Re-Volt (GBC)

(Possibly) the splash screen, one of the images shared by the port programmer.

Re-Volt had a port for Game Boy Color developed during 1999/2000, but has been cancelled due to a few problems that prevented the development team from continuing.

One known team member that worked in this port was the programmer Quang Nguyen from Asobi Tech, which also was the person who provided lots of worthful information about the port to the community.

The code of the canceled port is known to have been reused in other two GBC games, which were ATV Racing and Race Time.

Findings

Race Time

Rumors of a Game Boy Color port of Re-Volt started on late 2017, when someone found a rare game poster at eBay containing few platforms logos, including GBC's.^{[citation needed]}

Searches for the GBC port caused the game Race Time to be found in the same year.^{[citation needed]} Its similarities with Re-Volt led few Revolters to explore the internal bitmaps of the game. They were able to find the race start countdown (3, 2, 1, GO!), pickups and weapons sprites, confirming the game actually had a connection with the GBC port.

Spread graphics, with identified "go models", pickups and weapons

Pickup and star

Pickup rotation animation sprites

Weapons

Weapons, but with added colors that nearly resembles the original

Contact with Quang Nguyen

At late January 2019, MightyCucumber has found and contacted Quang Nguyen, which was the programmer of the Re-Volt GBC port. He answred in the beginning of the next month, sharing worthful information about the development history and a pack of screenshots of the port.

Shared screenshots follows:

Main menu

Select Race menu

Enter Name menu

RC Bandit in the Select Car menu

Col. Moss

Dust Mite

Phat Slug

Dr. Grudge

Sprinter XL

Harvester

Volken Turbo

Genghis Kar (with wrong name and stats)

An unknown car with wrong name and stats, possibly Panga TC

Evil Weasel (with wrong name and stats)

Mouse

RC San (with wrong name and stats)

Aquasonic

Toys in the Hood 1 in the Select Track menu

SuperMarket 2 (with different spelling)

Museum 2

Museum 1

Toys in the Hood 2

SuperMarket 1 (with different spelling)

Toytanic 1

Toytanic 2

Toy World 2 (with different spelling)

Toy World 1 (with different spelling)

Ghost Town 2

Ghost Town 1

Gameplay at some Toys in the Hood level. Under the screen is the HUD containing from left to right the weapon inventory, lap and position counter, directional arrow, stopwatch and speedometer.

Image featuring a ramp and pickup in the level, and Oil Slick in the inventory

Bertha Ballistics at some SuperMarket level, with Water Balloons caught in the inventory

Gameplay at Toytanic 1

Gameplay at Toytanic 1

Gameplay at Toytanic 1

Gameplay at some Museum level

Gameplay at some Museum level

History

The project began on November 2nd 1999 with the commencement of the design document, initial graphic work and code groundwork.

The team had set milestones for the project, intended to release the beta at March 15th 2000 and the master at April 7th 2000, having only 6 months to make the game.

Screenshot posted by Quang Nguyen of a small demo, which is not Re-Volt, but made to use the code in.

Acording to Nguyen, the team were running late on Febuary, and the project got cancelled mid March. They faced problems such as the levels sizes being too big and off the scale.

The game was planned to fit on a 1MB cartridge (64 rom banks, each having 16KB in size), which was quickly running out of space to add the rest of the game logic, and that was a huge problem for the team. The last version Nguyen compiled really broke when he tried to add the soundtrack. He still had 15 banks left.

Acording to Nguyen, the code of the port was also reused in ATV Racing besides Race Time.

Milestone Schedule

Re-Volt GBC Milestone Schedule follows, as provided by Quang Nguyen.

• Milestone 1 - End November 1999
  • Delivery of Complete Game design Document
  • Sample Vehicle graphics
  • Sample level backdrop including test collision data
  • Sample menu visual
  • Full screen scroll code (version 1) - no collision, priority, jumping etc with sprites on it

• Milestone 2 - End December 1999
  • Environments completed -
    • Toys in the Hood both tracks including collision / priority data / object placements
    • Supermarket both tracks including collision / priority data / object placements
  • Cars completed
    • 10 cars complete visually
  • First car control demo - controllable car including collision, priority and jumping. Animated car
  • Basic menu system
  • In game option menu functioning allowing the player to quit, resume and change between cars (this part will be removed when the later in the development).

• Milestone 3 - End January 2000
  • Environments completed -
    • Toytanic both tracks including collision / priority data / object placements
    • Museum both tracks including collision / priority data / object placements
  • Cars completed -
    • 20 cars drawn with all animations
  • Complete Menu system including best trial times and progress tables including password systems.
  • Completed human car control (path following)
  • First music incorporated and sound incorporated
  • Car / Car collision routines including reactions
  • Option menu includes sound and music options

• Milestone 4 - End Febuary 2000
  • Environments completed -
    • Toy World both tracks including collision / priority data / object placements
    • Ghost Town both tracks including collision / priority data / object placements
  • 30 Cars drawn and complete
  • Music and sound complete
  • Completed computer car control
  • Final tuned human player control
  • Password system
  • Menus fully complete

• Beta - 15 March 2000
  • All cars complete
  • All environments completed including final one -
    • Botanical Garden both tracks including collision / priority data / object placements

• Master - 7 April 2000
  • Completed game fully tested by us for final testing by Acclaim
  • Nintendo Acceptance
  • Submitted to Nintendo. Any rejections problems repaired asap.

Sources

• Email exchanges between MightyCucumber and Quang Nguyen
• Re-Volt (Discord Server)