Games that Time Forgot: Hi-Octane (PC/PSX/Saturn)

Author: Rees | Date: April 21, 2008

Hi-Octane By Bullfrog Title Screen

Here’s one of my favourites from the olden days… A little racing game by Bullfrog known as Hi-Octane. This game hails from 1995 and was available for the Sega Saturn and the Playstation, but I personally had it on the PC, in all its SVGA MS-DOS glory, so that’s the version I will refer to here.

Hi-Octane featured a variety of hover vehicles racing around a map with what were, at the time, some pretty stunning 3D graphics, especially for my 486 DX4/100 (although the game would happily run on a humble DX50 with 8MB RAM with the settings turned down). The vehicles featured two collectible weapons, missiles and a minigun, and a booster. Control was very simple to pick up, with acceleration, brakes, and steering being controlled by the arrow keys.

Hi-Octane By Bullfrog Track Select Screen

The game was extremely fast-paced and included networked and splitscreen multiplayer racing, as well as some very tough CPU opposition. The 6 available vehicles included the sleek and fast Vampyr, by far the most popular vehicle in my experience, the truck-like Jugga, and the very DeLorean-esque Speeder. There was also a pointy thing, a stumpy thing, and a very slow vehicle that resembled a doughnut. The PC version came with 6 tracks, all of which were varied and interesting, with weapon pickups, shield and fuel chargers, and plenty of shortcuts.

An interesting fact to note about this game is that it ran directly from the CD, and while it could be copied to a hard disk, it wasn’t actually a requirement. Loading times were reasonable even on a 2X CD-ROM, but the game really flew when installed to HDD.

Hi-Octane By Bullfrog In-Game Action Shot

Rumour has it that Hi-Octane was written in 8 weeks, and it certainly shows. Although, while it is rough around the edges in places, it’s a solid game and a lot of fun. I have fond memories of many hours wasted with it, and it’s certainly a classic in my eyes.

Unfortunately Hi-Octane is not classed as abandonware as it is still supposedly commercially available. If you do find a copy (and my limited internet searching wasn’t very successful), you will need DOSBox to be able to run it on anything more modern than Win9x. Personally, I just play it on my 486…

(More screenshots availabe at MobyGames)

2 Comments »

Comment by Axel Night

2008-09-05 18:06:33

It seemed most things Bullfrog touched oozed gold. This and Streets of SimCity (by Maxis, of course) were probably my favorite PC race/combat games of the mid-90s. I should try and find a copy again. The 486 could use some love.

Reply to this comment

Comment by Orkus

2010-01-07 13:04:52

I remember this game. We had LAN Parties with it. I just loved it.

It was running in DOS4GW and on max resolution it worked fine on a DX4-133 with 8MB Memory. If copied on the harddisk it needed arround 30 Megabyte.

There where additonal 2 Tracks for it, dont remember if fan made or some special edition.

Reply to this comment