30 years ago Sony and WipEout used nightclub culture to transform gaming’s image

Favourite WipEout game?

  • WipEout (1995)

    Votes: 32 19.0%

  • WipEout 2097 (1996)

    Votes: 55 32.7%

  • Wip3out (1999)

    Votes: 15 8.9%

  • WipEout Fusion (2001)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • WipEout Pure (2005)

    Votes: 6 3.6%

  • WipEout HD (2008)

    Votes: 23 13.7%

  • WipEout Pulse (2009)

    Votes: 1 0.6%

  • WipEout Omega Collection (2017)

    Votes: 33 19.6%

  • WipEout 2048 (2012)

    Votes: 3 1.8%
  • Total voters
    168

Burcombe was working as Lead Designer at the Liverpool game studio Psygnosis and the company had been bought by Sony to create new games for the launch of the Playstation One. Psygnosis artist, Jim Bowers, had already started work on a very early concept demo movie for a futuristic racer game when he went down the pub with Burcombe one night. "Relaying the story to Jim about my trance Mario Kart experience, he also started to get excited," recalls Burcombe. "So we decided to put new music to his video. We opted for The Prodigy's 'No Good' because of the pace of it really fitting with the action on screen."
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Surprised the track didn't make it into the first game, it's such a banger and would've suited it sonwell

 
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Hudo said:
How did we get from the awesomeness that is Wipeout to a muscular goblina having cringy sex in The Last of Us 2?
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You probably know why, I'll just reiterate it though: PS got too big and began to draw attention from some folks who wanted a piece of that pie. The new "tribe" then incrementally replaced those who made it big originally and changed it from within.

Short version: The wrong people got their foot in the door.



I'm honestly starting to believe much of this Euro awesomeness can be attributed to the old Psygnosis crew. It seems like it was their initiative to lend PS this cool en vogue subculture vibe.
 
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SkylineRKR said:
Yeah this was a fun time. Basically Nintendo and Sega were ofcourse still around, but gamers grew up. If you were 16, and you attended clubs and events, all you would ever encounter was PSX stuff in the chill out and promotions. Playstation demopods were everywhere in scenes where Nintendo and Sega didn't exist. This was a very smart move on Sony's part. For this audience Nintendo and Sega weren't cool, Sony was the de facto choice for 16+ audiences and this is exactly what happened.
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I never saw any for MegaDrive or SNES outside of Toy 'R' Us, but Sony seemed to put PlayStation everywhere.

Whenever you stepped foot in a Topman they'd have one (usually running the latest FIFA title).

Never experienced any of the "PlayStation rooms" in the clubs back in the day, but I remember Space & Time having one by the bogs with Formula One 99 (funnily enough another Psygnosis game) running on it.

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People always mention Japan Studio and the lack of Japanese studios when talking about PlayStation's lack of identity, but I think the lack of British studios and culture is also truly palpable. The repeated closures of British studios throughout PlayStation's history are worrying and evidence of a disastrous handling of cultural and intellectual heritage over decades.
 
Hypereides said:
You probably know why, I'll just reiterate it though: PS got too big and began to draw attention from some folks who wanted a piece of that pie. The new "tribe" then incrementally replaced those who made it big originally and changed it from within.

Short version: The wrong people got their foot in the door.



I'm honestly starting to believe much of this Euro awesomeness can be attributed to the old Psygnosis crew. It seems like it was their initiative to lend PS this cool en vogue subculture vibe.
Click to expand...

We didn't appreciate Psygnosis enough until we lost them...
 
Drew1440 said:
Wasnt the original WipEout on the Sega Saturn and DOS also. Sony exclusivity didn't come until WipEout 3.
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Yes, although I had a PlayStation, I also had a PC and most of their "classics" like Wipeout, Destruction Derby and Tomb raider I played on that instead. But in a backwards way, more "PC" games like Theme Park and Discworld I had for the PlayStation.

Edit - You have to remember that Sony had good relations with the music and film industries at the time. That's why they were able to market PlayStation as being "Adult" and not a kiddie bedroom hobby. They promoted PlayStation outside of gaming magazines because they could also talk about a film or musical artist in different articles.
 
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RetroGamingUK said:
For those (particularly in America) who don't know who the likes of the Prodigy and Chemical Brothers are
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I grew up in the mid-Atlantic US where, in the pre-internet days, radio was pretty much limited to adult contemporary, rock/classic rock, country, and R&B/hip hop. There was zero electronic music. Might hear a track in a film but that was it.

I credit the original Wipeout OST from Cold Storage, Wipeout 2097's more licensed OST, and my (now) wife introducing me to Robert Miles in late 1996 with opening my eyes to the electronic music scene.
 
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This thread just has me sitting here saying to myself that Sony needs to just bring it back. These games were always fun and I can never get into the imitators.
 
They should remake Wipeout XL/2097, crazy game, I used to do perfect on pirahana all levels.

Edit: just to add, in cockpit view!
 
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PlayStation's Official Magazine in the UK also squarely targeted people in their late teens and early twenties.

They really leant heavily into the lad mag's trend at the time (though by 2003 it became absurdly smutty).

Remember this was a time where most other magazines featured hand-drawn cartoon characters reviewing games and answering letters


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Crayon said:
I can't think of a game that looked and sounded more cool at that time. It made edgy 90's attitude like sonic look like it was for little kids. Even stuff like tekken or twisted metal only looked "cool, for a video game" in comparison.
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Closest thing I can think of is Tomb Raider. That was also branching outside of gaming circles.
 
Hypereides said:
You probably know why, I'll just reiterate it though: PS got too big and began to draw attention from some folks who wanted a piece of that pie. The new "tribe" then incrementally replaced those who made it big originally and changed it from within.

Short version: The wrong people got their foot in the door.



I'm honestly starting to believe much of this Euro awesomeness can be attributed to the old Psygnosis crew. It seems like it was their initiative to lend PS this cool en vogue subculture vibe.
Click to expand...

This is my favourite song of all time. I woke up to it for over 20 years. I stopped when Roberto died.
 
One of my favorite gaming IPs, I bought all games since the first one.

I assume won't happen because of sales, but I'd love to see:
  • Wipeout anime (movie + tv show) adaptation
  • Wipeout OST music albums featuring all tracks from all games
  • Wipeout tribute music albums
  • Brand new Wipeout game for PS5 (with PSVR2 optional support) + PC GaaS
    • Story mode with anime cutscenes from the adaptation
    • Periodically gets new ships and ship customization parts (see Pacer/Formula Fusion)
    • Periodically gets new pilot and pilot customization parts
    • Periodically gets new stages (both new and remade versions of ALL stages of ALL previous games)
    • Periodically gets new music tracks
    • Part of that post launch content would be -properly adapted- guest content from other moderately futuristic or racing Sony IPs that would fit like Helldivers, Destiny, Marathon, Killzone, Horizon, Rollcage, Jet Moto, Astro Bot, Intergalactic, Motorstorm, Ridge Racer, Gran Turismo, etc.
    • Each season gets a new game mode
    • eSports
      • Allow player make custom online tournaments
      • PlayStation Tournaments support
      • WipEout World Cup:
        • Every quarter a country specific tournament as online qualifiers
        • Yearly presential world finals at REVO, a racing themed new EVO tournament that would also host the world finals of Gran Turismo and other racing games
 
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Playing Wipeout in VR was one of the most amazing gaming experiences of my life. Sublime.

MDSLKTR said:
I saw Prodigy live for the first time when Wipeout HD came out. I was never the same after that.
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Saw them & Chemical Brothers at Blackpool Winter Gardens right around the time the PS launched, would probably be a few months after around near xmas. Didn't buy the console until later, was still rocking my Atari Jaguar 😂 There was a lot of chatter and buzz around the new PlayStation when we ended up playing that thing though a haze of smoke up in my Salford Uni digs.
mitch1971 said:
Sundays car boot. Loads of stalls inside the building selling PC parts.
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Never went to the nightclub, just the car boot - hunting old Ataris, 8-bit computers and VFD electronic games. There was a stall there every week selling just new, boxed Atari 7800s and brand new sealed games, another time a stall had dozens of new, boxed Mega CD systems and there was always a stall with Megadrive games all flat out on the table - got Mega Man the Wily Wars for a fiver from him. Found my only Atari lab loaner cart in the wild there one day.
 
No BBC=Anger said:
Closest thing I can think of is Tomb Raider. That was also branching outside of gaming circles.
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In that way - reaching out into pop culture, tomb raider was bigger. Wipeout was different.

If you remember, and if you can relate.... I was 13 or 14 or something. At that age, when some non-gamer came in to see me playing video games, it could be a little embarrassing. More or less so depending on the game. Thinking hard, the most acceptable would have been sports games. Those were known to skew older, and some of the "cool kids" played madden.

Then there were things like doom and tomb raider, that did look more mature in presentation than say, mario kart.

But then there was Wipeout. Whole nother thing. The music was like 75% of it. Then the red bull ads (really), the intimidating speed. Lack of any cute characters or voices. It looked like one of those abstracted fake vr/simulator/games you would see in a sci fi movie. The kind the protagonist would be good at. In fact, I think it was at one point (edit: yes. "Hackers", 1995). You could play it with the volume up and someone might mention the music. You could say it was chemical brothers and big in the uk. It was just much cooler.
 
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mitch1971 said:
In the 80's 90's they would use old or abandoned buildings or areas not belonging to them to host the night, all under the cover of darkness. Nothing to do with Sharia law.
Click to expand...

It's come back in a big way.

The 2008 financial crash, online dating, cost of living and COVID all killed off many nightclubs in the UK

Warehouse raves have just filled the gap, we've come full circle

Even the music is the same as 30 years ago (trance, rave, d&b etc)

 
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Going to disagree that Sega was in kids toys business. Maybe if you were not into gaming back then you thought that.
 
RetroGamingUK said:
Buy copies off eBay, look after them, they'll be with you for life
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I used to have them, but sold my retro collection years ago (out of necessity, so no regrets).

I'm actually shocked Sony hasn't at least made a remastered collection. I'd buy it in a heartbeat, especially if it included the Rollcage games.
 
navii said:
Going to disagree that Sega was in kids toys business. Maybe if you were not into gaming back then you thought that.
Click to expand...

Gamers were aging up, and sega was grabbing more of that than nintendo. But those "older kids" still would have been 14-16yo during the 16-bit era.

Sega wanted to continue that with saturn, and they did, but sony leapfrogged it by focusing on sports, violence, and things like wipeout. Partially because Sega's big guns were arcade ports that were stuck with a bright and upbeat vibe.

Funny we're still all aging up lol. What is going to be the first great die-off?? PS10 or so???
 
Sony made deals with big nightclubs like London's Ministry of Sound and Liverpool's Cream to place PlayStation demo pods in "chill out" rooms and toilets while you queued for a piss.
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:messenger_poop: Not the first place for gaming that would come to mind. Although, I guess it's now the norm with handhelds. I'm a bit too old school for that, and prefer to read while sitting on the throne.


Speaking of sound, while I love the Omega Collection, it's weird to play the WipEout HD tracks without the original background music. It's a shame they had to change them. For that reason alone, I prefer the original.
 
Illegal raves happened because local authorities still wouldn't greenlight music like this, and they wouldn't borrow space for it. They were like, electronic music is 100% drug abuse.. in my experience its about 80% though.

But seriously, parties, from word of mouth and illegal flyering, started to pop up at warehouses or at the docks as a result. Those parties were the best. Ofcourse, the security and first aid options was suspect but just use your conscience, don't be stupid and enjoy.

I am very happy I grew up in this era. It was a ton of fun.

navii said:
Going to disagree that Sega was in kids toys business. Maybe if you were not into gaming back then you thought that.
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Sega targeted a bit older audience than Nintendo did, but it was still kids. Lets say that if the SNES was aimed at 12 year olds, the Megadrive was aimed at 14 year olds. That older and wiser friend or brother would prefer Sega. Note that ESRB didn't exist until 1994. As teens we would rent horror movies or buy MK no problem.

Saturn with its price, looks, storage medium and software was obviously aimed at an older demographic but Sega clearly lacked any sort of plan to find this audience. Sony offered just that and much more at a lower entry price. And they managed to find the consumer by simply being everywhere.
 
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Wipeout was cool for a while, I liked playing for time in 2097 with the Piranha.

Tho honestly once I got FZero GX I never looked back. The difference in raw game feel and quality is so massive.
 
RetroGamingUK said:
www.timeextension.com

Best Of 2024: "The S**t Absolutely Hit The Fan" - When WipEout (And Sara Cox's Bloody Nose) Shocked A Nation

"It seemed there'd been a not-very-robust sign-off process"
www.timeextension.com www.timeextension.com



Very much sums up the "games are for kids" attitude at the time.
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Leah Betts was the big news death, who died a year after the ad came out. Before Betts died, a few others had died and the press were wetting their knickers over drug usage in the younger generation. They would jump on anything they could.
 
Crayon said:
Gamers were aging up, and sega was grabbing more of that than nintendo. But those "older kids" still would have been 14-16yo during the 16-bit era.

Sega wanted to continue that with saturn, and they did, but sony leapfrogged it by focusing on sports, violence, and things like wipeout. Partially because Sega's big guns were arcade ports that were stuck with a bright and upbeat vibe.

Funny we're still all aging up lol. What is going to be the first great die-off?? PS10 or so???
Click to expand...

There seems to be a bit of a generation divide still when it comes to games.

Whenever we talk about games in the office the over 50s in the office usually roll their eyes and make snarky comments and then get back to discussing whatever drab soap opera they were watching last night.

The under 30s at work seem to be even more enthusiastic than my generation was when it comes to games, no gender divide whatsoever either.

I think most over 50s either weren't into games or dropped them once they entered their adolescence. As for the younger ones, seems like the increase in female character lead games might be paying off.
 
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2097

Great soundtrack & great game.

There was an edge to this period of gaming from Sony, which we'd not seen much of prior with the likes of Nintendo & Sony aiming at the younger audience with Mario & Sonic. Loved this era, remember playing the demo for 2097 a lot.
 
RetroGamingUK said:
There seems to be a bit of a generation divide still when it comes to games.

Whenever we talk about games in the office the over 50s in the office usually roll their eyes and make snarky comments and then get back to discussing whatever drab soap opera they were watching last night.

The under 30s at work seem to be even more enthusiastic than my generation was when it comes to games, no gender divide whatsoever either.

I think most over 50s either weren't into games or dropped them once they entered their adolescence. As for the younger ones, seems like the increase in female character lead games might be paying off.
Click to expand...

Most over 50s were a little to old for kid stuff when the NES came out. It would have been only big gaming fans playing games at 15-30yo in the nes era. The nes kids are all in their 40's now and gaming itself is aging up with them.
 
Not loving it enough is the only reason why there's no more Wipeout.
Sales, fucking sales
Even if you love it so much after a few years if enough people don't buy it in the lauch window there's no hope for any game.

I bought Wipeout on day 2, I brought back Ridge Racer still closed cause of Demo Disk with Wipeout in it
Since then I bought day one every Wipeout made for PlayStation (even Pure and Pulse for PSP) Knowing that not much people were doing the same
The only really loved Wipeout are 2097, HD Fury and HD Fury for PS4, not enough entries in the serie to hope for a new chapter

Maybe if AA games will come back we'll se Something but I'm not confident

(Same for FZero...)
 
This was the beginning of mainstream/casual gaming. When non-gamers and even people who would previously mock games entered the hobby.

For better or worse. I'm somewhere in the middle. It was exciting back then but today i sometimes wish gaming was still a niche hobby for nerds.
 
For anyone feeling nostalgic, Cold Storage offers remastered versions of his musical works for Wipeout for sale on his Bandcamp page.

I'm partial to the Chillout remixes myself.

(My dumbass kept calling him Cold Fusion, but I fixed those mistakes.)


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Nydius said:
For anyone feeling nostalgic, Cold Storage offers remastered versions of his musical works for Wipeout for sale on his Bandcamp page.

I'm partial to the Chillout remixes myself.

(My dumbass kept calling him Cold Fusion, but I fixed those mistakes.)


lqNGs6dooGgAL2Xk.png
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Great find

Funnily enough the guy had never stepped foot in a club and had no interest in dance music before the WipEout project.

He was just the Psygnosis music guy
 
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