the Microsoft hardware team delivered
in a big way, and the rest is history.”
It’s easy to forget just what a
powerful machine Microsoft’s console
was at launch, and it’s no surprise
that there was concern from the
devs when they were told the specs
that Microsoft’s first games console
would possess. “The Xbox truly was
a cutting-edge gaming machine,”
recalls Larsen. “It was more powerful
than the most tricked-out gaming PCs
that were available at the time. The
original specs for polygon counts and
the enormous size of the mountains
posed a considerable problem for the
level design team. The Xbox specs
for the levels required more video
processing power than was available
at that time. We ended up using Mac
G5 Power PCs with prototype video
cards, alongside the most tricked-out,
loaded PCs that you could buy. Even
then our dev team still had to write
a bunch of special tools that would
sort of simulate the video processing
power that would be possible with
the final Xbox hardware. It was cool
technology for its time, but it sure
made the level design difficult.”
One thing that did ease the
difficulty of Amped’s creation was
the Xbox’s hard drive, which ended up
being used for a variety of purposes
by Larsen’s team. “Yes, we used the
hard drive for music storage, and we
also used it for caching the trees from
the levels, as well as the physics,
and geometry from the mountains,”
he reveals. “One of our directives for
TOP Multiplayer
doesn’t allow
for split-screen
play, but the
sequel fixed
that problem.
ABOVE MIDDLE One
of Amped’s
challenges
requires you to
pull off
spectacular
tricks for
nearby
photographers.the launch of the Xbox as a Microsoft
Game Studio was to find creative ways
to use the hard drive.”Nailed it!
Ultimately, one of the reasons
Amped was so popular at the time
was how accurate it felt. The slopes
consisted of all different types of
powdered snow, which could affect
the movement of your rider. Their
equipment also had an impact on
the game’s physics, while the ability
to choose different parts of themountain, complete a variety of tasks
and face off against professional
snowboarders meant there was always
a reason to return. Presentation also
played a huge part of the game’s
appeal, thanks to a scrapbook
that would slowly get filled up with
increasingly bizarre pictures as your
snowboarder climbed to the top of
the leaderboards. “We were going for
realism, and the style matched the
culture,” continues Larsen. “I think
that Amped grew into its own unique
style as the series progressed and
was accepted by the snowboarding
industry as authentic.”
Amped ended up being more than
a sum of its parts, scoring well in
reviews and selling well enough to
lead to two sequels (as well as a
planned fourth title called Amped
World). It remains one of Larsen’s
proudest achievements and highlights
just how good a game can be when
the team understands what it’s
creating. “One of the hardest things
to deliver in a snowboarding game is
the amazing feeling of flying down a
mountain, whether carving on fast
groomers or floating and slashing
deep powder turns,” concludes
Larsen. “The tricks were easy, the
culture was a natural fit, but sucking
gamers in by the balance between
jacket-flapping-out-of-control speed,
and responsive control on our huge
mountains was difficult.” Despite all
that difficulty, the result was one
of the best snowboarding games to
grace the Xbox. QMore Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 103