Whenever I see a reminiscence about fun, yet somewhat dated PC games,
the same group of popular gems like X-COM, Fallout, Star Control II,
and Syndicate get the most attention. During these conversations, I
always bring up a small lost gem, but very few have heard of it and
even fewer have played it. This diamond in the rough? Rocket
Science's "Rocket Jockey".
Published by SegaSoft back in 1997, Rocket Jockey lived a short life
between being too powerful for some machines and yet incompatible with
next generation PCs. In addition, the coveted LAN play-enabling patch
was released far too late in the game, after any popularity Rocket
Jockey had built faded away. Rumor had it the game would be released
to the Playstation, but this never came to fruition.
Rocket Jockey is a game about a future sport; rocket... jockeying. As a
Rocket Jockey, you straddle a rocket and ride it around a gladiatorial
style arena at high speeds. Armed with a grapple on either side to
help steer in a 19896 Batmobile fashion, you can enter any of three
modes of play:
1) Rocket Racing: speed around an obstacle course to be the fastest
competitor (or solo for a time trial).
2) Rocket Ball: a polo-style sport involving snagging balls with the
grapple and whipping them appropriately into goals before your
opponents can stop you or score more.
3) Rocket War: a gladiatorial battle against other competitors which
involves ramming other rockets, snagging jockeys off their mounts with
the grapple, tying various items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) to
other items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) for style points.
Simplistic as they sound, this was an incredible and intuitive game,
pure unadulterated genius. Besides the addictive game-play (oh, the
screams of a competitor jockey ripped from his rocket and swung into a
pole), what also stood out with Rocket Jockey was the classy style;
down-home 1950's Americana sensibilities reminiscent of Interplay's
Fallout series combined with snarky, nihilistic future ad designs.
And the music. Oh, the music. The game was accompanied by a surf
guitar soundtrack from none other than Dick Dale himself.
No game I know of has even come close to being anything like Rocket
Jockey (Jet Moto?). And that's the clincher; it would be so simple to
recreate today. To not give this game a proper revival would be a
crime. And that's where the Wii comes in. The controls are a
near-perfect match.
The rocket is controlled by leaning; left or right and you drift in
that direction. Up or down were the same, though there wasn't much of
a height radius (rockets only went, at most, ten feet from the ground,
just enough to ram an opponent off rocket). This basic guidance could
be controlled with the Wiimote, with emphasis based on increasing the
angle the Wiimote is bent. Being a PC game, speed and launching and
releasing the grapples (left and right) were all keyboard based.
Velocity (speed, braking) could be handled with A and B, and the
Nunchuk could conform to a nice grapple. Aiming was originally
nonexistant; it was based on the rocket's angle of lean. With a
slight adjustment an aim factor could be a variable handled by the
analog stick.
This game was way too short lived and was so good it cries to be
remade for the modern day. Fan attempts have been made to bring it to
Unreal Tournament and other platforms. In a recent attempt to get in
touch with one of the former developers, I was informed that lawyers
constantly botched earlier attempts to get this game properly licensed
for a remake. With my prodding, said contact did put forth the idea
of porting or re-developing Rocket Jockey to the few remaining Rocket
Science alumni. So far, nothing yet has come of this. If anyone out
there can do anything for this game, I implore you to try. With the
additional promise of online multi-player (or at least split-screen
local), an update of Rocket Jockey has the potential to be a future
solid gold hit.
Whenever I see a reminiscence about fun, yet somewhat dated PC games,
the same group of popular gems like X-COM, Fallout, Star Control II,
and Syndicate get the most attention. During these conversations, I
always bring up a small lost gem, but very few have heard of it and
even fewer have played it. This diamond in the rough? Rocket
Science's "Rocket Jockey".
Published by SegaSoft back in 1997, Rocket Jockey lived a short life
between being too powerful for some machines and yet incompatible with
next generation PCs. In addition, the coveted LAN play-enabling patch
was released far too late in the game, after any popularity Rocket
Jockey had built faded away. Rumor had it the game would be released
to the Playstation, but this never came to fruition.
Rocket Jockey is a game about a future sport; rocket... jockeying. As a
Rocket Jockey, you straddle a rocket and ride it around a gladiatorial
style arena at high speeds. Armed with a grapple on either side to
help steer in a 1989 Batmobile fashion, you can enter any of three
modes of play:
1) Rocket Racing: speed around an obstacle course to be the fastest
competitor (or solo for a time trial).
2) Rocket Ball: a polo-style sport involving snagging balls with the
grapple and whipping them appropriately into goals before your
opponents can stop you or score more.
3) Rocket War: a gladiatorial battle against other competitors which
involves ramming other rockets, snagging jockeys off their mounts with
the grapple, tying various items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) to
other items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) for style points.
Simplistic as they sound, this was an incredible and intuitive game,
pure unadulterated genius. Besides the addictive game-play (oh, the
screams of a competitor jockey ripped from his rocket and swung into a
pole), what also stood out with Rocket Jockey was the classy style;
down-home 1950's Americana sensibilities reminiscent of Interplay's
Fallout series combined with snarky, nihilistic future ad designs.
And the music. Oh, the music. The game was accompanied by a surf
guitar soundtrack from none other than Dick Dale himself.
No game I know of has even come close to being anything like Rocket
Jockey (Jet Moto?). And that's the clincher; it would be so simple to
recreate today. To not give this game a proper revival would be a
crime. And that's where the Wii comes in. The controls are a
near-perfect match.
The rocket is controlled by leaning; left or right and you drift in
that direction. Up or down were the same, though there wasn't much of
a height radius (rockets only went, at most, ten feet from the ground,
just enough to ram an opponent off rocket). This basic guidance could
be controlled with the Wiimote, with emphasis based on increasing the
angle the Wiimote is bent. Being a PC game, speed and launching and
releasing the grapples (left and right) were all keyboard based.
Velocity (speed, braking) could be handled with A and B, and the
Nunchuk could conform to a nice grapple. Aiming was originally
nonexistant; it was based on the rocket's angle of lean. With a
slight adjustment an aim factor could be a variable handled by the
analog stick.
This game was way too short lived and was so good it cries to be
remade for the modern day. Fan attempts have been made to bring it to
Unreal Tournament and other platforms. In a recent attempt to get in
touch with one of the former developers, I was informed that lawyers
constantly botched earlier attempts to get this game properly licensed
for a remake. With my prodding, said contact did put forth the idea
of porting or re-developing Rocket Jockey to the few remaining Rocket
Science alumni. So far, nothing yet has come of this. If anyone out
there can do anything for this game, I implore you to try. With the
additional promise of online multi-player (or at least split-screen
local), an update of Rocket Jockey has the potential to be a future
solid gold hit.
I'm only less than halfway through, so I can't attest to it's replay value, but Hotel Dusk is very cool and it uses some interesting and unexpected aspects of the DS to it's advantage.
At one point you have to solve a jigsaw puzzle, but on the back of the puzzle is some writing that you can't read because the puzzle is lying on it's back. The jigsaw puzzle is on one side of the DS and a tabletop is on the other side.
So, if only one screen is touchable, how do you get the puzzle across?
Manhunt is a surprise from the company that allowed Resident Evil 4 to grace it's prior-gen system? Hah.
Manhunt is fun, but I will forever push Rocket Jockey to you as the perfect example of a Wii game that must be made until the moment I hear that it will be published.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I beat the game, but I know what point the original article writer is discussing, and I don't believe it's the end guy. There is a dungeon where you have to grind to the bottom level after level, and then you have to kill a (D&D) Dracolich. Which is impossible, but not a game-breaker. You don't have to kill him to win.
Here are the two points that stuck out as sucking with that game (beyond the chat with a stupid Koopa that makes you press the button 100 consecutive times):
1) Chase Grind: There's a quest where you have to chase around an antagonist to every corner of the game that you've already been to, and everyone will tell you "he just left". Great way to waste time.
2) Unskippable Cut-scenes: The end cut-scene, right before the main villain is very nice and touching; GO MARIO. Unfortuantely, it's 5 minutes long and you have to view it EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And it's unskippable. So if you die, you have to watch it again. That is disconcerting.
In other news, hey gamer! Somehow help get Rocket Jockey produced for the Wii!
Is what would it take for someone to write a script to hit the site with a bajillion fake SSN logins (9-digit #s) and then capture the image and text for each success?
I'm sure someone's already done it.
By the way, I *do* make sure it's my passcode and image that pop up. I made them entertaining enough and relevant to myself.
Then-again, I've written a few login pages for companies, so it's my business to keep track of this stuff.
For some very cool free content (games!) for the Wii, Opera internet browsers should bookmark this place: WiiFii.net. It's a very cool second home with a bunch of flash games (including that cool SLED game) playable through the Opera browser.
My plea to Sega is the following: You, Sega (SegaSoft) needs to update and release a WiiConnect24-capable and local multi-player capable version of the classic game Rocket Jockey for the Wii.
The control system alone is PERFECT for the Wiimote's balancing act, not to mention the kicking surf guitar soundtrack and classic retro style.
Please let Sega know about this perfect game that they already own. I'm on the verge of starting a letter writing campaign.
Sega (SegaSoft) needs to update and release a WiiConnect24-capable and local multi-player capable version of the classic game Rocket Jockey for the Wii.
The control system alone is PERFECT for the Wiimote's balancing act, not to mention the kicking surf guitar soundtrack and classic retro style.
Please let Sega know about this perfect game that they already own. I'm on the verge of starting a letter writing campaign.
Slashdot Mirror
Whenever I see a reminiscence about fun, yet somewhat dated PC games, the same group of popular gems like X-COM, Fallout, Star Control II, and Syndicate get the most attention. During these conversations, I always bring up a small lost gem, but very few have heard of it and even fewer have played it. This diamond in the rough? Rocket Science's "Rocket Jockey".
Published by SegaSoft back in 1997, Rocket Jockey lived a short life between being too powerful for some machines and yet incompatible with next generation PCs. In addition, the coveted LAN play-enabling patch was released far too late in the game, after any popularity Rocket Jockey had built faded away. Rumor had it the game would be released to the Playstation, but this never came to fruition.
Rocket Jockey is a game about a future sport; rocket... jockeying. As a Rocket Jockey, you straddle a rocket and ride it around a gladiatorial style arena at high speeds. Armed with a grapple on either side to help steer in a 19896 Batmobile fashion, you can enter any of three modes of play:
1) Rocket Racing: speed around an obstacle course to be the fastest competitor (or solo for a time trial).
2) Rocket Ball: a polo-style sport involving snagging balls with the grapple and whipping them appropriately into goals before your opponents can stop you or score more.
3) Rocket War: a gladiatorial battle against other competitors which involves ramming other rockets, snagging jockeys off their mounts with the grapple, tying various items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) to other items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) for style points.
Simplistic as they sound, this was an incredible and intuitive game, pure unadulterated genius. Besides the addictive game-play (oh, the screams of a competitor jockey ripped from his rocket and swung into a pole), what also stood out with Rocket Jockey was the classy style; down-home 1950's Americana sensibilities reminiscent of Interplay's Fallout series combined with snarky, nihilistic future ad designs. And the music. Oh, the music. The game was accompanied by a surf guitar soundtrack from none other than Dick Dale himself.
No game I know of has even come close to being anything like Rocket Jockey (Jet Moto?). And that's the clincher; it would be so simple to recreate today. To not give this game a proper revival would be a crime. And that's where the Wii comes in. The controls are a near-perfect match.
The rocket is controlled by leaning; left or right and you drift in that direction. Up or down were the same, though there wasn't much of a height radius (rockets only went, at most, ten feet from the ground, just enough to ram an opponent off rocket). This basic guidance could be controlled with the Wiimote, with emphasis based on increasing the angle the Wiimote is bent. Being a PC game, speed and launching and releasing the grapples (left and right) were all keyboard based. Velocity (speed, braking) could be handled with A and B, and the Nunchuk could conform to a nice grapple. Aiming was originally nonexistant; it was based on the rocket's angle of lean. With a slight adjustment an aim factor could be a variable handled by the analog stick.
This game was way too short lived and was so good it cries to be remade for the modern day. Fan attempts have been made to bring it to Unreal Tournament and other platforms. In a recent attempt to get in touch with one of the former developers, I was informed that lawyers constantly botched earlier attempts to get this game properly licensed for a remake. With my prodding, said contact did put forth the idea of porting or re-developing Rocket Jockey to the few remaining Rocket Science alumni. So far, nothing yet has come of this. If anyone out there can do anything for this game, I implore you to try. With the additional promise of online multi-player (or at least split-screen local), an update of Rocket Jockey has the potential to be a future solid gold hit.
Whenever I see a reminiscence about fun, yet somewhat dated PC games, the same group of popular gems like X-COM, Fallout, Star Control II, and Syndicate get the most attention. During these conversations, I always bring up a small lost gem, but very few have heard of it and even fewer have played it. This diamond in the rough? Rocket Science's "Rocket Jockey". Published by SegaSoft back in 1997, Rocket Jockey lived a short life between being too powerful for some machines and yet incompatible with next generation PCs. In addition, the coveted LAN play-enabling patch was released far too late in the game, after any popularity Rocket Jockey had built faded away. Rumor had it the game would be released to the Playstation, but this never came to fruition. Rocket Jockey is a game about a future sport; rocket... jockeying. As a Rocket Jockey, you straddle a rocket and ride it around a gladiatorial style arena at high speeds. Armed with a grapple on either side to help steer in a 1989 Batmobile fashion, you can enter any of three modes of play: 1) Rocket Racing: speed around an obstacle course to be the fastest competitor (or solo for a time trial). 2) Rocket Ball: a polo-style sport involving snagging balls with the grapple and whipping them appropriately into goals before your opponents can stop you or score more. 3) Rocket War: a gladiatorial battle against other competitors which involves ramming other rockets, snagging jockeys off their mounts with the grapple, tying various items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) to other items (jockeys, rockets, poles, bombs) for style points. Simplistic as they sound, this was an incredible and intuitive game, pure unadulterated genius. Besides the addictive game-play (oh, the screams of a competitor jockey ripped from his rocket and swung into a pole), what also stood out with Rocket Jockey was the classy style; down-home 1950's Americana sensibilities reminiscent of Interplay's Fallout series combined with snarky, nihilistic future ad designs. And the music. Oh, the music. The game was accompanied by a surf guitar soundtrack from none other than Dick Dale himself. No game I know of has even come close to being anything like Rocket Jockey (Jet Moto?). And that's the clincher; it would be so simple to recreate today. To not give this game a proper revival would be a crime. And that's where the Wii comes in. The controls are a near-perfect match. The rocket is controlled by leaning; left or right and you drift in that direction. Up or down were the same, though there wasn't much of a height radius (rockets only went, at most, ten feet from the ground, just enough to ram an opponent off rocket). This basic guidance could be controlled with the Wiimote, with emphasis based on increasing the angle the Wiimote is bent. Being a PC game, speed and launching and releasing the grapples (left and right) were all keyboard based. Velocity (speed, braking) could be handled with A and B, and the Nunchuk could conform to a nice grapple. Aiming was originally nonexistant; it was based on the rocket's angle of lean. With a slight adjustment an aim factor could be a variable handled by the analog stick. This game was way too short lived and was so good it cries to be remade for the modern day. Fan attempts have been made to bring it to Unreal Tournament and other platforms. In a recent attempt to get in touch with one of the former developers, I was informed that lawyers constantly botched earlier attempts to get this game properly licensed for a remake. With my prodding, said contact did put forth the idea of porting or re-developing Rocket Jockey to the few remaining Rocket Science alumni. So far, nothing yet has come of this. If anyone out there can do anything for this game, I implore you to try. With the additional promise of online multi-player (or at least split-screen local), an update of Rocket Jockey has the potential to be a future solid gold hit.
I've solved that pesky owl problem, but inadverdently cured cancer. I hope you don't mind.
...is to get Rocket Jockey on the wii
...get SegaSoft Rocket Jockey out again!
Relevant Link for the win.
While I applaud the company, the notion that the human genome or any part of it is anyone's to keep, license or give away is appalling.
They're not talking about licensing a portion; they're talking about giving away knowledge regarding which portion likely relates to diabetes.
Just make sure they have an Allow Discussion of Chocolate Milk filter so that hilarity may ensue.
It really is taking a long time.
Bring Rocket Jockey to the Wii.
I'm only less than halfway through, so I can't attest to it's replay value, but Hotel Dusk is very cool and it uses some interesting and unexpected aspects of the DS to it's advantage.
At one point you have to solve a jigsaw puzzle, but on the back of the puzzle is some writing that you can't read because the puzzle is lying on it's back. The jigsaw puzzle is on one side of the DS and a tabletop is on the other side.
So, if only one screen is touchable, how do you get the puzzle across?
SPOILERS
You fold the DS and then open it back up.
Manhunt is a surprise from the company that allowed Resident Evil 4 to grace it's prior-gen system? Hah.
Manhunt is fun, but I will forever push Rocket Jockey to you as the perfect example of a Wii game that must be made until the moment I hear that it will be published.
RTFM. :-D
You forgot to mention the 5-minute unskippable cut-scene before the big game boss.
I break for life for that game. It is like staring at a wall.
See Subject. Battletoads - fun platformer + O-CRAP, HORRIBLE RACING!
See post this responds to.
I'd like to see better sports and FPS adaptations. Use the nunchuck to move (turn?) and reload; use the Wiimote to aim, (turn?) and shoot.
Heck, bring ROCKET JOCKEY to the Wii!
I'm not ashamed to admit that I beat the game, but I know what point the original article writer is discussing, and I don't believe it's the end guy. There is a dungeon where you have to grind to the bottom level after level, and then you have to kill a (D&D) Dracolich. Which is impossible, but not a game-breaker. You don't have to kill him to win.
Here are the two points that stuck out as sucking with that game (beyond the chat with a stupid Koopa that makes you press the button 100 consecutive times):
1) Chase Grind: There's a quest where you have to chase around an antagonist to every corner of the game that you've already been to, and everyone will tell you "he just left". Great way to waste time.
2) Unskippable Cut-scenes: The end cut-scene, right before the main villain is very nice and touching; GO MARIO. Unfortuantely, it's 5 minutes long and you have to view it EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. And it's unskippable. So if you die, you have to watch it again. That is disconcerting.
In other news, hey gamer! Somehow help get Rocket Jockey produced for the Wii!
Is what would it take for someone to write a script to hit the site with a bajillion fake SSN logins (9-digit #s) and then capture the image and text for each success?
I'm sure someone's already done it.
By the way, I *do* make sure it's my passcode and image that pop up. I made them entertaining enough and relevant to myself.
Then-again, I've written a few login pages for companies, so it's my business to keep track of this stuff.
...after using it for the last couple of weeks, my right arm seems a bit stronger and beefier than my left arm.
I haven't had this problem since before I got married!
...were purchased by exasperated grandparents who gave up trying to find a PS3?
Lymphoma. What, you mean ***CANCER***?
If they put a drug out that give you back your hair, yet causes you cancer, what's the point? Chemo's gonna take it right back from you.
I've just been informed (offlist) that Segasoft published Rocket Jockey, but "Rocket Science" owns the rights. Just and FYI.
For some very cool free content (games!) for the Wii, Opera internet browsers should bookmark this place: WiiFii.net . It's a very cool second home with a bunch of flash games (including that cool SLED game) playable through the Opera browser.
My plea to Sega is the following: You, Sega (SegaSoft) needs to update and release a WiiConnect24-capable and local multi-player capable version of the classic game Rocket Jockey for the Wii.
The control system alone is PERFECT for the Wiimote's balancing act, not to mention the kicking surf guitar soundtrack and classic retro style.
Please let Sega know about this perfect game that they already own. I'm on the verge of starting a letter writing campaign.
Sega (SegaSoft) needs to update and release a WiiConnect24-capable and local multi-player capable version of the classic game Rocket Jockey for the Wii.
The control system alone is PERFECT for the Wiimote's balancing act, not to mention the kicking surf guitar soundtrack and classic retro style.
Please let Sega know about this perfect game that they already own. I'm on the verge of starting a letter writing campaign.