Rollcage Series

[Hawksmoor]

I was recently thinking about some old games I wanted to find some time for, and Rollcage came to mind. Anybody happen to know if another Rollcage was planned prior to Psygnosis being merged into SCE Liverpool? Do the rights to the franchise belong to Sony now? I'd be ecstatic if Rollcage 3 was made.

[j_factor]

The rights do belong to Sony, along with a ton of other Psygnosis properties that Sony just sits on. I don't think a third one was in development, because Rollcage Stage 2 was one of Psygnosis's last games.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, Rollcage Stage II's PC version was, along with Lemmings Revolution, the last two PC games published by Psygnosis before Sony forced them into Sony-only compliance. Both were published by another company because Sony wouldn't do it, and in the US Rollcage Stage II got renamed to "Death Track Racing" on the PC (the PSX title was unchanged). It's kind of funny though, the box says Death Track Racing, but install it and the game calls itself Rollcage Stage II... :)

Anyway, yeah, considering that, and that under Sony they've only done limited things with Wipeout, never mind Rollcage, I highly doubt they ever started a third one, unfortunately. And it really is unfortunate, Rollcage is an amazing series. It's every bit as good as Wipeout, really, perhaps even better. Rollcage definitely takes getting used to, thanks to the controls, but once you do the games are just so amazingly fun to play...

[Hawksmoor]

The rights do belong to Sony, along with a ton of other Psygnosis properties that Sony just sits on. I don't think a third one was in development, because Rollcage Stage 2 was one of Psygnosis's last games.

What a waste. Psygnosis had some really good properties.

[Hawksmoor]

Yeah, Rollcage Stage II's PC version was, along with Lemmings Revolution, the last two PC games published by Psygnosis before Sony forced them into Sony-only compliance. Both were published by another company because Sony wouldn't do it, and in the US Rollcage Stage II got renamed to "Death Track Racing" on the PC (the PSX title was unchanged). It's kind of funny though, the box says Death Track Racing, but install it and the game calls itself Rollcage Stage II... :)

Interesting. Any idea why Sony was so adverse to publishing those final two titles? I also don't get the name change for the PC version; you'd think they'd want to keep the Rollcage name on the packaging to attract what few fans the series probably had/has.


Anyway, yeah, considering that, and that under Sony they've only done limited things with Wipeout, never mind Rollcage, I highly doubt they ever started a third one, unfortunately. And it really is unfortunate, Rollcage is an amazing series. It's every bit as good as Wipeout, really, perhaps even better. Rollcage definitely takes getting used to, thanks to the controls, but once you do the games are just so amazingly fun to play...

Yes, it was an amazing series indeed. I thought of it as a brilliant fusion of Wipeout and Stun Runner. Both games also had quite good graphics given that they were PS1 titles. I also didn't find the controls THAT difficult to acclimate to. Maybe one or both games will get released on the PSN store eventually. A third title on the PS3 and or PSP would be awesome, but I suppose there's almost no chance of that happening unless the license changed hands somehow.

[A Black Falcon]

Interesting. Any idea why Sony was so adverse to publishing those final two titles? I also don't get the name change for the PC version; you'd think they'd want to keep the Rollcage name on the packaging to attract what few fans the series probably had/has.

Maybe I wasn't clear, it was only in the US that they used the "Death Track Racing" name for the PC version. I'm not sure waht the reason was, but I'm sure there was some legal reason... Sony didn't want them using it or something? Didn't want people knowing the game was released anywhere other than PSX or something? I think they wanted those last two PC games to be forgotten... But yeah, In Europe it was called Rollcage Stage II on the PC.

Anyway though, both Death Track Racing and Lemmings Revolution were published by Take-Two in the US, because as I said Sony wouldn't allow Psygnosis to do it as they had always done in the past. Sony was killing off the Psygnosis name at that time (2000) and merging them into SCEE, and PC games weren't compatible with that; they wanted Sony platform products only, and only stuff Sony wanted them to make and not games they wanted to make like Rollcage or Lemmings. Notice how after Lemmings Revolution there wasn't another Lemmings game until the PSP and PS3 Lemmings games in 2006, and there hasn't been anything since then either? Yeah, blame Sony for that. They didn't care about Lemmings, for some bizarre reason (Lemmings is great!). Same goes for Rollcage obviously.


Yes, it was an amazing series indeed. I thought of it as a brilliant fusion of Wipeout and Stun Runner. Both games also had quite good graphics given that they were PS1 titles. I also didn't find the controls THAT difficult to acclimate to. Maybe one or both games will get released on the PSN store eventually. A third title on the PS3 and or PSP would be awesome, but I suppose there's almost no chance of that happening unless the license changed hands somehow.

Of course, the fact that while you can drive on almost any surface your goal is to NOT do that if you want to not get spun around constantly was frustrating. Those cars spin out so, so easily... you need to be careful. That's the learning curve of the game, though, and it is as I said really fun once you get used to it. The graphics are quite good for the time too (very good looking for PSX games, even better on the PC), there are lots of cars and tracks and options, there's splitscreen (Rollcage Stage II on the PC even has four player splitscreen! Both PSX versions are only two player split though.), good techno music, weapons... what more could you ask for?

Oh yeah, and Stage II also has those quite hard challenge missions with the very narrow puzzlelike (perhaps Trackmania-like, sort of?) courses you had to get through as fast as you could. I remember beating most or all of those... really tricky puzzles. Those were pretty fun.

And of course there was the fun of blowing through building pillars, making large flashy explosions, and knowing that you won't be damaged doing it because the cars are invincible. That's pretty cool. So yeah, Rollcage was amazing... I wish Sony hadn't killed Psygnosis. :(

I know, we did finally get the PSP/PSP Wipeout games, and that's something, but still... we should also be getting things like new Rollcage, and more!

[Xtincthed]

did you actually like the PS rollcages?
i loved the game on the PC but i had a really hard time to control the car on the PS1 version

[A Black Falcon]

Worse controls on PSX? I wouldn't say so, they seem pretty similar to me...