MegaRace

MegaRace is a vehicular combat game with arcade-style gameplay, similar to that of RoadBlasters and Spy Hunter. However, it is also a rail shooter, in which players do not fully control the car; they can move it from side to side and accelerate within a limited range, but cannot turn nor fully stop the vehicle. This is because the speedway is rendered in full-motion video. The player must not only kill the opponents, but must also selectively avoid or run over "symbols" marked on the speedway itself. When driven over, these symbols temporarily improve or harm the car's performance.

The objective in MegaRace is to kill all of the speed-gang members in each race before three laps of the racetrack are completed. The first race starts with a small number of speed-gang punks, but more are added in each subsequent race. The player can dispatch opponents by slamming them into the sidewall of the track, hitting them with missiles mounted on the player's car, or passing them, causing the opponent's vehicle to explode after the gap between the two cars becomes too great. The player has a limited number of missiles for each race.

MegaRace takes place in the distant future, where the player is a contestant on a fictional game show and namesake, MegaRace. The program is broadcast on the fictional VWBT (Virtual World Broadcast Television) television channel, where contestants compete in a live-or-die race match against speed gangs. MegaRace's host is the eccentric Lance Boyle, portrayed by actor Christian Erickson. He guides the player throughout the game, introducing new levels and enemies, frequently discouraging them.

MegaRace features a techno chiptune soundtrack composed by Stéphane Picq of Dune.

Software Toolworks were working on an Amiga CD32 version of the game, but it was never released.

Reviewing the 3DO version, GamePro commented that the controls are difficult, but that the fun gameplay and impressive graphics make up for it.

Next Generation reviewed the 3DO version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "It would seem that every new piece of hardware needs to proves itself on a racing game, and this could be the 3DO game to compete with Daytona, Ridge, and Cruis'n. Good stuff."

MegaRace also spawned two sequels, MegaRace 2 in 1996 and MegaRace 3 in 2001, the former uses the same pre-rendered method introduced in the original albeit with 3D polygon car models instead. The latter features full real-time 3-D graphics. Lance Boyle also returns for both sequels. MegaRace also came bundled with some Packard Bell, Quantex computers, Matrox video cards, and Gravis joysticks during the early to mid-1990s.

In April 2014, ZOOM Platform and Jordan Freeman Group announced conversions of the entire MegaRace Trilogy for mobile and tablet devices along with a reboot of the franchise on PCs, game consoles, mobile, and tablet devices. A teaser trailer followed two months later.