POD Gold

I picked this up very cheaply from a collectors market a year or so back, and now realize the cheap price was because this game is nigh impossible to run on modern computers. I spend almost a week trying to set up my computer to run this Win95 game, designed for the then-new Intel Pentium processors alone. Even my friend's 95 machine couldn't get it running. Thankfully for POD enthusiasts my trials have now been rendered unnecessary, and my hat goes off to GOG for successfully restoring this game, perfectly playable, surprisingly high-res and bug free. Having now had the chance to spend a bit more time with POD it's actually pretty unremarkable, although very well executed as a racer. I don't believe graphics will wow players today quite as they were intended to on release- car models are nice but a lot of the textures and skyboxes especially are just a bit too garish for me. Race courses are highly varied both in appearance and racing strategy however, and there's a great sensation of weight imbued in the cars; not only in how they handle but how they shunt as they crash into one another. Besides this, POD is pretty no-frills- for a general idea think RatBag's Powerslide crossed with Midways SF2049. It's nothing revolutionary by today's standards but it's damn well executed and a lot of fun. Now, finally, we can all appreciate it from the comfort of our modern computers for a fee of $6, and believe me, having done it the hard way I can guarantee you is an absolute bargain!

Running POD here on a Windows 7 64bit Machine with a state of the art graphics card. I see the intro video and everything is running smooth (3d accelerated) This game was my first one on a voodoo 1 3dfx card (combination of 2d and 3d addon card) GOG, Thank you so much for being able to play this baby on my high end PC without glitches, slowdowns and any jittering sounds. LAN mode is also a dream, veterans like us always dreamed of playing this game after 2005. Keep On the good work

This game hits market in 1996. In 1996 I was probably in the 20s+ and single... today im over 40+ married with kids and those images makes me feel like im 20s again. I got the very first copy in town back in 96 and immediately trained like mad. Enough to be fairly good at it back in 96. If you are a racer perfectionist, this game is for you. My perfectionist habit made me (Ice) and my buddy Leadbest won a lucrative $10 000.00 jackpot tournament. Back in 96s this game had a small yet very family community. To be good at this game you have to practice and practice the same track over and over for days and days/weeks/months. Every single time you beat your own (ghost shadow) it means you have to figure out how to beat your better (ghost-shadow) again and again. until no one can beat it. Back in the 90s you were able to upload you Shadow-ghosts on Ubisoft website. (sorta world wide record top chart) Galleria and Sewer were my two favorite tracks. A big Thanks to Ubisoft (and the lead designer Fabrice from Ubisoft) Ice

I was rather fortunate to have a NEC Ready Series with the new Intel Pentium with MMX and 2mb graphics accelerator. POD came preloaded and was hooked the moment it loaded. I'll never forget that intro video, with the green stuff that spews out after the drill goes to deep, to that one car that slams another off the road to explode. Back in the day, this game looked next gen, had the most realistic car handling at the time, AND you could leave tread marks on the road. I always thought that was soo cool. After we got a joystick, this game became even more fun. If I had any tips for you as a new driver, don't hit the walls or other cars, it'll damn near stop you in your tracks. It's a game of patience and skill. Don't let those blurry graphics fool you, when that music kicks in at the right place, and the atmosphere is trippy, it'll drop your jaw. :) Young players may be put off by this game but for us who grew up with it, GOG is a god send.

I picked this up remembering it as having been awesome. Turns out I was remembering Rollcage. This is very bland by comparison. The track design is quite good, and the AI vehicles being slightly aggressive adds a little unexpected twist, but since it's virtually impossible to recover from being rammed off the track, it makes progressing something of a slog. Playable, but not enough here to come back to again and again.