Interesting and detailed read about how an old game is implemented.
The source code for the classic PSX launch title wipEout was leaked in 2022. A few month ago I finally sat down to take a look at it. The result is a (nearly) complete rewrite that compiles to Windows, Linux, macOS and WASM.
Interesting and detailed read about how an old game is implemented.
I don't think people appreciate how cool some of the workarounds for coding was done back in the day. Things like knowing the clock speed of the CPU to do the math so the timer wasn't too fast was...
I don't think people appreciate how cool some of the workarounds for coding was done back in the day. Things like knowing the clock speed of the CPU to do the math so the timer wasn't too fast was normal. Else you'd end up with games than ran too fast or too slow.
As this blog states about drawing triangles and how they're displayed. The thought that goes in to the methods to max out performance when you have many limitations in hardware are very clever. This doesn't apply so much these days as everyone uses stacks and engines rather than building from the ground up, or writing for a specific piece of hardware.
I really enjoyed playing the wasm version in-browser. How long before that gets DMCA'ed? wipEout still holds up very well, I have a lot of great memories of playing this as a kid. In my case I had...
I really enjoyed playing the wasm version in-browser. How long before that gets DMCA'ed? wipEout still holds up very well, I have a lot of great memories of playing this as a kid. In my case I had the Sega Saturn port, I imagine code-wise that was even more of a monstrosity than this version! But it played great. And the soundtrack had three exclusive tracks from Rob Lord & Mark Bandola: Planet 9, Poison, and Brickbat. All three are so good, any version of this game that doesn't include them is objectively inferior.
Unless I'm mistaken, this rewrite doesn't appear to contain the soundtrack from the original, so they might actually avoid a DMCA. But speaking of the Wipeout soundtracks, the PlayStation...
How long before that gets DMCA'ed?
Unless I'm mistaken, this rewrite doesn't appear to contain the soundtrack from the original, so they might actually avoid a DMCA.
But speaking of the Wipeout soundtracks, the PlayStation soundtrack for Wipeout 2097/XL is genuinely one of the best electronica compilations ever put together, IMO. With tracks from The Future Sound of London, Fluke, Chemical Brothers, Photek, Underworld, and The Prodigy, it's basically a who's who of the top 90s electronica producers.
It's so good that I actually went out and bought the extended soundtrack on CD back in the day, which has even more iconic 90s producers on it (like Daft Punk, Orbital, and Leftfield), and still regularly listen to it to this day.
The soundtrack isn’t in the GitHub repo but if you play the wasm in-browser it’s fully intact. The game even launches with the original title FMV. Looks like all of the original assets are in...
The soundtrack isn’t in the GitHub repo but if you play the wasm in-browser it’s fully intact. The game even launches with the original title FMV. Looks like all of the original assets are in place, there.
For the music on the PSx, you could put the game disc in to a CD player, skip the first track and the rest of the music played as CD audio. I still have the tracks ripped to MP3 in my collection...
For the music on the PSx, you could put the game disc in to a CD player, skip the first track and the rest of the music played as CD audio.
I still have the tracks ripped to MP3 in my collection and it's ace.
I literally did the same thing with the Saturn version! I've got Wipeout HD for PS3 and it allowed you to use a custom soundtrack so naturally I put those MP3s to good use there too. Seemed like...
I literally did the same thing with the Saturn version! I've got Wipeout HD for PS3 and it allowed you to use a custom soundtrack so naturally I put those MP3s to good use there too. Seemed like the sensible thing to do.
It's really great to see the details of things like this, and it's fun to play the original so much later. I never loved it as a kid, but then I found BallisticNG last year and LOVE it. It's the...
It's really great to see the details of things like this, and it's fun to play the original so much later. I never loved it as a kid, but then I found BallisticNG last year and LOVE it. It's the better game, but I can now appreciate the original so much better.
Interesting and detailed read about how an old game is implemented.
I don't think people appreciate how cool some of the workarounds for coding was done back in the day. Things like knowing the clock speed of the CPU to do the math so the timer wasn't too fast was normal. Else you'd end up with games than ran too fast or too slow.
As this blog states about drawing triangles and how they're displayed. The thought that goes in to the methods to max out performance when you have many limitations in hardware are very clever. This doesn't apply so much these days as everyone uses stacks and engines rather than building from the ground up, or writing for a specific piece of hardware.
I really enjoyed playing the wasm version in-browser. How long before that gets DMCA'ed? wipEout still holds up very well, I have a lot of great memories of playing this as a kid. In my case I had the Sega Saturn port, I imagine code-wise that was even more of a monstrosity than this version! But it played great. And the soundtrack had three exclusive tracks from Rob Lord & Mark Bandola: Planet 9, Poison, and Brickbat. All three are so good, any version of this game that doesn't include them is objectively inferior.
Unless I'm mistaken, this rewrite doesn't appear to contain the soundtrack from the original, so they might actually avoid a DMCA.
But speaking of the Wipeout soundtracks, the PlayStation soundtrack for Wipeout 2097/XL is genuinely one of the best electronica compilations ever put together, IMO. With tracks from The Future Sound of London, Fluke, Chemical Brothers, Photek, Underworld, and The Prodigy, it's basically a who's who of the top 90s electronica producers.
It's so good that I actually went out and bought the extended soundtrack on CD back in the day, which has even more iconic 90s producers on it (like Daft Punk, Orbital, and Leftfield), and still regularly listen to it to this day.
The soundtrack isn’t in the GitHub repo but if you play the wasm in-browser it’s fully intact. The game even launches with the original title FMV. Looks like all of the original assets are in place, there.
Ah, damn... that's actually kinda bad to hear then, since it's probably way more likely to get struck down. :(
AFAIK it incorporates the NTSC-U soundtrack which was missing some high profile tracks that were on the PAL soundtrack.
I still have most of those tracks on damaged CDs by the bands they came from. Good times.
For the music on the PSx, you could put the game disc in to a CD player, skip the first track and the rest of the music played as CD audio.
I still have the tracks ripped to MP3 in my collection and it's ace.
I literally did the same thing with the Saturn version! I've got Wipeout HD for PS3 and it allowed you to use a custom soundtrack so naturally I put those MP3s to good use there too. Seemed like the sensible thing to do.
It's really great to see the details of things like this, and it's fun to play the original so much later. I never loved it as a kid, but then I found BallisticNG last year and LOVE it. It's the better game, but I can now appreciate the original so much better.