Comments on: MegaBiff! It’s MegaRace

By: simonkaye

simonkaye — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:40:34 +0000

I just realised today that Megarace is the reason why, when driving along, a part of me always expects the white arrows painted onto the road tarmack to accellerate my car slightly, along with a strange little ‘powerup!’ sound-effect.

By: RotBot

RotBot — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:00:09 +0000

I only remember this game as being one of the nominees on Cybermania ’94: Ultimate Gamers Awards that I saw on TBS when I was 11. I think it was up for Best CD-ROM game, but lost to 7th Guest.

Here’s EW’s overview of the show: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,304586,00.html

Apparently the very first televised videogames awards show, it was hosted by Leslie Nielsen and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and was terrible. Geoff Keighley is credited as a consulting producer, too! Somebody should ask him about it.

A bigger list of the random celebrity presenters they used is here: http://www.hollywood.com/tv/Cybermania_94_The_Ultimate_Gamer_Awards/5175158

You’ve got Spinal Tap and Lisa Turtle from SBTB, fresh faces Hilary Swank and Sarah Chalke, who I assume were cross-promoting The Next Karate Kid and Ernest Goes to School, and Dave Thomas. What more could you ask for?

The winners were Best Action/ Adventure: Doom; Best CD-ROM: The 7th Guest; Best Portable Game: Aladdin; Best Art or Graphics: Myst; Best Musical: Xplora 1: Peter Gabriel’s Secret World; Best Sports: Caesars World of Boxing; Best Actress: Grace Zabriskie, Voyeur; Best Actor: Robert Culp, Voyeur; and Best Overall Game (determined by a call-in vote): Mortal Kombat.

By: Demikaze

Demikaze — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:02:58 +0000

I would very much love a retrospective piece on Cyberia (on-rails shooting fun) and, of course, Quarantine. I first experienced Megadeath and these two on a demo disc that came with my very first PC…

This was a bit of a trip down memory lane.

By: mooncalf

mooncalf — Mon, 04 May 2009 03:55:49 +0000

I was once addicted for weeks to a demo of Megarace 2 which had an awesome track and a song I couldn’t get tired of. The full version cured me, and yeah it was like a ‘racing’ conversion of a scrolling shooter.

By: Songbearer

Songbearer — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:04:48 +0000

Add another one to the list of people who loved this game as a kid. It was so much fun and led to me loving other car-nage games like Interstate ’76, Carmageddon and so on.

By: Russ

Russ — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:24:33 +0000

Jim, your mission is to stop John Conn- Walker. Stop John Walker.

By: John Walker

John Walker — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:33:21 +0000

elle – that’s my point, though! For about a fiver they could play it and learn the terrible truth.

Acosta – I love that idea, but I’m frightened that former Cryo employees might hunt me down and kill me.

By: elle

elle — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:56:52 +0000

John, I don’t think you convinced anyone who liked this game when it came out that it’s bad.

I can’t wait for your article denigrating that horrible X-Men cartoon that was awesome at about the same time. Nostalgia is just too strong.

By: Clovus

Clovus — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:12:30 +0000

Wow, this was a fun trip down memory lane. Hey, check out the Wikipedia entry for MegaRace; it shows the box art. Apparently 1994 was still a year that Box Art was totally more awesome than the game itself. “In this future, speed that kills isn’t enough!” WTF does that mean??

Anyway, loved the article, but had a good laugh at this:

Occasionally the FMV slows down or speeds up to create the illusion of changing speed, but it’s hilariously clear it’s an illusion.

You know, as opposed to Grid which is real racing on a real track with no “illusions” involved at all. I know what you meant though. Whenever I play a game like Crysis I think, “Hey, these are real trees! Not just 2D cut outs of trees that spin around as you change POV. Or those other trees that are like two cardboard cut outs intersecting each other.” But then you use a no-clip cheat an you find out that those mountains aren’t real; they are just facades! Oh wait… none of it is real!

@angryhenrik: Thanks! I was trying to remember how I ever ended up with this game. I got it with my Packard Bell too! Remember that really terrible Microsoft Bob-ish thing that came with it? PB Navigator or something? I kept all my games on a digital shelf in my digital library! Wheee! Hmm… that’s how GOG works, isn’t it?

By: cheeba

cheeba — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:05:05 +0000

@Moonracer: yeah, it put me in mind of the very same thing. Or rather, the slightly bigger desktop versions that were sculpted like the front of a tiny car, with a little wheel and ‘fast/slow’ gearbox. Now there’s a childhood memory.

As for megarace, I remember playing this one as a kid too. Contrary to the general consensus, I recall being entirely underwhelmed once the actual ‘race’ part started, in a “you’ve got to be kidding me” kind of way. Come on people, this was always rubbish. Nostalgia has a lot to answer for.

By: Moonracer

Moonracer — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:32:03 +0000

The description of gameplay reminds me of those pre electronic screen hand held racing games which consisted of a wind up scroll with the racetrack, cars and obstacles drawn on. Your car was just a plastic car on a slide bar at the bottom that panned from left to right. No score or anything.

By: Cooper

Cooper — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:55:01 +0000

I remember a demo of this from way back.

I had a CD Rom with 101 demos on it (yes; that’s on average 7MB per demo) of which tbhis was one. I remember being amazed by Mega Race – the FMV blew me away. I am prepared to admit that was likely an early bout of naivity.

I am sorely tempted to buyit just to see if I can see why I found the demo so inticing…