Re-Volt (Windows)

Re-Volt is a racing game that lets you control RC cars on various tracks including neighborhoods, supermarkets, museums, and other venues you're not normally allowed to bring an RC car to.

Prototype Info Unused TracksAll unused tracks of the game at a glance with all their details.

Unused Graphics#

The gfx folder contains the visual assets used at launch and in the frontend menu, although there's a few unused textures.

Demo Loading Text#

While the logo in loading.bmp is effectively used, the "E3 Demo" and "Demo Mode" labels are not. The "E3 Demo" text can seen in the May 7, 1999 prototype build.

Upsell Screens#

To do: Check if SponsorsGermany.bmp is used in the German version.

Present as outro1-3.bmp, these screens were displayed before exiting any of the demo versions of the game. Interestingly, the one showing screenshots for the console ports does not mention the Dreamcast.

Unused Features#

Hidden Editing Mode#

This mode is accessible by using MAKEITGOOD as a name. It unlocks an additional menu option that lets you choose from several modes to edit tracks.

Cheat Codes#

Cheat codes are activated through the name wheel in the main menu after selecting the difficulty.

The two codes shown below have to be typed during gameplay. Typing the code again reverts the effect.

Code	Description	Screenshot
GIMMECREDITS	Shows the developers' credits.
BARGARAMA	The most obscure cheat which went undiscovered until 10 years after the game was released. It replaces the car wheels and the "envstill" bitmaps with the face of Robert "Barg" O'Farrel, the game's Director of Product Development. Though this code has some bugs in it: For example, if you input this code and get off and get back on the game (by pressing the Windows key), Robert's face will be replaced by the text bitmap file. Another example is when you exit to the main menu with the code on, the "envstill" bitmap is back to normal but the car wheels are not.

Unused Vehicles#

To do: Pictures and file names (maybe this can be used when describing the DEV version cars as well). Hey, I am at school writing this, don't judge me. -HijirinMyouren

Using the above-described CARNIVAL cheat in the Name Entry screen, you'll unlock all regular cars for play, including a handful that aren't unlockable using proper means. All of these special cars aren't properly visible on the vehicle selection screen, and are labeled with "(CHT)", denoting cheat/modded-in vehicles (like how most custom cars are labeled).

• Mystery (Re-Volt/cars/q) is an Electric-class Amateur car with a RWD drivetrain. It has a question mark sheet covering it, resembling the carbox used (located in the gfx folder along with all the other carboxes) when a custom car lacks its own carbox.bmp. This is normally used in multiplayer as a placeholder for custom cars should other players not have the custom car downloaded. Interestingly, the sheet covering the car has cloth physics that is exclusive to it. The cloth physics can be called through a specific value in a car's parameters.txt; where 0 has having no special qualities, 1 through 4 refer to special attributes that only one car has (Rotor's overturning mechanic, Panga's turning head, Probe UFO's floatage, and Mystery's aforementioned cloth physics).
• The Clockworks (Re-Volt/cars/(wincar/wincar2/wincar3)) refer to three vehicles, all of which are Electric-class Pro cars with 4WD drivetrains. They are the small wind-up cars used in the main menu. The first two cars resemble green and yellow sedans, while the third one resembles a red sports car. While there is a fourth one (a white/vertex painted copy of wincar3, located in wincar4), it is used in the unlockable Clockwork Carnage mode. The first three, however, were possibly playable in the Rolling Demo-exclusive Training Mode.

• The Trolley (Re-Volt/cars/trolley) is a Glow-class Pro 'car' with a RWD drivetrain. It is, oddly, the shopping cart model normally used in the Supermarket tracks that you can push around. By doing some slight folder editing, it can be played as. It is the heaviest car in the game, weighing in at a whopping 4kg, and is exceptionally unwieldy; not only can it not finish certain tracks due to its massive size (i.e. Museum 1 and Ghost Town 2), it also has a tendency to flip onto its side whenever you turn the slightest amount. Really, it's more of a novelty to play as more than anything.

• Ferrari Modena is an unreleased car not present in the final build of the game. Joe Groombridge, the developer for many of the cars, included them in the roster of Re-Volt vehicles on their website. As this vehicle roster includes a few Sega Dreamcast exclusive cars, such as Boss Volt and RV Loco, it is uncertain if this car was scrapped from the PC port or was planned to be a Dreamcast exclusive. The vehicle was allegedly scrapped due to licensing costs with Ferrari.

• Pemto was also included in the vehicle roster provided by Joe Groombridge, though their model and textures are not present in the final build of the game.

Advertising Cars#

Before the game's release, a number of advertising demos were released, these cars use a few different cars, usually in the first 2 classes. the demos were produced for GameSpot, IGN, Game Center, PC Gamer, nVidia, Computer Gaming World, PC Accelerator, and a McDonald's car. Though the demo is still missing, the most interesting thing about the McDonald's car is that it is a reskin of a car cut from the final game, called Pemto. likewise, the cars CGW, Acclaim, IGN, and PC Gamer car all are based on Humma, while the cars PC Accelerator, nVidia riva tnt2, Game Center, and GameSpot are based on Aquasonic, these cars however have been detuned to fit into rookie class, the first class you can get. There are a few that have not been confirmed, such as ones from Creative Labs, Ziff Davis, and the E3 Expo.

Scrapped Intro Sequence#

Watch on YouTube

In earlier builds, the game featured an intro with a UFO that flies around, bursting the Acclaim logo and then drawing a rainbow around the Probe Entertainment logo. It was present in builds until shortly before release, but it was deactivated since the studio was absorbed by Acclaim and then renamed.

It's still present in the leaked source code and has been recreated since.

Unused Objects#

Every track in the game has objects which can be added with the makeitgood-mode. With that mode, other objects that have not been used in the tracks can be accessed.

Image	Object	Description
	Ball	An early version of the beach ball, featuring different colors and no texture mapping (the colors are painted onto the faces/vertices of the model). It can be seen in early footage and screenshots in the level Toy World 1, but cannot be loaded into the game through the object editor. 'Ball.m' was later replaced with 'Beachball.m' in the level.
	Speedup	This object spawns in two orange coils with a blue electric arc connecting them. As the name implies, driving between the coils will give the player a speed boost (determined by the two values LoSpeed and Hispeed when placing the object). The distance between the two coils can be modified. Although unused in the final game, it can be seen in the background of the level Toy World 1 in one of the game's trailers.
	Football	A small, lightweight physics ball. It is unfinished, lacking a texture. And unlike the other balls in the game (basketball, beach ball, etc.) it lacks a blob-shadow image card. It was likely meant to go on the football/soccer pitch featured in the multiplayer neighborhood battle tag arena.
	Sparks	Although used extensively in the game, some of the spark types that can be emitted from the generator are not present. It is unknown which of these were merely leftovers for testing purposes, or ones that were intended to be placed before ultimately being cut. Snow: Large round white particles that drift downward with gravity. Popcorn: Bouncy particles that resemble popcorn. Sand and Sand Dust: Grains of sand, and the beige dust, kicked up when driving across sand (of which there is none in the game).
	Space Man	Using the same model as the sarcophagus prop in the museum tracks as a placeholder, this object will slowly tumble about in the air (similar to how an astronaut would in zero-G). It is certain that this was intended for the space exhibit wing in the track Museum 2, further confirmed by old demo texture maps for the level including a blank white texture with 'Astronaut' written as a placeholder.
	Flappage	An invisible quad that does nothing. Purpose unknown.
	Hood TV Sound Effect	3D sound effect objects are placed in environments throughout the game. There is, however, an unused 3D sound effect option intended for the neighborhood tracks. It is a muffled TV announcer with distorted audio reception.
	Bucket	A blue bucket, intended to be a physics object based on the inclusion of a collision file (.hul). It does not function, however. It is the same model as the static janitorial buckets in the level Museum 2, so those may have been intended to be knocked over by players at some point in development.
	Can	An unused physics object. Like other unfinished objects it uses a lantern as a placeholder model. It does not have a collision file with it, but adding a custom 'can.hul' allows players to be able to interact with this object when placed in a track. It is unknown for certain where this object was intended to be used.
	Lilo	The class of this object has been defined in the source code but has no content. Thus, it is represented by the model of a ship light instead. It is certain that this object serves as a swimming air mattress for the ship track.
	Garden Fog	An unused volume that would have had some effect to the fog in the botanical garden level. Assuming it functioned similar to the fog-box used in game, it was likely intended to be used inside the greenhouse in Botanical Garden 1 to change the fog/sky color but this is merely speculation. The source code does not contain anything functional.
	Disco	We can assume that this would be a light effect that functions like a disco ball, but there is nothing to confirm this.

Unused Environmental Objects#

Environment objects, or instances, are static props to add detail to the environment which can be added with the makeitgood-mode. Other unused instances located in the level directories can be accessed and placed.

Image	Object	Description
	Tree Test	An early version of the tree from the neighborhood levels mistakenly left in the game. The textures are mapped improperly, and the top leafy area of the mesh is completely different.
	Open N	In the supermarket levels, there is an open version of the noodles box with the top flaps torn open.
	Open P	An open version of the pizza topping box with the top flaps torn open. Also from the supermarket levels.
	Ivy 3	A smaller version the the hanging ivy models from the botanical garden level goes unused.
	Cabinet	Toy World 1 and Toy World 2 both feature an unused cabinet model.
	Mr.Fuzz	Although not textured, this was supposed to be a fuzzy ball of sorts. It is certainty based off of some vintage toy for the Toy World tracks.
	Float	A rubber flotation toy for Toy World that didn't pass muster. The semi transparent faces create an odd effect that may have contributed to this prop getting cut.
	Bale	A bale of hay from the ghost town levels. Although seen built into the level mesh for Ghost Town 1, the fact that there exists a separate model suggests that more were meant to be placed as environment details during production.
	Boulder 2	A boulder intended for the canyons and mines in Ghost Town 2. There also exists a "boulder 1" (which is shaped slightly differently) and difficult to spot as it is only used beneath the ramp in the mines and is mostly clipping into the ground. This version of the boulder does not make an appearance at all.
	Chicks	In the frontend shop menu there is an unused cardboard cutout model of a woman posing against an oversized rifle. It remains un-textured, but includes vertex-based lighting on the mesh.
	Posters 2	Also in the frontend shop there is an unused poster stand. It is nearly identical to the one used in game, but some of the posters are swapped and the texture at the base is mirrored.

Acclaim Disks#

Material for Re-Volt was found in some disks from Acclaim containing game assets, renders and much more.

• Archive 2 has two .xls files related to testing graphic cards and texture rendering.
• Archive 3 has some .eps files and an exported .tif file for the loading screen render in-game. Unfortunately, the export seems to be bad in some way and requires fixing the alpha channel to be seen properly.
• Archive 7 has many "font" files, which don't have an extension. It also has some other .eps files which seem to be related to logos.