Hi-Octane

Hi-Octane

Hi-Octane is a futuristic racing game with hover cars, similar to the Wipeout games. It's developed by Bullfrog using their Magic Carpet 2 graphics engine.

Overview

The game was created in December 1995 and it is a futuristic racing game consisting of racing to the finish line and at the same taking the other opponents down. The game was created using a the "Magic Carpet's" engine.

Gameplay

The game plays similar to Wipeout where the vehicles must race around the tracks to become first. One way would be to race and overtake opponents, the other way would be race, overtake and shoot opponents down.

The player can use the minigun and missiles to take the other players out in the open area tracks. It also introduced branching paths which led to secret shortcuts and to bigger powerups. Once is player is shot down, any powerups that the player collects, will be scattered across the track leaving the other opponents to pick them up, but can come back to compete in the race again.

HUD

The HUD consists of the following:

No Caption Provided
  • Armor - This is shown by the green bar. if this depletes, the car is destroyed. There are 6 bars in total.
  • Fuel - The fuel gauge is shown across the top by a purple bar. If this bar depletes, an assistant gives a small amount of fuel to reach the charging units. There are 17 bars in total.
  • Ammunition - This is shown by a yellow bar. This gauge measures how many missiles the player has left. If depleted, the play must recharge to collect more. There are 6 bars in total.
  • Boost Bar - This gauge is shown just below the fuel gauge. Upon pressing the boost button, a small boost is given. But if the boost button is held for a long time, the player can boost much further. There are 19 bars in total.
  • Minigun - This gauge is shown below the boost gauge, the machine gun can be used to damage other opponents. Whilst the gun itself has no bullet count, it does however use a cooldown mechanic. There are 16 bars in total.
  • Upgrades - These are located below the Machine Gun Gauge. Upon collecting powerups in the tracks, they can be used to upgrade the damage of the machine gun, the damage of the missiles and the speed of how fast the boost gauge goes. They can all be upgraded to Level 3.
  • Position - Located on the left and side below the armor gauge, it shows the current position of the player.
  • Laps - This shows the current lap number and the total laps to go.
  • Cars Destroyed - A skull icon is shown on the right hand side showing the number of vehicles the players has destroyed.
  • Lap Times - This is shown on at the bottom left hand corner which shows silver for the best time and red for active lap time and previous times.
  • Map - This is shown at the bottom right corner of the map which indicates the player's position and the position of the other vehicles.

Stages

There are 6 tracks in total.

Amazon Delta Turnpike
Amazon Delta Turnpike
Trans-Asia Interstate
Trans-Asia Interstate
Shanghai Dragon
Shanghai Dragon
New Chernobyl Central
New Chernobyl Central
Slam Canyon
Slam Canyon
Thrak City
Thrak City

Vehicles

Flexiwing - Fast and lighter
Flexiwing - Fast and lighter
Outrider - Weak but very fast
Outrider - Weak but very fast
Vampyr - Faster and heavier
Vampyr - Faster and heavier
Jugga - Slow but strong
Jugga - Slow but strong
KD-1 Speeder - An all-rounder
KD-1 Speeder - An all-rounder
Berserker - Powerful with the weapons
Berserker - Powerful with the weapons
Name of VehicleSpeedWeightArmourFirepower
Berserker3656
Flexiwing8444
Jugga4655
KD-1 Speeder6545
Outrider8535
Vampyr6644

Team Colors

Before starting the race with the chosen vehicle, the team colors can also be chosen. The colors are:

  • Bullfrog - Green
  • Storm Riders - Pink
  • Fire Phreaks - Red/Pinkish color
  • Dethfest - Blue
  • Foo Fighters - Yellow
  • Gorehounds - Red
  • Assassins - Black
  • Mad Medicine - White

1.2 Patch

This patch for the PC version consisted of an addon to the game which consisted of 3 extra stages:

  • Ancient Mine Town
  • Arctic Land
  • Death Match Arena

And new game modes:

  • Clone Race - A clone car is created from the best player's lap time. As a result of this, the fastest will always get recorded.
  • Death Match - All racers have the chance to win based on kills.
  • Split Screen (only on Single Race

And lastly:

Hot Seat

This mode lets 7 players play in one race.

  • However it is not simultaneous play as it consists of passing the control to each person
  • And also only the one vehicle is chosen for the 7 players to use.

System Requirements

  • 486 processor
  • 8MB RAM