Road Rash (1991 video game)

Road Rash was one of the first titles conceived by EA after they made the decision to begin developing video games in-house; until that point, EA had previously outsourced video game development to external studios, and were primarily focused on PC games due to the effects of the video game crash of 1983.[10][11][12] In its tentative steps back into the console market, EA focused on genres that were determined to be strategic, namely sports and racing titles. Preliminary development began on an NES title named Mario Andretti Racing, and programmer Dan Geisler was hired by the company at this time.[12] Technical director Carl Mey, who had just been laid off from Epyx following its bankruptcy, was also hired by EA and was given his first major project of creating a "banked road" effect for the game. Mey soon realized that while the NES was capable of road-scaling effects, banking would be beyond the console's ability.[11][13] Producer and designer Randy Breen, who was previously involved with Indianapolis 500: The Simulation, was influenced by the difficulty and tedium of that title to create a racing game with more accessibility and entertainment value.[11] Because Andretti was set to follow a similar formula to Indianapolis 500, Geisler, Breen, May and co-designer Walter Stein began a brainstorming session for a different type of racing game that would not necessarily adhere to realism. After Mey and Geisler rejected QuadRunners as potential racing vehicles due to Andretti's dirt track setting, Breen suggested motorcycles.[12] Breen recounted: "I'd been into motorcycles for a long time, and we quickly realized bikes gave us lots of technical advantages. For instance, we could put more bikes than cars onscreen at once, and the bikers were more visible than car drivers, so they could be more expressive".[10] The game's title originated from Breen reminiscing to the group about riding his own bike on Mulholland Drive to meet with friends and thinking to himself: "Man, if you wiped out here, you'd get some serious road rash". Geisler suggested the title Road Rash on Mulholland Drive, and Breen used the name to pitch the concept to EA. The title was eventually shortened to Road Rash, and development moved from the NES to the recently introduced Sega Genesis, which was powerful enough to generate the desired road effects.[12]

Development for Road Rash was moved to the Sega Genesis (pictured) after preliminary development for Mario Andretti Racing on the NES proved impractical.

Before joining EA, Geisler had worked on Spectrum HoloByte's racing game Vette!; Geisler's coding for this title provided the framework for Road Rash, particularly its algorithm for estimating road curvature. Geisler claimed that the Genesis's memory capacity could have allowed him to create 802 miles of unique roads, and that he could have accurately mapped out the entire coast of California. The road effect for Road Rash took Geisler about six months to create, comprising a large portion of the game's early development.[12] 3D-rendering technology for the game was adapted from the Genesis version of Blockout, which was in development at the same time.[11][13] Lead artist Arthur Koch was brought onto the development team after the project was well underway, and he was tasked with training the other artists on using EA's in-house tools and conforming to the Genesis's 64-color palette, which Koch stated "was hard for a lot of artists to grasp".[12] Several months into development, EA made the decision to promote Road Rash at the 1990 Consumer Electronics Show as a show of support for the Sega Genesis.[12] This initial demonstration proved unsatisfactory; as Breen recalled: "We struggled to maintain a reasonable frame rate and the animations weren't effective".[11] Mey also had concerns with "the very tame, almost Disney-like view of the AMA, and Randy's desire to make it a 'go anywhere'-style game". He remarked that the development team would refer to the game as "Randy's Sunday Ride" behind his back, and that "we all knew Road Rash needed more balls to sell than a simulation of someone following the speed limit".[13] Following the show, the game needed to be re-pitched twice to avoid cancellation,[12] and the team was given an additional six months to improve the game.[13]

Mey requested to EA producer Richard Hilleman that he be given creative control over the gameplay on the grounds that he "wanted to make the game kick ass", to which Hilleman agreed.[13] Over the following months, Geisler and Stein improved the game's performance, and Connie Braat refined the animation. To increase the player's sense of immersion, the rival racers were given individual names and characters, and would deliver banter in between races.[11] The motor officers who pursue the player and arrest them if they crash were added to the game to create tension. To obtain reference material, Koch went to a local police department and convinced a motor officer to pose for photographs. The wipe-out animations were brought about by Koch's previous work on John Madden Football and Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs; on the subject, Koch said: "I was disappointed with the tackles and the falls and the fouls. I thought they could be a lot more dynamic. So I suggested that we devote more frames of animation to the crashes". Breen cited additional influence from Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner and "other cartoons where the villain gets beat up", adding that "even though it set you back, it was still fun to watch".[12] The combat element of the game was inspired by the behavior of Grand Prix motorcyclists, who Breen noticed would sometimes shove and kick each other during races.[10] Other influences on this aspect include the biker gang action scenes in Akira and the tire pump scene in Breaking Away.[11]

While working on the game's combat system, Mey and Geisler set a "no projectiles" rule, as such elements were a major issue in game engines that ran based on the frame rate.[13] The introduction of fighting elements served to muddy the game's genre classification among EA's management, as they primarily specialized in simulation games and were uncertain how to market a title that was simultaneously a fighting and a racing game. Geisler named Hang-On as an influence in the game's direction, saying that "Hang-On before us was a game I liked, but I thought it was limited – no hills, no punching, no kicking. I respect Yu Suzuki, but I had it in my mind that this was going to make Hang-On obsolete. And I think we kind of accomplished that".[12] Due to the game's violent content, EA was unable to secure official licenses from existing manufacturers, and so created soundalike brands in their place; "Panda", "Shuriken", "Kamikaze" and "Diablo" are respectively derived from Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati.[11][13] The game's roads were modeled by a crew led by Domonique Philipine and made use of Bézier curves. Breen claimed that the final road effect made some players vomit from motion sickness, to which he yelled out "Great. I've finally made a game that makes people puke!" Simultaneous multiplayer, which would become a common feature of subsequent Road Rash titles, was not yet possible due to the CPU power consumed by the game's road effect.[13] The game's music was composed by Rob Hubbard.[14] Road Rash was Hubbard's second motorcycle-based game following the 1985 Mastertronic title Action Biker.[13]

The development of Road Rash spanned a total of approximately 21 months.[11] Breen took advantage of EA's policy of not crediting producers on box art by removing Mey's name and inserting his own. This incident led to EA abolishing the practice of box-printed credits altogether. Mey would be presented with EA's in-house "Fireman of the Year" award, an accolade given to employees with the most impact on troubled projects.[13] The Genesis version was publicly announced in March 1991 and released in North America in September 1991.[15][16] The Amiga version was developed by Peakstar Software, featured music composed by Jason A.S. Whitely,[17] and was released in December 1992.[18] Road Rash was converted for the Game Gear and Master System by Gary Priest of Probe Software, with music adapted by Greg Michael.[19] These versions were released in March 1994.[20] The Game Boy version was published by Ocean Software and released in June 1994.[21]

In April 1996, THQ announced that it would publish a Super NES version of Road Rash for a Christmas 1996 release that ultimately did not materialize.[22] The Genesis version of Road Rash, along with its immediate sequels II and 3, was included in the PlayStation Portable compilation title EA Replay in 2006.[23]