Motocross

INTELLIVISION CARTRIDGE [Mattel Electronics #3411]

Release 1983

AKA: MX

Design: Rick Koenig, Rick Levine

Program: Rick Koenig

Graphics: Rick Levine, Joe Ferreira

Sound: Mark Urbaniec


Instructions Posted Here

PACKAGE DESCRIPTION

Speeding up the long straights, blasting through tight S turns, or hurling across wild jumps, you're meant to eat dirt and claim victory! What a racing bike you've got! The competition is fierce, the terrain is rough. Challenge your toughest adversary, then leave him behind, as you cross the finish line!

• For one or two players!

• Three rugged, exciting racing courses to choose from. And another you can design yourself!

• 1-bike or 2-bike spectator courses too!

• Normal direction, reverse direction -- take your pick! Up to 10 laps!

• Lots of action! Out-maneuver, out-class your opponents!

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

Started by Rick Levine in 1981 as his follow-up project to PBA Bowling, Motocross was put on hold when Rick left Mattel. (Tired of commuting from Irvine to Hawthorne, Rick took a non-gaming job. Later, he went to work for Imagic, where he programmed the Intellivision games Microsurgeon and Truckin'.) Months later, biker Rick Koenig took a stab at completing the game. After several weeks, he got permission to scrap the existing code and begin from scratch. Only Rick Levine's basic concept and graphics were kept, with new animations by Joe Ferreira.

Rick Koenig approached the game scientifically, writing routines to simulate all the movements of the cycles according to the laws of physics. The result is motorcycles that accelerate, skid and jump realistically.

Although announced in Mattel catalogs in 1981 and 1982 as part of the Intellivision Sports Network, by the time the game was released in 1983 the themed "networks" had been dropped. The Sports Network isn't mentioned on Motocross's final packaging.


FUN FACT: Gravity is a factor in the motion routines. During testing, Rick made gravity adjustable to determine the best looking arc when jumping. Several unsuspecting programmers were invited to test the game, not knowing gravity had been set to zero. The first time their cycles hit a ramp, the cycles would sail up-up-and-away off the screen, while the programmers frantically tapped the controller discs, trying to make them come back down.

FUN FACT: Rick was able to reuse his basic algorithms from Motocross several times: in Racing Destruction Set, a Commodore 64 game for Electronic Arts (produced by his old Mattel boss, Don Daglow), in Stadium Mud Buggies, an Intellivision game for INTV Corp., and in Monster Truck Rally, an NES game also for INTV.