Q&A to Project Manager Martyn Lane at Spellbound of Colin McRae Rally 2.0 GBA.

1. Can you describe your personal development, what did bring you to the game industry, which projects Spellbound already developped?
Our mission is to bring realistic physics and playability to the handheld gamer.

Spellbound have worked on many driving games. We received fantastic critical acclaim with TOCA (THQ) and Dukes of Hazzard (SOUTHPEAK). TOCA won best handheld driving game of E3 2000, with Dukes of Hazzard being a runner-up in the same year (DOH was still in early development at the time!)

Spellbound have also developed No Fear Mountain Biking (GBC) and Colin McRae Rally (GBC).

Colin Mcrae 2.0 is a natural progression for us, with the GBA giving us more processing power for physics, better graphics and superb sound!

2. How did you proceed to develop on this new handheld console? What the features did you want to emphasize?

Options granted to the player

Nine authentic rally cars

Race through six countries over forty two locations

Rendered 3D cars

Great sound

Pace notes featuring the voice of Colin McRae’s co-driver

Multiplayer ‘hot seat’ mode and game link cable compatibility for up to 4 players

Real physics!

Realistic surfaces

Realistic car setup and tuneing

Realistic car damage and 3D crashes

Full 3D replays from multiple camera angles

3. One of the most exciting (and challenging) feature of the game is the possibility to compete with 4 players with only one cart via the Game Boy Advance Game Link Cable: Was it the most difficult part to handle? Could you describe the fun this new CMR new feature proposes to the player?

Trying to squeeze all of the graphics and playability of Colin Mcrae 2.0 into the GBA’s onboard memory was a real challenge. Especially as we did not want to compromise on quality. The multiplayer version of the game introduced even more of a challenge as you only have 1/16th of the memory to play with. Despite this disadvantage we have still managed to give the player a fast and furious game with their choice of car (from 9) racing on any of the special arcade stages. It’s one thing trying to beat the Artificial Intelligence of the Gameboy in the single player game but this mode allows 4 (human!) friends to compete against each other at the same time- so you can really battle them for the cup!