The Rollcage Page.
Genre: Racing.
(At the time I reviewed this, I was using a 3Dfx Banshee, not the GeForce 2 mentioned previously. But it also works fine with my new nVidia GeForce 7600 GT on Windows XP, apart from some gaps in the polygons. Youll need to be using a 32 bit version of Windows XP also, because the installer is 16 bit, and 64 bit versions of Windows have no support for 16 bit Windows programs.)
Rollcage is one of the most awesome racing games of all time! You hoon around in futuristic cars that can flip up-side-down, and keep going, and at speeds over 500 km per hour! Grabbing power-ups along the way can do all sorts of cool stuff like giving you rockets to fire, shields, boosters, lighting, warpy things that pop you ahead and a homing missile that targets the first car. I use the Creative Cobra Gamepad to play this, cos its got more buttons than a shirt factory, and basically the keyboard is just horrid to play racing games on.
At the starting line, its a good idea to tap the accelerator and as soon as the 1 dissapears, you just whack that old button down, and your car zips up past everyone else with a massive jolt. Driving through tunnels is cool, cos you can drive your car up onto the roof for boosters and pickups
and the like!
Theres heaps of tracks to choose from, and some have to be unlocked as well, and of course, theres plenty of cars to choose between too, giving you the right mix of specs for your driving style.
You can play with up to 4 players on the one PC (Crikey!) or 6 people on a network (Thats more like it!).
The game has a bit of an intro showing you how seriously these dudes & dudesses take their racing, but once youve watched it a few times, youll probably just skip it. Youll need a 4MB Direct 3D or 3Dfx compatible video card to get this looking yummy, and probably a computer not too much slower than mine to get it running smooth in every instance. You need 16MB of system RAM, minimum and 10MB of hard drive space minimum. But 130MB is recommended. It runs in lots of cool resolutions, and if you have a grunty video card like a GeForce 2 or something, you can crank it up to some very yummy modes. I have it going great in 1024 × 768 pixels.
(With the GeForce 2 video card, Ive now cranked this up to 1600 × 1200 pixels [with no anti-aliasing] with no slowdown.)
Heres the shield power-up.
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Zapping lighting out the front of the car sends opponents skidding. (Even though I seem to be coming 1st - hey its for the screenshot!)
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This is the G-Force track.
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Outworld track.
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Graphics: Great special effects all over the shop. Heaps & heaps of transparencies, lovely coloured lighting, sensational weather effects and even a nice reflective bit in there too. Geometrically its a bit simple by todays standards, but besides that, its pretty fantastic. 90%
Animation: Youll need a pretty decent computer to get this nice and smooth. Meteors, flying ships, fire and crashing buildings make up for some nice goings on in the background. 87%
Sound: There doesnt appear to be any music as you drive, but the sound effects are all pretty decent. 76%
Playability: Rollcage plays excellently. Its certainly a lot easier than the tracks in Rollcage Stage 2. Its simply a matter of finding the car that suits you, and youre off, like a rotten banana! 97%
Lastability: Theres several tracks and that to unlock and other secrets also, that I wont mention. I dont play this as much as Id like, and I tend to feel this is better as a multi-player game than just on your own. 84%
Overall: If you can actually find this game, its worth getting. Ive been looking for it for years, and I found it recently for $14.95 at Revolution CD in Pitt Street in Sydney. Definitely worth looking at if you like racing games. 95%
With a XBOX 360 controller, heres some decent button settings:
A: Brake
B: Target
X: Fire 1
Y: Fire 2
Start: Pause
Back: Zoom out
Up: Face forward
Left Top Shift: Look back
Set it up for digital use in the game and use the digital d-pad and Left & Right bottom shift buttons for accelerate and brake.