Playstation Racing on Highways and in Formula 1

Today: I play an early street racing game and fail at Formula 1.

32 Bits is a series where I play and review the most popular console games of the past – the games that sold well in their day, not what we look back on fondly now. Why were they popular, what did their success mean, and do they hold up today? Some remain loved, others loathed, while many more are now forgotten. 

Current time: September 1996. The Playstation’s run of weak games continues, despite runaway successes like Crash Bandicoot and Resident Evil making it the number 1 console. The Saturn’s last grab for survival has seen several creative games draw critical acclaim – and commercial indifference. And the Nintendo 64 is about to make its debut…

Information on what games will be reviewed can be found here; my reviews of 1995′s games are archived on this page, while links to reviews from the current season can be found here.

New posts are made every Sunday, while Sega Saturn reviews are posted on some Saturdays.

Tokyo Highway Battle

Developer	Publisher	Release Date	Best-Seller in	Also Known As	Also On	Playstation Review Number
Genki	Jaleco	5/3/96 (Japan) 9/30/96 (North America) 6/97 (Europe)	Japan (the Best)	Shutokō Battle: Drift King	Saturn	#45

The History:

A sequel to the game Shutokō Battle ‘94 for the SNES, which never left Japan, Tokyo Highway Battle found worldwide release but only saw success in its native Japan.

The Game:

“INCOMPATIBLE PART”

Tokyo Highway Battle offers admirable customization for its day: the Speed Shop features dozens of parts in a dozen categories. And when you try to buy them, you’re liable to get told that part doesn’t go with your car.

You aren’t told what car it does work with, or why it’s incompatible. You’re just told…well, that it doesn’t work with your car.

Such is life in Tokyo Highway Battle.

32 Bits: Can I Make the Milwaukee Bucks Virtual NBA Champions, 1996?

THE GAME

NBA Action is a basketball game for the Sega Saturn. It’s unremarkable in any way besides maybe its occasional glitches. It’s not a good game, and is as ugly as most sports games of its time that tried for realism.

Why did I play it? I have a retro game blogging series called 32 Bits that covers the library of the Playstation, Saturn and Nintendo 64 and one of the games on my list to play was NBA Action. I have no clue why, but I was playing it, so I might as well salvage it somehow.

THE CHALLENGE

In 1995-96 the Chicago Bulls went 72-10 in the regular season and won the finals 4-2 against the Seattle SuperSonics.

Michael Jordan had returned to the NBA the previous season, but 1995-96 was his first full season back. They remain the best team in NBA history and the only to reach 70 wins.

I’m going to knock them out in the first round as the Milwaukee Bucks.

WHO ARE THE BUCKS

Created in 1968, the Bucks won their first championship in 1971 thanks to players Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It’s also their only championship.

A perennial playoff contender through the 80s, their best days were behind them in the early 90s. They failed to make the playoffs between 1992 and 1998, but they had recovered by the end of the decade. They exited in the first round in ‘99 and ‘00. Then in the 2001 they finished second in their conference and nearly reached the finals.

Their history since then is one of mediocrity and first round exits. Swept by the Heat last season, this season the Bucks charted a league worst 15-67 record. During a season where the Philadelphia 76ers tied the record for longest losing streak, where every other team was accused of tanking, the Bucks still managed to finish dead last.

But a sale to new owners, and I don’t know the possibility of drafting the next LeBron James or something maybe, means hope springs occasionally for the Bucks.

The 95-96 Bucks went 25-57 and finished third-from-last in their conference.

THE BUCKS

STARTING LINEUP

• Sherman Douglas (point guard): Drafted by the Miami Heat. Began the 95-96 season with the Boston Celtics before being traded to Milwaukee, where he remained until 1997. Closed out career with the New Jersey Nets.
• Johnny Newman (shooting guard): When playing for Richmond his 12th seeded team upset Charles Barkley’s 5th-seeded Auburn team in the NCAA tournament. Played for eight teams, including one in Greece. On Bucks 94-97.
• Glenn Robinson (small forward): Drafted first by the Bucks in 1994, he signed a 10-year, $68 million deal, the largest in history. One of the real world Bucks’ leading scorers, second after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Won a championship with the 2005 Spurs. On Bucks 1994-2002.
• Vin Baker (power forward): Drafted eighth by the Bucks in 1993, he would win a Gold Medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Career cut short by personal problems. On Bucks 93-97.
• Benoit Benjamin (center): Seven feet tall. Began the season with the new Vancouver Grizzlies before being traded to Milwaukee, where he remained for just one season.

BENCH

• Shawn Respert (SG): Drafted by Portland and traded to Milwaukee. Played on eight teams, including ones in Italy, Greece and Poland. On Bucks 95-97.
• Terry Cummings (PF): Drafted by the Clippers in 1982, he played on the Bucks from 1984-1989. After a stint with the Spurs from 89-95, he returned to the Bucks. A two-time All-Star with the Bucks, his career was hurt by a knee injury and he closed out his career with the Golden State Warriors in 99-00. On Bucks 95-96.
• Marty Conlon (PF/C): In college he reached the Final Four. Played on eight NBA teams and several in Europe. On Bucks 94-96.
• Kevin Duckworth (center): Drafted by the Spurs but spent most of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers. A two-time all-star and 1988’s Most Improved Player, he died in 2008. On Bucks 95-96. The starting center for much of the playoffs.
• Lee Mayberry (point guard): Played in the 1990 final four. Drafted by the Bucks, he spent four seasons there before closing out his career with the Vancouver Grizzlies. On Bucks 92-96; for his first four seasons, he never missed a game.
• Randolph Keys (small forward) & Jerry Reynolds (small forward): Keys was drafted by the Cavaliers in 1988 and played on the Bucks only this season. Reynolds played on the Bucks from 85-88 before returning for this season. Best years came with the Magic. Supposedly the first person to say “24/7”.

The Eastern Conference

I swapped out the Bucks for the real-life eighth seed, the Miami Heat, and kept every other team as-is.

In the first round the Orlando Magic face the Detroit Pistons, the Pacers versus the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland versus the Knicks.

And I face the Chicago Bulls.

Chicago Bulls (1) vs Milwaukee Bucks (8)

On April 11th 2001, during a World Cup qualifying match, Australia faced American Samoa. They defeated the Samoan team 31-0.

In 1916 Cumberland College had discontinued their football team, but were required to play one more game with Georgia Tech. The match ended with a score of 220-0.

Looking at those stats, I must conclude: I am American Samoa. I am the Cumberland College of NBA Action.

Game #1

The Bulls’ squad includes Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and the mysterious Shadow Person ROSTER GUARD, the legendary #99. The Greatest of All Time, and so lawyer friendly too!

Going into the second half I’ve established a thin yet still unlikely lead of 62-59. And I somehow keep it up and finish with an improbable 111-95 victory.

BUCKS LEAD SERIES 1-0

Player of the Game: Vin Baker (Bucks)

Game #2

Going into the second round my team is dominating 81-60. They cruise to a 119-93 victory.

In modern sports games your virtual players have some approximation of feelings. Outrage your star player and their agent might call you pathetic, or they might request a trade. But this unsophisticated game can only manage one emotion: impotent rage. ROSTER GUARD fouls out, as does Bill Wennington. I miss every free throw.

BUCKS LED SERIES 2-0

Player of the Game: Vin Baker

Game #3

In 1996, the NBA still used a best-of-3 format for the first round of the playoffs. So a Bucks win here would clinch the ultimate upset victory, a tale of a scrappy little squad that could due to being guided by the hand of someone who’s figured out how to operate a mediocre-to-shitty basketball game.

The first home game of the series goes into the second quarter with a 60 -52 lead, and the Bulls crush the Bucks 109-89. In the process starting center Benoit Benjamin is injured for 10 games.

The announcer chants player’s names, possibly as a prayer to Satan.

BUCKS LEAD SERIES 2-1

Player of the Game: Dennis Rodman (Bulls)

Game #4

I have no clue what the second quarter score was, but I know that the series was tied up by an extremely close 119-116 Bucks victory.

Imagine if that happened in real life. If the 72-10 Bulls left the playoffs in the first round to the Milwaukee Bucks. How would the media have reacted? Stories about the Bulls choking under pressure? Thinkpieces about if baseball had damaged Jordan’s skills? Would the NBA itself disband in the face of such an inexplicable result? Would Michael Jord-ROSTER GUARD take up curling next season? The world will never know.

Update: I have yet to hit a single free throw. All fouls are vaguely defined. And I think, what sports games are missing is the element of awful officiating. There should be a random chance of a referee ejecting one of your players for laughing, or running up to a random, innocent person and giving them a red card. Alas, it is not to be.

BUCKS WIN SERIES, 3-1

Player of the Game: Vin Baker

Round 2

Our next opponent: the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were actually swept by the New York Knicks and exited the playoffs in the first round. But the sophisticated computer simulations of the Sega Saturn awarded the win to Cleveland.

Game #1

The Cavaliers are bested by the Bucks by a margin of 34 points. How did this happen.

BUCKS LEAD SERIES 1-0

Player of the Game: Vin Baker

Game #2

I finished the first quarter 31-9.

I was the 9.

I don’t remember why I was so bad. I never recovered and lost 113-97.

SERIES TIED 1-1

Player of the Game: Terrell Brandon (Cavaliers)

Game #3

A 1st quarter lead (41-23) falls apart when Terry Cummings jumps aboard the injury train. I win 113-94.

BUCKS LEAD 2-1

Player of the Game: Vin Baker

Game #4

FUCK FREE THROWS

Going into the 3rd quarter I’m leading 85-63.

Then Vin Baker’s injured.

The perennial player of the game is out three games. I narrowly pull off a 113-109 victory, decided in the last moments.

BUCKS LEAD 3-1

Player of the Game: Glenn Robinson (Bucks)

Game #5

Vin Baker’s out 2 games, and Benoit Benjamin’s out 4 more.

Going into the second quarter I lead by one point. I win 114-101.

Update: I STILL can’t hit free throws.

BUCKS WIN SERIES 4-1

Player of the Game: Terry Cummings (Bucks)

Conference Finals

As Seattle duels with the Spurs in the West, the Bucks must face the Magic.

Magic also have a lawyer-friendly shadow person player, ROSTER CENTER. Good ol’ #99.

Game #1

Going into the second half I lead 54-41, but it all goes south. I lose to the Magic 102 to 94.

MAGIC LEAD SERIES 1-0

Player of the Game: Roster Center (Magic)

Game #2

Vin Baker’s finally back! Again I lead going into the second half, 53-46, only to lose 101-94.

MAGIC LEAD SERIES 2-0

Player of the Game: Roster Center

Game #3

Leading 54-49 going into the second half, I ultimately win 121-98. A score bolstered by endless fouls and me hitting a couple of free throws…out of dozens. At least I’m learning.

MAGIC LEAD SERIES 2-1

Player of the Game: Vin Baker

Game #4

HOW DID A DUNK GET IN THERE???

New strategy. SHOOT THREES AND NOTHING BUT THREES. Sure, I can’t actually hit them, but I can always keep catching the rebound and passing back to my team until I do get that three.

Why? The computer never seems to go for three points. Perhaps they find three pointers greedy. Maybe they don’t regard the ABA as canon. Or maybe it’s against their religion. Either way, if I keep scoring nothing but threes and they just score twos, back and forth, I’ll create a game that’s simultaneously close and dull.

Going into the second half I have a commanding…six point lead. But I pull it off in the end 124-96 to tie the series.

SERIES TIED 2-2

Player of the game: Vin Baker

Game #5

Perhaps I should reconsider the strategy as this round proved bizarrely close. The first quarter ended in a 20-20 tie. The second, a narrow 44-43 lead. The third another 69-69 tie. I win by just four points, 100-104 but from what I recall the AI didn’t seriously try to tie it in the final moments so it was a comfortable lead. Weird.

BUCKS LEAD 3-2

Player of the game: Vin Baker

Game #6

A Bucks victory sends them to the finals. A Magic victory enters this series into a game 7.

I don’t quite understand why I keep alternating between absolute blowouts and games decided in their final moments, but according to the pattern game 7 would be one of the closer ones, so I’d like to avoid that.

After the second quarter I had a mere ten point lead, yet by the 3rd quarter I lead by 28. I closed out the game 124-97.

BUCKS WIN SERIES 4-2

Player of the Game: Sherman Douglas

The Finals

The Seattle SuperSonics bested the Spurs 4-1. In real life they beat the Jazz in 7 games. Either way, they’re in the finals…though against the Bucks this time, not the Bulls.

Game #1

In this close game I lead by six points after the first quarter, then I’m three points behind in the second, then trailing by seven going into the third. But to my surprise I come back in the fourth quarter and win 119-111.

By this point I understand how this game works. Don’t go for that dunk because the game might instead make your player do a half-hearted lob at the backboard.

BUCKS LEAD 1-0

Player of the Game: Vin Baker

Game #2

Again I expect failure in game #2, largely because I want this to go to a dramatic game 7, and initially I am rewarded. In the first quarter I keep missing every throw and keep giving possession back to the SuperSonics. I close out the first quarter eight points behind and fall back even further in the second round.

But in the third quarter I somehow score 42 points. In the second quarter I scored just 18, but one gargantuan quarter puts me barely head 88-81.

By the last minute of the fourth quarter I’m leading by a thin margin. This is when the endless spree of fouls begin. Hilariously, I notice that this means the AI players just pushing the air over and over until they hit someone. And to my surprise, I hit multiple free throws. I win the match 119-111.

BUCKS LEAD SERIES 2-0

Player of the Game: Vin Baker

 

Game #3

Going into the first home game of the series (not that it means anything, of course, but at least the cardboard cutouts in the stands will be rooting generically for me) I’m optimistic, but I end the first quarter fourteen points behind. The second? Nine points behind. Going into the third quarter, I’m resigned to my fate: an overwhelming loss. Time to rest players to avoid injury!

Then I notice…I’ve slowly crawled my way up to 59 points. Seattle’s at 64. We close the third quarter tied 66-66. And then the fourth quarter concludes 100-100 and I enter my first overtime.

Keep in mind: I’m not cheating. I tweaked options early on, but there aren’t enough in this rather simplistic game to make cheating possible. And I didn’t tweak anything during the finals: all these games are on the default difficulty, no special options at all.

The lead goes back and forth, but I’m comfortably ahead by the end and win the game 127-122.

BUCKS LEAD 3-0

Player of the Game: Glenn Robinson

Game #4

A win and my quest’s over. A loss and this drags on.

And I dominate. Over the first quarter I rack up thirteen points before the AI can even score once. In the second I lead by over ten points, concluding 54-40. Seattle makes a comeback in the third quarter but I’m so far ahead that in the last minute I swap out my whole team for the bench: Conlon, Cummings, Reynolds, Mayberry, Respert.

Going into the fourth quarter I lead 81-64. I swap back in my best players…but keep Reynolds in. I discovered on a stats menu that I actually hadn’t used him before so I feel like giving this ugly jumble of pixels representing a basketball player some playing time.

Out of bounds – wait, what?

Bizarrely, one player is knocked down…and the ball just drifts away. Slowly. No one can pick it up, no matter how much I try, and it’s marked out of bounds…even though I was knocked down at midcourt. It’s clearly possessed.

The final quarter is a joke. Just an absolute joke, as I’ve finally. Learned. How. To. Shoot. Free throws! I nail nearly every one, bolstering my score. I win 108-104, which isn’t as close as it looks.

BUCKS WIN FINALS 4-0

Player of the Game: Vin Baker

I’ve won! I’ve guided the Milwaukee Bucks to a virtual championship. I get a bit emotional, then I remember, oh right, that’s weird.

And my reward for winning the championship? I get sent back to the menu. Huh?

Then I notice a new option. “View Awards”. And what do I receive?

THE 32 BITS VIRTUAL 2014 1995-96 NBA CHAMPIONS

• Vin Baker
• Benoit Benjamin
• Marty Conlon
• Terry Cummings
• Sherman Douglas
• Kevin Duckworth
• Randolph Keys
• Lee Mayberry
• Johnny Newman
• Shawn Respert
• Jerry Reynolds
• Glenn Robinson

(3)2-EXTREME BITS

Today in 32 Bits: I play a game so screamingly 90s that even its menu screens are extreme; a sequel to a Playstation launch title, it proved the last success in a short-lived franchise. Also, pinball.

32 Bits is a series where I play and review the most popular games of the past – the games that sold well in their day, not what we look back on fondly now. Why were they popular, what did their success mean, and do they hold up today? Some are loved, others loathed, and many more forgotten. 

Information on what games will be reviewed can be found here; my reviews of 1995′s games are archived on this page, while links to reviews from the current season – and a list of those to come – can be found here.

New posts are made every Sunday, while Sega Saturn reviews are posted on some Saturdays.

2Xtreme

Developer	Publisher	Release Date	Best-Seller in	Playstation Review Number
Sony Interactive Studios America	SCEA	10/31/96 (North America) 4/11/97 (Japan) 3/6/97 (Europe)	North America (Greatest Hits)	#43

Previously: I played ESPN Extreme Games, a Playstation launch title that tried to give an extreme sports veneer to the Road Rash formula. I didn’t like it.

2Xtreme is undoubtedly the most 90’s video game name ever conceived, a name that makes one run to the nearest source of Mountain Dew and Doritos. And the game is extreme. It’s extremely lazy, extremely poor, and you could make an extremely good case it killed off its series – despite its success. But more on that later.

2Xtreme begins with the typical mid-90s EXTREME TO THE MAX intro where athletes jump, ski and do tricks over a computer-generated mountain. Hilariously, even the game’s menu is extreme: not only is every option accompanied with a blaring explosion noise, each choice brings on a short, first-person cinematic of a skateboarder going down a half-pipe. At the end? You jump up to the other menu you chose. Amazing. Watch it above.

ESPN Extreme Games, this game’s predecessor (renamed 1Xtreme when it came out as one of Sony’s Greatest Hits) posited the existence of a race that sent skateboarders, mountain bikers, rollerbladers and street lugers careening through jungle temples and city streets. The shoulder buttons allowed the player to punch and kick their fellow racers. If the tracks didn’t go on forever, it might have made for some quick, zany fun. Unfortunately, it was just tedious.

2Xtreme plays similarly to the original: you race down courses, you go through gates to get money and power-ups (I honestly can’t remember if these were in the original).

But street luge’s out and snowboarding is in (and get used to snowboarding, folks, because I have Cool Boarders coming up at the end of the season and I don’t doubt that eventually every other game I review will feature snowboarding). Each race only allows for one type of vehicle: Japan for snowboarding, LA for skateboarding, Las Vegas for rollerblading and “Africa” for mountain bikes. The four vehicles mean four courses – less than the original – but each has three stages.

Los Angeles, night.

Los Angeles: a city strewn with barrels in the street. You play this stage on skateboards. Features a night stage that’s, amazingly, just the same level but dark. No streetlights or anything…even though, you know, they’re right there.

Las Vegas: rollerblade down the strip – or a generic city with occasional casinos you see in passing. Casinos with a suspicious lack of neon.

Africa: Where in Africa? The place with elephants, zebras, huts in the middle of the street, and that one tree that’s on the cover of every book set in Africa, of course. Probably the most fun track – to look at, not to play. Just like the South American track in 1Xtreme, jungles resemble every other indoor area, painted green.

Japan: A snowboarding track in Japan. Lots of snow.

Nothing else is different: the game still plays the same in every respect except, hey, you have snowboards now. You still pass through gates. You still face a large pack of racers – though I believe it’s less than the original.

Courses wind on and are largely identical in terms of actual challenges; the 2D sprites used for the characters are still jerky and indistinguishable from one another; the Road Rash-esque mechanics just don’t fit, and the “XTREME” trapping make navigating the game’s menus an incredibly tedious experience.

I didn’t think it could be possible, but 2Xtreme is somehow worse than the original, and the original was awful. The mind-numbing extreme elements, the lack of content, the graphics (which aren’t just bad by modern standards like most Playstation games, but bad by the standards of the 1996), the lack of any change…

The top-selling Playstation games of all time allegedly include Gran Turismo (10 million copies), Final Fantasy VII (9), Gran Turismo 2 (9), Tekken 3 (8.5) and Final Fantasy VIII (8). On the list from 1996: of games I’ve played already, Crash Bandicoot (6.8), Resident Evil (5), Tekken 2 (3), Mortal Kombat Trilogy (2). Games I’ll play soon: Tomb Raider (7), Twisted Metal 2 (1.7), Jet Moto (1.2).

And 2Xtreme sold over a million copies.

I can almost understand why. 2Xtreme’s extreme! Arguably extreme to the max. And people enjoyed the first game. But just like Battle Arena Toshinden, people would reject the game’s third installment. After all, the standards for a launch title are lower and many

1999’s 3Xtreme reinvented itself as a fully 3D game, but kept the same gameplay. Letting the series lay dormant for three years probably wasn’t wise, since the resulting the game was hardly a masterpiece. Unlike its predecessors, I’ve played it before.

I only had a Playstation at the tail end of the system’s life. So in 1999 I popped in a demo disc. There was awkward, failing 3Xtreme. And next to it? Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. One promised dull racing, the other speed and freedom. In 1999, this series was on the way out. The other was just about to spawn arguably the system’s greatest game.

It’s not even extremely bad.

WHO MADE IT?
In 1998 developers Sony Interactive Studios America were renamed 989 Studios, remaining Sony’s internal development division. They developed mainly sports games, but they also made games people like, such as 1997’s Rally Cross. But they also made Spawn: The Eternal, one of the system’s worst games. They also handled the post-SingleTrac Twisted Metal games – neither of which were exactly loved.

Their 1998 game Blasto was a comedic third-person action game starring Phil Hartman, and was released a short time before his death.

They’re also credited with publishing 1999’s Syphon Filter, a popular series in the Playstation’s last years, and the Cool Boarders games, as well as 1998’s animal racer Running Wild and NFL Blitz-esque NFL Xtreme (sigh).

A division of the company developing online games such as 1997’s Tanarus was spun-off into a new division that developed EverQuest, one of the first big MMOs. Now named Sony Online Entertainment, they continue to develop games like Planetside 2.

TRUE PINBALL

Developer	Publisher	Release Date	Best-Seller in	Also On	Playstation Review Number
Digital Illusions	Acclaim	May 96 (Europe) 5/31/96 (Japan) September 96 (NA)	Europe (Platinum)	Saturn	#44

There’s something ghoulish about playing a pinball video game. You’re experiencing pinball on the platform that killed it. Walls of video games crowded pinball machines out of arcades in the ‘70s.

The decline of pinball wasn’t due to creative sloth. Pinball designers responded to video games by merging the two forms. Pinball machines gained voices, LED screens, and new mechanics. This wild innovation sparked a brief pinball resurgence in the 1990s – ironically as arcade video games were themselves dying.

True Pinball’s surprisingly slick presentation offers up several different pinball tables, all emphasizing the kind of multimedia gimmicks you’d find in a contemporaneous pinball game. On the Viking table a fight begun on the screen above the table between two knights; I don’t quite know what happened, but I did acquire a grail, so there’s that.

The square button controls the right flipper, while the left arrow controls the left. Tilting is accomplished by the X button, R1 and L1. It’s an interesting layout since it spaces out the movements in a way that largely makes sense.

I need to confess: I’ve never even played a pinball machine. Except maybe one in the corner of a movie theater. The arcade age passed me by. I discovered them now and then: in a bowling alley, or scattered across hotels in a chintzy vacation town (my favorite: a hotel with a single Crazy Taxi machine in a random hallway). You find a good one occasionally, but it’s fleeting: most will be gone the next year.

In 1996, you’d have been better off playing a real pinball table – if you could find one.

______________________________________________________________________

Next Time: I try to dethrone the 95-96 Bulls with an unlikely team in a review of the Saturn’s NBA Action; I look at Tokyo Highway Battle and Formula 1.