1994 Mindscape
Platform: Commodore Amiga CD32
MegaRace was an ambitious title due for release on the Amiga CD32 by Mindscape back in 1994, and was being developed by French programmers Cryo.
Set in the future, the game revolves around a VR gameshow that is hosted by a Lance Boyle where you participate in a death or glory race over 15 different tracks and with 8 different supercars. Seems like something very Running Man’esq.
The game was released on the likes of the 3DO and PC platforms, with the PC version being released first – but the Amiga CD32 edition due for release in October would be nowhere to be seen. The title was previewed in many Amiga magazines back in the day, and wowed all of those who saw it – suggesting that the screenshots were not just taken from the PC edition, but from an actual playable edition of the game on the CD32.
The backgrounds in the game were all done using FMV that would be streamed straight from CD with cars overlaid over the top as sprites, so there was no worrying about having to process lots of polygons – and how the CD32 edition would come to look so good. Although leading to some limitations in variety of gameplay – it was still pretty impressive.
According to one preview, there was a suggestion that the CD32 edition was going to show up the PC’s VGA edition of the game, with a much sharper version of the graphics – with a car that loses its blotchiness and much clearer FMV graphics for the background. There would also be some fixes as a result of feedback from the PC edition that had already been out there for some months. However, according to The One’s feature on the game – the better looking graphics would mean that some of the PC tracks would be dropped.
Tragically, the game was due for release around the time that Commodore would go bankrupt, and many CD32 titles would be canned as a result – including it seems MegaRace. It is a shame, as the title could have really given the platform a little boost, given some of the advantages over the PC edition.
Thanks to The One article, we learn that Lionel Guillang was the CD32 programmer, with Frank de Luca and Madjid Taibi on graphics, and Stephane Picq on music and sounds. The producer was Simon Harris. Hopefully we will be able to get hold of someone involved in the development to learn more – to work out if the game ever got to a completed stage, and crucially if anything still exists.
On an old EAB Amiga thread about unreleased games, someone called retrosale.co.uk suggested that they had a beta version of the game saved from Commodore’s UK offices. However, they have since disappeared with no further updates.
If you know anything more about the development – please do get in touch.
With huge thanks to Karl Kuras for flagging up to cover, Amiga Magazine Rack, Archive.org and Stephen Stuttard for many of the scans.
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