A Look Forward: Interstate ’76

(Update: Sometime after writing this article and before posting it, a project on Github, I26, has not only taken care of just about everything I’d want in a remaster, but goes far beyond it with a new 3D renderer. In fact, I think I26 is the absolute best way to play Interstate ’76 right now. If you have any interest in I ’76, you need to check this out!)

I’m finishing up on this round of Interstate ’76 site updates. Surprisingly, nearly every page related to Interstate ’76 and the Nitro Pack has been updated.

I remember the last time I completed a big I ’76 run through, I had lamented on the surprisingly big, but relatively short-lived, I ’76 community. I think that’s because back in the day, there was a certain order to these games: They were single-player experiences first. So, you played through the TRIP. Then, maybe you checked out the melee Scenarios. And lastly, you went online to see what multiplayer was all about. As I finished up the single-player then, it felt like the next step was to go check out the online community… that basically no longer existed.

This time around, I’m not really feeling that. I feel like this game hasn’t gotten the modern version it deserves. I know the GOG version is about 15 years old at this point, but even it doesn’t run correctly out of the box and needs some (ok… maybe a lot of) tweaking to get going. Combine that with I 76’s existing bugs, problems with modern computers, modern Windows in general, working with other OSes, then put it all together and you’ve got quite a mess.

Groove Champion stares in the distance during the Scene 1 outro.

• Fix the install issues and general bugs.
  Hey, this thing should work right out of the box. And I ’76 has a world-setting install sequence, so that’s gotta somehow be included. Currently: Shadows are glitchy, particular in 3D-accelerated modes. Smoke isn’t transparent in 3D. Surfaces are randomly see-through. Tires poke through the car bodies. A good clean up of the visuals would help remaster this thing.

• 60+fps.
  The game’s physics are tied to the frame rate. Go over 20fps and the weirdness happens: AI can’t drive, jump distance decreases to impossible levels, skids go out of whack, etc. A proper fix to get the graphics running at at least 60fps while still being able to hit all of the jumps would be mandatory.

• Adjust the draw distances.
  The terrain in this game has always had a strange “popping” effect. I remember showing the game to a friend when I got it and right off the bat, they asked, “why does the ground keep doing that?” Seeing the game assets run in engines that don’t do this is a different experience.

• Extend the clipping distances.
  At this point in time, we’ve got enough horsepower on our machines to extend the skyline/clipping distances. Besides the terrain, distant objects can stay visible for longer distances to keep buildings from suddenly appearing. Cars can stay high-quality for longer. Look at the I ’76 cutscene movies and see what the backgrounds look like in those. That’s what the game should look like. Currently, we can tweak this a bit in the game’s terrain files, but go too far (beyond 1000m or so) and the binoculars break. (Related, Mechwarrior 2 has a similar issue. You can adjust the clipping distance via the BWD files, but go too far and 3D objects will stop appearing.)

• Widescreen and modern resolution support.
  Stretching a 4:3 image doesn’t count here. Support for proper widescreen and high resolutions would be mandatory.

• Modern control options.
  Personally, I’m still good rocking an old Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, but I think gamepad setups would be great in the modern era.

• Don’t touch the music.
  Seriously. No “remastering.” No extra compression. No EQ rolloff or anything else.

• Higher-quality movies.
  The old movies run at a 15fps and are heavily compressed. Hey, at least they’re at 640×480. If there was a way to get a higher resolution and frame rate from the original source, this would be a great upgrade.

• New Game +.
  The first playthrough of the TRIP works as a tutorial. You’re slowly introduced to new weapons and given more punishing opponents as the game progresses. When it’s all over… you have to start from scratch again. It would be fun to keep your late-game salvaged weapons like HADES turrets and Cherub missiles and just wreck the opening levels of the game. Let a user pick whatever car they want and run through the TRIP again.

• Texture updates would be optional.

Though the ultimate dream is for a remaster from a developer like Night Dive Studios, I can’t really see it happening. I don’t think I ’76 has the draw to reach the sales numbers it would need to justify the cost of a remaster. I’ve read the game sold around 70,000 copies in 1997, so while no slouch in sales, I’m not sure if that’s up to the ripe-for-remake level. On GOG, it’s routinely on sale for just a couple of bucks. That being said… Battlezone and Battlezone II both had remakes/remasters. So, never say never.

In a promising note, there are several projects on Github that seem to have the start of something. In a related game, Mechwarrior 2 has had several projects modernize it lately. So with some similar underpinnings, I think there’s hope for I ’76 on the community-led front.