Olivus Prime Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 It's pretty much common knowledge now that Rocket Racers used ATD's Rollcage engine, but nobody seems to have directly compared the two online. Since I bought Rollcage yesterday, I thought I'd go through some of the similarities I spotted, and some other interesting tidbits. First up, both feature the exact same opening to their races. The same camera angles are used, the HUD fades in in the same way and the countdown has the same animation (despite being slower in Rocket Racers, presumably to brace younger players). The cars seem to have similar physics (as can be predicted), but while Rollcage's cars have a brilliant freedom to their motion (e.g. being hit by a missile sends your car hurtling off into the sky, spinning wildly as it does so), the Rocket Racers cars are literally a lot more grounded. They almost always stay upright, the only exception being when they mount the track kerb, and they return to Earth a lot faster after having been hit by a weapon. The vehicles share their sharp steering and fast acceleration though, with the former not being helped by easily-broken steering wheels. Turbos are virtually the same in both - your car experiences a very sudden burst of acceleration, and, with skilled manoeuvring, the higher speed can be kept constant indefinitely. Unfortunately I can't remember if turbo starts were possible in Rocket Racers, as they are in Rollcage. In Rollcage, hitting a certain button causes your car to spin on the spot several times and realign itself with the track to face forwards. The animation for this seems to be identical to that of a car hitting an oil slick in Rocket Racers. The track designs are similar in both. Rollcage features fairly active environments, with hovering signs, mining machines and avalanches, and most of the structures within these environments are destructible. The activity around the track is similar in Rocket Racers, especially in Space Racers, despite no interaction taking place between the drivers and the environment. End-of-race camera angles are very similar in both, though this is a little loose of a statement and Rollcage features several angles I don't remember seeing in Rocket Racers. Just a little insight I thought I'd post, and I'd recommend Rollcage to any racing fans out there. The main game doesn't last long at all, but there's some skill involved and the innovative concept is executed remarkably well. le717 and lol username 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lol username Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 New goal: Figure out how to mod Rollcage, and re-create Rocket Racers. :P Olivus Prime and Leumeister 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cirevam Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 Good eye on spotting all of those similarities. I found a bit of gameplay that shows off some of what you described and Rollcage really plays like Lego Racers 2. I've never played Rocket Racers, unfortunately, but take a look for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grSlKW7kTF8&t=4m17s There are a lot of games that use this engine. Rollcage, Lego Racers 2, Rocket Racers, Drome Racers... are there any others? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobaFett2 Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 Rocket Racers is LEGO Racers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
le717 Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 Interesting this comes up now. I was viewing Abandonia, I saw on their Twitter feed that uploaded footage of Rollcage last week. Hm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrDeath Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 A discussion on Rollcage. I never thought anyone else had ever heard of this game. It was and still is one of my favorite racing games ever made. There is a sequel and an open source fan sequel to RC2 called RCX which is still under development. I only played Lego Races on PC but I remember thinking is was very similar to Rollcage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lol username Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 There are a lot of games that use this engine. Rollcage, Lego Racers 2, Rocket Racers, Drome Racers... are there any others?Wait, LR2 and DR use this engine as well? 0.o Rocket Racers is LEGO Racers. What are you talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobaFett2 Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 There are a lot of games that use this engine. Rollcage, Lego Racers 2, Rocket Racers, Drome Racers... are there any others? Wait, LR2 and DR use this engine as well? 0.o >>Rocket Racers is LEGO Racers. What are you talking about? I assumed that he was using the wrong name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lol username Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 Just tried Rollcage. Very fun, I'm gonna be playing through this I think. I don't see any similarities to Drome Racers or LR2, though, in the file setup or gameplay or any other area... Are you sure it runs on the same engine as those? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olivus Prime Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 I'm very doubtful that they use the same engine. The physics are totally different - the handling in Rollcage is enjoyable, but atrocious in LEGO Racers 2! However, whether or not Firebugs on the PS2 uses the same engine as both those games, I don't know. For those unaware, Firebugs was the spiritual sequel to the Rollcage games. Another quirk to add to the list - the engine noises of the Rollcage cars are very similar to those of the cars in Rocket Racers, only at a slightly higher pitch (perhaps due to the slightly higher speeds they move at) New goal: Figure out how to mod Rollcage, and re-create Rocket Racers. Best sentence I've heard from someone in a long time! Rocket Racers is LEGO Racers. Indeed it was, until they had to rename it because of LEGO Racers 4D. lol username 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben24x7 Posted May 15, 2013 Share Posted May 15, 2013 New goal: Figure out how to mod Rollcage, and re-create Rocket Racers. If we were able to mod Rocket racers then we could create a Rock Raiders version of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LimeKiller Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 If we were able to mod Rocket racers then we could create a Rock Raiders version of it! Um... what? If we could mod a racing game theme park ride, we could create an entirely different game altogether? EDIT: Wait, do you mean a texture overhaul like Rock Racers? I'm confused. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben24x7 Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 What I mean is that if Rocket Racers can be modded then we could replace textures, change tracks, and add some stuff in (if that hopefully works). It is just Rocket Racers but with many changes and a few addons... Thereby, It cannot be tried until a way to mod Rocket Racers is found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olivus Prime Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 None of us actually own Rocket Racers - the software behind the attraction hasn't been distributed. Jamesster's idea was to mod Rollcage to resemble Rocket Racers, since they both run on the same engine. It would probably make more sense to mod LEGO Racers into a Rock Raiders game (which is actually being done) or to mod Rollcage into one, rather than modding a mod. LimeKiller 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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