Yeah, I noticed how good the sound samples were once Mickey Speedway USA hit. They sounded awesome on the N64!
Question on Speedway USA, Was there any major changes between the engine from Diddy Kong Racing and Mickey Speedway? I know they used pretty much the same engine but I wanna hear if there is any major changes that may not be immediately noticable.
Fuck Wizpig. It took me ages to beat him on the last race. TT is by far worse though. I loved this game so much during my childhood!
Ex-rare dev here, happy to answer questions on this one. I remember the team being super proud of the audio system which unfortunately didn't get the praise it deserved and went largely unnoticed. Then we got moved onto speedway...
Speedway was a clusterfuck, we had very little time to work on it so most of the coding time was spend getting the battle mode in. The art guys had it worse, originally the levels were supposed to be more stylised but we ended up just throwing a load of "realistic" scenery in as we had leftovers from the original mech game prototype. Think the whole game was developed in 10 months. We also found out late on it was way too difficult for the intended audience. Sorry kids
Rare had some really damn good sound designers back during the day, for some reason I always took note of it and it felt like it added onto the feedback of every game - especially Jet Force Gemini.
Speaking of, weren't some of the DKR staff involved with that game as well?
I always wondered what was up with this game. It went by pretty unnoticed and didn't review very well. I mean, all of Rare's other N64 games were very high profile, except maybe KI Gold and Blast Corps, but Blast Corps was at least excellent.
Why wasn't Speedway given the time it needed?
I've been trying to mentally will a Switch sequel into existence for months
Ex-rare dev here, happy to answer questions on this one. I remember the team being super proud of the audio system which unfortunately didn't get the praise it deserved and went largely unnoticed. Then we got moved onto speedway...
Ah well, we would transition the midi instruments using the players distance from each zone, so when you travelled between themed ares the music would very slowly shift, giving you all sorts of weird and wonderful combinations along the way. We tried to turn the n64s disadvantage (no cd audio) into a positive, but made it so subtle nobody bloody noticed.
Call up Miyamoto and demand you can make a sequel!
They cancelled the sequel already.
Miyamoto didn't like tiptup either. Guy has an issue with turtles.
They cancelled the sequel already.
AgreedLoved Diddy Kong Racing back in the day. Recently tried to play the DS version but I found it to be nowhere near as good as the original.
They cancelled the sequel already.
Miyamoto didn't like tiptup either. Guy has an issue with turtles.
They cancelled the sequel already.
Miyamoto didn't like tiptup either. Guy has an issue with turtles.
Only thing that gets me about this game really is the actual challenge of the CPU, when you think of the things that made this game tricky as a kid it's never so much actually just winning a race, it's more of the boss battles or silver coin challenges.
That last one basically being "to make the opponents more of a threat please keep taking these slightly longer turns and go off course to nab the coins and then win".
In any case though a very solid game.
Star Fox was July, Goldeneye was August.
DKR came out in November, and we would not see a great game released until F-Zero X, which was September 1998.
I stand by my point!
edit: Holy shit they actually released SimCity 2000 on the N64 in Japan? What the fuck.
Speedway was a clusterfuck, we had very little time to work on it so most of the coding time was spend getting the battle mode in. The art guys had it worse, originally the levels were supposed to be more stylised but we ended up just throwing a load of "realistic" scenery in as we had leftovers from the original mech game prototype. Think the whole game was developed in 10 months. We also found out late on it was way too difficult for the intended audience. Sorry kids
The engine went on to become jet force gemini.
Thanks for sharing, OP. This game is a fond memory for me with the N64. I'm one of those that think it edged out MK64. Thanks for the images too.
I feel like the second race is easier than the first because it's by plane, so you can find easier short cuts than in a car where hitting any amount of water or grass kills the run entirely.
So why is the DS port often ignored?
Ex-rare dev here, happy to answer questions on this one. I remember the team being super proud of the audio system which unfortunately didn't get the praise it deserved and went largely unnoticed. Then we got moved onto speedway...
Ex-rare dev here, happy to answer questions on this one. I remember the team being super proud of the audio system which unfortunately didn't get the praise it deserved and went largely unnoticed. Then we got moved onto speedway...
I've been trying to mentally will a Switch sequel into existence for months
Banjo Kazooie released in June 1998. Was that not a great game?
Speedway was a clusterfuck, we had very little time to work on it so most of the coding time was spend getting the battle mode in. The art guys had it worse, originally the levels were supposed to be more stylised but we ended up just throwing a load of "realistic" scenery in as we had leftovers from the original mech game prototype. Think the whole game was developed in 10 months. We also found out late on it was way too difficult for the intended audience. Sorry kids
The engine went on to become jet force gemini.
What was the game like in its Pro-Am 64 days? Did it always have animals in it, or was it closer to the NES games with RC cars?
Is there any particularly interesting stuff that ended up being cut from the game?
Can you comment on any cut content? Anything you guys really wanted to put in but couldn't?Ex-rare dev here, happy to answer questions on this one. I remember the team being super proud of the audio system which unfortunately didn't get the praise it deserved and went largely unnoticed. Then we got moved onto speedway...