Rocket Jockey is a Windowsvideo game created by Rocket Science Games and published by SegaSoft in 1996. The game's concept was developed by designer/lead programmer Sean Callahan, paired with an alternate reality 1930s America setting, conceived by VP of development/creative director Bill Davis. The player jets at high speed inside a grassy, enclosed sports arena on a rocket sled that is always in motion and chiefly steered with two grappling-hook guns mounted on its flanks. The rocket can change speeds but always flies about three feet off the ground unless it is engaged in one of the games' frequent and often-comic collisions.
The soundtrack features legendary surf rock guitar player Dick Dale. Three different Rollerball-style game modes are available for competition.
Rocket Jockey Preview. Rocket Science returns with a game that promises to deliver more action than attitude. We have no news or videos for Rocket Jockey. Most Recent Forum Activity. Get this: You have this rocket you ride like a motorcycle, right? And it has these extremely useful cables that shoot from the left and right, grabbing pretty much anything you can get them to grab - poles (for whipcrack turns), balls (for throwing into the goal, when there is one), mines (for throwing at somebody else), and your opponent (for dragging around the field).
Although it was well-reviewed by critics, the game was burdened by a general lack of pre-release press coverage, steep hardware requirements, and extensive delays of a patch which added LAN play, which together led to poor sales. As time passed it has suffered a classic example of software rot and compatibility issues have appeared, making it very difficult to install the game on modern systems. Some diehards have created workarounds for this, most notably a custom modified registry key.
Rocket Jockey | |
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Developer(s) | Rocket Science Games |
Publisher(s) | SegaSoft |
Engine | RenderWare |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Release | November 15, 1996[1] |
Genre(s) | Action game, Sports game |
Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Gameplay
Players control a 'sled,' which is basically a rocket with small wings for directing the ride and grappling hooks mounted on the sides. These hooks can be fired into pylons, mines, sporting equipment, bodies, and anything else that can be grappled. The grappling hook guns are fixed to shoot out horizontally, 45 degrees to the left and the right of the sled's direction of motion. The player can tap a key to connect the left grapple line to the right one and fly free, leaving a clothesline obstruction for others. Hence, grappling hooks serve a dual purpose: tight turns on stationary objects, and disabling competitors.[2] Sleds also have the ability to receive power-ups, such as repair and speed boost. Grappling hook projectiles and cables are also modifiable.
The sleds first available to the player have only minor differences, but sleds unlocked later in the game have major stat advantages, i.e. acceleration, top speed, boost, and maneuverability. Sleds are unlocked by stealing them from opponents. To unlock a sled, the player must knock their opponent off it, jump off their existing sled, climb onto the target sled, and successfully complete the level. Unlocked sleds are not lost when ditched for a newer model. Most of the sleds will also unlock if all of the levels of a certain tier of competition are successfully beaten. The tier that the sled will be unlocked on is generally one or two tiers after the first level the sled was introduced. Most of the end-game sleds cannot be unlocked in this way.
While each of the playable characters has a different name and logo, they all perform with the same characteristics.
Game modes
Rocket War is a deathmatch mode with the player facing computer controlled jockeys. The goal is to eliminate or disable all the opponents. Points are awarded based on how the player eliminates the computer opponents. Basic moves such as a 'tripline' or a ram off receives minimal points, whereas more difficult moves, such as the 'matchmaker' (joining two riders together with grappling hooks), or 'ball and chain' (joining a rider to a mine), award much more points. Points are used to rank a jockey's run through each individual arena. Points are not required to advance to the later rounds, only the elimination of all rivals. Dismounting an opponent and stealing their sled is also an option, both to switch to a working or less damaged sled and to unlock it for use in later levels.
Rocket Ball is a twist on polo or soccer/football. Facing an opposing 'team' which ranges from one to several independently acting computer opponents, the goal is to score as many points as possible in a set amount of time. Players can steal the ball from opponents, or eliminate them outright, while navigating the field and scoring goals with the sometimes explosive balls.
Referees run around the arena after the player on foot. They never mount a sled but will sometimes try to kick jockeys around the field. They can be treated exactly the same as other jockeys. Tether cables connect all jockeys, including the player, to their sleds. In this way, if a jockey falls off of his sled, or are cabled off, they remain attached to their sled by a short cable until a certain amount of time passes. This allows a jockey to land near their rocket, even if they were cabled by an opponent. Shorter cable lengths are also used, which shortens the amount of time a cable may be attached to a jockey or ball to only a few seconds. This generally forces the player to make shots at a net, rather than towing in the ball, as well as making it harder to disable the opponent. The rules of Rocket War still apply in Rocket Ball. Completing a match is dependent on the number of goals the player versus their rivals. Winning on a stolen sled will also unlock it in this mode.
Rocket Race is a race on an obstacle course. The course must be done in a certain amount of time, with either the player's sled passing through sets of pylons, or grappling on to certain pylons as they light up. Tethering cables and shortened cable duration on opponents are used, similar to Rocket Ball. Winning on a stolen rocket will unlock it, as in the other two game modes.
Development
Originally developed for the SonyPlayStation, Rocket Jockey became a PC title because, according to designer/lead programmer Sean Callahan, 'hardware limitations and longer lead times forced the switch to PC as the initial platform.'[3] A PlayStation version was still slated for release in the months after the PC version appeared,[4] but it was eventually cancelled.
Elon Musk, who worked on some Rocket Science products, has been incorrectly credited with contributing to Rocket Jockey. [5]
Remakes
Several Rocket Jockey remake attempts have come and gone since the late 1990s. Most have been grass-roots initiatives conceived as modifications of other commercial games.
The first such project to see any progress used the original Unreal Tournament game as a foundation. A partial gameplay hack and a handful of themed maps were released.
Another ill-fated project appeared in the Quake 3 community shortly thereafter. Nothing was published beyond early development screenshots.
In 2005, a Rocket Jockey project was put together modding Unreal Tournament 2003.[6] This effort lost momentum without publishing any results.
In October 2006, an effort to build a remake of Rocket Jockey was announced by independent developer.[7] Unlike previous efforts, this project is not proposed as a modification of another game. The developer published several development screenshots early on in development. Then, in March 2008, the first alpha test version of the Solar-Ray remake was released, which allows the player to walk or fly around in a small arena and attach cables to one of two posts but does not include any real game play. In July 2008, Solar-Ray announced that development would be 'frozen for an unknown amount of time!', then in January 2009, a SourceForge project was founded. Pre-alpha code is still available for download. Unfortunately the project is officially canceled.[8]
A spiritual successor was being developed using the UDK (UNREAL development kit) by Six Shooter Games[9] and called Sprocket Junkie! So far, only a demo for the PC has been released, the Sprocket Junkie website is offline, and no updates on its progress have been posted since May 2012.
In February 2018, a remake of Rocket Jockey using Unreal Engine 4 was announced by Burn Ward LLC.[10] Development of Rocket Jockey is currently ongoing. No release date for the game has been announced.
Technical information
Rocket Jockey had very high hardware demands for 1996: at least a 90mhz 'Pentium' grade CPU,[11] and recommended 120mhz or higher.
Six-person LAN multiplayer was advertised on the original box but was not included with the game. The multiplayer patch promised by inserts in the game's packaging did not appear until several months after the launch[11] and was never included in any retail version.
Because of a quirk of the installer supplied with the game, a specific DirectX 3 component (d3dhalf.dll) must be present in the WindowsSystem directory (on Windows ME and before) in order to complete normal installation. This file can be found in the DirectX directory of the Rocket Jockey CD, has been provided on Rocket Jockey fansites in the past, and can still be found on many general Windows and DirectX troubleshooting sites.
The installer also fails to install the game on Windows 2000 and XP systems, requiring either:
- a complete dump of the CD onto the hard disk, as well as movement of some sound files, and a modified registry key, or
- a specially made installer made by fans
Once installed, Rocket Jockey runs without reported problems under these newer versions of the Windows OS.
Reception
Reception | ||||||||||||||||||
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Rocket Jockey received generally positive reviews. Critics applauded the inventive gameplay concept,[12][11][13][15] the unique ways in which players could humiliate their opponents,[12][11][13][15] and the music,[11][13][15] which Trent Ward called 'the best soundtrack to ever bless a video game' in GameSpot.[13] The graphics were generally regarded as not particularly impressive but solid and passable.[11][13][15] Critics also found that despite the complex gameplay possible, the controls are simple and reasonable.[12][11][13][15] A reviewer for Next Generation commented that 'Rocket Science's Rocket Jockey manages, in one fell swoop, to nearly erase the memory of such Sega CD dog-eggs as Loadstar, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, and Wingnuts with its surprising mix of style, humor, and fun.'[15] Robert Coffey of Computer Gaming World concluded, 'There's little not to like about Rocket Jockey. It looks good, it sounds great, and it's certainly the most enjoyable way to sustain a concussion.' [emphasis in original][11] Todd Vaughn of PC Gamer US wrote that 'It blends a devil-may-care attitude with the crowd-pleasing violence of gladiatorial combat and the man-and-machine symbiosis of a demolition derby to create an instantly attractive and demanding would-be sport.'[12]
The one common criticism of the game was the unavailability of multiplayer on release. Critics noted that despite the box art promising LAN multiplayer, the feature was not included in the game, and that despite inserts saying that a patch to fix this problem was available on the SegaSoft website, the linked page only gave further excuses.[12][11][13][15]GameSpot and Next Generation both stated that they would have rated the game higher if the patch were available upon release as promised.[13][15]
According to PC Data, which tracked computer game sales in the United States, sales of Rocket Jockey reached nearly 3,000 copies by the end of February 1997. Erica Smith of CNET Gamecenter described these figures as 'grim'.[18] Writing for Wired, John Alderman explained that the game and Rocket Science's Obsidian both 'failed to generate the sales needed to justify costs', despite a high level of pre-release excitement. As a result, the company could not secure funding from a publisher to develop another game, and was forced to close in April 1997.[19]
Rocket Jockey was a finalist for CNET Gamecenter's 1996 'Best Action Game' award, which ultimately went to Quake. The editors wrote, 'Rocket Jockey accomplished the impossible: it brought us a completely original gaming experience by breathing new life into two game genres that have been done to death, first-person action and racing combat.'[20]
References
- ^https://web.archive.org/web/19980207215725/http://ogr.com:80/news/news1196.html
- ^'NG Alphas: Rocket Jockey'. Next Generation. No. 22. Imagine Media. October 1996. p. 127.
- ^Kuchera, Ben (July 27, 2011). 'The story behind Rocket Jockey, and the 360 port you can't play'. Ars Technica.
- ^'Protos: Rocket Jockey'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 90. Ziff Davis. January 1997. p. 48.
- ^Ashcraft, Brian (February 14, 2018). 'Before Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk Worked In Video Games'Kotaku.
- ^Unreal Tournament 2003 Rocket Jockey mod listing
- ^Solar-Ray
- ^SourceForge Website
- ^Six Shooter Games website
- ^Burn Ward Website
- ^ abcdefghijCoffey, Robert (June 1, 1997). 'Rocket Jockey'. Computer Gaming World. Archived from the original on December 7, 1998.
- ^ abcdefVaughn, Todd (February 1997). 'Rocket Jockey'. PC Gamer US. Archived from the original on January 18, 2000.
- ^ abcdefghiWard, Trent (December 5, 1996). 'Rocket Jockey Review'. GameSpot. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
- ^Bauman, Steve (January 8, 1997). 'Rocket Jockey'. Computer Games Strategy Plus. Archived from the original on October 7, 1997.
- ^ abcdefghiStaff (March 1997). 'Good Sport'. Next Generation (27): 94.
- ^Staff. 'Rocket Jockey'. PC Games. Archived from the original on May 25, 1997.
- ^Del Rizzo, Bryan (February 1997). 'Rocket Jockey'. boot. 1 (6): 83.
- ^Smith, Erica (April 2, 1997). 'Future of Rocket Science shaky'. CNET Gamecenter. Archived from the original on January 19, 2001.
- ^Alderman, John (April 17, 1997). 'Rocket Science Takes a Dive'. Wired. Archived from the original on July 5, 2017.
- ^The Gamecenter Editors. 'The Gamecenter Awards for 96'. CNET Gamecenter. Archived from the original on February 5, 1997.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
External links
- Rocket Jockey at MobyGames
- Rocket Jockey on IMDb
Action 52 is an unlicensed multicart video game compilation developed by Active Enterprises for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and FarSight Technologies for the Sega Genesis. The NES version was released in 1991, followed by the Genesis version in 1993. A Super NES version was advertised in magazines, but never released.
Action 52 consists of 52 'New and Original' games that cover a variety of genres, with the most common being scrolling shooters and platformers. One of the more notable games is The Cheetahmen, Active's attempt at creating a franchise similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The NES version of Action 52 became notorious among gamers for the poor quality and functionality of its games, and is often considered to be one of the worst games of all time. The Genesis version is widely considered superior, though still of subpar quality. Many video game collectors value Action 52 for its notoriety and rarity, as it initially retailed for the comparatively high price of US$199 (equivalent to $366 in 2018), or 'less than $4 for each game'.
Index of Windows games (R)
This is an index of Microsoft Windows games.
This list has been split into multiple pages.
Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey (June 2, 1915 – May 10, 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.
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List of science fiction novels
This is a list of science-fiction novels, novel series, and collections of linked short stories. It includes modern novels, as well as novels written before the term 'science fiction' was in common use. This list includes novels not marketed as SF but still considered to be substantially science fiction in content by some critics, such as Nineteen Eighty Four. As such, it is an inclusive list, not an exclusive list based on other factors such as level of notability or literary quality. Books are listed in alphabetical order by title, ignoring the leading articles 'A', 'An', and 'The'. Novel series are alphabetical by author-designated name or, if there is none, the title of the first novel in the series or some other reasonable designation.
Obsidian (1997 video game)
Obsidian is a 1997 graphic adventure game developed by Rocket Science Games and published by SegaSoft. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS.
Based on a game design outline by VP of Development/Creative Director, Bill Davis, and written by Howard Cushnir and Adam Wolff, Obsidian is a first-person 3-D graphical adventure game, with a large puzzle element. The puzzles were designed by Scott Kim, Howard Cushnir and Adam Wolff. The soundtrack was developed by Thomas Dolby.
The game spanned five CDs, and features pre-rendered environments, audio, and full-motion video (both live action and CGI). The strategy guide includes numerous small essays, providing background on such subjects as nanotechnology, Jungian psychology, and the nature of artificial intelligence.
![Jockey Jockey](/uploads/1/2/5/0/125060828/129381037.jpg)
Included is a minigame which uses a 'twenty questions' algorithm (similar to what would eventually be used in 20Q). The game comes preprogrammed with a set of guesses, but after losing it asks the player for criteria that would have led it to a correct guess, and then records that information into a text file. Because of this, the game is able to (theoretically) 'learn' how to become so good as to beat the player every time.
Rice burner
Rice burner is a pejorative, used as early as the 1960s, originally describing Japanese motorcycles, then later applied to Japanese cars, and eventually to Asian-made motorcycles and automobiles in general. The term most often refers to vehicles manufactured in East Asia, where rice is a staple food. Variations include rice rocket, referring most often to Japanese superbikes, rice machine, rice grinder or simply ricer.The adjectival variation riced out describes the result of 'overmodifying a sports compact, usually with oversized or ill-matched exterior appointments'. Rice boy is a US derogatory term for the driver or builder of an import-car hot rod.
The terms may disparage cars which have been cheaply modified to present a deceptive or cosmetic appearance of high performance, without the capability.
The term is often defined as offensive or racist stereotyping. In some cases users of the term assert that it is not offensive or racist, or else treat the term as a humorous, mild insult rather than a racial slur.
Rocket Jockey (novel)
Rocket Jockey is a juvenile science fiction novel by Philip St. John (a pseudonym of American writer Lester del Rey) with cover illustration by Alex Schomburg. The story follows the heroic efforts of young man Jerry Blaine in his efforts to win the famous rocket race, the Armstrong Classic. Rocket Jockey is a part of the Winston Science Fiction set, a series of juvenile novels which have become famous for their influence on young science fiction readers and their exceptional cover illustrations by award-winning artists.
Rocket Science Games
Rocket Science Games was a video game developer that created games for consoles and computers from 1993 to 1997. The company was responsible for games such as Obsidian, Rocket Jockey, and Loadstar.
SegaSoft
SegaSoft, originally headquartered in Redwood City, California and later San Francisco, was a joint venture by Sega and CSK (Sega's majority stockholder at the time), created in 1995 to develop and publish games for the PC and Sega Saturn, primarily in the North American market.
In 1996, SegaSoft announced that they would be publishing games for all viable platforms, not just Saturn and PC. This, however, never came to fruition, as in January 1997 SegaSoft restructured to focus on the PC and online gaming.SegaSoft disbanded in 2000 and many of the staff members were merged into Sega.com, a new company established to handle Sega's online presence in the United States.
SegaSoft was responsible for, among other things, the Heat.net multiplayer game system and publishing the last few titles made by Rocket Science Games.
Spider-Man 2 (video game)
Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 open world action-adventure video game in various iterations based on the film of the same name, also incorporating additional material from the comic books. They are follow-ups to the game Spider-Man: The Movie, itself based on the 2002 film. Published by Activision, the console versions were developed by Treyarch, but the other versions had different developers.The game was released on June 28, 2004 for the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox before the both N-Gage and Nintendo DS version was released in the same year before PSP version was released on March 23, 2005
It was followed by Spider-Man 3 in 2007.
The Space Bar
The Space Bar is a 1997 graphic adventure game developed by Boffo Games and published by Rocket Science Games and SegaSoft. A comic science fiction story, it follows detective Alias Node as he searches for a shapeshifting killer inside The Thirsty Tentacle, a fantastical bar on the planet Armpit VI. The player assumes the role of Alias and uses his Empathy Telepathy power to live out the memories of eight of the bar's patrons, including an immobile plant, an insect with compound eyes and a blind alien who navigates by sound. Gameplay is nonlinear and under a time limit: the player may solve puzzles and gather clues in any order, but must win before the killer escapes the bar.
The Space Bar was conceived and directed by Steve Meretzky, a former Infocom employee who had previously created titles such as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Meretzky hoped to design a graphic adventure in the spirit of text-based interactive fiction games, and to recapture that genre's breadth and level of interactivity. The Space Bar began development at Boffo Games in May 1995 under publisher Rocket Science Games, whose co-founder Ron Cobb—designer of the Mos Eisley cantina in Stars Wars—served as the game's art director and concept artist. Its 18-month production was troubled, and Rocket Science went bankrupt before the game's release. The Space Bar was ultimately launched by publisher SegaSoft in July 1997, several months after its completion.
The game was a commercial flop, and Meretzky has described its sales performance as possibly the biggest disappointment of his career. Critics highlighted The Space Bar's extensive content and number of puzzles, and regularly noted its difficulty. Some praised it as a welcome return to its genre's roots, although Computer Gaming World found the game poorly designed and needlessly abstruse. The Space Bar became the second and final title released by Boffo Games, which folded in fall 1997. Steve Meretzky later joined WorldWinner to become a developer of casual games.
Winston Science Fiction
Winston Science Fiction was a series of 37 American juvenile science fiction books published by the John C. Winston Company of Philadelphia from 1952 to 1960 and by its successor Holt, Rinehart & Winston in 1960 and 1961. It included 35 novels by various writers, including many who became famous in the SF field, such as Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, Ben Bova, and Lester del Rey. There was also one anthology, The Year After Tomorrow, edited by del Rey and others. There was one non-fiction book Rockets through Space: The Story of Man's Preparations to Explore the Universe by del Rey which details the factual science and technology of rocket flight. Many of the dust jackets became science fiction classics; the artists included Hugo Award winners Ed Emshwiller and Virgil Finlay along with Hugo nominees such as Mel Hunter and Alex Schomburg.
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Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.