BC Racers

n/a

Mega-CD 32X
BC Racers
System(s): Sega Mega-CD, Sega 32X
Publisher: Core Design Front Street Publishing
Developer: Core Design
Distributor: Time Warner Interactive (US)
Peripherals supported: Six Button Control Pad
Genre: Racing
Number of players: 1-2
Official in-game languages: English Deutsch Français English
Release Date RRP Code US 1995-02 T-115075 EU 1994-12 T-115075-50 UK 1994-12 £44.9944.99 T-115075-50 US 1995-06 T-7901B
Non-Sega versions 3DO IBM PC

BC Racers is a racing game developed and published by Core Design as a spin-off of the then-popular Chuck Rock series. It was originally released for the Sega Mega-CD in 1994, before subsequently seeing ports to the Sega 32X, PC and 3DO the following year. The Mega-CD version was distributed in North America by Time Warner Interactive.

Despite its British roots, the 32X version was released exclusively in North America, where it was published by U.S. Gold's short-lived publishing label Front Street Publishing. A European 32X version was planned for March 1995 (and being mentioned on demo discs for the game), but failed to materialise.

During development the game was known as Chuck Racer and then Chuck Rally: Rocky Racers.

Story

BC Racers takes place in the Chuck Rock universe, where a millionaire playboy caveman, Millstone Rockafella, has organized a bike race. The winner will receive the Boulderdash Bike.

Gameplay

BC Racers is a one or two player bike racing game, similar in nature to F-Zero and Super Mario Kart (and similar "mode 7" titles) on the Super Nintendo. Tracks are flat, with scenery and racers being represented by 2D sprites. There are four difficulty settings; easy, medium, hard, and rockhard, each with their own set of eight tracks (making for a total of thirty-two tracks in the game). Each track needing four laps to complete, and there are eight track themes including desert wastes, volcanic areas, and massive jungles.

Each bike in BC Racers comprises of two characters, one who controls the bike, and another who rides in a side car whose purpose is to attack other players. There are no power-ups in BC Racers, however the sidecar rider can hit opponents similar to the mechanics in Road Rash. Bikes take damage, and if an opponent is forced to crash or break down, extra points are rewarded. Damage to the bike can be reversed by collecting power-ups near the starting line.

In the Mega-CD version of the game, a two player cooperative mode is offered, where player one controls the acceleration and player two controls the sidecar, steering and turbo features. This was replaced in the 32X version by more traditional split-screen play (in which much of the scenery is removed to maintain a high frame rate).

Controls

Basic controls

: Break
/: Handbrake turn
 START : Pause/Zoom options

Mega-CD version

: Punch left
: Accelerate
: Punch right
+: Nitro
: Zoom out
: Nitro
: Zoom in

32X version

: Acceleration
: Punch right
: Nitro

Heats

	Heat 1 - Rock City Race
	Heat 2 - Night Rally
	Heat 3 - Desert Drive
	Heat 4 - Jungle Rumble
	Heat 5 - Swamp Stomp
	Heat 6 - Blizzard Blitz
	Heat 7 - Cave Rave
	Heat 8 - Volcano Dash

History

Development

In-game graphics were created by Toby Gard (who would go on to design Lara Croft in Tomb Raider). Characters were created as wireframes, all sharing the same bike sprites to ease the development process.

Versions

While the the Mega-CD and 32X versions of BC Racers are broadly the same, the 32X conversion is able to maintain a much higher frame rate, which in turn leads to a faster paced game. The Mega-CD version is able to capitalise on full motion video and higher quality audio, but is hindered by longer loading times not present in the 32X game. In addition, the 32X runs at a higher screen resolution and uses a longer draw distance, and alongside the expected increase in colour counts, leads to more detailed visuals than its Mega-CD counterpart.

The 32X version also compares favourably to the IBM PC version (which also lacks music) and the 3DO version in terms of frame rate, however no versions are completely stable, with all four performing noticeably worse than the likes of the Super NES games Super Mario Kart and F-Zero which likely served as an inspiration for the game.

Production credits

Mega-CD version

• Programmed by: Dan Scott
• Graphic Artist: Toby Gard
• Music and SFX: Martin Iveson
• Game Design: Toby Gard, Dan Scott, Guy Miller
• Intro Sequence: Billy Allison
• Intro Support: Stuart Atkinson, Bob Churchill
• Original Concept: Jason Gee, Jon Hilliard
• Creative Manager: Guy Miller
• Produced by: Jeremy Smith

Source:

In-game credits (hard mode)

• Additional Design Support: Simon Phipps
• Storyboard: Guy Miller
• Graphics Support: Stu Atkinson
• Product Support: Troy Horton, Jamie Morton, Darren Price, Adrian Smith, David Ward

Source:

US manual

Error creating thumbnail: /bin/bash: line 1: 1188347 Done '/usr/bin/gs' '-sDEVICE=jpeg' '-sOutputFile=-' '-dFirstPage=1' '-dLastPage=1' '-dSAFER' '-r150' '-dBATCH' '-dNOPAUSE' '-q' '/home/sonicret/domains/segaretro.org/public_html/images/d/df/Bcracers_mcd_us_manual.pdf' 1188348 Segmentation fault | '/usr/bin/convert' '-depth' '8' '-quality' '95' '-resize' '2187' '-' '/home/sonicret/domains/segaretro.org/public_html/images/temp/transform_606992cd2216.jpg'

32X version

• Programmed by: Martin Gibbins, Gilbert The Goat, John Kirkland and Stef Walker
• Graphics by: Toby Gard
• Graphic Support from: Stuart Atkinson, Richard Morton and Joby Wood
• Music and Chip SFX by: Nathan McCree
• Sample SFX by: Martin Iveson
• Game Design by: Toby Gard, Martin Gibbins and Dan Scott
• Produced by: Jeremy Smith
• Special Thanks to: SN Systems

Source:

In-game credits (hard mode)

For Core Design, LTD.

• Carving Out the Code: Sean Dunlevy
• Thanks to: Alyson, Helen, Craig, Richard M., Del, Dan, Captain Black, Jason Goz, Chris, James, Davids' M and L, Troy, Darren, Jamie, Mark, Mac, Roberto, Jeremy, Alison, Guy, Susie, Sharon, Babs, Adrian, Gary, Simon, Mansoor, Jon H., Jason G., Paul, Heather, Andrew and Richard B.

For U.S. Gold, Inc.

• Special thanks to: Mike Schmitt, Brian Schorr, Mac Senour, Tom Marx, Frank Hom, Dan Wong, Caroline Trujillo, Jill De Maria, Kelly Lindlar, Frank Alizaga Jr., Alison Nichols, Lee Wilkinson, Mr. Free Time

Source:

US manual

Magazine articles

Main article: BC Racers/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Mega-CD FR print advert

Print advert in Ultimate Future Games (UK) #3: "February 1995" (1995-01-01)
also published in:

• Sega Power (UK) #65: "April 1995" (1995-02-16)

Physical scans

Mega-CD version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Consoles + (FR) 82 Computer & Video Games (UK) PAL 78 FLUX (US) NTSC-U 67 GameFan (US) NTSC-U 89 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 68 Games World: The Magazine (UK) PAL 86 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 33 Hobby Consolas (ES) 87 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 68 Mega (UK) PAL 78 Mega Force (FR) PAL 83 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 86 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 82 Player One (FR) 92 Play Time (DE) PAL 86 Sega Magazine (UK) PAL 80 Sega Power (UK) PAL 86 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 80 Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL 79 Todo Sega (ES) 83 Video Games (DE) PAL 72 VideoGames (US) 70

	78
Based on 22 reviews

BC Racers

Mega-CD, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega-CD, EU
Cover
Disc Manual

32X version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source Computer & Video Games (UK) 83 №162 GamesMaster (UK) 83 №30, p50/51

	83
Based on 2 reviews

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Consoles + (FR) 80 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 70 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 68 Mega (UK) PAL 85 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 65 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 85 Player One (FR) 89 Sega Power (UK) PAL 82 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 88 Top Consoles (FR) 60 Ultimate Future Games (UK) 69 Video Games (DE) PAL 72 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 60

	75
Based on 13 reviews

BC Racers

32X, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

Main article: BC Racers/Technical information.