With the E3 still fresh in our minds, and console and portable gaming taking up most of our posts we overlook the studios that are keeping arcade gaming alive. This week we'll look at one of the little studios that is living the dream and keeping arcade games relevant.
A decade ago Steve Ranck and his friends worked at Midway. They released what I believe to be the greatest arcade racing game ever. You might have heard, or are possibly fans of Hydro Thunder as well. They left Midway shortly after to start up Swinging Ape Studios, which developed the console gem Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. They went their separate ways yet managed to stay in the industry and remain good friends. Almost 10 years to the date Hydro Thunder got a spiritual successor and I was lucky enough to be reporting the latest details.
It was my first request for an interview regarding videogames. Just my luck it was answered. That friendly gesture showed me that there were good people working behind the scenes. It motivated me to keep on writing and keep on asking for interviews.
I contacted Specular Interactive about an interview and Steve Ranck who was now the President of the company replied. He remembered the days of the old Hydro Thunder Fan Site and was willing to conduct an interview. To give you a better sense of how things evolved over the years I am posting the original interviews with Team Hydro and starting tomorrow we'll take an in-depth look at H2Overdrive.
20 Questions with Team Hydro Thunder (conducted in 1999)
Team Hydro. Taken at P.F. Changs in San Diego, CA on the completion of Hydro Thunder. Top row from left: Gary Carbonel, Steve Ranck, Scott Goffman, Mike Starich, Andy Wilson. Bottom row from left: Orpheus Hanley, Dale Henderscheid, Brian Silva, Eric Browning. Not shown: Scott Patterson, Steve Kramer and John Stookey.
1. Let's have your name.
(see #2).
2. What position did you have in creating Hydro Thunder?
Steve Ranck - Lead Programmer / Project Lead
Eric Browning - Lead Artist
Mike Starich - Programmer
Scott Goffman - Lead 3D Artist
Brian Silva - Artist
Dale Henderscheid - Artist
Gary Carbonel - Artist
Andy Wilson - Artist
Orpheus Hanley - Music and Sound
3. What experience did you have with games before Hydro Thunder?
Steve - I've been designing and building games since I was a boy.
Eric - Came from Visual Concepts Entertainment in San Rafael, CA., Worked on John Madden Football for SNES and Genesis '94-'95 and the ill-fated '96 Playstation version. Before that, Clayfighter and a variety of SNES flops. My final project there was the original "Floigan Brothers" design with Brian Silva, who is also on the Hydro team.
Mike - Previous game (a puzzle game), Lose Your Marbles for Win95.
Scott - Mechwarrior 2 (intro & exit movies, wrapper art, cover art), Zork: Nemesis (intro movie, in-game art).
Dale - Some SNES and PSX.
Gary - Hydro Thunder is actually the first game I've worked on.
Andy - Worked as one of three artists on DOOM64, and a large portion of designing Troy Aikman Football for Super NES, and Sega Genisis.
4. What type of education did you get before joining Midway?
Steve - BSEE from California Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Eric - BA in Illustration from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.
Mike - Degree in Mathematics from California Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Scott - A Film degree from UCSB.
Dale - Art school.
Gary - I received my degree in Product design at Art Center in Pasadena. Watching sci-fi films (Aliens, Star Wars, etc.) really educated me in what the current trends are in entertainment design.
Andy - Honor graduate from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.
5. Is this the first project the team is working on?
Steve - Yes. Looks like there'll be more, though.
6. What games inspired the development of Hydro Thunder?
Steve - Sega's Daytona.
7. What are your favorite games, for the PC, arcade or console?
Steve - PC: Team Fortress Classic, Half-Life; ARCADE: Hydro Thunder (really... no BS); CONSOLE: Zelda 64.
Eric - I love Zelda in all it's incarnations, Earthworm Jim, Skullmonkeys, Grim Fandango are a few favs. Metal Gear Solid I like but am stuck with that nasty Sniper Wolf.
Mike - I enjoy mainly console titles, with the Crash Bandicoot series ranking as my favorite game of recent time.
Scott - Half-Life (PC), Virtua Cop 2, Time Crisis II (arcade).
Dale - Half-life, Cycles for SGI.
Gary - I really enjoy playing Team Fortress on the PC. For the arcade, I enjoy shooters (House of the Dead 1 and 2, and Time Crisis).
Andy - For PC I would have to say any flight simulator that holds my attention for more than an hour is a favorite. In terms of arcade... Hydro Thunder (of course), House Of The Dead, and a small handfull of cabinets from the seventies and eighties. Console... Abe's Oddworld is well crafted, Star Fox 64, and Earth Worm Jim, are just a few favorites.
8. How many hours did you put into creating Hydro Thunder?
Steve - Some of us put in as many as 15 hours a day for two years straight. Weekends excluded (which is why we're still alive).
9. The reviews for Hydro Thunder have been favorable in many print and online magazines. How are you taking the publicity?
Steve - It's definitely a cool thing. But more rewarding than the press is all the emails we get from Hydro Thunder players around the world telling us how much they enjoy the game. Sounds cheesy, but it's true. It makes it worth the hard work.
10. What other hobbies do you have aside from videogaming?
Steve - SCI-FI movies and novels, taking apart and studying anything technical, dreaming up a better world.
Eric - Designing characters, playing with my 10 month old daughter Raelyn, making fun of my dogs.
Scott - 'Gator wrasslin.
Dale - Taxidermy.
Gary - I love to write short stories, play guitar and sing, sketch, work out, and practice martial arts.
Andy - My hobbies... Bass fishing, bass fishing and bass fishing.
11. What was your funniest moment when creating Hydro Thunder?
Steve - The 1998 Midway 4th of July party.
Eric - Either "SWEET JESUS!!" or "GO GO GO WE'RE FOLLOWING YOU!!" You had to be there.
Scott - When Dale went postal and tried to kill us all. Hilarity ensued.
Dale - There were some wacky moments adjusting ramp collision.
Gary - I work with a really goofy team so everyday had funny moments, but, I would have to say the funniest moment was the day we came up with Chum Dinger.
Andy - Funiest moment... almost all moments.
12. What one thing are you proud of in Hydro Thunder that you helped create?
Steve - If I had to pick just one thing it would have to be my SCLFX game engine.
Eric - The cabinet art, it's something I always wanted to do. Also, the church in Venice I'm proud of. The Cabinet art.
Mike - The networking (multiplayer) code.
Scott - The hidden "Nude Lara Croft" in the New York track.
Dale - Those little pointy things in Nile.
Gary - I am really pleased with the Far East track.
Andy - Boat texture maps.
13. During the long hours of production did the team ever loose its cool?
Steve - Sure. One guy even quit. But the rest of us really work well together and form a strong team.
14. What type of research did you do while making the game?
Steve - The team took a trip to Mission Bay in San Diego, CA to watch the Hydro races. We got pit passes and took tons of pictures and Orpheus recorded engine sounds. We'll have to do more "research" for future games, I'm sure.
15. What little or big details are you glad you created in the game?
Steve - The engine's lighting and water effects really give Hydro a unique, high-quality look.
Eric - The logo.
Scott - The polar bear animations in Arctic, the sharks in Ship Graveyard.
Gary - I love the animating vultures on the Nile track.
Andy - The creature at the end of Nile, the spinning torture room textures, and looks of the boats.
16. What one thing do you wish you could have added to the game?
Steve - 3D wakes behind the boats. I had them working at one point, but we didn't have the horsepower to keep them in and still do everything else we wanted to do.
Mike - A better Mighty Hull effect, we just ran out of time.
Scott - A better cabinet.
Dale - A small black ape in one of the tracks.
Gary - I wish I could've designed another secret boat.
Andy - More fantasy.
17. During development were there gameplay mechanics that didn't make it into the final version?
Steve - Not really. There were definitely things that we wanted to add that didn't make it, but none really revolved around gameplay. With the exception of MightyHull, gameplay ended up being as we always had intended it to be. I added MightyHull about 5 or 6 months before we shipped the game. It wasn't part of the original design.
18. From original idea to the finished product, how long did it take to create Hydro Thunder?
Steve - 2 years for some of us, a little less for most.
19. Do you have any input for the console conversions of Hydro Thunder?
Steve - The team reviews the conversions from time to time to comment on quality compared to the arcade version. That's about it.
20. Will there be a sequel to Hydro Thunder?
Steve - Maybe. Do you want one? What would you add?
A Quick Q&A with Steve Ranck (interview from late 1999)
1. Now that Hydro Thunder has been around for a while is the team changing it's name for the next project, or will it be "Team Hydro Thunder Presents"... a new game.
- We'll always be known as Team Hydro. Hydro Thunder was our first game together and so it makes sense that we keep it, regardless of the types of projects we're working on.
2. How much vacation time did you get after the completion of Hydro Thunder?
- The artists got 2 months, but the programmers only got like a month. I think I could have taken 6 months off and still not recovered completely!
3. How much work or traveling did you have to do to promote Hydro Thunder?
- Let's see, England for the ATE show, Las Vegas for the ASI show, Los Angeles for the E3 show, and Chicago for the Hydro Thunder National Championship. Next time around, I'm hoping to promote our next game in Hawaii.
4. How much feedback/ praise have you received from people around America (or the world) on Hydro Thunder?
- Support from Hydro fans has been more than any of us had expected. We receive many emails every week from gamers mostly just wanting to say how much they like the game. For the team, this is what it's all about! It's what makes the long hours totally worth it.
5. In the sequel to Hydro Thunder will there be enough changes to warrant an entirely new racing game experience, separating it from the original?
- I think it'll blow you guys away! You just wait and see, hehehehe... In fact, keep visiting Noe's site (this site) because I'm going to give him a picture of one of our new boats for him to post. This will be the first picture ever released on Hydro Thunder 2.
6. Have you been taking suggestions for Hydro Thunder 2 from this site as well as e-mail from around the world into consideration for the sequel?
- We're always open to ideas. Of course, not every suggestion will make it into the game. The strangest request we got was from a kid who wanted knives on the boats. Huh? Interesting idea, but I just can't see it happening.
7. I know you are not allowed to talk about the new project you are working on, but if you could give arcade gamers a few words to help build suspense what would you say?
- A few words? Hmmmm. How about lawsuit, fired, Bobbett. Oh wait, those are the words the Midway attorneys used to build suspense in my future if I were to say anything. At the risk of them actually pursuing any of that, I'll just say that it's a racing game on steroids. And leave it at that.
8. Are there any new or leaving members from the original Hydro Thunder team?
- At the end of Hydro, we had one programmer leave to go to Naughty Dog. He was the guy who wrote our sound system and AI stuff. With Hydro 2, we've hired a new programmer, Jason Gregory, who's been kicking serious ass. He's definitely part of Team Hydro and we couldn't be happier. Aside from that, everyone else is present and accounted for.
9. Has the team looked into developing directly for any of the home console systems? (both current and upcoming machines)
- We've discussed the idea of porting Hydro 2 to Playstation2 or X-Box after we're done with the arcade version. But seriously, that's a long time from now. We're just concentrating on the arcade version for now.
10. Does the team want to focus solely on Hydro Thunder racing games or would it like to branch out into car racing or a different genre?
- See Question #7 :) Thanks, Noe, for developing and maintaining such a kickass web site for Hydro Thunder! And thanks to all of your visitors for the great suggestions. It's good to be in touch with you gamers and hear what you'd like to see in a game!?? Go Go Go !!!-
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