Monday, January 26, 2009

Muzax 11, 4th and final part – WipEout, Destruction Derby, Formula One, the successes of Psygnosis


In the fourth and final part of this Muzax episode dedicated to the games developed or published by Psygnosis, you will hear music from the games WipEout, Destruction Derby, Formula One, WipEout 2097, Colony Wars, Rollcage and Lemmings Revolution on PCs and the Playstation.

Listen to this podcast : (comments in French)



Download this podcast in MP3 format by clicking on this link. (comments in French)


Content of broadcast:
Welcome to Muzax, the video games music broadcast.

Let’s continue our exploration of the music world of the games of the company “Psygnosis”.

In 1995, Psygnosis developed and published one of the most famous imaginary racing games: “WipEout”.
Psygnosis, which was bought by “Sony Corporation” two years earlier, focused its activity more and more on developing games for PCs, for the Saturn and for the first Sony game console, the “Playstation”.
These devices offer new technical possibilities thanks to the addition of a CD player.
Until then, music was generated by sound processors. Real audio tracks replaced them.
WipEout illustrates this with its electro music style.

“Destruction Derby” was released in 1995 on the Playstation and PC.
This new hit is a car racing game or, more precisely, a stock-car game.
The aim is not only to win races but also to destroy your opponents’ vehicles.

“Formula One” was developed by “Bizarre Creations” and was released in 1996.
The key to a successful console is to offer a large range of games.
With the purchase of Psygnosis, Sony was able to release high-quality games on its console.
Formula One is one of the Playstation’s blockbusters. Its success led to the release of a sequel each year.

Still in 1996, the sequel to « WipEout » was released on the Playstation.
Named « WipEout 2097 » or « WipEout XL », the game was also released on the Saturn, Windows PCs and the Amiga.
Moreover, this game is the last one published by Psygnosis on this machine.

« Colony Wars » is a space shooter game and was released in 1997.
Surprisingly, in the same year, Psygnosis released another game of the same genre called « G-Police ».

« Rollcage » is another imaginary racing game and was released in 1999.
That year, Psygnosis which had 250 employees became a subsidiary of “Sony Computer Entertainment Europe”.
Lots of reorganization took place, some studios were sold or closed, others merged.
The famous development studio located in Liverpool was renamed “SCE Studio Liverpool”.

The Lemmings were back in the year 2000 in “Lemmings Revolution”.
This cult series was made up of about ten episodes which sold more than 20 million copies.

After 16 years of existence, Psygnosis stopped developing games .
After having produced or published many games that significantly influenced the videogame world, the purple owl took its leave.

This broadcast dedicated to Psygnosis is now over. Thanks for listening and tune in soon for a new episode of Muzax.

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