Today I was doing a little bit of Spring cleaning and found a few of my old boxes to PC games from years ago. Normally I wouldn’t think too much of it but these two, which were bundled together, really made me stop for a second.

PC game boxes for Fomula 1 (1996) and Wipeout 2097 (1997).

At the time I will admit there were two reasons I jumped at the games – the first was that the bundle was cheap and the second was that they supported 3D acceleration. Being the owner of a Diamond Monster 3D (powered by a 3dfx Voodoo) I was always on the lookout for anything that would push the card and give me some glorious visuals. Wipeout 2097 was a pretty big deal at the time on PlayStation so having what was hopefully a better version on PC was an appealing thought.

When playing it though, I don’t think I really could see what the fuss was with Wipeout… it looked interesting but the way the craft would slide and bounce around didn’t seem right for me. Even the sequels left me feeling nonplussed. However Formula 1 was worth my time, especially with Murray Walker’s commentary which always seemed to make even the most boring of races in the real world seem interesting.

Looking back at these games now I’m thinking just how long it’s been since I had seen a Psygnosis label on a game and can remember the days of the 16bit machines when a game from them was basically guaranteed of having some of the best graphics you’d ever see. But on the Formula 1 box there was another logo there that caught my eye… Bizarre Creations!

Xbox gamers would know them well for both the Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars series and it was such a big shame at the time when the studio closed. If there is a positive from it, many of those developers ended up at Playground Games and are about to launch their third Forza Horizon title.

Kind of curious now to see what else I will find stashed away… 🙂