Assault Rigs - ADG Episode 256

[@Schluberlubs]

The Owl on your duvet was very happy to see you reviewing a Psygnosis game. I guess their logo was one of her previous modeling gigs. 8M Had this game on a 3dgames compilation, but never got it wroking. Only saw that sweet AF intro sequence. Does look like fun, I might give the PS port a whirl.

[@zintosion]

You deserve so much more subs and views for all the hard work you put into these videos. And 256 videos ADG episodes? Dammn, a lesser person would have just quit, been watching since ADG 106, and probably the early days of shovelware diggers.

[@FeelingShred]

Can't help but repeat myself for this one: "This looks like something I would spend countless hours having fun with back then" There's also a certain charm that only "software renderers" can achieve, looks so good.

[@lucentv]

I remember this particular series of Psygnosis games. They were all pretty good. The Destruction Derby demo practically gave you the best part of the game for free; the basic arena demolition derby.

[@avarisclari]

This game looks super fun. I haven't heard of it before, but it looks like something I'd sink HOURS into.

[@jaekaelae]

Wild Metal Country on PC made by Rockstar games in 1999 has many similarities with Assault Rig. Ofcourse it is 3D-accelerated and running on Windows. It is interesting and fun game. If you are not familiar with it, you should try it out. It is freeware now days.

[@PlayStationPaul]

I can take or leave the Tron aesthetic but I do like the grainy military / industrial style that were in a lot of 90s games of this ilk. I might check this out.

[@FeelingShred]

Same. I imagine a lot of kids back then disregarded the game entirely because screenshots only show the Tron bits, when that is only a small portion of the game. Adult x Kids brain. They could have spent a bit more on the marketing process and paid to research a few kids' opinion on what looked better, that would be simple enough for potentially drastically different results in sales.

[@ethelchip3620]

3d dos games are beautiful. This one looks fun.

[@RolloTonéBrownTown]

Yes

[@Onihikage]

That advertising magazine is packed with far more memes than I expected.

[@alexanderglassgames4170]

My new staple phrase: 'That's quite the corrugation!'

[@Gummybeer]

My guess is the cd case is shrink wrapped to prevent it from opening and the cd falling out at getting scratched. I think i remember seeing that happening in the old days if the box was roughly handled.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Gummybeer Actually, that makes sense... though ironically, the CD case seals up surprisingly well and the grasps inside for the CD almost didn't want to let go of the blasted thing! :o

[@thewiirocks]

@@Pixelmusement A simpler explanation is that they used a CD duplication service and that service offered shrink wrapping as a standard part of duplication.

[@JomasterTheSecond]

Opening a sealed big box PC game is always an event. :P

[@PzAufklLehrBtl3]

3D acceleration is possible trough ATI's own API "CIF", which was available on ATI Rage, Rage II and Rage Pro chipsets. No idea though if that requires a special release/binary or the retail version.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Max Mustermann All 3D acceleration is handled through an API, meaning if the software doesn't support using that API then it can't be 3D accelerated that way. I'm pretty sure there is a 3D accelerated release of this game out there, I just forget which chipset/API it supported. :|

[@rasz]

and you can use GLRage "GLRage is an OpenGL wrapper for the ATI 3D C Interface (ATI3DCIF) and DirectDraw 2. It allows to play vintage Windows 95/98 games designed for the ATI 3D Rage series on modern GPUs and Windows versions in FHD, UHD and beyond." "Assault Rigs Apart from a broken memory check, Assault Rigs runs almost flawlessly out of the box, even on recent Windows versions."

[@FeelingShred]

@@rasz thanks for sharing, there's some amazing people creating these wrappers out there, I mostly use DxWnd (for DirectDraw) and nGlide, but there are games that need specific ones... I have this game called M.A.X. 2 (Interplay) that runs fine in modern systems but on my machine it does something weird with the mouse movement, even in fullscreen. The game is stretched to 640x480 (4:3 aspect ratio) and the mouse have different speeds for horizontal and vertical movement, makes very difficult for precise mouse movements (specially when you consider it's a Strategy game) Besides that, there's a secondary problem that the mouse "drags", meaning it will move slower after a certain number of pixels like if there's some kind of "friction" holding it down. Are you aware of any wrappers out there for mouse movement? Any way to find out what kind of mouse API the game uses? (there are some that use DirectInput, others use Xinput, I assume there must be countless others)

[@ksjoet]

The ATI version is a special release that was bundled with the ATI 3D Rage cards. The retail version does not support it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4vRkmuNjahnmtU

[@intel386DX]

I like the strafe mechanics :)

[@TrollDecker]

Psygnosis was in a weird spot in despite being owned by Sony, they were still permitted to develop for other platforms, but that came to an end at some point before Wip3out. Maybe they thought they had a chance at competing against SEGA PC? Who knows. :\ As for comparisons: This reminds me of Cyber Sled, but that game was a one-on-one arena affair where the player had to blow up the other player.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jo Decker It didn't completely end. I mean, I have Wipeout XL for Windows 9x... even hacked it at one point to add 1280x1024 resolution. ;)

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

I'm surprised how this one hadn't really came up on the radar - it does a lot of things I'm quite impressed with. Shame they didn't keep to the glowing vector style. Looks like one I have to track down for sure.

[@lilwyvern4]

6:08 to skip the unboxing.

[@verysoftwares]

charming to see the unboxing. gameplay seems very smooth, like a PS1 game, Psygnosis were coding talents.

[@shawdawg2852]

Destruction Derby 1 was easily one of their best games.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Shawdawg28 Their Wipeout series was also really popular and is STILL getting sequels and spiritual successors to this day. ;)

[@shawdawg2852]

@@Pixelmusement I forgot that they did Wipeout. Also loved G-Police and Colony Wars

[@marcsm2008]

A Psygnosis game I never played? That's something interesting. Gotta play this game ASAP! Thanks for the video, BTW. As usual, VERY entertaining AND informative. ^^ BTW, have you ever played Necrodome? It's not a DOS game, since it's one of those early Windws 95 games. It's surprisingly fun and Assault Rigs remind me of it a bit (very different gameplay, but... tanks, you know). Necrodome is made by Raven, BTW. ^^

[@Pixelmusement]

+Marcelo Sampaio I've not played Necrodome but I am aware of it. ;)

[@scotty74065]

Yeah that's what I thought too, how could I overlook a Psygnosis game back in the day? Funny you mentioning Necrodome, that one of 2 shrinkwrapped games I have lying around for years. Brought it at the end of 2009 when a local video rental store had the one box randomly lying around for 2 euros, although it did not look all that appealing to me. Because the box is mostly brown and the game does not sound all that special on it I never opened it, maybe I should do that now.

[@FeelingShred]

I was going to mention Necrodome too, as well as SWIV 3D, got both games in magazines that came with full games back in the day (I don't know about the legality of these magazines though, since they were super cheap compared to original boxed games and some of them even came with the original manuals, crazy stuff) It's a shame Necrodome is one of the very few games I can't make work on Linux/Wine, it's a decent shooter for some "mindless" fun with great replay value. It doesn't have the best most captivating story ever in a game but the gameplay is so good that it doesn't need to have one :) From the same makers of Heretic/Hexen, which is probably making you raise your eyebrows right now "Uhh I know these guys" xDDD I still don't know what 3D engine Necrodome uses. Initially there were rumors of it using the Build Engine but it seems like they crafted their own proprietary 3D engine for that game? Which is awesome in itself.

[@TheArtkaw]

As somone that only saw the ads for this game on my PC games magazines, seeing these really gritty textured levels is blowing my mind... I thought it was all set in those VR levels!

[@jizzleman632]

I dont know what y'all are talking about, 9 year old me LOVED this game.

[@Christopher-N]

(10:55) I haven't played _Assault Rigs_ before, so I couldn't compare, but I do enjoy _Mass Destruction_ for the Saturn. I will take a look at _Assault Rigs_ - thanks.

[@spartonberry]

"Let's see if the instruction manual is in color. Nope it doesn't feel it." Being able to feel colors sounds amazing. :)

[@Pixelmusement]

+spartonberry Paper! The funny thing about paper and having held countless manuals and books and such in my life is that you can kinda tell, when you feel a sheet of paper, if it has the potential to be colour printed; Doesn't mean it will be mind you. Basically, the paper will have a smoothness to it and will be thicker stock, as professional colour printing systems require better paper than what's required for black and white. So it's not feeling colours so much as feeling if colours are POSSIBLE... and the paper of this manual felt very much not possible. ;)

[@UltimatePerfection]

It'a Psygnosis game, so obviously quality is guaranteed.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jagielski Gaming Along with atypicalness. ;)

[@AmyraCarter]

0:44 I thought it was a simultaneous release. 0:55 Two multitaps would say otherwise... (not that there were any games that supported it but it was/is possible lol) I played the demo of this long ago on the PSX. I can't say I remember my experience. Speaking of PsyG games... O.D.T. (it's not a DOS game but a very good game nonetheless)

[@daffers2345]

It's likely the manual was printed via offset printing to save on costs. The ad is only 2 pages (front and back) and was likely printed digitally. They splurged on that to try to sell more games.

[@Pixelmusement]

+daffers234 Plus the advertising would be printed in much higher quantities to be bundled with multiple games, so that too drives down the production cost so that it can be more spectacular. Don't worry, I get it, I just like pointing stuff like that out to get people thinking. ;)

[@robqg]

Looks interesting. One to add to my modded PlayStation Classic.

[@sk8terboi10003]

It's funny when. I saw the owl in the back ground I was thinking about psygnosis they I see the logo on the box art

[@Pixelmusement]

+Lord Shaxx Kinda coincidental. I was thinking, "I haven't really shown the bird side of my blanket yet..." so I aimed the camera that way. I completely forgot the Psygnosis logo featured an owl. ^_^;

[@yuriythebest]

Hi! Please review Surface Tension ( DOS, 1996) - there are no reviews of it on youtube

[@spartonberry]

Supposedly, Sony owned Psygnosis as early as 1993, yet let them continue to develop for Sega and Nintendo consoles until around 1999. (Nintendo Power that year reviewed the N64 version of a FPS called O.D.T. which ended up released only on PS1., though I think Wipeout N64 did make it out maybe before that.)

[@Pixelmusement]

+spartonberry Sony's relationship with Psygnosis was similar to that of Nintendo with The Pokémon Company today: Tightly knit, but only binding to a point. :B

[@StephanS]

Those sound effects are very common and have been used a lot around the time. Maybe those were some public domain sounds or something?

[@Pixelmusement]

+Stephan S The more I go through these old DOS games the more sounds I recognize throughout a LOT of stuff. I was told that many of Doom's and Daggerfall's sounds came from a particular paid sound effect library that was commonly available so I imagine several developers got in on that. I've even heard some of the sounds from these old games in movies! :B

[@StephanS]

@@Pixelmusement Do you got more information about this library? I know that the Best Service Soundcube was also used in some videogames (ie. Industry Giant)

[@Pixelmusement]

+Stephan S It was mentioned by name in the comments of one of my videos, but I've since forgotten what it was as I didn't think it important to remember. :P

[@Banzeken]

A lot of iconic sound effects came from the Hollywood Edge Premiere Edition sound libraries from 1990.

[@rasz]

Cant say I recognized any sounds from this game, but there was one iconic 90s sound that crops up everywhere for me - X-Com 1/UFO: Enemy Unknown door, seems every scifi show used same sample.

[@Christopher-N]

This video is _finally_ playing on my computer. *:)* My ISP recently reactivated my modem remotely (only after I called them), but I don't know if that would have made a difference. I'm not a fan of CenturyLink (Google mistakes my ISP address for the boondocks in another state, instead of my actual ISP location). When I previously lived in another city and had Xfinity, the internet service would occasionally go down, but I never had to call Xfinity to get it reactivated, nor was my ISP address ever inaccurate. The only reason I'm using CenturyLink is because the other ISP for my current city is worse than CenturyLink.

[@Christopher-N]

The other ISP for my current city is Wave Broadband, and they have a terrible reputation. Even the public librarians agree Wave is a terrible service provider. I wish we had Xfinity from Comcast; the neighboring cities have Xfinity, but we don't.

[@FeelingShred]

@@Christopher-N There was this weird point in time where only certain youtube videos would not play, no matter what you did, very strange. There also were specific videos that would play but they would make your CPU use spike to 100% for any reason.

[@BryceThorup]

Another similar game would be i-war on the Atari Jaguar.

[@NewaNotreMaitre]

The Cheat Code At 22:24 ::::: Is Avaliable On Multiplayer Replace The Exit Block Against A Ping-Pong Game (Like On Begin Trailer) This Two Player Now Play To Ping-Pong Up/Down To Move The Barrier (The Move Is Not Working In IPX). I See To Run This Game On Cobalt Via VirtualBox Two VM Connected In Serial Pipe Mode.

[@IllidanS4]

The 3D in this game intrigues me. Notice that lines close to the camera are actually curved, that's not something you see often.

[@Enderu666]

I believe the Ultima Underworld series and other games using that engine have that same quirk.

[@Pixelmusement]

+IllidanS4 The lines aren't actually curving, that's a result of the perspective correction for the texturing only working up to a certain point in the camera frustum. Any closer and the game still tries to render it but the perspective correction is no longer accurate, thus it starts to curve and skew. :P

[@IllidanS4]

Interesting, thanks for explaining!

[@fed6997]

Vietnamflashback into my childhood.

[@Ribulose15diphosphat]

This seems to have inspired everything from Forsaken, that wasn't straight from Descent. Respaning enemies, collection plot, weird menues, and a hot girl that is unrelated to the actual game.

[@Pixelmusement]

Actually, those tropes are pretty common for 90s games in general. :B

[@jascoolo]

Similar games? Battletanx for PS1.

[@joselucnico]

Cybersled too

[@Christopher-N]

(3:26) _"Let's see if the instruction manual is actually in colour... doesn't feel it."_ You can feel the colour? *:P*

[@Pixelmusement]

+Christopher Noel Yes, actually! Although it would be more accurate to say I can feel the INABILITY of colour to be present as a result of the kind of paper used. I've used many kinds of paper over the years and have experience with what kinds are suitable for printing in colour and which aren't. Paper suitable for colour may still be printed black and white, but paper unsuitable for colour will NEVER have colour, so that's what I was sensing by the feel of the paper. ;)

[@StanislaoMoulinsky79]

"It's not particularly saying which games are Playstation and which games are PC, just that it's playstation and Pc". Actually if you look at the games they are grouped as "Playstation/PC CD-Rom titles", "Playstation titles" and "PC CD-Rom titles".

[@FezTheSpaceBiker]

Psygnosis wasn't wholly Sony owned by this point but considering the role they had in PS1 development, all of their titles were likely PS1 first and then PC

[@Pixelmusement]

+Fezworth the Indecisive The release date of the PS1 version of the game was February of 1996. The file dates for the DOS version I have indicate my copy specifically is a later pressing from 1997, however, some of the files, including the executable, are dated May 1996, which suggests that's when the DOS version came out since it's incredibly unlikely the executable wouldn't see any further changes for over a year prior to release. :P

[@AlyxxTheRat]

Man Space Paranoids's sequel looks pretty cool

[@Pixelmusement]

+Alexandria Thorne ...I just realized I don't think they ever call them "Recognizers" in Tron Legacy... :O

[@AlyxxTheRat]

@@Pixelmusement I... don't recall that either. Weird. That sequel was weird in either case, especially for someone who considered TRON 2.0 canon.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Alexandria Thorne I like Legacy just fine; but I like the original more. Also Tron 2.0 is one of the hardest FPS games I've ever played. o_O

[@AlyxxTheRat]

@@Pixelmusement Yeah, I love the game though for how close to the movie it felt and how it was the closest we got to a sequel at the time it came out. And yeah Legacy is a fun movie that explores the spiritual concepts a bit more and I love it for that. But yeah nothing beats the original and how groundbreaking it was for the time both for its setting and animation.

[@randomdaveguy]

Whoa... I have only ever seen the introductory tron style levels and I always felt it's such a shame that this game looks so meh. This is the first time I saw how the gaame looks later on. My god these textures look so awesome. So gritty yet vibrant. Even tank models got so much better. Having these early levels displayed in promo materials was a huge mistake.

[@FeelingShred]

I have yet to see "hardware accelerated" renderers that look so "vibrant" as you described there, perfect choice of word... I don't know exactly why but specially OpenGL games look so "pale" and "discolored", almost always when there's a software version to choose it looks more colorful right away

[@Banzeken]

It seems the game might actually be from 1995 judging from the earliest critic reviews for the Playstation version in Europe www.mobygames.com/game/assault-rigs/mobyrank [Edit: The package and disc for the PAL and US Playstation version shows a copyright year of 1995, proving that it *could* very well have been available by the end of '95 in Europe.]

[@Pixelmusement]

+Banzeken My research showed an original PlayStation release in February of 1996, so it's very possible the game was complete enough to start making the reviewing rounds before the end of 1995. The DOS version likely came out around May 1996, as the earliest file dates (including the game executable itself) on the CD are from that month. The Saturn version (which I've also just discovered was Japan exclusive, yet is STILL easier to source than the DOS version) was released in September of 1997. :B

[@Banzeken]

The game's release appears to be all over the map, so to speak. What confuses me is that this press release: psygnosis.spokintosh.org/news/arig.html tells us the game was already available by January '96 [Edit: in the US] and the DOS version was "slated for release in February". It seems hard to trust release data from Wikipedia/GameFAQs/Mobygames on this one ;S

[@Pixelmusement]

+Banzeken Interesting find... it would make sense too, seeing as I couldn't find release dates for the DOS version at all, so it's possible because the PS1 and DOS release were so close together that they've been confused over time. But yeah, my particular copy is definitely patched up and pressed in 97. :B

[@Banzeken]

Oh, '97? That's peculiar.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Banzeken Not really. My boxed copy of Daggerfall was fully patched yet otherwise looks identical to the original non-patched release. Companies silently updated their stuff all the time. Heck, even cartridge based games got updated in this manner, Zelda and Castlevania on the NES both being two prime examples. :B

[@EdmondDantes224]

"I can't think of anything like this"... really? Cuz just seeing it I was like "Is this CyberSled? Because it looks like CyberSled." Weird how I can remember an arcade game I literally only played once as a kid. I'm kinda curious to try the Saturn version, because I have a weird fascination with how PS1 games handle on the Saturn (or MS-DOS games even... Saturn Quake is awesome. Yes I own it)

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jispy Moe Dantes There's a lot of comparisons to Cyber Sled but I disagree with all of them. The art style is similar but that's it; the controls are way different and the gameplay is way different, so I don't think of Cyber Sled at all when I play this game. :P

[@TheHezzinator]

Watching this it felt like i was turning religious just to pray for an updated version that looks like the intro did, as i remember replaying the intro as a kid dreaming ‘THIS is what i REALLY want to play’ It took alot of effort to find the name of this game again. Then i read your description, did you actually ever pull through on making a remastered better version? I would legitemately play more than any triple A game price to play the game thats in the intro of this game. Please tell me you did. Fantastic video regardless and thank you so much

[@Pixelmusement]

I never pursued it; too many other game ideas in the pipeline and at this moment I'm poised to begin production on one of my biggest and best ideas ever very soon which is a fantasy RPG so... not exactly a high-tech synthwave arena shooter. :P

[@TheHezzinator]

@@Pixelmusement ahhw dang too bad. Subscribed anyway, got here by scavenging the internet for this game and found your video on some obscure old reddit post. Maybe a fantasy rpg isnt bad either. (Still gonna pray for an assault rigs 2)

[@OMGCaptRaven]

360p squad!

[@Pixelmusement]

+OMGCaptRaven I'm glad people are starting to recognize that being forced on 360p simply means the HD hasn't kicked in yet because you decided to watch a video THAT soon after it got uploaded. ;)

[@justjoeblow420]

That was me like a week or two ago lol.

[@OMGCaptRaven]

@@Pixelmusement to be fair, after 2 or three minutes I refreshed and all the resolutions were there already

[@Pixelmusement]

+OMGCaptRaven On a good day, the HD is ready to go seconds after the video finishes converting. On a typical day, it takes about 2 to 10 minutes. On a BAD "day" it can take upwards of 72 freaking hours... :/

[@weston407]

ENTERING ARENAR

[@Pixelmusement]

I'm still not entirely certain on that accent there...? :o

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

PC Gamer Magazine is still around - you should send in the card and see if they send you three free issues. :-D

[@Pixelmusement]

+Anonymous Freak Doubtful. These cards are only good in the USA. In fact, the period of time where I had a PC Gamer subscription crossed over from living in the USA to moving back to Canada and they were willing to transfer the address without fee that one time, but wanted basically double the subscription rate because of mailing to Canada. Besides, postage from USA to ANY other country right now is certifiably INSANE, a little over DOUBLE what it was just a few years ago. I wanted to get in on the new Sonic comic but on top of the price of the comics they wanted to charge me $25 just to mail ONE comic. o_O;

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

@@Pixelmusement :-O

[@jamesoffutt2801]

Cool! I mean, URNTULL

[@thomaseubank1503]

I'm the 100th person to like this

[@Fre1maurer]

No booklet in the CD case. Man, I HATED THIS. That really pissed me off back then when i opened a box and the CD case had no booklet inside. I looks like something is missing.

[@FeelingShred]

I was a different era in terms of craftsmanship. I particularly remember how beautiful the art on the discs themselves looked. For a highlight, MDK not only had a beautiful disc (I don't know about case because I had the magazine version, no casing at all) and one of the most beautiful game manuals I ever seen, that one is unforgettable. Some of the art on these discs was so beautiful that sometimes I would stare at the disc for a full minute with the CD tray open before inserting it there, one which comes to mind is the art printed on the CD for the game M.A.X. (Interplay)