SCORCHER: Synopsis, Tips/Tricks, Box Scans, and more..

The Year is 2021.

The world has seen better days. War and pollution have eliminated large segments of the human population and have turned most of the large cities on earth into abandoned wastelands. To allow the survivors to travel between the remaining population centers, special speed bikes have been created to travel at lightning speeds along the highways. Equipped with a spherical force field, these bikes allow the rider precise control during extremely high speeds. This invention started a whole new sport known to some simply as Scorcher. You begin the game at the kids' track, and work your way through the championship until you reach The Spiral, the final race...

20 years before I started this website (gameplayandtalk.com), I dabbled with classic HTML and made a variety of websites based around gaming topics I was into at the time.

scorcher original site.png — One of these was a site revolving around Scorcher, a futuristic racing game for the Sega Saturn and PC (Windows 95, MS-DOS).

It was a game that flew under the radar of many at the time. Consisting of challenging track layouts, strong physics and a fast-paced psy-trance soundtrack, it had become one of my favorite games of the late 1990s.

This "article" is more or less a modern regurgitation of the info buried in that old website of mine. Below you will find a basic synopsis of the game along with some brief tips and strategies for players trying to get the hang of the game. Continue on after for a brief interview with one of the game’s creators, various packaging and manual scans, an OST playlist and full playthroughs of each version of the game.

THE BASICS OF SCORCHER

In Scorcher, the player controls a rider on a bike wrapped inside a spherical forcefield. This sphere allows the bike to absorb large falls and impacts while keeping the rider upright the entire time. Specific types of energy also allow the bike to boost and jump with given powerups:

Scorcher is comprised of six deviously designed, obstacle-oriented courses: The Dump, The Suburbs, Tunnels, Radioactive Waste, Downtown, and the Spiral. Mastering these is key to not just finishing the game, but finding enjoyment in it as well. Scorcher has a steep learning curve and can be punishing on a first play.

In the championship mode, the player's goal is to complete each race to the best of their ability, gaining the lead and beating the clock.

Once a course is accessed in Championship mode, it can be accessed in the time attack and practice modes. This is useful for practicing the later courses in particular, as they are extremely difficult to overcome initially.

The game's setup is fairly straightforward: Race a handful of laps while catching each checkpoint before time runs out, otherwise it's Game Over. While placing in 1st is not mandatory to continue, placing in higher ranks awards the player more time at the start of the next race.

Beginning each course, bikes are allowed through the starting point one by one, with the player starting last. You must work your way up the ranks and into first, second, or third place through a race of four laps.

While the basic gameplay structure is standard, the game’s controls, physics and track designs are anything but. Here are some tips to help you get started:

Adjust to the game’s multiple levels of steering. In the Sega Saturn version, the d-pad defaults to light steering, while the triggers control heavy steering. The way this works is different from typical racers of the era. Hard steering is best used at all times, so you may want to re-map the trigger controls to the d-pad for a more natural steering feel.
Boost properly and jump selectively. Both boost and jump are limited use abilities, so it’s imperative you use these sparingly. Boost functionality is best used with light taps on the button. This uses a minimal amount of energy while also maintaining a high speed. Jumping should be used sparingly since there are many pitfalls in the game that will require the functionality to continue. Thus, during learning the game, only use it when you have to.
Know your tracks and your camera angles. Scorcher has a “Marble Madness” style obstacle system. Knowing what’s coming up is key to getting through the tracks without getting stopped by objects or falling off course. The game also has an automatic camera system in effect. If you jump too high into the air, the game tends to switch the camera underneath your bike, making it impossible to see where you are going to land. Switching the player viewpoint to first-person fixes this. Some parts of tracks are better played in first-person versus third, and vice-versa, making it optimal to switch between them at specific moments in the game.

Fun tip: When paused in Championship Mode, the player can choose to restart the current track with no penalty. This is great to take advantage of if you’ve fallen too far behind and know you won’t be able to finish.

*Timer.*

*Boost power (green meter).*

*Jump power (blue meter).*

*Managing these properly is key!*

TIPS FOR SPECIFIC TRACKS

THE DUMP

You can shave some time off the entire course by consistently cutting the first turn. When your momentum is high (particularly when coming off the boost trail right before the finish line), turn left off the track as you roll up the road into the first turn. If done correctly, you should glide over the gap, landing safely past the first turn.

*Remind me to update these decades-old images..*

For an even faster run of the track, use the same tactic as above, but rather than turning off the first hill, physically jump from it. If going fast enough, you will land past the initial break of the track that resides just after the first turn. Doing this should improve your track time considerably if done every lap. Best done in first-person mode.

THE SUBURBS

More of an "Easter Egg", just after the third tunnel (The one which the train travels over), come to a complete halt.

If you take a look at the billboard immediately to the left, you'll see the logo of Sub Terrania, a Sega Genesis/Megadrive game created by Zyrinx/Scavenger.

RADIOACTIVE WASTE

Just before the second-to-last tunnel, there are two rises in the track one after another. At the peak of the second rise, you would usually have to slow down a bit to get over the hole in the track, just before the entrance to the tunnel. Instead of doing so, take advantage of your boost power, and as fast as you can go, jump at the top of the peak. You'll fly to an extreme height and if done right, will land past the first few obstacles in the tunnel. When in first-person mode, you'll notice that the ceiling to the tunnel disappears. Position yourself to land either just before or after the first ramp in the tunnel.

DOWNTOWN

On the inside corner of the final turn you'll notice the large building on the left. Rather than taking the normal road and going around it, you can actually jump OVER it. On the split stretches of track before hitting the street, you should take the right path. Boost the entire stretch and jump at the very edge of it. Control your Scorcher bike towards the left in the direction of the building, going over it and landing on the other side past the turn. This is similar to jumping the gap of the first turn in the The Dump, but is a hell of a lot more stylish. It will improve your track time significantly if done correctly every lap.

*Decades old capture right here, folks.*

Another trick is near the beginning of the course. At the very first turn, it’s possible to jump over the broken overpass instead of slowing down and going underneath it. The timing is tight, but if done correctly it is faster than going underneath.

*Going over the broken overpass instead of under.*

Fun tip: It's possible to wedge your bike in the outside stairwell of the apartment complex directly to the left of the starting point. Best done in the Saturn version where you have unlimited time in the practice mode.

*Sitting in the outside stairwell. You can even try to drive up to higher levels.*

CONSOLE AND PC VERSION DIFFERENCES

The PC version has multiple video modes ranging from 320X200 to 640X480, while the Saturn game only supports 240p.
The PC version has options to turn off certain graphical effects, such as the moving 2D and 3D backdrops. There is also the option to play the game with flat-shaded polygons or completely in wire-frame mode.
In the Saturn's practice mode, the player is given unlimited boosts, jumps, and time, can drive an infinite amount of laps and is free of other drivers. In the PC game, the player drives with the same factors such as in any other play mode: Time ticks down, the player races four laps, etc. It's Time Attack stripped of it storing your track time.
The Saturn game features more camera distances to view the Scorcher bike at while racing, while the PC version features only two.
The Saturn version, due to its more inconsistent and sluggish performance, is considerably more challenging than the PC version. The bike tends to feel like it has more weight because of these performance issues and control is less responsive.
The soundtrack in the Saturn version is generated by the system's internal sound hardware, while the PC game features the use of CD audio tracks and can be listened to in a CD player.
The PC version has extra objects on certain tracks, making them slightly more difficult to navigate than their Saturn counterparts.
The PC version has the capability of running at over double the framerate of the Saturn version, making for a more responsive and fluid experience.

INTERVIEW WITH JESPER KYD (FROM YEAR 2000)

Below is a brief interview with Jesper Kyd, responsible for various aspects in the production of this game, including its excellent soundtrack. Don't mind the juvenile questions, this was from 2000 or so and I was just a middling teenager at the time:

First of all, what was your part in the development and production of Scorcher?

Kyd: I created the music and sound effects for Scorcher. Towards the end of Scorcher I was the producer on Scorcher PC, meaning I basically helped create the gameplay. I was also the game tester and spent an insane amount of time playing the game and finding bugs. I helped create and write the manual together with Sami Badawi.

When was the original idea for Scorcher conceived?

Kyd: Not sure exactly when. Red Zone (A game by Zyrinx/Scavenger on the Genesis) was originally a car game before it was turned into a flying game. We had been wanting to do a driving game for a while.

With mission-based action games such as Sub Terrania and Red Zone behind them, what led the development team (Zyrinx) to create, of all things, a racing game?

Kyd: After doing two mission based games we were ready for something new. With the newly developed Zyrinx engine for PC and Sega Saturn, we could do new things graphically that was just not possible with the Sega Genesis engine.

Could you tell me about the Zyrinx engine? How did it effect Scorcher, say, using the Zyrinx engine, as opposed to another (By you all, or someone else)?

Kyd: Well, at that time there were not a lot of engines being licensed like there are today. Zyrinx consisted of competitive coders and mathematicians from the demo scene, so we would never use someone else's technology, but invent something better by ourselves. We also created a great FM music program for the Sega Genesis, which used CD quality sounds, instead of horrible low quality samples which 99% of all Genesis games used.

Scorcher went through some name changes before coming to be what we know it as. What was or were it's name(s) before being dubbed 'Scorcher?'

Kyd: Vertigo was the only other name Scorcher went by.

After the PC Scorcher's release, what made you all want to do a Sega Saturn version?

Kyd: It was a natural choice going from Sega Genesis/32X to Sega Saturn.

In the Saturn version, certain video options seen in the PC version were taken out. Any reason? Just for kicks, I always thought it would be kind of cool to play it in wire-frame mode on my Saturn.

Kyd: Those options were included on the PC in order to make the game run faster on lower-end machines. It didn't make sense to have the ability to switch these on an off on the Saturn version.

After getting opinions from a few people, it seems a major drawback was the lack of more tracks and a multiplayer mode. Again, any reason for this?

Kyd: The track design in Scorcher was very complex for it's time. Scorcher came out at a time where all car games had repetitive textures. Recently most car games got rid of the repetition of track design, but Scorcher did this 4 years ago. As for the multi-player, I can't comment on that.