Hi-Octane

Hi-Octane is a racing and vehicle combat video game released in 1995 for the PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It was developed by Bullfrog and is based on the code of their previous game Magic Carpet. It stands out among racing games for its wide and open tracks and the resulting freedom for the player, but also for its excessive speed. It had a hard time on the market due to thematic similarities with the better-received Wipeout from Psygnosis, and the generality of its graphics engine made it have a very low depth effect compared to modern racing games. It is rumored that Hi-Octane started as something that some Bullfrog programmers programmed in their spare time and then decided to improve the game and market it under the auspices of Electronic Arts. Another version of the legend is that EA pressured Bullfrog to publish Dungeon Keeper or Magic Carpet 2 - but they weren't able to. So they released Hi-Octane, a quickly made game. A Gamasutra article mentioned that "the PC and Saturn racing game Hi-Octane was developed in just eight weeks using the Magic Carpet engine to "fill a quarter that didn't have enough revenue".