The following posting is a few short (so as not to annoy anyone :)
extracts from my report on the Autumn European Computer Trade Show
at Olympia in London.
A full report on the show, with pictures and all that stuff, can
be found on my WWW page at the address -
Paradise.msms.doe.k12.ms.us/~tobeee/england/ects.htm
Please take a look and let me know what you think.
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[ ... ]
Microprose
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.. Geoff Crammonds Formula One Grand Prix 2. A quick wander
round the side of the stand revealed a playable demo of the game.
HuZzAh. And it looks quite nice. The steering on this early demo
seemed a bit unresponsive, but that'll aparently be ironed out
before release. The game was running in standard VGA (320X200),
with full detail, and wasn't quite as silky smooth as the original.
The main additions, other than the full light sourcey texture
mapping (which does look very nice), were the sand traps - which
made the car bump and jump realisticly, and were difficult to escape
from. The addition of pitching and rolling to the cars also added
a certain amount of realism. Clipping a kerb can now cause you to
tilt and flip about like a tilty, flippy thing - which is a very
nice effect. At this stage it isn't really that "different" from
the first game - sure, the track (Monza, as the show coincided with
the Italian Grand Prix) looked pretty spanky, the other cars looked
smart, the pitching and tilting was nice, the new SVGA menu screens
look spanky - but ... well, it was just more of the same (that
seemed to be a Microprose trend for the show). Time for some
questions, the following is a rough version of a conversation I
had with a Microprose rep (from my dodgy memory .. :)
"What machine is that F1GP2 demo running on?"
"Pentium 90"
"*cough*"
"Well what did you think it was running on?"
"Oh nothing ... just wondered ... When will the demos be
available ... or will there be any at all before release?"
"Hmmm - well - we'd *like* a demo, but Geoff had to take
about a week out of his schedule to get this one ready for the
show - he really wants to get this all done by Christmas, so I
doubt we'll see a demo before release"
"Ahh Christmas - talking of dates ... would you say that the
distribution release schedule of 29th September is realistic?"
"*laughs* 29th? September? Who told you that?"
"It's on your distibutors release schedule ... "
"Oh well - I certainly can't see it ... i'd say end of November
at the very earliest"
Well, that was F1GP2 - nice, but we'll have to wait and see (i'm
told Microprose are notoriously bad at setting up demonstration PCs
for shows, so that could have accounted for the slight lack of
smoothness).
That wasn't the only driving related game on the stand tho', Grand
Prix Manager also made an appearance. Looking like just about every
other Grand Prix Management game, this was one game that would be
hard to judge without playing for a few hours.
The last driving game on offer from Microprose was zooming away on
the monitors opposite. Virtual Karts was set up to run in SVGA, and
presumably on another P90. It looked surpisingly fast and playable
- with very realistic looking tracks and maps, and the driving view
as a nice MechWarrior II style virtual***pit thang. I assume that
in standard VGA the game would be a lot smoother, and it's certainly
one to watch out for.
[ ... ]
***
------
[ ... ]
A nice American lady attempted to demonstrate IndyCar 2 to
an over-interested beardy man, who seemed more captivated by the
high-res menu screens, and the number of polygons it could handle
than actually seeing the game running. Pretty uninspiring "sequel"
if you ask me. It's SVGA. Big wow.
[ ... ]
.. ***s Ridge Racer-alike Screamer. This was looking very,
very nice indeed - smooth update, swinging camera angles, nice
looking cars, and crisp well animated graphics (though there was
no-one about to ask what spec the demonstration machines were).
The game even had a little voice that shouted things like "Haven't
you ever heard of brakes?". Well - the guy who was playing at
the time was shite ....
[ ... ]
Sega
----
[ ... ]
.. 50% complete version of Saturn Sega Rally ran through it's
forest stage next to a full size cabinet arcade version of the
real thing. The main impressive features of the arcade version
are it's smoothness, graphical detail, and realistic handling.
Taking these into account, those who've seen Saturn Daytona USA
probably won't be holding out much hope for Rally. They'd be
wrong. The arcade machine and the Saturn version were virtually
indistinguishable - the 3D, the handling, the unbelieveable
smoothness, the beautiful external views, the way the car jumps
as it hits bumps in the road, the dust that somes up as you cross
certain surfaces, the load and low engine sounds, the precise
track layouts - everything was there. They hope it'll be ready
for release in the UK by Christmas, and I definately want one :)
[ ... ]
Domark
------
.. only thing of any interest on this stand was a bunch of
screenshots from the forthcoming Big Red Racing. Looking a lot
like Team 17's soon to be released Roll Cage (which, incidently,
was nowhere to be seen at the show), Racing gives you a wide range
of vehicles to chose from, inlcuding JCB's, and hovercraft. Yes
- the game did look very nice, but it's writen by Big Red who's
only previous attempt at a game (to my knowledge) was Big Red
Adventure - and that was poo. Oh dear.
[ ... ]
Gremlin
-------
[ ... ]
.. Fatal Racing looked to have progressed a bit since
the widely distibuted demo, with better sound, slightly smoother
graphics, and a much more advanced game background and structure.
[ ... ]
.. Codemasters didn't have much going on - though their nice "old
fashioned petrol station" stand was quite impressive, and the
strange looping videos of real life games of MicroMachines II were
worth a look. They're currently working on a four player J-Cart
version of top Amiga game Super SkidMarks for the Mega Drive.
[ ... ]
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Seeya,
Phil.