''Big Scale Racing'' is a 2002 racing

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

by BumbleBeast.

Development

The studio began as a subsidiary of digital company Virtual Environments Systems & Consultancy (VESC), which was spun-off to create PC CD-ROM games on April 1, 2001. The company consisted of seven employees, which created scale models of

racing cars Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

(90 cm long) for the

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

game. The company anticipated an Autumn 2002 launch date, and aimed to distribute the game to big retailers and entertainment shops over the world, while accepting online orders over the Internet. The company started production on February 9, 2001. In Spring of that year, BumbleBeast signed license agreements with various race tracks to have the tracks featuring in current and future games. The company hired cartoon artist Patrick Schoenmaker on June 1, his debut video game. An internal beta was released on August 2, followed by an internal

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on September 9. The BumbleBeast website - premiering content about the game - was uploaded September 14. Summitsoft ( Omaha) signed a publishing/distribution deal for the North American continent on March 10, 2002. On March 12, an August release date for retail was set. Weather effects were added March 28. In response to beta and demo testers regarding Multiplayer LAN, developers announced 8 player LAN gaming on April 1, 2002. On April 11,

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company HD Interactive signed a publishing/distribution deal for

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. A public demo was released April 14. On April 18, Japanese company Aqua Systems signed a publishing/distribution deal for Japan. On May 25, Summitsoft and HD-Interactive presented the game at E3. By June 14, the US/

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version of BSR was set for the second week of August 2002, the EU version was set for September 20, and the Japanese version was set for mid August. On July 10 it was announced the game would have dedicated versions in

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, French,

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and

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. On July 7, QVSoftware signed a

distribution deal A distribution deal (also known as distribution contract or distribution agreement) is a legal agreement between one party and another, to handle distribution of a product. There are various forms of distribution deals. There are exclusive and no ...

for release in Australia/

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for early October 2002. On July 28 it was announced that in the previous week 50 thousand demos were downloaded from various sites. First screenshots were released on July 31. On August 16, the game was released in the US, and in the online stores Navarre,

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, and

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. An estimated 1,500,000 downloads of the demo occurred from August–October. A special edition of the game (Big Scale Racing Special Edition) was released in 2003.

Gameplay

Players race with 1/5 scale RC racing cars. The game features weather, multiple tracks and cars, and internet competition.

Reception

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EG ...

'' thought in its hands-on preview that the game was a serious simulator but also fun and playable. On release, the game received "mixed" reviews according to the

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website

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References

External links

Main page
* {{moby game, id=/windows/big-scale-racing 2002 video games Racing video games Video games developed in the Netherlands Windows games Windows-only games