Category Archives: DirectX

Wipeout XL / 2097

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Wipeout XL is a high-speed, futuristic racing game that was originally released in 1996. It was developed by Psygnosis and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game is set in the year 2097, where players compete in anti-gravity ships across a variety of tracks and modes.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Wipeout XL is its incredible sense of speed. The game’s visuals are still impressive today, with a smooth frame rate and a futuristic art style that holds up well. The sound design is also fantastic, with a thumping techno soundtrack that perfectly complements the game’s high-octane racing.

The weapon system has been improved, now your ships have a health meter that depletes upon impact with a weapon, or with another ship or track. Energy can be replenished by using the designed pit area’s that restores the ships energy. When you ship runs out of energy, the game is over.

Also there is a countdown timer that depletes until you reach the next checkpoint, giving an arcade feel to the game though its a bit redundant, since if you run out of time, chances are you are already well behind in the race.

The gameplay in Wipeout XL is intense and challenging. The ships handle well, but require precise control at high speeds. The game has a steep learning curve, and it can take a while to get the hang of the tracks and the various weapons and power-ups available. But once you do, the game is incredibly rewarding, with tight races and exciting finishes.

One of the features of Wipeout XL is its variety of modes. The game offers a campaign mode, where you compete in a series of races and unlock new ships and tracks. There’s also a time trial mode, where you can compete against your best times or the times of other players. And of course, there’s a multiplayer mode, where you can race against your friends.

  • Talon’s Reach: This is the first level of the game and serves as an introduction to the basic gameplay mechanics. It’s a relatively simple track with a few jumps and turns, but it’s a good warm-up for the more challenging tracks to come.
  • Sagarmatha: This level takes place on a track set high in the Himalayas. It’s a visually stunning track with steep drops and sharp turns that require precise timing to navigate.
  • Valparaiso: This track takes place in a futuristic version of the Chilean port city. It’s a challenging track with tight turns and narrow sections that require careful control of your craft.
  • Gare d’Europa: This level takes place in a futuristic version of the train station in Paris, France. The track is fast and has a lot of straight sections, making it a great level to use your craft’s top speed, also has a few lightning effects.
  • Odessa Keys: This level takes place on a track set in a futuristic version of the Black Sea. It’s a challenging track with tight turns and narrow sections that require precise control of your craft. The track also features a large jump that can be difficult to navigate.
  • Other tracks include Vostok Island, Spolskinanke & Phenitia Park.

Teams Included

  • AG Systems: This is one of the default teams in the game and is a good choice for beginners. Their craft is well-balanced and easy to control, making them a great option for players who are still learning the game’s mechanics.
  • Qirex: This team is known for its high speed and power. Their craft is one of the fastest in the game, but it can be difficult to control at times. This team is a great choice for experienced players who are looking for a challenge.
  • Feisar: This team is known for its agility and handling. Their craft is one of the most manoeuvrable in the game, making them a great choice for players who value control over speed.
  • Auricom: This team is known for its all-around performance. Their craft is well-balanced and can perform well in any situation. This team is a great choice for players who want a versatile craft that can handle any track.
  • Piranha: This ship has the highest stats nut cannot use any weapons.

Versions

Wipeout XL is the most accessible version of Wipeout to date and was ported to over 4 platforms.

PlayStation

The lead platform and the best way to play, One advantage of playing the PlayStation version is that it was specifically designed for the console, so the controls were optimized for the PlayStation controller. Some players may find it easier to control their vehicle using the PlayStation controller rather than a keyboard or other input device on the PC. Overall it appears to be the most polished version of the game.

Additionally, the PlayStation version of Wipeout XL had support for the serial cable which allows two consoles to be linked together to provide two player support.

Another nice feature is support for the NeGcon controller which provides analogue steering support, as this game predated the Dualshock controller.

Windows

The PC version of Wipeout XL features improved graphics over the PlayStation version and features higher resolution textures, improved lighting effects, and smoother frame rates but has issues running at refresh rates higher then 30hz, causing the game to run too fast. This breaks the game entirly as its difficult to play at effectivly twice the speed.

It has native support for DirectX 3 or PowerVR graphics cards. The readme file also mentions official support for the Rendition, ATI RAGE and Matrox graphics cards.

Sega Saturn

The graphics and sound of the Sega Saturn version are generally considered to be inferior to the PlayStation version. The Sega Saturn version features lower resolution textures, less detailed backgrounds, and reduced visual effects. The sound quality is also less impressive than the PlayStation version, with lower quality sound effects and music. The loading screens are different in this version and there is no multiplayer support.

The gameplay of both versions is largely the same, with fast-paced anti-gravity racing across futuristic tracks. However it suffers from slower frame rates and occasional glitches, which can make the game feel less smooth than the PlayStation version. It does have support for the 3D control pad which provides analogue control.

MacOS

There was also a release for PowerPC based Macintosh computers released in 2002, a few years later. Unfortunaly I cannot get his version to run on any Mac that i own, either on a PowerMac G4 running Mac OS 9.2 with a Radeon video card or an iMac running OS X Snow Leopard.

Manx TT Superbike

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An arcade style racing game released in 1995, aimed to replicate the Isle of Man TT – a motorcycle racing event. Very similar in spirit to Daytona USA which was based on the real Daytona speedway, and Indy 500.

Two courses are offered, Laxely Coast and T.T Course, the latter being the actual track used in the Isle of Mann races. Both tracks share sections with each other and will split and re-join into their own different paths.
The home versions feature two additional tracks that are part of the PC/Saturn mode, these are reverse-mirror versions of the two arcade tracks and can only be selected in that mode. These tracks are also set in the early evening in the Saturn version, and early morning / dusk in the PC version.

Time Trial: Similar to time trial featured in other racing games, choose a track and a bike and try to get the lowest time. On the arcade version you have to hold the brake button when selecting a track to active time trial.

Console / PC Exclusives modes

Practice Mode: Similar to arcade mode, choose a track and your bike which will have a unique stats for speed, acceleration and handling.

Challenge Mode: a tournament mode where you have to race on all four tracks, coming in a 3rd or higher in each one. The superbike challenge is unlocked after completing this mode.

Versions

Like other Sega games of the era, this title was relased to the arcades first, then to their Saturn console and eventually to Microsoft Windows.

Arcade

The original arcade release runs on the model 2 hardware, specifically the 2A version. This version was considered to be graphically superior of the three versions but is the most basic in terms of content, featuring only two courses and just the arcade and time trial mode. The Model 2 emulator is the most popular way to play this version of the game, with the MAME driver making steady progress but still unplayable in some regards.

Really for a home port, the game could have done with further tracks being added to increase the replay value of the game.

Sega Saturn

Sega ported the game to their home console of the era, the Sega Saturn in 1997. This version introduced new features including an FMV opening sequence and additional race modes. There are also options to change the bike model, which have unique stats across the different models. The game’s graphics were considered to be impressive for the Sega Saturn’s capabilities, with colorful and detailed environments that recreated the feel of the arcade version.

Windows

This version supported both DirectX 5 and 3DFX Glide, the latter gives a visual difference that makes it similar to the arcade version sans the frame rate. It seems the game will only render up to 30fps. Still the game can run at 640×480 which is higher than the Saturn or even the Arcade version.

Multi player is supported in this version and can be done over a variety of channels. IPX, TCP/IP, Modem and Serial connections are supported. This can be done via virtual box of you use the PCap option between two 86box VMs, linking it to the VMware virtual network adaptor (8 is typically the local adaptor) then create an IPX session. It may also be possible to map to the serial port in the near future.

I believe up to 8 players can playing a single session, to this would require three machines or more. Unallocated players will be replaced with an AI enemy, similar to single player mode.

DirectX Version

The regular version that uses DirectX 5 for 3D acceleration which works fine in 86Box using the S3 ViRGE video card. This graphics card lacks support for texture filtering.

Only issue is after the race, the crowd can disappear and reappear intermittently.

3DFX Glide Version

The bundled 3DFX drivers will only function on the original Voodoo, or the Quantium3D version of the Voodoo card. Later 3DFX cards require updated libraries in order to be detected, otherwise you will receive the ‘Failed to find any glide hardware’ error, or ‘Failed to initialize viewport system’ error.

Works well in 86box until I tried it in a Pentium II PC with a Voodoo 2 (S3 Trio video card), where there were a couple of warping polygons and the game would throw up a ‘hmmmmmm’ error message. Whilst it looks like the game crashed, clicking Ok on the message box would restore and return you back to the game. None of this seemed to occur in other VMs I have that used the original Voodoo and AMD K6 combo.

The Sims Superstar

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Sims get their 15 minutes…

The sixth expansion pack where sims can get famous by following specific careers such as Acting, becoming a Model or a musician (Even though careers for these existed in the base game, and sims in those existing careers already do not gain any fame) It also introduced a new studio town community lot and a set of new objects.

Studio Town and Fame

Studio Town has a very 1950s Hollywood theme to it, since this was considered the golden era of Hollywood on which Studio Town is based on. Many lots consist of shopping sections, but will also cater to various different types of fame, with some being geared towards music, acting or fashion/modelling. Even if your sim is not part of the fame career, regular sims can still visit lots as guests and can interact with most of the objects.


To get to Studio Town, your sim will need to call for transportation, which will take them to Studio Town, from the lot select screen, you can highlight lots that cater to either fashion, acting, music, shopping or spa locations. Like other commercial lots, studio town can he customized by the player by entering a lot directly from the neighborhood view. Objects are grouped by the type and function of studio town lots (Food, Shops, Studio and Spa)

Also if you’ve played The Sims Bustin Out, some of the buy mode music will sound familiar 😉

Fame is measured through a level represented by stars, with sims staring out at level 0. Higher levels let your sim have access to further opportunities and will change the vehicle used to transport you to Studio Town, eventually being transported in a custom limousine.

At 0 stars you will only have access to karaoke or open mics which makes sense for the musician or acting paths, but not for modeling. As you level up you will have access to photo shoots and print adverts.
Getting 1 star lets you record Jingles at a recording studio, and 1.5 stars let’s you record a TV commercial. As you progress, more fame objects will become available for your sim to use. You will also notice your sims name in the Who’s Hot section of the Superstar leaflet.

The maximum is 5 stars, which will give you access to all fame objects and opportunities on the Studio Town lots.

Objects

DSTS Satellite Dish – Adds a few extra channels to all televisions on the lot, increasing the fun rating depending on your Sims personality and interests. Its appearance is similar to the old BUD C-band dishes that were huge (around 3m in diameter) that was common in the 80s, compared to the smaller satellite dishes that can fit on your house.

Ponce de Leon Tub – Increases your sims hygiene and comfort but is very time-consuming to use. It takes nearly a sim hour for them to get out, with is bad to use it before they go to work.

Whisper Steam Personal Steamer – A steamer for your sim, increases hygiene and comfort.

Flatscreen TV – a television that can be wall mounted to save space, and gives the same motive increase as the plasma screen does.

Uncle Roger’s Culinary Offerings – A buffet table similar to what was included in House Party or On Holiday, your sim just needs to set it for a fee and sims can grab a variety of meals from it.

The Face of Shakespeare – A high end bookcase that has an additional option to practice soliloquy which increases the charisma skill

Scuba Tank – Sims can enter this tank, although it takes some time for them to enter it. Increases their fun score.

Galileo’s Free-For-All – A mini skydiving simulator

Energize! Oxygen Bar – A bar that sims can sit down on, increases comfort and fun, and social if multiple sims use it

Movie Posters – These can be purchased in Studio Town and then can be decorated into your sims home when they return. Your sim will place them on the nearest surface, which you can then placed in build mode.

NPCs

Butler – Alternative to the maid, although he does much more (gardening, greeting and preparing meals) and stays for a lot longer.

Obsessed Fan – Appears after your sim gains two or more stars, these will follow your sim around studio town and will appear randomly on your lot. They may also rummage through your sims trash and leave black roses on their lot. Having a butler helps shoo them away.

Lana -A helper NPC that your sim can use to find out different aspects of Superstar like the fame system, fans awards and name dropping to boost social.

Celebrities – A few real life celebrities appear int he game like Marylin Monroe, Avril Lavigne and . Additional celebrity NPCs could also be downloaded from The Sims website and have been archived. Andy Warhol also appears as one of the fashion set managers.

Conclusion

Studio town was a nice addition to The Sims but was lacking in several places, especially with the residential lots. Where are the mansions, studio apartments and condo’s for the sims to live in? The fame careers could have been integrated better as the base game already features a musician and actor career paths, neither of these have any effect in studio town.

The Sims 3 Late night is considered the spiritual successor for The Sims 3, the closest for Sims 2 would be Nightlife, but that’s more geared with Hot Date.

The Sims Unleashed

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The fifth expansion pack to be released, Unleashed brings a significant change to The Sims, with the addition of pets, larger neighborhoods that can hold more sims and new game elements such as farming and commercial lots.

Whilst Unleashed brought new improvements, it noticeable made the game more unstable and brought some frustrating changes to the gameplay. One noticeable change is sims have issues moving and turning and will sometimes rotate multiple times when interacting with an object.

Some pets will occasionally come onto your lot and piss everywhere, leaving a bunch of puddles randomly outside your sims house, and will trash the outdoor room motive when your sim goes out for work. Also, any malicious animal that spawns will sound the burglar sound, which can startle or surprise some players, but given how frequently these will spawn the effect will eventually wear off and will become more annoying to the player as they play the game.

Neighborhood

One of the first noticeable changes is the neighborhood screen which sees an increase of playable lots from 10 to around 48. With it is a new lot zone type, commercial. The main difference is a commercial lot is intended to be visited by multiple sims where they can shop or explore. Commercial lots cannot be visited directly from the neighborhood screen, but they can be edited which gives access to buy and build mode. To access a commercial lot, your sim will need to phone up for the Old Town bus which will arrive, and all sims on the lot will be transported to the commercial lot that you choose. These lots cannot be edited whilst sims are visiting, the Build and Buy modes are disabled.

Typically commercial lots will consist of shops, such as a pet store where pets can be adopted, along with any pet accessories. Traditional lots are renamed as residential lots and is where sims reside as they did in the previous expansion packs. Additional neighborhoods still exist as they did in previous expansion packs.

Pets

Two types of pets are featured in the game, mainly cats or dogs which can be adopted by sims themselves. Other pets exist such as budgies which are treated by the game engine as objects, similar to the fish tank that was included in the base game where sims have to feed them every so often.

Skills can be taught to your pets to make them more obedient, this is harder than expected since pets will most of the time go off and do their own thing. The best thing to do is to use the Sit n’ stay command to build the obedience skill, which will make the other skills easier to build up. This interaction only works when your sim is near your pet.

Objects

The Aviary – A bird cage to keep birds that have been purchased at the petstore, You need to frequently feed the bird in a similar manor to the fish tank to keep the pet alive.

Sims can play with their pet birds which boosts their fun and social. Two types of birds can be stored here, Love Birds and Budgies. Cats will also try to play with the cage.

Speaky Scarlet – A pet parrot that can be purchased from buy mode. Sims can talk to it to boost their charisma skill

Ceti the Happy Whale – A playground item that child sims can play on, boosts fun and can be played in groups

Squeak-EE-Clean Pet Tub – Used to wash your pets, can be used with both dogs and cats, requires regular feeding

Forgotten Jungle Terrarium – Used to house a pet iguana

Other expansion packs featured pet objects like the gerbil featured in Livin It Up (Livin Large), or the fish tank from the base game. These remain unchanged although pets may interact with them.

Commercial Lots Only

SpueakNip Pet Toys

Only for commercial lots, sims can purchase toys for their pets. Requires a nearby cash register

Notable NPCs

Giuseppi Renni and Mr McCutch

A musical duo that appears on Old Town lots and will entertain your sims, can be tipped 5 Simoleans

Gardener Bob

Appears on Old Town lots that sell seeds and vegetables, sims can buy plant tonic for their crops and get advice on how to grow their own crops

Pet Judge

Appears on lots that have pet judging podiums, he can tell you further details on pet judging.

Pet Trainer

This sim will appear on the pet store or anywhere you can adopt a pet. Can be used to train your pet for an increasing fee, dependent on your pets skill level.

W.C. Friendly

A jazz player that appears on cafe lots (any lot that has a barista/coffee or pastry stand)

Farming

Sims can grow crops by purchasing seeds from an Old Town merchant and planting them, which can be used for food, or produce can be sold in Old Town for money. Growing crops requires a certain amount of effort as sims will need to water, weed and protect the farm from animals or gophers. A buyable scarecrow or a pet cat can help with this, depending on the hunting skill of the pet. Once the crops have been harvested, they can be stored in a pantry or sold at the farmers market.

Garden plots can be found in the gardening section of build mode.

Sims can also purchase produce on certain Old Town shopping lots, if the sim has no room to farm. To store crops for cooking, you will need to purchase a pantry to store the produce in.

Residents

Unleashed also introduces a few new pre-made families to play.

  • Burb: Brad and his wife Tiffany, with their son Johnny and their dog, Tucker. This family would later appear in The Sims 2.
  • Charming: Consists of Claire Charming, with her pet dog Luna
  • Hick: Mama Hick and her son Elden live in what appears to be a trailer, with their three dogs.
  • Goth Sr: Parents of Mortimer Goth.
  • Kat: A single female with four cats, Yup a spinster.

Other Additions

The phonebook has been expanded to a dialog box now appears when calling neighbors. Previously sims were called from the pie menu which would also include any known townies or vacation sims if those expansion packs were installed. Services remain the same as their own section in the pie menu.

Five new careers are included – Fashion, Education, Animal care, Culinary and Circus.

MacOS Version

The game was also ported to the MacOS platform, and makes full use of the Carbon library which gives it OS X and OS 9 compatibility. As this was released in the PowerPC era, you cannot play it on modern OS X versions (10.7 Lion upwards, as these versions of OS X lack PowerPC support) On modern Mac’s it’s easier to use Boot Camp and use the Windows version of the game, but for M1 Macs you may prefer to use an emulator like QEMU or Sheepsaver to emulate an OS 9 PowerPC environment, which the game will run.

Conclusion

Unleashed was a dramatic upgrade to the sims engine, adding new specific to the game, expanding the neighborhood and the type of lots that can be used. I would say this was one of the more important expansions of The Sims as whilst previous expansions added features to the existing game, and expansions like Hot Date added their own expanded areas (Downtown), Unleashed dramatically replaced many game mechanics and in some ways feels like a sequel rather than an expansion. This was also one of the first expansions to ship on two CD’s, highlighting the amount of changes and value being added to the game.

Tragically this expansion never made it to the console versions, which deviated int heir own direction with the release of The Sims Bustin Out and URBZ Sims in the City.

Virtua Cop

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An on-the-rails arcade shooting game, here you only have to worry about aiming and shooting and all the movement is done automatically. There is still a challenge though and fast reflexes are essential to get a good score in Virtua Cop. If you’ve played Time Crisis you will be familiar with the concept, but Sega have implemented different mechanics.

Don’t Shoot! Proceeds to run in front of player

By default you start off with the revolver, which is a standard pistol. Over the course of the game other weapons can be picked up like the shotgun or an automatic, which holds more ammunition and can fire more rounds without being reloaded, but can only be used through one ammo clip.
You will lose the additional weapon if you get shot by an enemy or if you hit a civilian, when this happens you will revert back to the standard revolver.

The whole objective of the game is to shoot the bad guys, whilst avoiding the civilians. Shooting a civilian will cause you to lose a life whilst shooting and disarming an enemy gives you a justice shot bonus. You can use the environment to help you, by shooting the red barrels you can create explosions that can take out several enemies.
Occasionally enemies will pop up on the screen and will throw an axe, you will need to shot them before their axe makes contact otherwise you will lose a life. These can take you by surprise, but remain consistent through multiple playthroughs, so over time you can memorise the enemy sequences.
Some enemies will also throw a grenade, you must shoot the grenade before it lands.

Levels:

There are three stages in total, at the end of each stage is a boss fight where you will need to shoot both the boss enemy and their projectiles.

Stage 1: Arms Black Market, Starts off on a shipping yard, where this is suspected criminal activity going on with the illegal import of weapons. The end boss is Kong, who uses a rocket launcher.

Stage 2: Underground Weapon Storage, Takes place on a construction site. Here the enemies start to become more frequent, with many popping up on screen, and environmental hazards involving vehicles now talking place. End boss here is called King (No, not the one from Tekken), and uses a flame flower that shoots balls of fire.

Stage 3: Gang Headquarters, We’re here in the EVL corporation headquarters. You fight shoot your way through the Skyscraper, through the various offices (equipped with Apple Macintosh Quadra 900s, guess we know what computers Sega was using back then). Here the enemies are a lot more quicker to react compared to the previous stages. At the end there are two gang bosses, Boss and Fang. Boss desk transforms into a mecha-suit that fires missiles, whilst Fang is an attack helicopter.

Versions

Arcade

Virtua Cop debuted on the original Model 2 arcade board and was a light gun based game. The player uses the gun to aim at targets to fire and shoot enemies. Reloading is done through aiming the gun away from the screen and shooting.
In total there are 3 stages, and can be played in any order. By default you have 5 lives, which can be amended in the games test mode. After all your lives have been lost, you need to insert credit in order to continue, but the game does allow you to pick up where you left off instead of starting from the first level again.

Sega Saturn

Sega ported the game to the Saturn in 1995 and was one of the fist games to be developed using the Saturn Graphics Library, which was intended to make it easier to develop games for the Saturn. Like other Model 2 to Saturn ports, the graphics quality has been reduced in order to adapt to the Saturn’s graphics hardware.
The Saturn does make use of pre rendered FMV for some of the opening sequences, however the arcade opening sequences is rendered in engine, although modified to account for the Saturn’s design.
The Saturn compensates for this with the addition of a couple of features like the training mode which helps you get used to the shooting mechanics by shooting a set amount of targets under a time limit. There is also a two player mode that can be access through the training menu.

The Saturn version also makes use of the Virtua Gun which is a light gun that functions only on CRT TV’s or the Saturn mouse.

Windows

Sega also ported the game to Windows in 1996 and makes use of DirectX X
Like the Saturn version it also features a couple of features. However it still lacks the visuals of the arcade, even though some high end systems of the time were capable of Model 2 like graphics. It’s likely Sega assumed most players would be using software rending as opposed to a dedicated 3D card, and designed the game as such rather than targeting high end hardware.

Settings screen in glorious Comic Sans, and when 640×480 was considered high res

The PC port does suffer from a few issue’s in regards to how it is controlled. Navigating the menus is a pain, as you have to use the keyboard arrow keys and the enter key to select, the mouse cannot be used at all. Seems like the game was designed to be used mostly with the gamepad. The mouse can be used to aim and shoot, with reloading being done by double clicking the right mouse button quickly.

In terms of support the game was meant to be used for Windows 95, but will also work with Windows 98. No support for NT (Not tested yet). The game makes use of DirectX 2 for its 3D API. There is also support for the Nvidia NV1 accelerator, which Sega’s early 3D PC titles had support for, this also makes use of a special executable that runs on that graphics card only. No modern API wrapper for that card exists, and many emulators (PCem/86Box/QEMU) have no support for this unique card.

As with all CD-ROM based games from this era, this makes use of CD Audio for the games background music. In order for this to play back you must have the game in a BIN/CUE format since this preserves the audio subchannel data. PCem and 86Box do support this form of audio when mounting those images directly into the emulator, providing the correct image format is used. On an actual system an IDE hard drive with the CD Audio header must be connected to the CD Audio port on the soundcard, otherwise the music will not play, modern SATA drives and onboard soundcards will likely lack this interface.

The Sims On Holiday

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Or The Sims Vacation in simplified English

The expansion is very similar to Hot Date in which many game elements were revamped. With a new social interaction system, revised user interface, and a new vacation island area with additional sub lots. Whilst Hot Date introduced the concept of sims leaving their lots to go downtown, here sims can actually stay on these lots for an extended period of time, depending on how much money they have.

New interactions exclusive to On Holiday are released that allow sims to invite each other to play games based on the new objects added, like playing archery, volleyball or fishing. In addition, some of the new interactions from hot dates are added.

Holidays allow for sims to take a break from their schedule, as they are not required to work or go to school and dance sims in the first game have no concept of days off or weekends, this expansion allows sims to go off and do other stuff without having to worry about their jobs as they can stay on holiday indefinitely.

Vacation Island

There are three types of vacation lots available, each with a different environment:

  • Beach Lots: Set on your typical beach/seaside, sims can sleep in a hotel located on the lot which will each have a bed and a bathroom. Sims can swim in these areas or play volleyball and can rent sandcastle kits.
  • Forest Lots: Simulates a camping lot, here your sims are set near woodland and have the option to camp in a tent or rent a log cabin. These lots typically feature a campfire
  • Snow Lots: Set on a Ski/Snow resort, Some lots have an igloo that your sims can sleep in

Each of the three environments has three different resorts that scale to accommodate the budget of the sims traveling there, there is a cheap resort that features only basic amenities, a moderate one that features a mix of both, and a more expensive one that resembles a hotel of sorts.
Sims will need to check in every day at 11:00AM in order to access and use most of the lot facilities. The game will do this automatically unless the sims check out.

Internally, houses 40 – 48 are used or the holiday lots.

NPCs

Whilst On Holiday, sims will encounter NPC sims that will also be on the same resort. These are like townies (Downtown NPCs) of sorts in that the player cannot control but they can be interacted with, and if your sim has a higher enough relationship they can move in. Some families will have an adult but one or more kids, who will also join the family.
This is convenient if you wanted your sim to marry and expand their family quickly without having to go through the baby raising process (Which is horrid in the first Sims)

There are also new NPCs

  • Vacation Director Kana: Just walk around the lot relentlessly 24/7 with a clipboard, you have to admire her dedication. Your sim can ask her questions to find out more on the different features of the expansion.
  • Mascots, there are three in total but only one will show up on a lot at a time. The mascot will vary based on the lot environment, beach lots will get the Marky Sharky mascot (If only they got the Marky Mark mascot instead. Berry Yeti is present on the Snow lots and Archie Archer is on the forest lots. They can only be interacted by kids. This makes them annoying since they will constantly try to play with the kid, even if they are busy.
  • Janitor: Cleans up dirty items on the lot. They’re a bit too keen as they will immediately come and will sometimes block the doorway

Objects

A lot of these are intended for use on holiday lots, but can be used in the home buy mode catalog. As introduced in the Hot Date expansion, subcategories are introduced in buy mode which allows for better organization of custom objects.

KampRite Instant Campfire

Volleyball

Redwood Hot Tub

A hot tub that seats two sims, adults only. Very similar to the one introduced in Hot Date

Archery

Sims will earn tokens when they win, whih allows them to redeem prizes

Water Ballon Fort

Group activity where sims can throw water balloons

Snowboard Halfpipe

Sims seem to have problems skating without falling down

At least in heaven I can skate

Polar Bear Rug

Wait until PETA sees this…

Snowman

Not a buyable object but sims can build their own snowmen on snowy lots

Snowball Fort

Same as the ballon fort but with snow

Snowslide

Sims can slide, SSX style

Carnival Games

Like the archery game, your sim can earn tokens with they can redeem into prizes. These then become souvenirs when they move back home, which they can display on a dedicated shelf.

Mac OS Version

The expansion was ported to Mac OS and OS X and install’s in the same fashion.

Windows 98 SE Beta

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98Se was an updated released of Windows 98 operating system, similar to how Windows 95 received updated builds that introduced support for new technologies. (98SE extends it support for Plug and Play, especially with USB devices and shipped with a lot more USB drivers, allowing for these devices to be detected.

Other changes was an updated version of Internet Explorer, DirectX, NetMeeting and Windows Media Player.

For this build (and many others) First issue was actually getting the installer to start, as the DOS bootdisk was unable to see the win98 directory. Attempting to change directory would result in a directory not found error message

The solution was to modify the iso image and amend the win98 folder to WIN98 instead. Easiest way to do this was to use 7ip to extract the contents of the iso image, and then use Imgburn to recreate the iso file.

Windows 98SE desktop

Software

UltraHLE: An early Nintendo 64 emulator that was capable of high level emulation. This allowed for acceptable framerates of Nintendo 64 games. Whilst it starts up, it will crash the entire emulator when you try to start a game.

QuickTime: Apple’s video and internet streaming application, for streaming video over a network. Also used on multimedia software and is installed automatically with that software

Netscape Communicator: A popular web browser that ultimately lost the first browser war to Internet Explorer

RealPlayer 7: Works but the title bar is glitched out, might be more to do with the PCem emulator or its graphics card (3DFX Voodoo Banshee)

AOL Instant Messenger: Popular in the US, but did not take off in the UK as MSN messenger was more popular here, sadly both died in favor of Whatsapp and Facebook messenger

Musicmatch, Background theme is from 98 Plus! expansion pack

Winamp: Null soft’s legendary music player capable of playing MP3 files

McAfee: An anti-virus security software, typically found preinstalled on Dell computers and uninstalled after 30 days

Adobe Acrobat Reader: For viewing PDF documents, commonly distributed with other CD-ROM software. I really like the splash screen art from this era of Adobe software.

Nero Burning ROM: A Very popular CD-ROM burning application, sadly PCem does not emulate a CD-R drive.

WinZip 7.0: Popular compression software, its like WinRAR with its user interface but also offers a wizard like interface

Pun on Hans-Solo?

Simcity 3000: Works well on this build on Windows, this was the original release that has a different opening movie compared to the later release (Unlimited), the background music has also been revised

The Sims Hot Date

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The third expansion pack and one that brought a major change to the mechanics of the game, the main one being the introduction of community lots and the concept of your sims leaving their lots (well they could technically leave to go to work in the base game)

Also included a nice jazzy soundtrack when editing or vising downtown lots.

Installing the game requires the original game CD, or the House Party disc if that expansion pack is installed, as the game will install the original audio files to the hard drive. Previously the game would stream the audio from the CD to save disc space at the expense of performance.
If installing over the Deluxe Edition expansion pack, the user will need to run the deluxe edition installer before they can play the game, this is because the deluxe edition was released after Hot Date.

No new neighborhoods have been included with this expansion, but if you are missing the created neighbourhoods from the House Party expansion (Hoods 5-8) then the installer will create them for you. They will be typical blank neighborhoods without any houses or premade sims.

Upon starting the game, new sims will be generated. These will be your townies that are used for downtown.

Downtown, a new sub-neighborhood. Each hood has its own version of downtown with its own generated set of townies. Sims cannot visit a downtown from another hood.

The user interface has been updated with new features

Original user interface
From Hot Date onwards

The house meter and the friend’s meter have been removed and have not been replaced. They were removed in favor of adding the inventory and interests panels.
The inventory panel shows objects that are stored by the sims, these can be gifts that have been received by other sims, or prizes won by various games.

Downtown

A new sub-neighborhood, and the first to be included in the Sims engine. There are lots that your sim can visit with other sims.

You can have different themed downtown lots that cater to a specific
Restaurants typically have a podium, a kitchen with a commercial over, and a dining booth or dining table/seats

Shops generally have till’s and can have clothes racks that sims can browse and buy new clothes, or skins as they are referred to. There are also entertainment lots that have activities like pool tables, pinball machines and slot machines

The default lots for Hot Date make use of objects from the base game and the expansion itself, but not objects from other expansions. With this in mind, you can create new downtown lots using objects or themes from other expansions, like a nightclub using the DJ booth and dance floor from House Party. A spare downtown lot exists (23 Wright Way) for this purpose.

Objects

The buy mode catalog has been updated, and new sub-categories have been added to help classify items better. Downtown lots also have their own categories, depending on what type of lot you wish to build. Here objects are sorted into shops, restaurants, outdoor

Niagra Love Tub

A hot tub that can seat two sims, who can cuddle and woohoo play

Dawnette Hooded Stove

An oven that occupies two titles, can be placed downtown and is required to operate a restaurant

Bachmeier Grand Piano

A more expensive piano, placing this downtown will spawn a dedicated piano player NPC

Boggs Home Canning Center

Allows your sim to make preserves at home to sell, also increases the cooking skill

Laguna Vista Instand Pond

A fish pond where your sim can feed fish and place boats, multiple sims can use this

Bel-Air Dining Booth

Sims will sit after they order a meal at the podium, works as part of a restaurant set otherwise function as a regular table and chairs

Kiosk

Items such as flowers, toys, chocolate, and a copy of the game itself are sold here and can be bought by your sim, A cash till nearby is required to order

Food Counters

Two exist, one for ice cream and another for burgers, bars also exist for drinks

Social Interactions

New social interactions have been added, and the social system has been revamped for each sim to better handle interactions. Many have been grouped into one main social interaction, which then has a few sub-interactions. E.g. Talk has the ‘About Interests’, ‘Gossip’ & ‘Brag’ interactions. Entertain has ‘Joke’ and ‘Juggle’ interactions.

Mac Version

Hot Date was later ported to the Mac OS platform and was a Carbon application from the onset which meant support for older Mac OS versions was dropped. Only Mac OS 8.6 onwards and OS X 10.1 is supported.

Nicktoons Racing

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Cart base racing game featuring popular Nicktoons of the time, complete with powerups

The opening FMV, and a look at the games menu and track selection screen

The character selection screen, You can choose from:

Rugrats: Tommy & Angelica

Hey Arnold: Arnold & Helga

Wild Thornberry’s: Eliza and Darwin

Spongebob Squarepants: Sprongebob and Patrick

Other playable characters include Ickis from Ahhh Real Monsters, Ren from Ren & Stimpy, Catdog The Angry Beavers, and a Mystery Rider that is unlocked by beating the game.

Tracks

Many tracks are based upon each Nicktoon show and follow the respective art style of that show.

Many of the tracks have shortcuts, which the NPC drivers will use more on a higher difficulty level. There are also many pickups and speed boost pads spread across the track. Some tracks will branch and split into two different section which can vary in speed and difficulty, one path might be shorted but with less pickups, or might have a few tricky bends which have to be navigated.

I’m disappointed they didn’t expand on the Rugrats themed tracks, considering they already released Rugrats games previously, why not have tracks that were based off Search for Reptar? like Toy Palace, or the Mini Golf levels.

Windows

Game can be installed to the hard drive and offers a minimal or a full install, with the full install including the opening FMV and music. At the end the user is given a choice to register their copy of the game.

The PC version benefits from a higher framerate, resolution and texture quality compared to the PlayStation version.

PlayStation

The game was ported to the PlayStation in 2001 and is a straight port of the PC version, with lower resolution graphics. However this version has issues when the CD drive is played at a higher speed and can lead to the opening FMV video skipping, which can also happen with the music. When being played on Duckstation, it is recommended to use the default CD drive speeds (2X/ 300K)

The PlayStation was the only console the game was released on, and did not see a release on any sixth generation console, despite the game being released from 2000-2003

Arcade

An arcade version was released in 2003 and was an adaption of the PC version and was distributed by Chicago Gaming Company

Last Bronx

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Another Sega fighting game, but with weapons

Title Screen

Set in Japan (But from the title you would assume Brooklyn, new York) the game features actual real life locations set in Japan. It was the first Sega fighting game to use motion capture footage giving the character detailed and accurate move sets compared to Virtua Fighter.

The fights typically take place in the evening or night, and most of the stages have a dark urban tone to them in contract to Virtual Fighter 2 where most stages take place in the daytime since its meant to be based on a worldwide tournament, Last Bronx has a more underground fight club like feel to it.

Stages

All characters have their own stage, but when you select their characters their personal stage is skipped until the end, where you will face Red Eye on that characters stage

Cross Street: which is complete with advertising billboards and may be based off the Tokyo/Shibuya crossing. This is the first stage for all characters, unless you choose Tommy then Tears Bridge will be the first

Tears Bridge: is set near a warehouse / cargo park near a large bridge, hence the name. At this point the game is set in the evening, and most stages thereafter have a night time ambiance to them.

Dark Rooftop: reminds me a lot of Lei Wulong’s stage in Tekken 2, as its set on top of a skyscraper helicopter pad, with many building in the background. From the sky it looks like its set in the evening sunset, but Tears bridge gives the impression it is already night time, assuming the game is intended to simulate nightfall.

Saturn Version of the brilliant room stage

Moonlight Garden: A nice stage which is a departure from the industrial urban settings, this appears to be set on a garden or a large park and is a nice departure form the other stages

Lust Subway: Which is your typical Japanese underground subway, complete with display monitors. Thankfully this isn’t set at rush hour. This will be Yoko’s stage

Nightmare Island: Set on a construction or a building site, despite the name insisting its an island, you will fight Zaimoku on this stage.

Naked Airport: Set on an airport runway and reminds me of the Shooting Hoops track from Ridge Racer Type 4 This is Yusaku’s stage

Radical Parking Lot: Kurosawa’s stage, not much to say here except its set on a moderately used parking lot.

Brilliant Room: Hidden and only available if you beat Red Eye with the lowest time

Lust Subway from the Model 2
A common occourance – Saturn Version
Survival Mode Results

Modes

Arcade: The main game mode, you choose a character and progress through 8 stages, with a bonus 9th stage if you complete the game with a new time record.

Saturn/PC mode: Similar to arcade player but features a story mode complete with cut scenes, and opponents are chosen at random

Team Battle: Pick multiple fighters who will battle

Survival Mode: You only have one life, and the health bar carries over to the next round. Objective here is to last the longest

Training Mode: A basic training mode that show the different fighting moves across the roster

Network Play: On the PC version, allows two players to play over a LAN

Character Select

There is also an extra mode in the Saturn/PC version that allows you to view unlocked FMVs

Versions

Arcade

The game was released on the Sega Model 2 arcade board, and was designed to be an upgrade for Virtua Fighter 2. This version has the best graphics, and it makes full use of the Model 2 graphics hardware which was more powerful than the Sega Saturn or common Windows PC’s of the time, in terms of 3D performance. However this version lacks FMV endings. It should be noted that the AI in this version is difficult to beat, since it was intended for the player to use multiple credits within a single play-through, you’d be surprised at how hard it is to beat on a single credit, despite using the easy settings in the games config.

This version of the game is fully playable in the Nebula Model 2 emulator, but is still unplayable in MAME as of 2021.

Most of the other screenshots captured are from the arcade version, except where noted.

Sega Saturn

Introduced a Saturn Mode which is similar to arcade mode but the opponents are randomized. This has a few changes compared to the arcade version, with the 3D background options being exchanged for sprite based background which are handled flawlessly by the Saturn’s VDP2. You will mostly notice the effect when the charicters move to an extent where the camera has to pan to follow the player. FMV videos are also present in the Saturn mode. Although they are in Japaneese, English subtitles are provided.

Most Saturn emulators will play this game, being a 3D titles it will play slowly on less powerful hardware. The Nvidia Shield struggles to play at full speed using the Yaba SanShiro emulator, and the FMV videos pixilate whilst playing. Mednafen Saturn will work the best

Microsoft Windows

A Windows PC port was released in 1998 and is very similar to the Sega Saturn version, and makes use of DirectX. Saturn game mode is renamed to PC Mode but remains the same with random opponents. The PC version supports higher resolutions then the Saturn version, and retains most graphical effects but lacks the texture quality and geometry of the arcade version.

Like most PC titles that were released in the 90s, the game is reliant on using analogue CD audio, which can cause problems on modern systems that use SATA or IDE CD drives without the CD audio line being connected. The reason is that from Windows 2000/ME on wards, Microsoft introduced digital audio for CD decoding, where audio is sent via the IDE cable itself rather then than the CD audio line. There’s no easy workaround unless you play the game in Pcem or 86box, otherwise the game will play but with no background audio or music.

I’ve not tested the game on modern Windows NT based release, but can confirm the game to be playablle using PCem or 86Box using any Windows 9x based operating system with a 3DFX or S3 based accellerator.