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Demoscene Roots

Digital Illusions was founded by developers who got their start in the demo scene. Some were members of the group The Black Lotus (TBL for short), and other from The Silents (TSL for short). There are countless references to these groups throughout the game:

Banned Olympos shortcut

Back in the days of online multiplayer and TSL, most league rules were obvious. How meetings were arranged, how the tracklist was determined, how the starting grid had to be set, etc. But there was one rule which stated that the Olympos shortcut was *not* allowed, and anyone observed using it would be banned. But not everybody knew about this shortcut. Not knowing what not to do led to an interesting discussion in the forum and also a demonstration ghost to bring some clarity on what we should never ever do. As you can see below, Tiny Tim, who was kind enough to demonstrate this, using this shortcut, was able to achieve a 52.86 from a standing start, when even TermKilla would have a hard time matching it on a normal lap.

DICE in multiplayer tournaments

For a couple of TSL tournaments, DICE actually competed against other teams.

Car groups

Did you ever notice that the cars follow a certain pattern? The cars were created by different teams, with each team being responsible for one car in each division. For example, snake cars -- the Adder Mk2 (division 3), the Python V12 (division 2), and the Kobra X3 (division 1) -- were all designed by the same people. You can usually spot the cars made by the same artists by the windshield decal texture (for snake cars, this is "Okkun").

Although the first three divisions are balanced between artists with each team creating 3 cars, the game's best car (at the time of publishing), Serpent, was also a snake car.

This theme was also carried to the later car packs and patches, with the only exception of the SuperBee

Motorhead 2

DICE started working on Motorhead 2 in December 2000. The game had darker environments than the first game and took place in five cities. Despite the futuristic design, the cities were supposed to feature famous buildings and landmarks. Each city would contain around 10 tracks. The cars are fewer in number, but were intended to be upgradeable. Motorhead 2 was reportedly exclusive for the PlayStation 2, slated for release in the second half of 2002. However, in November 2001, DICE announced that the title has been frozen in order to shift focus to other projects.

Motorhead cars in Midtown Madness 3

As you may know, Midtown Madness 3 was developed by DICE. Along with all the boring cars the game included two secret cars. One was the Avalanche straight from Motorhead (with the exact same paint job mind you, but now named ASP), the other one was most probably pulled from the shelved Motorhead 2 project which unfortunately never materialized. The car however seems to carry the Serpent heritage and is called Serpent Mk2 in Midtown Madness 3.