Supercross 3D

Supercross 3D[lower-alpha 1] is an off-road motorcycle racing video game developed by Tiertex Design Studios and published by Atari Corporation exclusively for the Atari Jaguar first in North America on December 15, 1995 and later in Europe on December 20 of the same year.[1][2][3] Themed around motocross, the players compete in races across fourteen cities of United States such as San Jose, Dallas, Orlando, Florida, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Seattle.

Supercross 3D
Cover art in all regions
Developer(s)Tiertex Design Studios
Publisher(s)Atari Corporation
Producer(s)Faran Thomason
Vince Zampella
Designer(s)Dympna Forkin
Programmer(s)Chris Brunning
Artist(s)Barry Armstrong
Platform(s)Atari Jaguar
Release
  • NA: 15 December 1995
  • EU: 20 December 1995
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay
Screenshot of the San Jose track.

Supercross 3D is an off-road motocross racing game that uses a behind the motorcycle perspective and is presented with pre-rendered sprites on a 3D environment with minimal texture mapping. Players can choose from any of the five riders before starting and customize it by entering their name nationality, team and setup. The players control their bike by using the D-pad and can accelerate, slide, stop and decelerate. Holding down allows the player to have more air in jumps, while holding up aims the front wheel forward to land on slopes. Players can also tilt the bike to the side while in the air to adjust the angle at which they hit the ground or turns and perform tricks in the air. There are five levels of difficulty to choose from and the default control scheme can be changed at the options screen. Records and other settings made by the player are saved automatically via the cartridge's internal EEPROM, though progress in Tournament mode is be saved manually after completing the final race of each track.

The game features three different gameplay modes to choose from at the main menu:[4] Practice, Race and Tournament. Practice mode is recommended for newcomers to refine their skills. Race is an arcade-style mode where players compete against seven CPU-controlled opponents across any of the available tracks to choose from, with each race consisting of two qualifying rounds and the final round. Players also have the option to take a practice round before the start of each race. Tournament is a competition mode where players participate in races across fourteen cities from United States, starting on San Jose and finishing on Seattle. It is structured similarly as Race mode, with each tracks consisting of three rounds where players compete against other opponents for qualification, but the practice round is excluded before the start of any race.

Development and release

Supercross 3D was originally listed for a September 1995 release before being pushed back to December.[5][6][7] The game makes use of SGI-rendering for the bike riders, which all of them were created by using advanced kinematics and wavefront modeling, giving them a more sharper appearance. This marked a technological advancement for Atari Corp., as it was one of the first titles for the system to make use of the SGI technology.[8] It was also showcased during the Fun 'n' Games Day event hosted by Atari.[9]

Reception

Supercross 3D received negative reception, with most reviewers criticizing its low framerate.[22] Next Generation reviewed the Jaguar version of the game, and stated that "The game could be greatly improved with smoother animation, to say the least. But for now it's difficult to find a star small enough to rate this game."[10]

Notes
  1. Also known as Supercross X at the title screen.

References
  1. "Atari Corp.'s Jaguar 64 hits mass market price; in time for holiday sales, Jaguar now $99". TheFreeLibrary.com. Business Wire. December 15, 1995. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  2. Smith, Jason. "Atari Jaguar Timeline". jaguarsector.com. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  3. Castle, Justin (July 21, 2018). "Historical Atari Jaguar UK Magazine Advert/Reviews Collection" (PDF). Issuu. p. 340. Retrieved 2018-09-04.
  4. Supercross 3D game manual (Atari Jaguar, US)
  5. "The Atari Jaguar Game by Game Podcast: 28 - Supercross 3D". atarijaguargamebygame.libsyn.com. June 13, 2019. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  6. "Feature - XT Generation - Atari Jaguar". MAN!AC (in German). No. 20. Cybermedia. June 1995. p. 40.
  7. Gore, Chris (August 1995). "The Gorescore - Industry News You Can - Upcoming Jaguar Software Titles". VideoGames - The Ultimate Gaming Magazine. No. 79. L.F.P., Inc. p. 14.
  8. "Alphas - Supercross 3D". Next Generation. No. 12. Imagine Media. December 1995. p. 129. Archived from the original on 2016-04-11. Retrieved 2018-07-28.
  9. "Atari's Fun 'n' Games Day". GamePro. No. 78. IDG. January 1996. p. 60.
  10. "Finals - Jaguar - Supercross 3D". Next Generation. No. 16. Imagine Media. April 1996. pp. 88–91.
  11. Scoleri III, Joseph. "Supercross 3D - Overview". AllGame. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  12. Holstine, Patrick. "AGH Jaguar Review: SUPERCROSS 3D". atarihq.com. Archived from the original on 2015-08-02. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  13. Lomas, Ed (February 1996). "CVG Review - Supercross X". Computer and Video Games. No. 171. Future Publishing. p. 30. Archived from the original on 2018-07-28. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
  14. Nihei, Wes (April 1996). "Quick Hits - ProReview: Supercross 3D". GamePro. No. 81. IDG. p. 88. Archived from the original on 2019-01-04. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  15. Phoenix, E.; R.I.P. (February 1996). "The Final Word game review - Supercross 3-D -- Tierex Limited". Game Zero Magazine. Game Zero. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  16. Gaksch, Martin (March 1996). "Spiele-Tests - Jaguar - Supercross". MAN!AC (in German). No. 29. Cybermedia. p. 67.
  17. "Jaguar-Spiele - Supercross 3D". ST-Computer (in German). No. 117. falkemedia. February 1996. p. 63.
  18. Abramson, Marc (March 1996). "Cahier Loisirs / Jaguar - 7 D´un Coup! - Supercross 3D". ST Magazine (in French). No. 103. Pressimage. pp. 56–59. Archived from the original on 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
  19. "Super X - And that's what you will be if you buy this". Ultimate Future Games. No. 15. Future Publishing. February 1996. pp. 86–87.
  20. Karels, Ralph (August 1999). "Special - Atari Jaguar - Komplettübersicht Jaguar-Modul-Games - Super Cross 3D". Video Games (in German). No. 93. Future-Verlag. p. 56. Archived from the original on 2018-08-04. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
  21. O'Connor, Frank (April 1996). "Reviews - Supercross 3D". VideoGames - The Ultimate Gaming Magazine. No. 87. L.F.P., Inc. p. 62. Archived from the original on 2018-05-26. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  22. A. Jung, Robert. "The Atari Bin - Jaguar Reviews - Supercross 3D". electric-escape.net. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
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