Planet of Death
| POD: Planet of Death | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Original title | POD | ||
| Studio | Ubisoft Entertainment | ||
| Publisher | Ubisoft Entertainment | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
February 28, 1997 (USA) January 5, 1999 (EU) |
||
| platform | Windows | ||
| genre | Racing game , arcade | ||
| Subject | Science fiction | ||
| Game mode | Single player, multiplayer | ||
| control | Keyboard Mouse | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
Pentium-90, 16 MB RAM, Windows 95 |
||
| medium | CD-ROM, download | ||
| language | German | ||
| Age rating |
|
||
POD: Planet of Death is a futuristic racing game from the French computer game manufacturer Ubisoft . It was first published in 1997.
action
The background story is about a mushroom called Pod , which is exposed to the oxygen atmosphere and activated by a mine disaster on the previously prosperous planet “Io”. The planet is then evacuated, but some people stay behind, either because they did not want to or because they had no choice. In order to get the remaining place in the last shuttle, the player has to compete with seven computer opponents in various races.
description
Special features of the game are surreal graphics, exact driving behavior of the racing cars and winding routes with many dead ends. Up to eight drivers can compete against each other via network, internet, modem or split screen. Using the "Game Service" it was possible for POD players to compete against each other on the Ubisoft servers. But this is no longer possible.
technology
POD was one of the first games to support the MMX instruction sets for Intel processors. The game was therefore included in the OEM version of numerous computers with Intel MMX processors. However, the OEM version did not offer support for 3dfx cards or network mode.
POD was also one of the first games to be optimized for 3D graphics cards from 3dfx . Initially, this only affected Voodoo 1 . A little later, Ubisoft released a patch for the Voodoo 2 , a force feedback patch and a Direct3D patch.
Versions and successors
POD offers twelve futuristic racetracks in the OEM version and 16 in the standard version. In addition, numerous other routes could be downloaded from the Internet. About a year after POD was released, Ubisoft released an expansion called Back to Hell . It offered 19 additional routes, most of which, however, were already available on the Ubisoft servers. Ubisoft later released a gold version with 32 tracks.
Ubisoft released a sequel to the end of 2000 under the title POD: Speedzone . However, this was only available for the Dreamcast game console .
At the end of 2011, POD Gold was re-released digitally. The game was adapted to current hardware and Windows 7, whereby the game remains the same.
Web links
- POD at MobyGames (English, accessed July 3, 2012)
- Ubisoft Germany - information and patches
- dgVoodoo - Glide wrapper and Pentium 4 patch
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://pod.ubi.com/ENGLISH/preview/story/index.html ( Memento from March 6, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Classic game POD - Planet of Death Gold now available at GOG.com