Ep.262 – Motorcycles and Mayhem - Road Rash’s Wild Ride

Picture this. You're tearing down a California highway at 120 miles per hour, traffic whizzing past, rivals closing in at your side. Suddenly, one of them swings a chain at your head and you kick back, sending him sprawling into oncoming traffic. That was the thrill Road Rash delivered when it roared onto the Sega Genesis in 1991. Born out of EA's first experiments in developing games in house, Road Rash wasn't about racing politely around a track. It was about surviving the chaos of the open road, dodging cars, brawling with bikers, and outrunning the cops. Its blend of speed, violence and slapstick spectacle was unlike anything else in the early 90s. And it became one of EA's first true console hits outside of its obvious suspects. Today we're looking back at how a failed Andretti racing sim evolved into a Genesis classic, how its rebellious spirit defined a generation of racing games, and why its DNA still echoes in modern tales decades later. So grab your bike, keep your fists up, and join us for today's wild ride down memory card lane. Foreign Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. I hope these words find you well. Hello and welcome to the 262nd episode of our Video Game History podcast, A trip down memory card Lane. Each week we'll tell you a story relevant to the current week in gaming history. It can be about a game or the people who have created it. It can be about a console or the technology that brought it to life. We often talk about the companies that bring it all together, making our hobby video games a reality. While telling you each story, we hope to teach you something new about the topic. What it took from the world as its inspiration, or what it gave back to the world in its legacy. Today, we're revving our engines for road rash, the 1991 motorcycle racing game that made a name for itself with high speed thrills, brutal combat, and a rebellious attitude. This iconic title brought a unique flavor to the racing genre and left a unique mark on gaming history. I'm David Cassidy. As always, I'm joined by my co host, who'd probably crash into a car while swinging his chain at the opponent. He's my brother, Rob Casson. Rob, do you dominate the road or are you the kind that takes the detour straight into a ditch?

Well, I'd like to think that I dominate the road, Dave, but it's probably not true.

Fair. Actually, that's a good question. Have you ever ended up with a bike in a ditch?

Not in a ditch, no.

No. I mean, we both know you've wiped out on bikes of both kinds.

Yeah, I had a small wipeout on the bike. Yeah.

Yeah.

Motorcycle. Definitely on bicycles.

Definitely. Definitely on bicycles.

Yeah. You know, it comes with the turf, man. You're. You're learning to ride or you're riding on a dirt road or something you're not really familiar with, and down you go.

Don't you have a assorted history with gravel?

Yeah, yeah. Gravel. Gravel kind of sucks sometimes.

All right, well, hey, do you know road rash? Was that a thing for you?

Nope, it was before my time.

The. The whole. Well, I mean, yeah, most of the series was before your time. Not even the modern version, which isn't a road rash game, by the way. You would. You would know, obviously. So.

Okay. No, no. Unless it's the arcade game.

You. So you don't play any motorcycle games where you swing weapons at people?

No. Nope.

Rats. All right, well, we got a lot to talk about today. This game would have been right up your alley. It was so much fun. I. I will always forever hear the sound of taking a steel pipe to a motorcycle helmet because it had a very distinct thump. That was so satisfying. So, so satisfying. And very enjoyable. Very enjoyable. But before I get into the story of road rash, how about you take some time and share with our listeners what else happened during this current week in gaming history?

All right, well, we will be kicking it off this week. On September 4, 1985, when Capcom released Ghosts and Goblins for arcades in Japan. This game would go on to become one of the most iconic and challenging titles of its era. Players took on the role of Ser Arthur, a brave knight tasked with rescuing Princess Prin Prin from the evil demon king Astaroth. Known for its unforgiving difficulty, Ghosts n Goblins required players to navigate through multiple levels filled with relentless enemies and tricky platforming sections, all while managing limited lives. The game was praised for its colorful graphics, eerie atmosphere, and memorable music. Despite its steep difficulty curve, or perhaps because of it, Ghosts n Goblins became a beloved classic, spawning numerous sequels and adaptations across various platforms and securing its place, a legendary title in video game history. We covered its origins back in episode 97. So if you want to learn about it and its creator, Tokuro Fujiwara, give that episode a listen.

Ghosts n Goblins. I've never finished it because it's so difficult, and I. Yeah, never finished it.

Good story, Dave. Thanks for that. On August 31, 1995, Broderbund Software released in the first degree for Windows in the United States. An ambitious FMV courtroom drama that put players in the role of a district attorney. The game's core challenge revolved around investigating a murder case, gathering evidence and and most importantly, questioning witnesses to build a case strong enough to secure a first degree murder conviction. Featuring live action performances and branching dialogue, it demanded keen observation of body language and tone, rewarding players who could spot lies and push for the truth without alienating the jury. Developed during the height of the mid-90s FMV boom, it stood out for its realistic legal procedures and reliance on conversational nuance, which rather than puzzles or action, while it didn't spawn a series in the first degree, earned praise for its acting and narrative depth, and remains a cult favorite among fans of interactive dramas. Its focus on realistic, pressure filled courtroom exchanges foreshadowed later legal themed games like Phoenix Ace Attorney.

There you go. The precursor of the Phoenix Wright.

Yeah, which we have talked about. So if you want to learn at least about Phoenix Wright and you know games of the similar caliber, you can go check it out. Find the episode on our website. Next up on September 3, 1998, Konami and Kojima Productions launched Metal Gear solid for the PlayStation in Japan, redefining what a stealth action game could be. Following solid stakes mission to stop a rogue Foxhound unit threatening the world with a nuclear equipped walking tank, it combines cinematic storytelling, voice acting and inventive gameplay in ways rarely seen on consoles at the time. The game's emphasis on evasion overdrive combat, along with fourth wall breaking moments and memorable boss encounters set a new benchmark for narrative driven action. It became a global phenomenon, cementing Hideo Kojima's reputation and leaving an indelible mark on gaming history. We learned all about this one back in episode 158, so go check it out if you want to learn more.

We did. No, I'm just kidding. I love Metal Gear Solid.

Yeah, we did. And we did. And we had a guest who knows the game and the series very well. Very well. That probably one of our most knowledgeable guests.

I that's an iconic series. That's why we did an episode on it. Very iconic series indeed.

Especially if you're into the stealth style. If not, then you're probably going to hate Metal Gear Solid.

Probably. You'll probably hate Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid, to be fair.

Oh yeah, I was never a fan of them. But you know, that's neither here nor there. But what is is that on September 1, 2004, Digital Illusions CE aka Dice acquired new York based Trauma Studios, the team behind the hugely popular Desert Combat mod for battlefield 1942, this move was more than just a hiring spree. It brought in fresh design talent and mechanics that would directly influence the Battlefield franchise's future direction. Trauma Studios knack for large scale vehicle focused combat helped DICE refine their formula for online warfare, leading to more expansive and immersive multiplayer experiences. While Trauma Studios would later close Under Dice in 2005, their integration marked an important chapter in Battlefield history, bridging the modding community and professional development in a way that would shape the series for years to come.

That was such a big deal at the time, at least to me as a Battlefield person, right? Because when they started to mod Battlefield and we got the Desert Combat mod and we got to play Battlefield, not in World War II, right, we got to play. That was a modern mod. That was the coolest freaking thing ever, right? And so when news got out that the people who made that mod, which is easily the most popular mod as far as I was concerned, were going to make the next Battlefield, like, that just blew my mind. I mean, but that was the thing too. Like, that was so early on in the concept of indie development that you never, you never never even occurred to you that the modders could make video games. Like, we didn't have indie development at the time. They were still two so wholly separate things, you know, so that was, that was a. I remember very distinctly how cool that was when that news came out.

It was definitely a big deal. Dave. Last up for this week in gaming history, on September 5, 2014, Uber Entertainment released Planetary Annihilation worldwide for Macintosh, Windows and Linux, offering a massive scale real time strategy experience that quite literally took warfare to new worlds. A spiritual successor to Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander, the game let players command armies across entire planets, moons and asteroids, complete with the ability to smash celestial bodies into each other for spectacular destruction. Funded through Kickstarter, Planetary Annihilation pushed the boundaries of RTs, map size and unit counts, aiming for battles involving thousands of units across dynamically generated solar systems. While its ambitious scope drew a niche but dedicated audience, it influenced later large scale strategy experiments and remains a benchmark for sheer scale in the genre.

I don't think we ever played Planetary Annihilation.

Nope, sure haven't. Dave.

Definitely played Toad Annihilation. Definitely played Supreme. Okay, well, I did. And Supreme Commander.

Well, there you go.

I don't think we ever upgraded, like in terms of us two. Planetary Annihilation.

Well, I definitely didn't. Dave, I can't speak for you and.

I definitely have it in my library so maybe we should give it a try sometime.

Maybe we should, but I don't think people are here to learn about that today. Sure, we'll have to wait until we do an episode on that. If we.

Do you think they want to talk about the new Helldivers expansion, then there.

Are definitely people who would be interested in that. Yes, I will give them that.

How about the fact that the next Hollow Knight comes out in two days and I'm so excited for it.

I mean, there might be some want to talk about that as well, but, Dave, I'm pretty sure we have something scheduled for today.

Always. Always to work. Always the work. Always the work. It's. It's. It feels like a job when you do it like this. Geez Louise.

Well, Dave, I'd rather it be the work than the worst.

Back in the early 80s, you know, electronic Arts wasn't yet the giant publisher that we know today. They were founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins. We've covered this story before in our episode on John Madden. Go check it out. EA was originally conceived as a company that treated game developers like artists. It even referred to them as software artists in their marketing. The early game boxes for ea, just to emphasize this, were designed like record sleeves, complete with the developer's photo and a short bio, because Trip Hawkins wanted to highlight the creators, just like musicians were highlighted on albums in those years. In those first couple of early years, EA wasn't really building games internally, right? They acted more like a record label. They were signing independent developers, funding their projects, and publishing the results for all the most popular platforms like the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and eventually the IBM compatibles, right? They avoided the console market completely in the beginning, largely because, you know, 82, you could already tell that we were kind of in a decline. And the signs were there for what became the 1983 video game crash and that devastated companies that were tied to the Atari 2600 and the rest of the home console scene. We did a whole episode on the video game crash. So if you want to learn about that, check it out. At this point, Hawkins and his team believed that PCs were safer, they were more stable, and they were better suited for the kind of serious software that they saw themselves wanting to promote. And so this meant that EA's early catalog was filled with innovative PC titles made by other studios. For instance, Mule in 1983 was a groundbreaking multiplayer economic strategy games that had players colonizing a planet and competing for resources. It was decades ahead of its time in terms of encouraging cooperation and competition. They also had like the bard's tale in 1985 that was one of the first big like graphically rich, you know, dungeon crawling role playing games on home computers. And that kind of brought like a role playing experience to players who didn't have access to pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons groups and so they could have the same experience on their computer. And what these games did is they built EA's reputation up as a, as a company for creativity, but they didn't really put the company on the same trajectory as its rivals which were, you know, the first party companies like Nintendo or Sega, because those companies were really becoming household names because the home console space was legitimately booming, right. That that was growing at such a much more exponential rate than the home PC market that it was recognized at some point that they were going to have to step into that. So by the late 80s, Hawkins recognized that EA couldn't stay a PC only publisher forever. To grow they would absolutely have to step into the console arena. And that meant taking more control of their games, which also included starting to develop their own titles in house. One of their first internal projects was a NES title called Mario Andretti Racing. And Mario Andretti Racing was meant to bring the prestige of Mario Andretti, the legendary driver into players living rooms.

But wait, Dave, I thought it was Mario and Luigi.

No, no, Mario and Dready. Mario and Dready, yeah, I can see how that'd be confusing for sure. No, there was a race car driver named Mario Andretti and you know, they weren't trying to copy Nintendo that much. Close, close but no sooner.

Weird.

I know it wasn't great. It wasn't a great process for the programming team though, right? Programmer Dan Geissler and technical director Carl May were tasked with pulling off what were seen as ambitious effects on the nes. You know, bank turns for instance, something they, they quickly realized that the NES couldn't handle. Their producer Randy Breen, who had worked on what's known as a notoriously difficult development process for Indianapolis 500 the simulation, he was on this project too and was also worried that that game was going to end up being a dry like overly technical racer. And so along with their co designer Walter Stein, that whole group began questioning whether they should even be making another quote unquote serious driving sim at all. And eventually that project would not amount to anything. But that dead end project would prove to be a blessing in disguise. It forced that team to think outside the box and as a result their brainstorming soon shifted from cars to bikes. Producer Randy Breen was a long time motorcycle enthusiast and he was quick to point out the advantages of bikes. Motorcycles offered more expressive riders, more vehicles on screen at once, and a cultural edge that no car game could match. Right. Because you can't see through windows, motorcycles are smaller, which meant less pixels, so you could have more on a screen. And motorcycle culture was definitely a booming thing in the 80s and 90s, you know, and so that's what they're talking about with cultural edge. Right. It was also around this time too that ea, while they had initially said, hey, we're going to be making for the Nintendo Entertainment System, they also kind of started to look at beyond the NES at that point. Because in 1989, Sega had launched their Genesis in North America and it boasted stronger hardware, faster processing, and the ability to pull off scaling road effects that the NES wasn't capable of. Right. More importantly to that, Sega was marketing the Genesis directly at teenagers and young adults. Its emphasis was on being cool and rebellious. And that was a perfect fit for motorcycle culture. Perfect for that rough and tumble kind of biker game that the team was envisioning. Right. So the last piece of the puzzle was, you know, we know we want to do motorcycles, we know we want to make it kind of a rough and tumble game. What do we, what do we call it, like? Because a lot of time the title kind of governs where you're going to go from there. And so Breen recalled his own time riding down Mulholland Drive, that's a widening stretch of road in Los Angeles that's popular with motorcyclists. And as he leaned into the curves, he thought to himself, man, if you wiped out here, you'd get some serious road rash. And so he shared that memory with the team. And as he shared it, Geisler joked that they should just call the game Road Rash on Mulholland Drive. Breen pitched it later on to EA simply as Road Rash and the title stuck.

It's quite the way to get the name.

Road Rash on Mulholland Drive would not have rolled off the tongue the same way.

No, not at all. But for anyone from that area, it would have been a definite. Oh yeah, I can see that.

So they chose the Genesis hardware. That decision's behind them. They have a name that perfectly captures the danger and the rebelliousness of the concept they're looking for. And so the team sets out to build something that is very different from all the racing sims they had, they had worked on before, that they had all become accustomed to from the get go One of their biggest technical challenges was making the roads feel alive. Before joining Electronic Arts, Dan Geisler had already kind of cut his teeth on some more technical racing games working at Spectrum Holobyte. There he worked on a game called Vet, which is a San Francisco based driving sim. Rob, you can imagine what they raced in that game.

No, I can't, Dave.

It was Mustangs. Definitely Mustangs. Oh yeah, lots and lots of. Only Mustangs.

That sounds pretty cool.

I know. The algorithms that he built for estimating road curvature on Vet kind of became the backbone of road rash. Geisler claimed at one point in interviews that the Genesis hardware was powerful enough that he could have created more than 800 miles of unique roads, which is enough to map out the entire California coastline.

That's insane.

Yeah, it didn't end up that way, but point is, is when these guys got their hands on the Genesis and they started to dive into it like they were super excited by the prospect of what they could now do that the NES didn't. Because the nes, by no means was it the. It was a powerful piece of hardware. Everything that came out after it was more powerful. But like Nintendo always does, they don't ever make the cutting edge stuff. And that was no different with the Nintendo. They make cost effective, practical devices. Consoles that are backed up by really powerful software libraries usually. Right? Yeah.

That's how they do it.

And every time that wins them. That's it. Every time. I think now the market's changed a little bit, that there's definitely a stronger market. People want the more powerful. But, but for the longest time that wasn't. I mean, heck, the Wii won out and it wasn't powerful by any stretch of the imagination. We went back a few generations in graphics when the Wii came out, you.

Know, but it was innovative technology with motion control.

Innovative technology, withered technology, remember?

I mean, but no one else was doing motion.

No.

So it was innovative wither technology. They do it. Innovative technology with withered hardware.

Wither technology with lateral thinking. That's there.

Yeah, that thing.

Yeah, that thing. The reality of the situation is that just getting that road effect, right? The, the, the feeling of the road scaling with your speed, flying past you, moving curving hills, stuff like that. Road rash had it all. Just getting that right took him six months. And that is one of the largest chunks of the game's development. To achieve its kind of pseudo 3D look, the team adapted rendering techniques from another one of their games, Blockout, that was a 3D puzzle game that was also in development. For the Genesis at ea, and that allowed them to couple that with these winding, sloping roads. Like I said, that, in a way, felt new and exciting to a console racer. Meanwhile, the art team was kind of learning to work around the Genesis limitations because it did have limitations. Lead artist Arthur Koch joined midway through development. He was tasked with training other artists on EAs in house tools and helping them kind of conform to the system's 64 color palette. He later recalled that the palette was really hard for many traditional artists to grasp that didn't have limitations like that, but it really forced the team to get creative in how they presented the game's, you know, gritty, rebellious world, is how he put it. When EA decided to first showcase Road rash at the 1990 Consumer Electronics show, it was supposed to be a statement of support for Sega and for the Sega Genesis. But instead, the demo turned out to be a huge disappointment. Frame rates were choppy, animations looked awkward, and the game lacked any of the edge that Breen had envisioned. Carl May, in an interview, recalled a time that the project felt so tame that the team jokingly called it Randy's Sunday ride behind Breen's back.

That's good.

May argued that the game needed, quote, unquote, more balls to stand out. And frankly, he was right. That, frankly, the poor. That poor showing at ces, it almost killed the project. Because of it. Road Rash almost wasn't. Simply put, that project had to be repitched two more times to avoid cancellation because the executive sat down and said, yeah, no, you made a fool of us. No, it wasn't canceled, though. As we know, we're here today talking about it. In the end, EA granted that team another six months to improve performance, six months to overhaul animations, and kind of lean even harder into the game's rebellious attitude. And let's be honest, I mean, based on a poor showing, that extra time was absolutely critical because without it, as we said, Road Rash would have, like, died right on there on the CES floor instead of, you know, being as successful as it is. After that shaky CES demo, Karl May went directly to EA producer Richard Hilleman with a bold request. He said, give me creative control over gameplay. May told him, I want to make the game kick ass. And so Hilleman agreed. And from that point on, May and the rest of the team began shaping Road Rash into this, what it is now, a brawler on wheels that. That we know and love today. Geisler and Walter Stein, they kind of dug in on the performance. They improved the frame rate while Connie brought refined animations to give the racers more personality. It was a whole team effort. Rival bikers were given names and identities, and they taunted the player with trash talk between races. This was an early attempt to inject character into what was before faceless AI opponents. Frankly, they did a great job with it. To add more tension to the process, police motorcycles were introduced. They patrolled the roads and ended your run if you crashed. To reference, that finds fun. Side notes. The lead artist, Arthur Koch, went as far as to photograph a real traffic officer to nail all the details, so that was fun for him. He also pushed for bigger, more dynamic crashes. Right. He was really disappointed by what he called the stiff animations in other EA Sports titles, the obvious things like Madden football and Lakers vs. SOC Celtics. So he suggested devoting more frames to the wipeouts themselves. And the result of that was a set of cartoonishly violent crash animations that turned failure into entertainment. And Brino openly admitted that his inspiration for this in the end came from slapstick cartoons like Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. The thought was, even when you lost, it was still fun to watch.

That's fair.

Combat, meanwhile, grew out of real racing behavior. Breen had noticed that professional Grand Prix riders sometimes shoved or kicked one another during heated moments, and he kind of wanted to exaggerate that concept into a core mechanic. So they worked on the brawling. Licensed manufacturers were therefore off the table due to all the violence. So the team had to then create knockoff brands, you know, Panda, Shuriken, Kamikaze and Diablo. Clear riffs on Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati, you know.

Oh, I get it now. I didn't get that till you said something.

All did not go perfectly. At this point, though, no matter how hard this team tried, they could not get multiplayer working. It's one of their big disappointments in the in the first road rash. Their road scaling effects as they learned how to do them, just ate up too much of the console's power. And so head to head play would have to wait. It got integrated into the sequels, which we'll talk about, but they couldn't make it work here in the first one. But beyond that, players still got a full package. Expressive bikers, aggressive cops, and brutal crashes. And speaking of crashes, Rob, sometimes starting a podcast can feel like trying to keep your balance in the middle of a high speed brawl. But thankfully, it doesn't have to be that way.

Yeah, when you're dodging traffic, throwing punches, and trying not to wipe out, the last thing you want is complicated tech Slowing you down. Starting a podcast sounds just as intimidating. Where would you even begin?

Well, that's where zencastr comes in. Zencastr is an all in one podcasting platform that makes it incredibly easy to record high quality audio and video right from your browser. No confusing setups, no expensive equipment. Just log in, hit record, and you're good to go. So.

So I don't need to kick and punch my way through a bunch of complicated software?

Exactly. Zencastr's post production tools make you sound like a pro. It automatically removes background noise, balances your levels, and even edits out those awkward pauses or filler words like or. It's like having a pit crew for your podcast.

That sounds a lot easier than dodging cops in Road Rash. Once I've recorded, how do I get my podcast out into the world?

Well, that's the best part. Zencastr helps you distribute your show to all the major platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more. It's never been easier to share your voice and grow your audience.

All right, listeners, I guess that means that if you've ever wanted to start your own podcast, now's the time.

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And with that, let's get back to the mayhem of Road Rash.

Road Rash hit store shelves for the Sega Genesis in September of 1991, and while it wasn't an overnight blockbuster, it steadily built momentum thanks to word of mouth and strong reviews. By 1993, the game had sold over 250,000 copies worldwide. That's a solid figure for what was a Genesis exclusive at the time, right?

Yeah, I mean that's a lot even for non exclusive.

And that success was particularly important to Electronic Arts because it validated what they consider to be a risky move into in house console development. Their success showed that they could produce original hits on the same level as established Japanese studios like Nintendo, right? Indeed, this title proved to have long legs commercially and it continued to sell as part of EA's, as part of Sega Rather's growing Genesis library and helped to establish EA as more than just a sports company. Ports eventually came to The Amiga in 1992 and the Sega Master System, SEGA Game Gear. It came to the Nintendo game boy in 1994, which extended the game shelf life. So to Speak kind of adding incremental sales and putting the franchise finally in front of audiences who didn't own a Genesis. EA never did officially release lifetime numbers for the Genesis version, but industry reporting and kind of retrospective interviews consistently place the first road rash somewhere in that like 250,000, a half a million copy range. That makes it one of EA's more successful non traditional sports titles of the early 90s. Right, because they had their Maddens of the world. But you know, this doesn't fall into that traditional sport game category. So it was commercially successful. And the strong commercial showing of the first Road Rash kind of convinced EA that they had a franchise on their hands. Right. A year later, in 1992, as they were porting the original to other systems, they managed to bring a sequel, Road Rash two, to the Genesis. It kind of not kind of. It did keep the core gameplay, but they expanded it in a lot of ways. What they were most, what they most significantly brought to the table was they were finally able to include split screen multiplayer. So they, they managed to overcome those limitations that they, you know, couldn't figure out in the first one. So the second one was basically Road Rash with multiplayer. Because of that, players could now go head, head to head or team up against the cops. And the game kind of added new weapons to keep the combat fresh. Sales of road rash 2 were even stronger than the original and that really cemented the series then as one of K EA's like key properties that wasn't Madden or one, you know, one of their other traditionals like I think FIFA. We, we're getting close to FIFA. We're getting into FIFA territory rather by the mid-90s. 95 by Robert Ear Rob Year you're born.

Oh.

95 Road Rash 3 was released. That took the Road Rash concept concept, that took the Road Rash concept worldwide. There were tracks set in locations like Brazil, Kenya and Japan. But with it going internationally, it really proved that they had pushed the Sega Genesis hardware as far as it could go. So it was pretty obvious that they were going to have to take the next steps and move into the next generation of consoles, into the emerging would have been 32 bit era is what's next. And so that leap first came to the three do in 1994 when they brought road rash to $3. And that version was essentially a reboot. It had digitized graphics, had live action, full motion video cutscenes. We know that in the mid-90s full motion video was the thing, right. We just covered Phantasmagoria.

Was it Last week would have been.

Yeah, yeah, we just covered Phantasmagoria. That was a mid-90s full motion video. We learned all about that time period in which we know that FMV was the thing. As CDs and everything became popular. There was also licensed music in this band from bands like Soundgarden, for instance. And all in all, it just had a grittier aesthetic that leaned real hard into the outlaw biker vibe. Right. And while these early sequels kind of expanded the series popularity from 1 to 2 and a 3, road rash really kind of struggled to maintain momentum for whatever reason past the mid-90s, that 3D version, really impressive. But, you know, the 3D itself, as we know we have an episode on that. Man, I can just say that about everything now, can't I? We know that three DO never had mass market success. So even though there was a really impressive version on the three do, it just wasn't getting into people's homes. You know, the first three games were a lot of fun, I will add. I know I said in the beginning, but I, I really genuinely enjoyed playing Road Rash. It was fun. I think my favorite weapons were the pipe and the chain. I think the chain had more length than any other weapon. So it was fun to whip people with the chain and rob. If you don't know when you hit people enough, you knocked them off their bike. And that was the, that. That was the fun of it. And if I remember correctly, the bike kept going and would eventually, like Peter off somewhere. And that was a lot of fun. I don't know if that's the. If I'm remembering a different one in the line, or maybe I'm remembering the modern one, but I just remember knocking people off their bike and watching them tumble or that was a lot of fun to watch them tumble.

I mean, generally if you hit someone on a bike, they're going to fall over. So, you know.

Very true. Very, very true. Very, very, very, very true. These were just fun games. They're. They were fun games to just moderate. You know what, they were simple. You just bike your way to the front of the pack and beat up everyone along the way. So it wasn't. It wasn't terribly. It wasn't. It wasn't terrible. But as we move through different generations, you know, they tried to, they tried to keep this series alive. That 3Door version was eventually ported to the PlayStation, ported to the Sega Saturn, ported to the personal computer, to the PC at once, and that kind of gave it a wider audience. But the popularity of a combat racing Game was starting to shrink. I mean, let's be honest too, by the late 90s we had twisted Metal, which you know, as we kind of know based on the status of these two games. Definitely the more popular of a combat racing series. Right?

Right.

In 1999, EA tried to bring it to a new generation by releasing road rash 64. On what else but the Nintendo 64 that was developed by. Developed externally, not an EA developed title, really just did more of the same, kept the series core formula. Critics though, noted that the game felt dated compared to other 3D racers of the time. That same studio that made road rash 64 would also move on immediately afterwards to make Road Rash jailbreak for the PlayStation a year later in 2000. And that added story elements and kind of a story around prison. So they tried to make it more narrative driven, give it more structure, so to speak, but that fell on deaf ears. That really fell flat with everyone. And so it didn't reignite interest in the series like everyone had hoped. Right. And after that, Road Rats just kind of faded away from EA's priorities. You know, they. By the late 90s there were more technical racers like Gran Turismo. There were over the top arcade hits like the EA published Burnout that really shifted the racing landscape. And that blend of slapstick brawling and motorcycle racing that defined Road Rash really started to feel like it was a product of the 90s. Right. EA has occasionally teased revivals and the series has appeared in various compilations like EA Replay, which came out for the PlayStation Portable. But there is no true successor to it by Electronic Arts. You know, commercially, this, this means that Road Rash is one of Electronic Arts dormant properties. They have plenty of them. Right. It's fondly remembered by players who grew up with it but never revived into a modern franchise in any way, shape or form at all. And that's. That's a shame. Or is it? I don't know. What do you think?

I couldn't tell you, Dave. I'm the worst person Ask. Well, maybe not the worst, but not definitely not very good.

You don't think you'd have any fun racing on motorcycles and beating the out of people?

I'm not saying I wouldn't have fun. I'm just saying I'm not a very good person to ask.

That's a fair statement. It's decline isn't the result of one bad game. It's kind of the result of a gradual loss of relevance as the industry moved away from these arcadey racers and more at its time into more Polished simulations and more cinematic racers. That was definitely the thing into the early 2000s, right. And so looking back, we can see that Road Rash kind of occupies this really unique, unique place in gaming history. It's very much a product of its time. For Electronic Arts, it was proof that their new strategy of developing games in house for consoles could pay off. Before Road Rash, that company was simply known for its PC catalog and it's, you know, was about to be known for its emerging sports lineup. And Red Rash kind of proved that they had a, a bonafide series, a console hit that wasn't really tied to a license or to an athlete. Rather it was a original ip. And that kind of helped people see EA as more than just the Madden company, so to speak. You know. Now EA has not returned to the franchise, but there are developers that have carry that, that carry to this day the Road Rat's Torsion spirit. Probably the most significant is there's an indie game called Road Redemption came out in 2017, it's available on Steam. It's by far the most direct spiritual successor is a racing game. Literally it's a racing game where you hit people. Where you hit people and you knock them off their bike. It says Road Redemption is an action racing game where you lead your motorcycle gang on an epic journey across the country in a brutal driving combat adventure, taking heavy inspiration from series such as Road Rash and Motorstorm. So even in the game's description, they're trying to invoke the, which the, the spirit of Road Rash, you know, and look, if you didn't know any better, if someone had put a person like me in front of Road Redemption and, and said, hey, this is a new game, what do you think? I'd say, oh, cool, they made a new game in the Road Rash series. Like legitimately, you could take, you could plug it right in, give it the title and people would have no, no qualms about calling it a Road Rash game. It is for all purposes a modern Road Rash. It does update the formula. It's got, you know, roguelike profession progression as a modern game. Would they update it to modern visuals? It has online multiplayer. But that, that core experience, that high speed motorcycle racing with brutal melee combat, that is pure Road Rash. And that is what that game is and that's what that game is marketed as, frankly. But I think too it's also fair that we can say that Road Rash kind of found its way into other mainstream titles. People really enjoyed the spectacular crashes of Burnout and we would see that in like Criterion's Burnout a few years later. You know, Burnout builds a whole identity around the concept of particular crashes. Shoot, even like Grand Theft Auto's motorcycle combat, literally, you weave through traffic kicking people away from you and swinging melee weapons. That for all purposes is a modern reinterpretation of what Road Rash pioneered. Never died. It just became part of other series, you know, definitely. So even if, even if the Road Rash logo hasn't graced a new box in decades, its legacy is still alive in the DNA of gaming history. It's still alive in the DNA of modern racing and still alive in the modern DNA of action games. So anytime that you see motorcycles that are kind of turned into weapons of Chaos, you can trace that lineage all the way back to EA's Outlaw Racer from 1991. So, and I think, Rob, that brings us to the end of our ride on road rash. From EA's first steps into console development to the chaos they designed, the chaos of cops, crashes and combat on the open. Road Rash is a game that really helped define the early years in console development. If you'd like to learn more about Electronic Arts beginnings, don't forget that we covered John Madden Football and thus the origins of the call it EA's sports empire that was back in episode 92. You can of course find that episode, along with all of our other trips down memory card lane on our website, which can be found at www.memorycardlane.com. rob, what else can people find on our website?

You can find the calendar of our future episode topics to know what we are going to be talking about in the coming weeks. You can find a link to our Discord where you can come chat with Dave and I about various topics.

You can.

You can find a link to our Patreon where you can help support us and get access to our unedited episode versions. They're also ad free. That's a boost for you. And you can find links to our social media. I can be found on several platforms as Rob O Raptor and Dave.

I can be found on various platforms as David is wrong. Each week we'll tell you one story relevant to the current week in game history. It can be about a game or the people who have created it. It can be about a console, it can be about a technology. We've done it on circuses, we've done it on arcades, we've done it on museums. I think we did it one time on any other weird stuff we've done on Rob. We've done lots of interesting titles we're 262 episodes in. There's lots of choices there.

Yeah, Nokia.

Oh, we did do it on Nokia once. We learned all about Nokia phones and how the game Snake came to be on them, which popularized that phone. Good call. That was a solid episode. Nokia was a lumber company. How the heck did they go from point A to point B, man?

Well, you know, lumber playing cards, some of the best gaming companies or electronics companies just started from weird things that weren't electronics.

That is so true. Anyway, that's one thing that we sat down and learned some things about. One of the best things about doing this podcast is every week when we sit down to research new topics, we inevitably learn new things. It's fantastic cycle of teaching and learning, learning and teaching. And in celebration of said cycle, we like to talk about what we take away each week. So, Rob, what did you learn today?

I think that my favorite takeaway, considering all of this was new for me, Dave, had to be that during the demonstration, it was Randy Sunday Ride. You know that that's just one of those things you hear and you're like, damn, that's. That's cold.

That's. Yeah.

This game's supposed to be about beating people up and having a great time out on the road, like, you know, fighting and all this. And to call it a Sunday ride. You don't want to hear that. You don't want to hear that. I think the other cool part of it is that they could have made the entire California coastline. Coastway, high coast highway. Coastline, highway, whatever. Yeah, the entire California coastline with enough heart with the hardware of the Genesis, which you don't think for consoles that old, that they could do something that big, I guess. So it's just kind of interesting to hear. I. Again, those are things that I would not have foreseen. So those. Those are my two takeaways. What about yourself, Dave? What's your. What's your big takeaway?

I find it interesting that I didn't know this was one of the first games that EA developed in house. It was one of the first. Not. Not the first, but it, you know, it was. It was of the handful of first. Right. Because they were putting all their, you know, this team, that team, that team, that team. And it was among those first teams when they decided to get into their own development. And so I. I didn't know that. And I really didn't know in turn, that this kind of came from a failed experiment. Right. Came from Mario Andretti racing, which they wanted to do for the NES and couldn't figure out so they took kind of what they want to do for that over to the Sega Genesis and made a completely different game. So I find that interesting. If you do ever want to play Road Redemption, Road Redemption is a new one. It's, it's cool. It's, it's actually a good game. It's on Steam. I mean it's normal retail price. Its normal retail price is 20, but I'm looking at its historical price history and it has dropped to literally 90% off before on more than one occasion. So it drops down to $2 from, from every once in a blue moon. It's probably worth buying at 10 bucks or less in my opinion. I think it's at the very least a ten dollar game if you don't want to pay full price for it. So if you're ever curious about it, it's worth a buy in a playthrough. It's not a, not a shabby game. It. Destructoid gave it a 9 out of 10. So there you go.

Not too bad. Not too bad at all. Dave.

I think the last level on it is a rooftop one where you're racing from rooftop. The rooftop. And it's a lot of fun to try to knock people off of the rooftops, so.

Oh yeah, I can see that.

Yeah, yeah, it's, it was a, it's a good game. I would, I would recommend it. So there you go. Rob, before I wrap up my thoughts on the matter and take it into next week, is there anything you'd like to add to today's episode?

Well, I'll take a quick moment to say thank you to everyone for listening as we punch and kick our way through all of our topics in gaming history. We appreciate having you along as we learn and dive into all of the crazy happenings that happen to bring our passion to where it is today. So thank you.

What started as a scrapped Nintendo project became one of EA's first great console experiments, proving that they could build houses, build hits in house, and it helped cement their reputation beyond Madden for players. It turned racing into something more than speed. It turned it into a lawless fight. Survive for a lawless fight for survival. Filled with cops, chaos and frankly, wipeouts that were so entertaining it was sometimes worth just watching yourself fly everywhere. The franchise eventually lost its steam, obviously, but its influence never faded from the crash heavy chaos of burnout to the melee combat of the modern road Redemption, even into the outlaw energy I feel of motorcycle combat in games like the Grand Theft Auto series. You can really still kind of feel the echoes of what Road Rash is trying to do, you know, it as a series may be dormant, but the groundwork it laid down has never really been forgotten. It's just been reappropriated into other series. So whether you remember it as the game that made you laugh when you crashed, curse when you when the cops pulled you over our chair, when you kicked a rival into a ditch, Road Rash really still stands out as a reminder of what happens when developers dare to take a genre like racing off the beaten path. Next week, we are parking our bikes from Road Rash and swinging into the jungle with pitfall. Released in 1982 for the Atari 2600, this iconic adventure set the standard for platformers, challenging players to navigate treacherous jungles while collecting treasures and avoiding danger. With its groundbreaking mechanics and cultural impact, Pitfall wasn't just a game, it was a leap forward for gaming as a whole. So join us as we explore its history, innovation, and legacy on next week's adventurous trip down memory card lane to the thing.

Road Rash.