Hi-Octane
Description official descriptions
A futuristic racing game with hover cars, in the same line as Wipeout, using a modified version of the Magic Carpet 2 engine.
Gameplay takes a straightforward approach, with the directional keys controlling the steering and throttle, and three keys to fire the minigun, missiles or charge the booster. While the minigun has unlimited ammo, both fuel, armour and missiles must be replenished by passing through some marked areas or picking up powerups in the track or by left destroyed opponents. While the vehicles float on the track they are still influenced by the ground material: they slow down on dirt and even more on water. Each track has a number of shortcuts or alternate routes that offer powerups, and some tracks feature gates and ramps that open or close randomly.
Includes 9 tracks and several game modes (for Saturn owners and PC players with the 1.2 patch installed) such as single race mode (with option to change the number of laps), a Championship mode, Split Screen, Clone Race (beating the ghost of the best race time), Death Match (Where instead of finishing first what matters is finish alive and with the most kills) and Hot Seat, where up to eight players can compete in the same race by taking turns, with the computer taking control of the players' vehicles waiting for their turn. There are six hover cars to choose from: the fast Flexiwing and Outrider, the balanced KD-1 Speeder and Vampyr and the slow but armed to the teeth Berserker and Jugga. In addition to the natural capacity of each, their Minigun, Missle and Booster capacities can be upgraded by picking up powerups during the race. There are Eight teams to choose from, which change the colour of the vehicle: Mad Medicine (white), Bullfrog (aqua green), Storm Riders (purple), Fire Phreaks (orange), DethFest (blue), Foo Fighters (yellow), Gorehounds (red) and Assassins Anonymous (black).
Spellings
- ハイオクタン - Japanese spelling
- 狂野飙车 - Chinese spelling (Simplified)
Groups +
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (DOS version)
17 People
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 68% (based on 33 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 61 ratings with 2 reviews)
An alright game that plays WAY too fast!!!
The Good
I liked the concept of the game, consisting of a race track and numerous racing "cars", more like hovercraft. Your objective is to target all of these hovercraft and destroy them using a vast array of missiles, machine guns and bombs. Very good concept. Some nice 3D too.
The Bad
I personally thought this game ran way too fast, even on my Pentium 90 with 8 mb of RAM. You would need MoSlo or some other slowing down program for it to run on a newer PC. Other than this the game was fine.
The Bottom Line
I would get it if you like simulation and racing games, with a bit of shoot em up thrown in. A definite classic!!! The movies are good, the sound is good, the concept is awesome. Two thumbs up!!!
DOS · by James1 (239) · 2001
The Good
I'll admit this outright: I've always loved Bullfrog. With the possible exception of Theme Park (and some will disagree with me on this), I could easily say that they have never had a bad game in their entire history. Starting with the amazing Syndicate, through its equally spectacular sequel Syndicate Wars, on to the little-known but technically astounding Tube, one of my personal favorites Theme Hospital and the outright amazing Dungeon Keeper... and those aren't even all. Anyone remember Populus?
Hi-Octane is a technically amazing game that doesn't take itself overly seriously. It's perfect for spending some quality time every now and then in front of your computer without thinking too hard or getting frustrated over stupid things. In short, for a gaming quickie, Hi-Octane is literally perfect.
Tenchincally the game is astounding: perfectly rendered landscapes (with the exception of the occasional clipping bug, but it's still a lot better than 99% 3D engines of the time), textures all over the place and gouraud shaded, beautifully modeled vehicles. And last but not least, sky-high framerates! On a Pentium 166, this baby will rock past ya at over 60 frames per second of high-explosive ammunition flying all over the place. Now that's a rush!
The sound engine is also very good, with fairly reasonable (for the time) positional audio that while does not sound perfectly realistic is still a great deal better than not being able to tell where sound is coming from. Level design is excellent and the levels provide for hours of continuous play. AI is mediocre, but doesn't suck altogether.
The Bad
I would like some better AI (the game is way too easy) and maybe some more levels, but overall this game literally has no flaws.
The Bottom Line
A great game for some time wasting! Play this against the computer or against the guy you just mopped the floor with in Doom, and have fun!
PS if you liked this game, try Rollcage - it's almost as fun, and looks a lot better.
DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4534) · 2000
Trivia
Demo version
Hi-Octane was released as a playable demo on EA Shortplays CD.
Development
There are a few variants regarding the game's development history:
- According to legend, Hi-Octane began a game the Bullfrog team on their own free time, for fun. Then they decided to improve and market it.
- According to a unnamed PC Gamer issue, the game was made in two weeks as a side project during the making of Dungeon Keeper. A variant of this story says that EA set Bullfrog under pressure to release Dungeon Keeper or Magic Carpet 2 - but they weren't able to. So they released Hi-Octane.
Engine
The engine used for Hi-Octane was a modified version of the Magic Carpet engine.
Patch
Bullfrog later released a patch for Hi-Octane which included additional features made for the Saturn version. These extra features included more tracks, split screen, deathmatch and more.
AWE32/64 compatibility
Hi-Octane is one of the few games fully utilizing the Soundblaster AWE 32/64 onboard memory. The soundbank BULLFROG.SBK fits the basic 512 kB onboard RAM and is preloaded during game boot.
Awards
- PC Player (Germany)
- Issue 01/1996 - Hardware Eater of the Year 1995
Information also contributed by emerging_lurker, Felix Knoke, James1 and Mickey Gabel
Analytics
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Richard Wilson.
PlayStation 3, PSP added by Lance Boyle. PS Vita added by Charly2.0. PlayStation added by Adam Baratz. SEGA Saturn added by quizzley7.
Additional contributors: Ace of Sevens, ケヴィン, CaesarZX, Patrick Bregger, barthon, Plok.
Game added August 22, 2000. Last modified February 18, 2025.