GamesRacing26 years later, Codemasters' Chris Southall talks Colin McRae Rally: “We wanted to do something that was an authentic rally experience for the hardware of the time"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRacing26 years later, Codemasters' Chris Southall talks Colin McRae Rally: “We wanted to do something that was an authentic rally experience for the hardware of the time"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Codemasters)
Before securing the popular rally driver for their game, foundations were laid for not just it but also a Formula 1 racing title, and this required a division of labour. Those that remained working on Codemasters' rally title were then sent out to do research. “Before we started the game, a few of us in the design department were working on 3D vehicle physics,” Chris recalls. “That then became TOCA and Colin McRae Rally; we split the team up at that point. When we were just starting to work on Colin McRae Rally, Richard Darling sent us to a rally school, where we all drove cars around a forest stage. The point of that was that we wanted to do something that was an authentic rally experience for the hardware of the time, even though it was going to be an arcade-y game.”
Rallying cry
(Image credit: Codemasters)
Retro Gamer: Subscribe!(Image credit: Future)This feature originally appeared inRetro Gamer magazine. For more in-depth features and interviews on classic games delivered to your door or digital device,subscribe to Retro Gamerorbuy an issue!
Retro Gamer: Subscribe!
(Image credit: Future)This feature originally appeared inRetro Gamer magazine. For more in-depth features and interviews on classic games delivered to your door or digital device,subscribe to Retro Gamerorbuy an issue!
(Image credit: Future)
This feature originally appeared inRetro Gamer magazine. For more in-depth features and interviews on classic games delivered to your door or digital device,subscribe to Retro Gamerorbuy an issue!
Just as important as the game’s modelling was the look of its locations, which were based on those of the official World Rally Championship. As the internet and digital photography hadn’t yet come of age, this required globetrotting and skilled artists. “We sent people to different locations to take reference. That was important,” Chris emphasises. “One of my best friend’s brother happened to live in Kenya, and that was one of the locations in the game, so we sent him around Kenya, driving and taking references, which he then sent back to us. Sometimes we would send people working on the track designs as well as artists. When they stood on the roads they got a better insight on how to construct the tracks in the game. Then on the other side, a lot of clever people in the art team optimised things and did as much with the textures as possible to get as much variation as we could.”
As well as getting reference for Colin McRae Rally’s environments, the team working on the project got the star of their game and his co-driver into the studio to do voice recordings. The team also got pointers on the implementation of their game’s cars. “Both Colin McRae and Nicky Grist were pretty involved,” Chris reviews. “I remember working on the Rally School mode, and I wrote a list of all the things that Colin needed to say. When he read them back you could tell he wasn’t a voice actor! He also gave us advice on how the cars handled, and it was just really cool to understand that stuff. Nicky would do the pace notes, which were for every corner or bit of the track that you came to.”
Starting line
(Image credit: Codemasters)
While Colin McRae Rally came together, a rival firm beat Codemasters to market with a PlayStation rally game of its own. But rather than worrying the Colin McRae team, it convinced them that their decision to pour time into modelling was the right one. “When V Rally was released we were in mid-dev on Colin McRae Rally,” Chris recollects. “We didn’t think they got the sliding/hand brake right, so in general we were reassured of where we were at on the handling model versus that. Colin McRae Rally was realistic enough rather than being a game that didn’t really obey the laws of physics.”
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Second lap
(Image credit: Codemasters)
The follow-up’s fresh features also included a Challenge mode, which unlike the main mode, involved a knockout tournament rather than a league. Although this option was new to Rally 2.0, it had actually been intended for the original game. “The first game was really good, but there was a load of stuff on the drawing board that we didn’t manage to get into it,” Chris reveals. “The different modes and challenges were some of those things. The Knockout mode was an obvious thing to have just from a player perspective, as some might not want to have an experience that was more drawn out. Someone who stopped playing the main mode because they were a bit stuck would also have thought it was great to explore the other modes.”
Next-gen racer
(Image credit: Codemasters)
Restrictions of a more technical kind initially limited an aspect of Rally 2.0’s aesthetics, but thanks to clever coding, and encouragement from a Codemasters founder, a way was found to overcome them. “We just couldn’t get dirt on the cars, but Richard Darling was adamant about it,” Chris sighs. “He really pressed the programmers working on that stuff. They were very talented guys, and so they did some technical wizardry to get mud spatter happening on the cars. It sounds ridiculous these days, but it was quite technically challenging at the time.”
More technical challenges followed as the success of Rally 2.0 led to Colin McRae Rally 3. Unlike its predecessors, it was designed for the PS2, and learning to code for the powerful new system resulted in a more realistic game with fewer modes. “That probably came from a technical focus on getting the game engine stood up,” Chris reckons. “We were writing our own game engines, and it was the jump to PS2. It took some of the engine guys quite a long time just to get polygons on the screen on the PlayStation 2. It was not super easy to program for out of the gate, even though it had a lot more horsepower than the PlayStation. So I think the focus there was naturally far more towards simulation.”
One addition to Rally 3 was an upgrade system where performing well in rallies was rewarded with performance parts for your car. These were chosen for the player rather than them getting a choice, which made sense for a number of reasons. “I think that was really just to give simplicity to the upgrade path,” Chris considers, “and to allow us to tune the game to what the car was doing rather than having a wide variation due to different parts being equipped. If you put a huge engine into a Mini then you would have torn the drivetrain to pieces, and it wouldn’t have been able to turn around corners. With each car there was a range through tuning it, but it was also important not to go outside the range of plausibility.”
Gearing up
(Image credit: Codemasters)
“It didn’t change the ethos from the first game, which was that you were supposed to feel like you were rally driving.”
“It didn’t change the ethos from the first game, which was that you were supposed to feel like you were rally driving.”
One other feature that there was time to develop for Rally 04 was an Expert mode with a forced cockpit view. Another mode showcased insanely powerful cars, and two more focussed on 2WD and 4WD models. “It was fun for us for the sim to be locked into the cockpit view, because that gave you the most authentic feeling,” Chris observes. “We spent a lot of time tuning the views behind the car, but actually sitting in the car was its own thing. With the massively overpowered banned Eighties cars, well you want to do things with videogames that aren’t very possible in real life! Then there was a lot of affection for both the 2WD and 4WD groups, so those were just obvious modes to include.”
One more go around
(Image credit: Codemasters)
As with the earlier titles, the highly rated Rally 04 led to a sequel – Colin McRae Rally 2005. Chris didn’t have a hands-on role on the project, but he took an interest in the fifth game in the series and approved of it pitting you against Colin McRae in one mode. “I don’t know if people liked that or not, but it was an obvious idea to race Colin,” Chris contemplates. “You were playing as Colin in Colin McRae Rally 3, where you were locked into racing in the Ford Focus, so it was an interesting idea to race against him in Colin McRae Rally 2005.”
Although Colin McRae Rally 2005 was well received, its follow-ups partially and then completely dropped the Colin McRae name, and embraced other racing disciplines. Asked about Colin McRae Rally’s legacy, Chris recalls an anecdote and singles out Rally 2.0 for praise. “I met this guy recently, and he was a big fan of Colin McRae Rally,” Chris beams. “He claimed it saved him from crashing not long after he had started driving, because it was wet weather and he knew to react accordingly after playing the game. We spent a long time internally playing that, and it’s always a good sign when you see your team playing something in their spare time that they’re spending their whole life making. It was the same with Colin McRae Rally 2.0, but there was a lot of stuff in it that we had more time to finesse, so I would say that it’s one of the best titles in the series, and it’s absolutely still fun to play.”
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PRODUCTSColin McRae Rally 2005Colin McRae Rally 3Colin McRae RallyColin McRae Rally 2Colin McRae Rally 04
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