Motorhead Versions - motorhead.cc

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PC Releases

In addition to the usual retail releases which came in big boxes, the game was also bundled with various pieces of hardware and peripherals of the time. Fun fact: it may surprise you to know that version 1.0 was never shipped. The earliest version one can find is actually 1.2, in the Euro retail release.

Here's a list of Motorhead's PC releases:

Euro Retail
As the name suggests, this retail release was sold in Europe. It was published by Gremlin Interactive in April 1998, with the version on the CDs being f1.2. Being a retail release, it came in a big box (this was the norm back in 1998) featuring a high-polygon render of Kobra X3 and ASC II in NeoCity on the box front.

US Retail
In the US, Motorhead was published by Fox Interactive in February 1999 -- a whole 10 months after the Euro release. By then, Motorhead had already received a couple of patches, so the version which shipped was u2.2. For the US release, the artwork was completely changed. Gone was the Kobra X3 and the ASC II. Instead we get a pretty generic looking yellow-red car (doesn't really look like any car found in the game) going through an equally generic looking tunnel. The promotional material also somehow pushed a "part NASA, part NASCAR" slogan.

Creative Labs Bundle
This release was budled with Creative products, so no box, just the CD. As is the case with the US retail release, by the time they started shipping, we were up to version a2.2. This bundle doesn't include any hardware check to run. And even though we know this was bundled with Creative products, we don't know which ones. It could be the Graphics Blaster or 3D Blaster lines of products, or maybe some Sound Blasters. If you happen to know or have any reference, please reach out.

Matrox Bundle
This release was bundled with the Matrox MGA-G200 (sold as the Mystique G200 and Millennium G200) graphics cards. The Matrox bundle CDs shipped version m1.4, and based on the files on the disc, we can assume this was around June 1998. This release included hardware checks to verify a Matrox card is present, all the way up to version 3.0. Interestingly, a couple of the music tracks have been shuffled around compared to the retail versions.

Diamond Bundle
This release was bundled with the Diamond Viper V550 graphics card, a popular 3D accelerator of the time, based on the nVidia RIVA TNT chip. As with the Matrox bundle, there is code to detect the presence of a Diamond card, preventing the game from running without one. After the release of patch 3.0, in November 1999, a fix was offered to remove the checks for Diamond drivers, but it is unclear if this still requires the V550 hardware (there were a lot of unofficial drivers for Diamond graphics cards back in the day and the fix could be related to the use of those). Also worth noting, the artwork on the CD was identical to the Euro release, save from a message reading
```
"OEM: NOT FOR RESALE"
```
and
```
"75500066-001"
```
which could be an internal product ID. Installing from the Diamond Bundle CD gives you version d2.0.

Logitech Bundle
This release was bundled with the Logitech WingMan Formula and WingMan Formula Force steering wheels. The artwork on the CD is identical to the Euro release. There's a message reading
```
"OEM: NOT FOR RESALE"
```
but there is no product ID, as was the case in the Diamond bundle. The version shipped is unknown at present. We do know, however, that there is no code to detect presence of hardware. If you happen to have an original Logitech bundle CD, please reach out.

Sony Bundle
Not much is known about this bundle, not even what was bundled with it. It could be a Sony Vaio laptop or something else. One thing we do know is that it doesn't try to detect any specific Sony hardware to run. If you happen to have an original Sony bundle CD, please reach out.

Version History

What's in a version number?

So far we've only briefly discussed version numbers. You will notice that there is a letter before the actual number. This is used to identify the release.

Euro	US	Matrox OEM	Diamond OEM	Creative OEM	Logitech OEM	Sony OEM
f1.2
p1.3
p1.4^[1]		m1.4			l1.4^[3]	y1.4^[3]
			d2.0
p2.1		m2.1	d2.1		l2.1	y2.1
p2.2	u2.2	m2.2	d2.2	a2.2	l2.2	y2.2
p3.0	u3.0	m3.0	d3.0	a3.0	l3.0	y3.0
p3.1^[2]	u3.1			a3.1

^{1. This was a beta patch for the Euro release. Bundled 1.4 versions were shipped as 1.4, so we're assuming it wasn't a beta in those cases.}
^{2. This was mistakenly still reported as p3.0 in-game. This mistake is only present in the Euro patch 3.1, US and OEM versions were correctly reporting u3.1 and a3.1 respectively.}
^{3. We currently do not have the media to confirm that this was the version shipped, however, this is a guess based on the fact that patch 1.4 was only applicable to the Euro release, whereas patch 2.1 was also available for these OEM releases.}

Timeline

Apr '98

Jun '98

Feb '99

Mar '99

1998

1999

2000

May '98

Jun '98

Nov '98

Mar '99

Oct '00

Patch 1.3

Released on May 20th, 1998, patch 1.3 most notably brought a new protocol for online multiplayer. This is the protocol that we still use to this day, both for LAN games and over the Internet. This patch is for the Euro release only, as this was the only one available at the time.

More details

Save recorded race dialogbox when returning from a multiplayer race now removed
Race replays/ghostraces of multiplayer-races sometimes resulted in an incorrect number of players racing
Many multiplayer fixes to make the internet play more solid
Completely new multiplayer protocol "DI's LAN/INET" based on WinSock UDP with support for a dedicated server, better performance over the internet aswell as LAN.
Fixed a bug in the multi elimination mode finish
In multiplayer the finish sign could sometimes show incorrect position
Added
```
/minpredict
```
and
```
/maxpredict
```
values to the lobby commands
Enables you to adjust the car prediction, default values 2 and 6, range 0 to 10, the higher the values are the more "lagged" the other cars will be on your machine. If you have a very good LAN connection you should set the values to
```
/minpredict 0
```
,
```
/maxpredict 2
```
. If you set the values to the same like
```
/minpredict 0
```
,
```
/maxpredict 0
```
, you will have no prediction at all and will have "jerky" cars. Feel free to fool around with the values as you like :)
You can join a "DI's LAN/INET" session by typing motor.exe. If a port is not specified it will default to 16000.
The
```
/rate
```
,
```
/minpredict
```
,
```
/maxpredict
```
and your latest carview will be saved in the motorhead.cfg
Now support for a third axis on joysticks and mouses, usually a throttle conrol or a wheel
Fixed a GLIDE texture format bug
Removed some debug info stuff that will give you a bit more memory (memory walls are nice while devoloping, but maybe not in the release...) :)
Software motion blur screen pitch fix
Loading screen pitch fix
The renderer now allocates textures in system memory if necessary. Not all cards support textures in system memory though. This will allow users of f.ex. the Riva128 and to run in higher resolutions.
The game now remembers your last camera mode, inside or outside car
Removed the modem status dialog that could popup in some cases when doing a TCP/IP connection

Patch 1.4 (BETA)

Released on June 17th, 1998, patch 1.4 most notably allows all tracks to be played in reverse as well, and now supports up to 12 players in multiplayer (up from 8). This patch is for the Euro release only, as this was the only one available at the time. Many of the bundles were released around this time, and so they shipped with patch 1.4 already applied.

More details

All 8 tracks now available in reverse mode in both single and multi-player
Fixed the famous highscore bug, an old highscore from another track could be saved in some cases.
Support for up to 12 players in multiplayer on dedicated servers.
12 players can be a bit too much for the modem players though, especially at the start of a race, so they might have to set a lower
```
/rate
```
or change to another server
NOTE!! You can't join an old DI's LAN/INET server with this version, that includes the dedicated servers too.
For the other DirectPlay protocols, you can join p1.2 and p1.3 listen-servers but they can't join your p1.4 listen-server.
Better support for extra tracks and cars.
Added a last race stats screen to the lobby (TAB key) for use on a dedicated server.
The record sign "R" in the lobby is now used as a ready sign on dedicated servers.
```
/connect
```
in the lobby with the DI's LAN/INET protocol.
CD-track choices in the menu are now saved.
The ingame player info screen now shows correct positions during a multi-race.
Addressbook sorted by name.
It's now possible to change the third car colour on Avalanche (the grey stripes)

Patch 2.1

Released on November 23rd, 1998, patch 2.1 adds support for a lot of hardware, most notably force feedback peripherals, PowerVR rendering, and 3D sound using Creative's EAX and Aureal's A3D. It also added the cool Glenz reflection to D3D (alas not available in Glide). This patch is intended for the Euro Retail, and Matrox, Diamond, Sony, Logitech bundles.

More details

PowerVR native rendering support.
Force feedback support.
New sound systems:
NoSound, DirectSound, DirectSound3D HW, Creative Labs EAX(SB Live), Aureal3D 1.2, Aureal3D 2.0(occlusions, reflections).
Choice between KM/H and MPH.
New carshading mode for the D3D renderers, Glenz, it looks good but slows down a bit :/
Added support for following D3D modes if supported by hardware.
These are all configurable from the options/graphic menu
- Triple buffering
- 32 bit texture format
- 32 bit rendering
- Trilinear filtering
Fixed the famous RedRock infinite loop bug. Thanx JeePen, Trix and Drunk_Driver :)
Fixed single player AI infinite loop bug
Multiplayer ghostout time now set to 8 seconds instead of 2 earlier. This means you have to lose connection to the server for 8 seconds before your car will turn to a ghost (freeze).
Improved DI's LAN/INET connection phase.
Multiplayer prediction bug fixed.
Multiplayer max packet length now 1200 bytes.
Multiplayer guaranteed packed bug fixed. This bug resulted in corrupt player data when connecting during heavy packet loss and lag.
Demorecording works with 12 players now.
Multiplayer demo recording bug fixed.
Set multiplayer default settings for varius connections, type
```
/modem
```
,
```
/ISDN
```
,
```
/T1
```
,
```
/LAN
```
in the lobby
Now name over car 9 - 12 in a 12 player multi race.
Now up to 13 players in a ghost race.
Added mouse sensitivity options to the control setup.
Control setup changed to make some assignment problems more understandable.
Benchmarking of demo races to file "fps.txt".
Screenshot option now available in the lobby by pressing F12.
If you abort a single race the results screen will not be shown.
Text pitch on the results screen is now correct.
Motionblur 16-bit rendering bug fixed.
Minor spritebank bug fixed.

Patch 2.2

A few days after patch 2.1, on November 26th, 1998, patch 2.2 was released, focusing on bug fixing. This patch is intended for the Euro Retail, and Matrox, Diamond, Sony, Logitech bundles. The US Retail release shipped with this patch already applied.

More details

Now testing the soundmanager before trying to use it, this caused the
```
"SOUNDER_EAX::SoundInit():Unable to set sound manager mode"
```
error on some soundcards.
The final OkkunSpeedway race in the league doesn't lockup anylonger, embarrassing...
Minor problem with Logitech force feedback joysticks fixed.

Patch 3.0

Released on March 26th, 1999, patch 3.0 brought, among others, MPlayer support, the Venom and Dominator cars (but also included Python Menace and SuperBee from Car Pack 1) and well as a full set of ghosts recorded by Drunk_Driver. This was considered a huge patch back in the day, weighing in at 14MB. This patch can be applied to all retail and bundle releases.

On a sidenote, if you wish to extract files from the patch 3.0 .cab files (which itself can be extracted from the .exe, but that's trivial), without installing any specific version, you can try Unshield.

More details

Works with these versions of Motorhead: European retail, US retail, Logitech bundle, Matrox bundle, Diamond bundle, Sony bundle, CreativeLabs bundle.
Two new cars released, the "Dominator" and the "Venom". Now it's time to kill those Serpent times :) Make sure you tell the server admins to allow them on the internet servers too, i.e. set UnlockedCars in the "server.cfg" to 14. Thanks to Drunk_Driver and Trix for the tweeking...
Fixed a detection problem with the DirectSound3D and Creative Labs EAX sound-systems on some versions of Win95.
Fixed a workaround for some soundcard-drivers that made Motorhead crash immediately on statup.
Included the latest addressbook with dedicated Motorhead servers around the world.
Included the MPlayer (www.mplayer.com) multiplayer system so that everyone can enjoy the fun on the US MPlayer servers.
Included 9 ghost-demos recorded by Drunk_Driver, one of the best Motorhead drivers ever. You can learn a lot by watching and ghost-racing him.
Included the two cars in carpack1, the "Python Menace" and the "SuperBee".
Include the latest Motorhead dedicated server for Win32.
Various minor bug fixes.

Patch 3.1

Released October 30th, 2000, patch 3.1 fixed an issue with the heads-up display disappearing when using a Geforce card. This bug affected pretty much every card since the original GeForce 256. This patch was released for the Euro Retail^[1], US Retail and Creative bundle. These are also the only releases for which we have created repacks, with patch 3.1 already applied.

^{1. A patched Euro release will incorrectly report itself as version 3.0 in the menu screens. This has been acknowledged by Digitall Illusions, and is fixed in our repacks as well.}

More details

Fixes problems with the HUD in GeForce cards

PC Demos

Back in 1998 it was frequent that playable game demos were made available to the public, to give a small taste of the game. And as 3D accelerator cards weren't yet required, most game published separate software and 3D accelerated demos. In Motorhead's case there was even more variery, as you could a grab demo based on your rendeder (software or 3D accelerated), with or without the intro videos (remember, most people back then were on dial-up and intro videos were larger than the no-intro game demo itself), and eventually there was also a separate multiplayer-capable demo.

But enough with all that, here's a detailed rundown of all the Motorhead demos we have seen out in the wild:

Demo 1 (Software/Glide)
This demo used either the software DirectX renderer, known internally as Cliff, or the Glide rendered on 3dfx cards. These were two separate demos, and needless to say you had to be extra careful when downloading, as the 3dfx demo requires Glide drivers to run (DirectX 3D cards won't do). Nowadays you can get it working via dgVoodoo or nGlide. This playable portion was a 1-lap time attack of Goldbridge in the Kobra X3, after which it would exit to Windows. If the Enter key is not pressed, a rolling demo race of Atlantika will start featuring all of the Division 1 cars (Avalanche, Kobra X3, Titan). With some trickery, it was possible play in Atlantika with any of the Division 1 cars. Both demos were released on May 11th 1998, available in two flavors each, with or without intro videos.
Demo 2 (Software/Glide)
The key differences to the first demo is that the playable portion is now a 3-lap single race around Goldbridge versus 3 AI opponents instead of a 1-lap time attack. Another minor change is that the demo does not automatically quit after one race, that it features a Fox Interactive logo instead of a Gremlin Interactive one. As was the case in the first demo, there were separate files for the software and 3dfx demos, available with or without intro videos.
Multiplayer/D3D Demo
The multiplayer demo was release with a lot more functionality. For starters, it supported software rendered as well as 3D accelerators (Glide, D3D, etc). It offered a single race around Neocity, and the player could pick between 1, 3 and 5 laps. The player could also pick between Division 1 cars (Kobra X3, Avalanche, Titan), as well as set the gearbox to auto/manual. The single race featured 7 AI opponents, but what made this demo special was the multiplayer functionality. Although not the full multiplayer experience that the full game offered, it tied to MPlayer service. Finally, a nice touch was that through the menu (which very much resembled what's in the full game), the options menu was now available to configure some settings (this wasn't possible in previous demos which started directly in the race). It was released on December 28th 1998. Later, Mplayer would make it to the full game with patch 3.0).

PC Demo/Full Game Differences

There are some interesting differences in the tracks between the demos and the full releases of the game. Here's what we know so far:

Goldbridge
In the demo, right after the infamous "jump" there is a small patch of grass. Apparently, this was changed in the full release of the game to concrete.
Atlantika
In the demo, in the "city" section, there are lamp posts on the sidewalks. Those were probably deemed unsafe by the Atlantika transportation department, as they have been removed from the full release of the game.

Steam Re-Release

Motorhead was re-released on Steam in 2015. Unfortunately, this is not an HD remaster with more detailed cars and tracks, as some had hoped. It's not even a re-packaged or patched PC release that would make the game easier to install on modern hardware.

It is actually the Playstation version of Motorhead being run inside of the ePSXe Playstation emulator. This was a big dissapointment for those who hoped for a reworked release, as seen in the mostly negative reviews it got in Steam. At least for now, custom installers/repacks like the ones we have created are still the best way to run Motorhead on modern hardware.

Playstation Releases

Along with the PC releases, Motorhead was also ported to the Playstation, where it was similarly published by Gremlin in Europe and Fox in the US. The box art remains largely the same as the respective PC release.

PAL
The PAL release was published by Gremlin Interactive in April 1998.

NTSC
In the US, Motorhead was published by Fox Interactive in November 1998.

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