Legends Never Die

Lately, I’ve been on an I ’76 kick. Nostalgia-fueled as it is, the game is still awesome after all of these years. The style, the attitude – no other game really comes quite close to it.

So, off to the good news: I’m finally writing the rest of the Interstate ’76 walkthrough. And to prove my good faith, I’ve added up the walkthrough for all of the Scenario missions today. They still need some finishing touches, but all of the mian info is there.

Who would’ve thought that almost 5 years later, I’d set out to finish the thing? It’s not done yet, but hopefully, I’ll get to it by the end of the year. I’ve been playing through with just the keyboard, and regardless, without my good ol’ Sidewinder 3D Pro, I’m not so hot. Of course the Sidewinder is long gone (and I was only able to get it to partially function in XP anyway), so I’m off to find a cheap joystick with a hat switch. Once I do that, it’s game on.

Ok, I just realized my link to the old Disco Vigilante’s Message Board no longer works. Instead, it links to to “Mistress Destiny’s Forums,” which means I’ve taken the link down. Bell Bottom Blasters is there instead.

Old news has been archived and as usual, there’s a few miscellaneous updates behind the scenes.

Updates:
I ’76 Downloads – XP fix is available as a download
I ’76 FAQ – More tweaking
I ’76 Message Boards – Changed links
I ’76 – Scenario Walkthrough is up
Sega – Sonic 2 stuff is started

Cornucopia

Another set of updates has been added to the site. With the turkey-fuel provided over the weekend, I’ve been given the energy for a rather large update.

As promised, for Interstate ’76, I’ve added in a scanned version of its quick reference card. If you need it, at least there’s a place out there on the web that has it. While I was at it, I figured I’d add up the key card for Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries as well.

The Battle Zone site gets a quick update. At the bottom of each page is a link to the other pages. In case you find your way here through a search engine, you can still navigate around without the frame on the left hand side.

One of the links in the Mech 2 FAQ was old, so it’s been pointed to the right spot.

Speaking of FAQs, the I ’76 FAQ is updated with some new and refined info. In case you’re tired of setting down the hardware acceleration on your computer just for a game of I ’76, there’s a fix for that.

The Q&A has been brought up to date, so the three e-mails I’ve received in the last two years are up.

On the Sega side, the Rez section has some more info/screenshots about its pre-release versions and I’ve got some pictures up of the real-world Shenmue locations.

Behind the scenes, I’ve installed Google Analytics. The stats about the site are fascinating – where traffic comes from, how long people browse the site, what pages are looked at, which aren’t. In case you’re wondering, this site is most popular in Germany (I have no idea why) and the least visited portions are BZII and Deus Ex. Most popular? You guessed it, Interstate ’76, Battle Zone, and Mechwarrior.

It seems like I’m leaving some things off, so look around.

Updates:
Battle Zone – Navigation all around
I ’76 Downloads – Key Card
Interstate ’76 FAQ – New info
Mechwarrior 2 FAQ – Link is corrected
Mercenaries Downloads – Key Card
Q&A – Three new questions almost answered
Rez – K-Project and Vibes Info
Shenmue – Real-world Locations

I ’82 Pre-release Pictures

Hi I was scrolling through the internet when i came across a load of I’82 PRE-RELEASE picture’s on ING.com I will send the 2 most interesting one’s if you want them thanks i just need to know your email address.:) Interstate 76/82 rocks!!!!

Yeah, send them my way. I tried to e-mail you back, but the address was invalid. I’m guessing you mean IGN, so they shouldn’t be too hard to find.

(2010 Update: I never did hear back from this person.)

I ’76 Flamethrowers and Variants

Two questions: I have played I 76 substituting melee variants in trip mode, but have forgotten how. Do you know? My last few computers have not been able to use flame throwers in I76. They don’t useable range, and they flicker. Is there any solution to this problem. Thank you.

It’s been years, but if I remember correctly, you’ll want to copy one of your variants and overwrite the file used for the trip missions. It might’ve been necessary to do this inside of a hex editor.

If anyone out there remembers, please let me know.

The flamethrower weapons were shaky enough in the first place, but they don’t work correctly on modern computers due to their faster speeds. You can try using a program that throttles down the processor speed.

I ’76 Resolutions

Is there any way to raise the resolution above 640×480 under direct3D?

Not in D3D. Either use the software mode where it can be raised to 1024×768 or find a glide wrapper. More info can be found in the I ’76 FAQ.

I ’76 Hacks

I’m glad to see someone actually STILL has a fan site out there for I76! I reently reinstalled it on my WinXP PC, and have been blowing crap up in instant-bot-melee battles.

Its been about 10 years, but I used to spend hours at night (and day) hacking and playing this game online. I would love to try my hand at some hacks and paint jobs again, just for old times. I remeber there used to be all kinds of crazy modifications you could do through a Hex Editor, I think my editor of choice at the time was Hex32 or something like that.

Anyway, I have lost all my printed copies of tutorials to hack the car stats. Oddly enough, you can’t even find references to them online. All the sites were long gone before Google was around caching them into memory.

Do you have any of the old txt or word documents on how to do that stuff anymore? There used to be a car that went (to scale) like 0-300MPH in a second… but you had to have the tuning just so to get it to work. There were also monster tires and ways to place several turrets on any one car.

I am able to play the Gold Edition of I76 in D3D (I think at 800×600 only), but can’t get Nitro to play in anything other than software at 1024×768. Is it possible to play Nitro in D3D too?
Hope you get this!

Thanks for the comments. I remember Hack ’76 used to be a pretty popular program for a while, but unfortunately, I don’t have any of the files for it. A quick Google search brought up a few pages with some I ’76 hacks, but not too much info. I hope these links help:

https://www.geocities.com/Area51/Zone/7722/cheat.htm
https://www.fortunecity.com/underworld/caterpillar/314/Hacks.htm

As far as playing Nitro in D3D, I thought it used the same engine and patches as the I ’76 Gold Edition, so if one works, the other should. The resolution is locked at 640×480, if I recall correctly. You might have to turn off certain options on your graphics card driver to get it to work. I’m sorry that I can’t really say anything definite. If I come across an answer, I’ll try to get it up on the site.

More Road to Cover

I started thinking of my good ol’ i76 gaming days, and it took a while for my to come out of my daydreams…honestly, I think it would be a good game to this date and I would love to see activision raising the game from the dead by making a true prequel, with the feel of i76 TRIP. The trip was in my opinion one of the best computer game experiences I have ever had. Anyways, so activision would be afraid of losing money, but what if they, were innovative and used more or less the same game engine, saving shitloads of money and only using money on development of missions and story etc. It would be a cheap affair for Activision, it would almost make sure that the original atmosphere of the game remained and if a fan community is involved in the planning stages for important input it could truly become a great game.

aaaaahh…I love to dream pleasant dreams. But, do you think there is any posibility that activision would let do something like this? (how much I would like to drive that beloved Picard Pirahna once more)

Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. I’m sure at this point, Activision is done with the Interstate series. Even though it would be great to see another game, I just can’t imagine it happening.