the Skyholder track.

• Points- - Takes points away from the player, the amount being determined by the number of point- symbols hit one right after another.

• Energy+ - Gives the player more ammunition.

• Energy- - Takes ammunition away from the player. One of the most common symbols in the game.

• Weapon - Adds a weapon to the player's car, allowing the player to fire multiple laser guns at once.

• No Weapon - Strips the player's car of all weapons.

• Missile - Changes the car's weapon from lasers to missiles. The car must have missile support in order for this symbol to affect the car.

• Rails - Holds the car to the rail symbol, also adds a burst of speed for the duration that the car is on the rail.

• Shield - Grants temporary protection against enemy vehicles. The player's car must have shield support for this symbol to work.

• Radar Jam - Jams the player's radar so he cannot see the location of enemy cars.

• Blinding Zone - Causes the screen to ripple and wobble, throwing off the player's vision.

• Command Inversor - Reverses the car's steering controls (such as the keyboard, mouse, or a joystick.) Dangerous on turns.

• Panel Off - Disables the player's warning monitor, and causes all information on the status bar to vanish temporarily.

• Skidding - Causes the car to involuntarily jerk left or right.

• Skidding Turn - Causes the car to spin 360 degrees. Interestingly enough, this has no effect on the player's speed or traction with the road. The only thing that is disturbed is the player's aim.

• Warning - Activates the warning indicator on the player's car, allowing the player to see upcoming symbols on his or her status bar.

[edit] Lance Boyle

The actor who played MegaRace's host was Christian Erickson. His previous acting experiences were very small roles in movies like Fun with Dick and Jane and Dangerous Liaisons. MegaRace was Erickson's first starring role, and after that he has appeared in many other video games (besides MegaRace 2 and MegaRace 3) including Atlantis: The Lost Tale, Omikron: The Nomad Soul, XIII, Syberia II, and most recently (as of 2006), Fahrenheit, better known in the USA as Indigo Prophecy.

[edit] Music

MegaRace features a techno chiptune soundtrack composed by Stephane Picq of Dune fame. The music uses an AdLib sound card for playback and unfortunately due to the sound card's lack of support and little documentation on Cryo's file extensions, the music cannot be loaded into an audio player. However, the raw musical data for all the songs in the game have been captured and saved into the RAW file extension, which is playable in AdPlug, a plug-in for Winamp. You can download the RAW files here. The MegaRace music can also be heard on the Kohina online radio station.

[edit] Sequels

MegaRace was a success when it first came out, selling over 100,000 units. MegaRace also spawned two sequels, MegaRace 2 in 1996 and MegaRace 3 in 2001, the former using the same pre-rendered method introduced in MR1 (albeit with 3D polygon car models instead), the latter featuring full real-time 3-D graphics. Lance Boyle also returns for both sequels. MegaRace also came included with some Packard Bell, Quantex computers, and Gravis Joysticks during the early to mid-1990s.

[edit] Trivia

• The music for the race track, "Maeva" in the Sega CD version of MegaRace is completely different from the music of the same track in the MS-DOS version.

• The car RAMON is colored differently in the Sega CD version, it is tan with a blue stripe down the middle instead of gray.

• In the Sega CD version in the Hall Of Fame there is a racer called Wolfgang, with a score of 20,000 on the Orbital Junkyard track on Hard. He is there instead of Lance Boyle.

• The Thrillometer measures how exciting the current race is, if it falls into the gray zone then the audience isn't getting enough thrills. However, this does not affect gameplay or score, you could play the entire game with a low Thrillometer and still get the best score.

• If you play the game on Novice, once you beat Paradise Valley the game will start over on Hardened; you must beat this too in order to beat the game entirely. However, if you play on Hardened from the start, once you beat Paradise Valley you will win and not start over.

• There are six different endings, four bad endings, two good.

• The first bad ending is when the Enforcer dies (Car blows up during race). ("And so the struggle for law and order on our freeways claims another victim.")
• The second bad ending is when the Enforcer quits the game early. ("The Enforcer can't take the heat, huh?")
• The third bad ending is when the Enforcer didn't kill the Packleader in three laps. (Gets to the end of the race without having 12,000 or more points and having only the pack leader left on the race). ("Sorry, Enforcer, you didn't get the job done. It's return-to-reality time, old buddy!... Let's call the next contestant.")
• The worst ending is when the Enforcer is defeated and 'chickens out'. (Gets his/her car blown up and quits). ("Look at that loser crawl away to die!") (Note: If you just played the Skyholder and crashed, and you quit, you get this message, even though the Skyholder is a bonus speedway.)
• The first good ending is when the Enforcer kills every Packleader once without losing and quits. ("Hey! Doesn't time fly when you're watching low-lifes die? Just kidding. We'll let our Enforcer get some well-earned rest now.")

• The best ending is when the Enforcer defeats every Packleader on all 14 speedways. This is the 'true' ending. The Enforcer receives the 'Solid Gold Enforcement Officer' Award, and also one of the prizes from Gallery #1. (Defeats King Kool in Paradise Valley in Hardened Mode).

• In the "Special Thanks" section of the credits, one of the persons credited is Carroll Shelby.

• According to the computer file that contains the subtitles to Lance Boyle's dialog, one of the lines was originally removed from the final game (although some games did ship with the original dialog). The dialog the player hears in the game is:

• It's because of quitters like him that vicious speed-gangs miss out on a wonderful rehabilitation program! Tune in next time to Mega Race when we'll have a real Enforcer to admire!

The original line went like this:

• It's because of quitters like him that vicious speed-gangs miss out on a wonderful rehabilitation program developed by New Directions in Meat Incorporated, makers of Bleed, the candy-bar poor folks love to be a part of! Tune in next time to Mega Race when we'll have a real Enforcer to admire!

• In some versions of MegaRace, running over a certain symbol during the Maeva levels causes the screen to ripple, while in other versions, running over the same symbol makes your car spin around.

[edit] References

This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

[edit] External links

• MegaRace at IMDb