Star Wars: Episode I Racer on GOG

I haven't played Ep.1 Racer in about a million billion years, but I remember really liking it. It was a great game for its time, especially playing it in a LAN with a bunch of other guys. It ran fast and smooth even on relatively simple hardware (for its time; today smartphone games are way more complex.)
 
I do wonder how close you'd be able to get to the movie pod race visuals in a game now. Some nice PBR textures and volumetric dust clouds would get you fairly close I think.

Amazing to think that 19 years ago the pod race was bleeding edge of movie effects (as much of Ep1 was. Regardless of what you think the film or its effects, it laid the groundwork for whatever your favourite blockbuster was in the last 19yrs)
 
Funny that yor are saying that because that's exactly my opinion as well. For me Episode I is a milestone of engineering. Episode II did not seem as uUltra progressive as Episode I for its time. In my opinion, Episode II is visually worse than Episode I because the sets look more like 2d and don't blend as well between actors, probs etc. and CGI. I think Episode I on Blu Ray looks good on a 65 inch Plasma and therefore I am still visually impressed by the film.

In my opinion, Battlefront 2015 on Endor on PC was the first video game to reach CGI graphics from Star Wars Episode I in moments (which was the best of its time). Unfortunately Battlefront 2015 has a motion blur with a low sample count. Battlefront 2 doesn't look as cinematic as Battlefront 2015 due some intruduced artefacts. I hope that Dice changes the engine again for the next Battlefield. Battlefield 1 and Battlefront 2 have an annoying bug (negative texture LOD).

The first Podracer game has more charme and looks more like the movie.

I haven't played Ep.1 Racer in about a million billion years, but I remember really liking it. It was a great game for its time, especially playing it in a LAN with a bunch of other guys. It ran fast and smooth even on relatively simple hardware (for its time; today smartphone games are way more complex.)

I like the very high speeds and the different shortcuts. The sounddesign is still very memorable.
 
Last edited:
This is the closest thing to podracing in the last years (made a video)

This is already epical in my opinion.

YouTube compression is really strong in this one with all the details that quickly passing by. ^^ After all, at least the slow cutscenes show a bit what it looks like.
 
Last edited:
This was when George Lucas commanded LucasArts to make a bunch of Episode 1 games (merchandising!!!!) and almost all were terrible in the end. Except this one apparently. I barely played it but I recall the craze on N64 and Dreamcast.
 
Argonaut Sheffield (aka : Particle Systems makers of one of the greatest space sims ever Independence War - available on gog)
made a similar game in 2004 called PowerDrome.

Independence War

Powerdrome
 
Huh, I don't think I knew they actually released that game, I thought they went belly up before they completed it.
 
Back
Top