Activision
I'76 Arsenal
18/04/98 00:06
There were 3 expansion products for Interstate ’76, all released at the same time, with a fair amount of confusion to them. From the people I talk to, these are the ones that most people seem to have played. I was the lead, and only, programmer on these products, so I know that all three were basically the same codebase with minor changes.
Oddly enough I believe these expansions of I’76 were more popular than the later full I’82 game, even though that product was developed by an entirely separate and full team of like 20 people, whereas our product was 1 programmer, 1 external contract programmer, 2 producers, 3 designers, and an artist. There were occasionally a few more artists, but I think we were the smallest team at Activision at the time.
I’76 Nitro Pack - New levels, new network games, custom car decals, Direct 3D support, Glide, Rendition, and force feedback were added to the original game. This package expanded the original game installation for previous owners.
I’76 Nitro Riders - This version is a stand alone version of the Nitro Pack that allows you to play all the new levels without owning the original game.
I’76 Arsenal - This was a full combination of the original title, upgraded + the Nitro Pack Expansion.
Oddly enough I believe these expansions of I’76 were more popular than the later full I’82 game, even though that product was developed by an entirely separate and full team of like 20 people, whereas our product was 1 programmer, 1 external contract programmer, 2 producers, 3 designers, and an artist. There were occasionally a few more artists, but I think we were the smallest team at Activision at the time.
I’76 Nitro Pack - New levels, new network games, custom car decals, Direct 3D support, Glide, Rendition, and force feedback were added to the original game. This package expanded the original game installation for previous owners.
I’76 Nitro Riders - This version is a stand alone version of the Nitro Pack that allows you to play all the new levels without owning the original game.
I’76 Arsenal - This was a full combination of the original title, upgraded + the Nitro Pack Expansion.
Interstate '76
28/03/97 23:54
Most websites say that Interstate ’76 was released in March 1997, but it seems to me that it had to be before that. Those years are certainly a fog for me nowadays.
I started at Activision in Nov 1995. I worked on MechWarrior II NetMech for a few months until I moved to the Interstate ’76 team who had originally hired me. I think I moved to downstairs to the I’76 team somewhere between January to March of 1996. We worked on I’76 for about 9 months as I remember, because that was the default production schedule in those days. When we went to E3 1996 at the LA Convention Center, we were really getting close to finishing the game.
I guess the websites are correct, and my internal time clock is what’s messed up.
One of my proudest contributions to this game is an effect we called the wiggle-burger. Whenever you collide the car into another car with a great force, the screen would blur in an oscillation that would settle back to normal. No game had ever had any effect like this before.
I also wrote all the weapons, explosions, internal cockpit displays
I started at Activision in Nov 1995. I worked on MechWarrior II NetMech for a few months until I moved to the Interstate ’76 team who had originally hired me. I think I moved to downstairs to the I’76 team somewhere between January to March of 1996. We worked on I’76 for about 9 months as I remember, because that was the default production schedule in those days. When we went to E3 1996 at the LA Convention Center, we were really getting close to finishing the game.
I guess the websites are correct, and my internal time clock is what’s messed up.
One of my proudest contributions to this game is an effect we called the wiggle-burger. Whenever you collide the car into another car with a great force, the screen would blur in an oscillation that would settle back to normal. No game had ever had any effect like this before.
I also wrote all the weapons, explosions, internal cockpit displays
MechWarrior II NetMech
11/06/96 00:27
When I interviewed with Activision they had just completed MechWarrior II, and the office was riding high on the success of the game. I interviewed with several directors of games, but Sean Vesce and Zack Norman really hit it off with me when we were talking about out love of Apple II games and my senior project which showed them that I knew something about 3 terrain generation. They were in the very initial stages of starting to put together a team for Interstate ’76 and I got the sense that they would be great to work with.
When I spoke to the development director, John Spinale, at the end of the interview I had mentioned that I did some work with networking in college by re-writing the doom net connect code to be a chat program. When he offered me the job, he said that the I’76 team wanted me, but that I would be needed to finish up the networking expansion of MechWarrior. Little did I know at the time that it was because the guy that was writing it had just quit.
So my first day there they introduce me to Dan Kegel, a graduate of caltech, a big proponent of a new phone technology called DSL, and the other network programmer. The gotcha here is that Dan claims to have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and he needs a typist. Lets just say that this wasn’t exactly what I had planned, but I really wanted to get into the game industry, and couldn’t believe I was working at Activision.
It turned out that Dan, as most CalTech people I have met, had less than great interpersonal skills. While I know he was a good person with good intentions, he had a way of often coming off as a complete dick. Sorry Dan, it’s true. I think he knew it a bit too. Still we hung out and had some fun venturing into the artistic fringes of high technology at the time, and he showed me where the best damn tech book store in LA is located.
Anyway we plugged away at networking before the days of the internet really caught on. No sort of windows direct connect API’s existed in those days, and lots of people still connected with serial and parallel ports to play their games. It was the very lowest level shit we were playing with, and there was really only one book on how to program for TCP/IP and Novel IPX. We used dwango, greenleaf technologies com libraries, and direct IPX driver interrupt calls. Interesting stuff, but I’m sure glad those days are gone.
When I spoke to the development director, John Spinale, at the end of the interview I had mentioned that I did some work with networking in college by re-writing the doom net connect code to be a chat program. When he offered me the job, he said that the I’76 team wanted me, but that I would be needed to finish up the networking expansion of MechWarrior. Little did I know at the time that it was because the guy that was writing it had just quit.
So my first day there they introduce me to Dan Kegel, a graduate of caltech, a big proponent of a new phone technology called DSL, and the other network programmer. The gotcha here is that Dan claims to have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and he needs a typist. Lets just say that this wasn’t exactly what I had planned, but I really wanted to get into the game industry, and couldn’t believe I was working at Activision.
It turned out that Dan, as most CalTech people I have met, had less than great interpersonal skills. While I know he was a good person with good intentions, he had a way of often coming off as a complete dick. Sorry Dan, it’s true. I think he knew it a bit too. Still we hung out and had some fun venturing into the artistic fringes of high technology at the time, and he showed me where the best damn tech book store in LA is located.
Anyway we plugged away at networking before the days of the internet really caught on. No sort of windows direct connect API’s existed in those days, and lots of people still connected with serial and parallel ports to play their games. It was the very lowest level shit we were playing with, and there was really only one book on how to program for TCP/IP and Novel IPX. We used dwango, greenleaf technologies com libraries, and direct IPX driver interrupt calls. Interesting stuff, but I’m sure glad those days are gone.
Started at Activision
15/11/95 01:48
For me, real life began here.
In Nov 1995, I moved to LA and started work at Activision.
I lived at Cheviot Vista Place, in a little second story shit hole of an apartment that was shaped like a pizza slice and almost certainly had cockroaches wandering around at night.
I had a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen with an old refrigerator that frosted over. YUCK.
My previous certainty about my abilities immediately faded away, when I walked in the door. I was working with people who had made some of the hottest games of the time. But I was giving it my all and really enjoying it.
In Nov 1995, I moved to LA and started work at Activision.
I lived at Cheviot Vista Place, in a little second story shit hole of an apartment that was shaped like a pizza slice and almost certainly had cockroaches wandering around at night.
I had a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen with an old refrigerator that frosted over. YUCK.
My previous certainty about my abilities immediately faded away, when I walked in the door. I was working with people who had made some of the hottest games of the time. But I was giving it my all and really enjoying it.