Racing games are in short supply on the Macintosh; one can count the number of quality Mac racing releases over the past few years on one hand. So it’s with some interest that we note the release of Wipeout 2097, a Macintosh game conversion fostered by the folks at U.K.-based studios Virtual Programming Ltd.
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Developed by Psygnosis for the Sony PlayStation game console, Wipeout 2097 is an edition of the enormously popular racing game series that dominated that console’s run over the years. The Wipeout series set itself apart with high-speed 3D racing and a techno soundtrack, and Wipeout 2097 is no different. Set 50 years after the events in the original Wipeout, Wipeout 2097 puts players behind the steering wheels of futuristic anti-gravity racing vehicles as they test their skills against each other.
The game features 6 more tracks than the original Wipeout, includes weather effects, new weapons and a total of fifteen computer-controlled opponents. You have to be careful not to collide with walls or with other craft, either, lest you be destroyed.
There’s precious little information on Virtual Programming’s Web site about the new release, but Virtual Programming Ltd. spokesperson Paul Lesurf advised MacCentral that worldwide distribution for the game is being handled by Softline UK. (Softline’s Web site was down when we checked before going to press, so keep trying back, or if you’re in the U.K. given them a shout.)
Virtual Programming is also working on a couple of other Macintosh game conversions — Payback, a title originally produced for the Amiga by Apex Designs which borrows liberally from the console classic Grand Theft Auto; and Tzar: The Burden of the Crown, an empire-building real-time strategy game.