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Destruction Derby

Revision as of 11:43, 6 December 2013 by Backdraft 3.5 (talk | contribs) (→‎PS1 and Saturn only: Ridge Racer-like track = Seaside Route 765 I Dunno)
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Destruction Derby
DD1
DD1cover
PlayStation PAL (Europe) cover

All remaining front and back covers are listed below
Developer Reflections
Perfect Entertainment (Japan, Sega Saturn only)
Publisher Psygnosis
Soft Bank (Japan, Sega Saturn only)
Players 1-2 players
Ratings ELSPA: 3+
ESRB: K-A
OFLC: G
Successor Destruction Derby 2
Disambig iconThis article is about the original game. For the series, see Destruction Derby series. For the mode, see Destruction Derby mode.

Destruction Derby is the first installment of the Destruction Derby series. It was first released in October 1995 for PlayStation, Sega Saturn and MS-DOS. It was developed by Reflections and published by Psygnosis. The Japanese Sega Saturn version was developed by Perfect Entertainment and published by Soft Bank instead.

The game achieved high popularity, and was later added to PlayStation's Platinum Range / Greatest Hits, being one of the first games to achieve platinum sales.

Originally, the game was only capable with MS-DOS PCs, but in 1996(?), a Windows 95 version was released. The popularity of the game resulted in a 1996 sequel, Destruction Derby 2, for PlayStation, Windows and MS-DOS. In February 2007, the game was available for download in the PlayStation Network for the PS3 and PSP consoles. Later in February 2011, the game was available for a paid download from Google Play, for Android devices. Since 2012, the game is available for download for the PSVita and PlayStation Certified devices, from the PlayStation Mobile service.

It was originally titled Demolish 'em Derby before it was changed to Destruction Derby, shortly before E3 1995. The Japanese title name is: デストラクションダービー.





Gameplay

1GP

A race in Speedway

1GP2

Smoke coming out of your car during a race

The camera stays facing forward the whole race. So when you spin around and face the wrong direction, your car faces YOU (the camera in this case). Also note that the camera is quite far away from the car. There are many points that you can earn such as spinning etc. (see below). Whenever you'd crash or collide, you would see the 'bits' all coming out of the car.

1GP3

Some smash 'em up in Destruction Derby mode

Generally, the gameplay is fast-moving, and that's what made this game so fun at the time. That's what I want to call destruction!

Modes

1menu

Destruction Derby Main Menu

*Special modes. See its respective articles for details.

In the DD manual, the four main modes were called race styles.

Tracks

Buckle

Buckle up, and sit tight! is displayed everytime before the race/event starts. It has become an iconic quote for fans of the original DD.

The tracks in Destruction Derby were very short and thin too. As a result, you have to race around each track for a lot of laps (usually 10). All tracks have the same (low) wall next to each side of where you and your opponents are racing. The ground surface is grey concrete.

*Secret track in the Race Practice mode

Bowls

The game featured a single bowl where demolition events took place:

Vehicles

Dd1car

The cars in Destruction Derby

All three cars looks the same but are different in terms of speed, power and handling.


Points

Race points DD1

Race Points

All events uses a points system, called Race Points (even if the event is not a race). The Destruction Derby mode awards points only on the basis of wrecking other players' cars. Stock Car Racing only awards points on race position. Wreckin' Racing is a hybrid of the two (albeit with less points for positions than Stock Car). The maximum number of points available per race in the wrecking modes is 99, whereas Stock Car has a maximum of 50 (the points for first place).

The points system for wrecking is as follows:

  • Spinning an opponent's car 90° - 2 points.
  • Spinning an opponent's car 180° - 4 points.
  • Spinning an opponent's car 360° - 10 points.
  • Spinning a car which is in first place during the Wreckin' race, the points are doubled.
  • In Stock Car mode, points are awarded for 1st to 20th place in the following order: 50, 40, 35, 30, 25, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.
  • In Wreckin' Racing mode, the race position 1st gets ten points, 2nd gets six and 3rd gets four.
  • Gripping an opponent's car - 10 points.
  • In Destruction Derby mode, the last car not wrecked gets ten points.

Damage engine

RaceOver

Race Over is displayed when you finish a race, quit the current event, or when wrecked.

The game features a Damage Engine that simulates what effect collisions have on the vehicles.

If a car has been severely damaged its handling will become worse, with the level of damage indicated by a car diagram on the right of the screen. Severe damage to one of the sides of the car will make it pull significantly to that side, and severe damage to both will make it almost impossible to turn at all.

Heavy damage to one side of car's rear will reduce its ability to accelerate and hold speed; severe damage to the back on both sides will result in a the commentator's audio announcement "You've broken the rear axle!" and make the car almost unable to move. Damage to the front will eventually give the car a "blown radiator".

If more damage is received by the front, eventually the engine will be blown and the car unable to move (for the player, resulting in the end of the race).

Unlike in some sequels, damage could not be repaired during a race, as there is no pit lane functionality in Destruction Derby.

Competitors

In each race, there are 19 CPU drivers (15 in MS-DOS version) who compete along with the main player.

The below list of competitors is sorted in order of its starting division in Championship mode (with their roof colour in brackets), along with their car number shown (competitors shown in italic are not featured in the MS-DOS version):

Player

YOUR image (the human player)

White Division Five (White)

Yellow Division Four (Yellow)

Cyan Division Three (Cyan)

Red Division Two (Red)

Black Division One (Black)

Each driver is of differing ability, and each one has a (slightly) different driving style, which initially creates variation for the player but can easily be predicted after playing the game for a while.

The fastest raw stock car driver in the game is clearly The Skum in every race, whereas there are several competitors who are better in the Destruction Derby mode. Competitors such as Psycho, Undertaker, Barmy Army and The Taxman are amongst the best drivers in all modes, whereas drivers such as Suicide Squad are good in wrecking modes, but very slow in stock car modes.

Finish

The screen when you finish a race

In each Championship, the drivers start out in a system of 5 (4 in MS-DOS version) divisions, with the goal for the player being to climb to and win Division 1. The drivers that are in each division remain constant for every new game, but are not ordered by ability (clear by the fact that Learner Driver is in Division 2, despite being the weakest competitor in all game modes, but hardly ever takes damage, meaning he is the best at the longer races).

There is, however, an obvious pattern to who climbs to the top divisions and who doesn't; in stock car modes, only deliberate player intervention would stop The Skum from rising meteorically from his starting Division 3 to the top division.

Most of the drivers also have a voice clip for when points are taken from them by the player in wrecking modes, or for when the player wrecks them in all modes. Also, each driver has their own car design, and a cartoon picture of the character displayed on the race and championship standings screens. The division of each driver can be seen during races by the colour of the roof of their car, as shown above.

Music

The soundtracks are cool electronica music, composed by Tim Swan and Elliot Sumner.

Improve! The 'Featured in' section in some soundtracks is empty. If you know the right answer, add it on there.

Track no. Name Featured in Length Link to YouTube
#1 Duellist Speedway 5:36 [1]
#2 Trashers Delight Crossover 5:22 [2]
#3 Crash Boom Bang Ocean Drive 5:25 [3]
#4 Hardhitter Cactus Creek 5:15 [4]
#5 One Against All City Heat 5:19 [5]
#6 Chaos Overlord The Bowl 5:14 [6]
#7 Indestructable 2:23 [7]
#8 Rankings Car Select 3:08 [8]
#9 Lo-ooser 1:00 [9]
#10 Beyond All Damage 2:37 [10]
#11 Aftershow Credits 2:39 [11]
#12 ? 5:11 [12]
#13 ? 4:37 [13]
#14 ? 4:59 [14]
#15 ? 1:46 [15]

PlayStation vs Sega Saturn vs DOS

Here is a video of Destruction Derby gameplay from YouTube.

Play it. Notice the smoother graphics in the PlayStation version, and the ugly smoke in the Sega Saturn version. Also see how the Saturn version had a horrible frame-rate and bad pop-up too.

thumb|500px|left

The developers clearly haven't done a nice enough port for the Saturn.
Here's a video for the MS-DOS version.

thumb|500px|right


Commercial

Magazines

Television

Destruction_Derby_Playstation_commercial_(US)

Destruction Derby Playstation commercial (US)


Covers

Front

Back

Notes from the manual

Warm-up

An unofficial history of chaos and destruction.

After motor vehicles were discovered, flags began to be used on roads. Destruction Derby arrived shortly after. Want to know why? Read on.

Coloured flags could be called the forerunners of traffic lights. Men used them to direct very heavy traffic. These men, the forerunners of race judges, calmly stood in front of the cars and let them pass one by one. Nowadays their jov would not be much of a contribution to road safety but it was then. The world was not so crazy and cars were not so fast. The judges went to work equipped with a red flag and a green flag. They showed the red flag when a car coming from behind had to stop. Shortly after they showed the green flag, indicating that the driver could continue.

Sometimes a gust of wind would blow the flags into the flagman's face. Flaying his arms in an attempt to get untangled, he goy drivers into a tight spot. Understandably, the drivers got angry at the damage to their vehicles that they could hardly resist the lure of destruction, so they deliberately turned it into a fun pastime. Bales of hay were used to mark the track. With these and a few rules for the starting line, drivers began to take their places. What happened to the flagmen? They were allowed to use their flags to give the starting signal for the destruction track... without coming to any harm of course. That is how something as simple and innocent as waving a couple of flags brought about the birth of such an exciting, savage sport!

Today, most of the world's cities have a Destruction Derby track. Cities like Rome and Athens that still do not have a track can practice their hobby on the city's streets.

You don't need to know all this. You don't even have to know how to drive. Right now you own just about the most incredible, fascinating game in the world. So invite a couple of friends in, turn the sound up... and cause some destruction out there!

Cheats

PS1, Saturn and DOS

  • Enter REFLECT! as a name. When the main menu returns, go to Practice mode. Notice that a new track, Ruined Monastery, will be available. This is normally unlocked when finishing first in the Division 1 in Championship.
  • Enter !DAMAGE! as a name to get invulnerability. Your vehicle is now impossible to be damaged.

PS1 only

  • Enter CREDITZ! as your name. The credits will be displayed, which will be animated.
  • At the piracy warning screen, press and hold L1 + LEFT + O. An image of the Reflections team will appear.
  • At the beginning of an event, hold X + RIGHT for a few seconds to get 4 points.
  • Select Total Destruction mode from the main menu. As soon as the game starts, pause and exit. If you had 0 seconds on the clock, your name will appear on the scoreboard with either 599.00 seconds or 566.?? seconds.

PS1 and Saturn only

  • Enter NPLAYERS as a name. From the main menu, go to the track selection screen. After you select a track, you will be able to choose the number of competitors.
  • In multiplayer mode, enter RIDGE as a name for player 1 and RACER as a name for player 2, to unlock a Ridge Racer-like track .

PS1 and DOS only

  • Enter DERBYMAN as a name. Select your event and track etc. When the event starts, most of your competitors will start out smoking.

DOS only

  • Enter !SPEEDY! as a name. Select a Championship event, and notice that your car is a lot faster.

Getting the game

Android

The game is available for purchase on selected devices running Android OS. Link to Google Play: [16]

PlayStation ISO

Here is the link to download the ISO image file and burn it on a CD:  [17]

Release

1 Beta logo

An early beta logo of DD

MS-DOS

  • EU/NA: October 1995

PlayStation

  • EU: October 1995
  • NA: 16 November 1995
  • JP: 9 February 1996

Sega Saturn

  • EU: 15 August 1996
  • JP: 20 September 1996

PlayStation Network (PSP)

  • NA: 15 February 2007

PlayStation Network (PS3)

  • NA: 3 May 2007
  • EU: 29 November 2007

Android

  • Worldwide: February 2011

Credits

Design
  • Martin Edmondson
Programming
  • Russell Lazzari, William Musson, Michael Troughton, Robert Troughton
Graphics / Artwork
  • Phil Baxter
3D Modelling
  • Martin Edmondson
Music and sound effects
  • Elliot Sumner, Tim Swan
Voices
  • Steve Cooke, Jessica Martin
Producer
  • Tony Parkes
Product Management
  • Joanne Galvin, Michelle Harris
Marketing / PR (France)
  • Catherine Jaymond
Marketing / PR (UK)
  • Glen O'Connell
Public Relations Germany
  • Ingo Zaborowski
Documentation
  • Huw Thomas
German Manual Translation
  • Ulrich Mühl
Project Lead
  • Clemens Wangerin
Packaging
  • Peter Dyke
Quality Assurance
  • Jonathon Wild
Box and manual design
  • At Work Werbeagentur GmbH; Wiesbaden, Germany
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