Wipeout XL
Wipeout XL, developed and published by Psygnosis in 1997 for Windows 95 and supporting hardware 3D acceleration.
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Player's Review
"The original scorched the gaming world and became an instant classic. Accelerate now to the year 2097 and witness a brutal new generation of anti-gravity racing that's light years ahead of the pack. Wipeout XL is the definitive 3D arcade racer offering the most blistering race experience available for the PC. With its explosive speed and razor-sharp graphics, optimized to harness the raw power of today's hottest 3D accelerator cards, Wipeout XL represents the ultimate synergy of gameplay and design."
The PC version of WipeoutXL is double the resolution of the console games and as fast as your PC allows. The initial options allow stereo or Surround which I have enabled for this recording. (Rightly or wrongly). Eight tracks and five vehicles (once unlocked) each having their own stats and control ability. Each track has turbo and weapon pads awarding a speed boost or a weapon that you can use against the other racers. At faster speeds the air brakes become a requirement to smoothly get around corners.
The longplay firstly goes through the initial six tracks, two at each speed class and I choose a different ship for each. Then comes the rapier challenge with all six tracks at rapier speed. Then the two phantom tracks and finally all eight tracks at phantom speed. At the end I show the unlocked Piranha class with machine gun cheat and framerate monitor enabled. The game doesnt have an ending and the credits are shown by waiting for the right demo to appear which have the credits.
Overall, it's pretty much the same as the original PlayStation version, more aligned with the Saturn version in fact. No Prodigy or Red bull but the racing is fully intact. A little dark running on the original Voodoo 3D card. Being emulated the framerate can be very erratic, smooth one moment, then taking off like a rocket the next, especially at phantom speeds as the framerate is uncapped. The Amiga version fixed these issues by adding in game gamma adjustment as well as a user specified framerate cap.
Note: I targeted a P133 CPU spec (80000 cycles, normal core) but the emulation feels so much faster than expected but the intent is to hit an average of 30 fps. The voodoo emulation seems to be uncapped and not really limited by anything so some parts of the track double in framerate which is jarring to say the least. Interestingly, Voodoo emulation in WinUAE also has erratic track framerate although as mentioned the Amiga can cap the upper limit.
00:00:00 Intro / Demo
00:02:10 Vector - Talons reach
00:04:00 Vector - Sagarmatha
00:05:56 Venom - Phenitia Park
00:09:00 Venom - Valparaiso
00:12:07 Rapier - Gare D' Europa
00:15:15 Rapier - Odessa Keys
00:18:32 Challenge 1 (Six Tracks)
00:35:15 Phantom - Spilkinanke
00:38:40 Phantom - Vostok Island
00:42:40 Challenge 2 (Eight Tracks)
01:07:28 Piranha - Valparaiso (Phantom)
01:11:00 Credits
The PC version of WipeoutXL is double the resolution of the console games and as fast as your PC allows. The initial options allow stereo or Surround which I have enabled for this recording. (Rightly or wrongly). Eight tracks and five vehicles (once unlocked) each having their own stats and control ability. Each track has turbo and weapon pads awarding a speed boost or a weapon that you can use against the other racers. At faster speeds the air brakes become a requirement to smoothly get around corners.
The longplay firstly goes through the initial six tracks, two at each speed class and I choose a different ship for each. Then comes the rapier challenge with all six tracks at rapier speed. Then the two phantom tracks and finally all eight tracks at phantom speed. At the end I show the unlocked Piranha class with machine gun cheat and framerate monitor enabled. The game doesnt have an ending and the credits are shown by waiting for the right demo to appear which have the credits.
Overall, it's pretty much the same as the original PlayStation version, more aligned with the Saturn version in fact. No Prodigy or Red bull but the racing is fully intact. A little dark running on the original Voodoo 3D card. Being emulated the framerate can be very erratic, smooth one moment, then taking off like a rocket the next, especially at phantom speeds as the framerate is uncapped. The Amiga version fixed these issues by adding in game gamma adjustment as well as a user specified framerate cap.
Note: I targeted a P133 CPU spec (80000 cycles, normal core) but the emulation feels so much faster than expected but the intent is to hit an average of 30 fps. The voodoo emulation seems to be uncapped and not really limited by anything so some parts of the track double in framerate which is jarring to say the least. Interestingly, Voodoo emulation in WinUAE also has erratic track framerate although as mentioned the Amiga can cap the upper limit.
00:00:00 Intro / Demo
00:02:10 Vector - Talons reach
00:04:00 Vector - Sagarmatha
00:05:56 Venom - Phenitia Park
00:09:00 Venom - Valparaiso
00:12:07 Rapier - Gare D' Europa
00:15:15 Rapier - Odessa Keys
00:18:32 Challenge 1 (Six Tracks)
00:35:15 Phantom - Spilkinanke
00:38:40 Phantom - Vostok Island
00:42:40 Challenge 2 (Eight Tracks)
01:07:28 Piranha - Valparaiso (Phantom)
01:11:00 Credits
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