So if you've been a fan of this game since 1999 or so, then you probably know the whole story. But just for craps and giggles, here it is anyway.

Redline (aka Redline Gang Warfare 2066 in Europe) was released in 1999 for the PC, by Beyond Games and Accolade. As you're in this forum, you're probably aware that this car combat + first person shooter of a game was unique for its time. Basically, Twisted Metal meets Quake is the best description. With the mash up of battling both in a vehicle and on foot, single player and multiplayer both thrived at the time. The game also contained an industrial metal soundtrack which was done in studio by the guitarist of Fear Factory (it might've been Dino, I forget who I emailed), a cyber apocalypse theme, unique weapons (saw flying is still monumental), and basically the only storyline in a game to feature orgonite.

By time late 1999 and early 2000 hit, the game was already basically dead. Through e-mails with co-creators Clark Stacey and Kris Johnson, I learned the signs were inevitable. They said, shortly before production on the game finished, Accolade pulled the plug on marketing. Other than a few magazine reviews and word-of-mouth scenarios, the game failed to achieve any success. As the two of them noted, the game started production in roughly 1996 as a 3D version of the game BattleWheels. In the four years of production, after finding out that Accolade dropped the ball, it was a total heartbreak for the whole team. You can see early screenshots and an early story (Jantro Kree was the main character's name apparently) at the old Beyond Games site through Archive.

There was no solid reason for Accolade's actions, but the fact that the company went out of business shortly after kind of cemented things. After Redline came out, a few members of the team started to work on other games. One of them was the official sequel called Redline 2, or also Redline Arena. It was suppose to be multiplayer based, and mainly for the DreamCast; however, it was never completed due to other desires. Eventually, the game turned into Motor Mayhem for the PS2, although the similarities between the two games are far and few between. More information (plus a PC demo) can be found at Neil Melville's site.

Beyond Games lasted a few more years, but eventually, they turned into Smart Bomb Interactive. After revamping itself yet again, the company (mainly Kris and Clark) became WildWorks. They created the hugely successful game Animal Jam, which is aimed at kids. From what I was told, for obvious reasons, the developer is only interested at games aimed at children (since they also probably made a huge profit off of it), and has no desire to make a game similar to Redline. Besides, the rights and licenses to Redline is now part of a company that acquired Atari (whom acquired Inforgrames, whom acquired Accolade).

The voice characters' futures are unknown (although Liddy was the only decent one anyway). The soundtrack, however, was reused partially for the game Spider-Man. Since Redline kind of flopped, Tommy Tallarico Studios probably thought it was safe to reuse the music anyway.

There are no "extra" source files, unfinished mods, lost maps, or software (besides the above mentioned Redline Arena). There is no way to mod the game except for various small patches. After Gamespy shut down, there is no server browser for the game (except for linking up to people on GOG or Steam). To actually see this game on GOG even surprises me, since it was a long forgotten title.

I think that covers Redline's history. It's not uncommon for games to go unnoticed due to an outside force's screw up. It's just pretty depressing as a whole. Despite the odd car sliding mechanisms and horribly dumb AI, this game was one of a kind, and could've been a huge hit. But whether you agree or not, the official history of this game is finally published online, so there ya have it. I lost my appetite.

P.S.: Type in teambeyond as a cheat code, and you'll get an interactive level. The ending is completely false, though.

P.P.S.: If you're bored with single player, there's a load of secrets within the game. You can find some of them at cheatcc.com/pc/sg/redline.txt

Thank you, for the historical information. So, what small patches are these? Any chance of a source code opening? I'd love to see a proper widecreen support and working music system, or better a Linux support.

There's a patch on this forum regarding resolutions. I don't know if it's the same as on the Steam community page. There was also a patch for single player that was like a trainer but not, I don't remember exactly what it did. There's also the official 1.1 patch but the GOG version seems to have that installed. The differences between 1.0 and 1.1 is minimal. From what I've seen, if you have 1.0, the Showdown level will sometimes not end, and not advance to the Rant boss fight. That's the biggest difference I've seen. There is also 2 versions of the demo, 1 has multiplayer and singleplayer, and 1 just has multiplayer.

I doubt the source code will come out, would have to ask the right people, since Kris and Clark doesn't have any software left. I think it used the Daedalus game engine though. I tried glancing at the BGD file but no luck opening it.

Also, what's wrong with the music? I know at the start of every level a WAV file plays, and with the actual CD, that music will play, although it follows the same playlist every time and kinda drowns out other sounds and music

I have the GOG version and play through wine with Linux. Only under win 95 compatibility I can hear the music in the menu. Not always, but sometimes.
And the music plays once, when the level is loaded.

Unfortunatly the widescreen patch currently don't work under wine. :(

Thank you, for answering my questions.

Tommo Inc. using the Retroism brand for the old games. Nightdive Studios helped with some of the re-releases, mainly the Steam versions.

With the resurgence of retro FPSes like Dusk and Amid Evil, somebody could create a spiritual successor to this at least.

I was in the marketing department at Accolade when the game came out. Though a different Product Manager was assigned to the task, I worked with the marketing and development teams on some aspects of the game and was also one of the the voice actors on the title. I would like to correct some errors in this post.

First, Accolade didn't pull or reduce the marketing budget. Back then, there were two ways to market PC games: magazine ads and TV commercials (technically, there was also in-store market development funds, but nobody ever talks about that so I won't go into it here as it's irrelevant). Redline's sales projections never merited a multi-million dollar TV ad buy. None of our PC titles every got TV spends. Redline's marketing budget was based on sales projections for a mid-level PC-only release. It was probably, around $300-$350K which was a decent budget in '97 when it was originally allotted.

Much of Redline's magazine marketing budget was spent too early because the game slipped its launch date. Accolade placed ads in PC magazine over a year and a half before the game finally released in order to build to a crescendo at the time of the game's original launch date. The game was not ready on time and pushed out a year but that money was already spent. So all of the ads that had been created and placed which cost upwards of $150K (or more) were forgotten by the time the game finally came out.

The company was still in turn-around mode after winning a lawsuit against Sega which nearly bankrupted it and simply didn't have the capital to double the marketing budget for a PC game that was getting little interest from the press or retail buyers at the time. Also, as a company, we were more focused on our hit PS1 titles because the system had a large, enthusiast installed base and the PC business was in decline at retail at the time.

Second, Accolade didn't "go out of business" quite the contrary. The company's turnaround strategy was working well by 1999. We'd relaunched the Test Drive series on PC and PalyStation (1) with an off-road racing pick-up title (developed independently, under another name) that we re-branded Test Drive Off-Road. About that time, disgruntled former Reflections employees, who'd worked on Destruction Derby, pitched us on the idea of funding the development of a new PlayStation-focused Test Drive game with them as the developers. We did, and the game, Test Drive 4, developed by Pitbull Syndicate, was a smash hit for the company.

Within a few years, Accolade went from being nearly bankrupt, to being a top-10 global publisher. The investment bankers who got involved and owned the company after the Sega lawsuit, were eager to get a return on their investment and so they sold the company to Infogrames (who were flush with IPO money riding the internet boom in France). The entire company was re-branded Atari after Infgrames acquired the brand name when they bought Hasbro Interactive. I won't go into what happened once the new management from Infogrames was put into place as it's a long and sordid tale. Suffice it to say Accolade had a very successful turnaround and was acquired on a high-note and didn't just "go out of business."

We continued to work with Beyond Games after Redline shipped, eventually releasing their title Motor Mayhem on the PS2. I have very fond memories of working with Clark Stacey and the Beyond Games team. Clark is a great human being, a creative genius, and a really pleasant fellow.

I hope this clears things up or at least gives the group a different perspective on issues surrounding Redline's retail launch.

Yours truly,
Laddie Ervin

Laddie, thank you so much for replying to my post (I didn't notice until nearly a month later). I am always excited to hear from former team members about this game. More importantly, this is the first time an Accolade employee has spoken about it, far as I know. It's always been Beyond Games that I would hear or see instead.

You're right that I shouldn't have simply said "went out of business." However, the name itself Accolade certainly did, since the company was absorbed, like you said. Nobody knows what truly happened behind the scenes, thus why I mentioned the "no solid reasons" line. I'm glad you shined some light into the matter. I also completely forgot, when I wrote the post, about the old magazine ads. I remember seeing the early screenshots in the magazines, and they looked very different from the final game. Redline also had the page 3 or 4 ad in (I think) CGW for a number of months; however, this was a year before the game's release.

Your statements make sense but I have 2 questions. Since the game got pushed back multiple times and the budget was already spent, was Accolade too exhausted to invest more into the game by time early 1999 rolled around? Also, did (community and financial) support for the game quickly end once released because of the Infogrames merger, or was there something else?

Again, thanks for the insight. I've always wondered if an Accolade person would pop up one day, especially since this is quite a forgotten game. By the way, do you remember which character you voiced? (plz don't take offense to my earlier "Liddy was the only decent voice actor" comment, as it seems marketing was your specialty anyway lol)