CyberSpeed

Variants

• There are no known variants.

Misprints

• There are no known misprints.

Review

Ah, yes…the long box era. A time of companies trying new things, new gimmicks, and more. Since this was the late 1990s, futuristic game themes were all the rave. Mindscape tries to jump into the fray with CyberSpeed. While the game’s overall performance falls short, there are and were some really interesting concepts going for it,, and they deserve praise.

We’ll start with the overall vibes. The manual introduces you to the world via the imaginary Worldscape Television channel. It proudly states that the racers and you are perfectly safe inside the vehicles, so get as violent as you want. It’s a cheeky introduction, but it works. It’s also one of the rare times I can recall a game telling you everyone is safe, as opposed to KILL THEM ALL.

Once the game boots the television channel vibe is in full swing. Rather than static load screens, players are treated to commercial breaks in between races. These are simple CG offerings poking fun at vintage Saturday morning classics like sugary cereal, pizza delivery, and more. 

Selecting the right driver and vehicle combination is where CyberSpeed starts to get interesting. Vehicles are rated on Thrust, Mass, Speed, and Shields. These stats are all based around the ship’s attachment to a central beam. Unlike every other racing game ever made, CyberSpeed is based on the physics of a pendulum. The beam your ship is attached to is tied to your engine usage. If you swing too far away from the beam, your engines will take the brunt and slow you down. If you can manage to stay at a neutral point or stick to the inside line, you’ll gain speed. 

With this weight concern in play, a ship’s mass and thrust become vital to how you fly. Probably my favorite angle of this game mechanic is passing up other racers. Since you’re all tied to the same beam, you must properly swing up and around them to gain your next place. At first play-through, things can get a bit bumpy as each ship has its own shape to sort out. But once the concept clicks, there really is a thrill to weaving in and out of traffic. More on that later. 

Choosing the pilot from the original selection of 8 will bring players to a commercial break and then it’s off to the races. From a visual standpoint, CyberSpeed is both profound and over-simplified all at once. The actual layout and shape of the tracks are fantastic. Since they aren’t locked to the ground, Mindscape was allowed to create these giant winding, hilly, and sometimes super curvaceous battlegrounds. This appreciation fades slightly when you realize the tracks are made up of roughly the same 7 polygons each. That’s not a bad thing – really – it’s more of a curiosity into the time frame the game’s development cycle had. I can also appreciate the diversity in the levels. From completely domed rollercoasters to oceanic views, there’s no lack of variety here. It’s more shocking how well they hid the simplicity of it all.

Controls are a bit cumbersome, but strictly from an attack front. CyberSpeed tries to do too many things at once, rather than focus on doing just one thing right. Your forward armament consists of a Gatling gun and a missile launcher. The bullets are unlimited but will add to the stress of your engines; missiles are limited and should be used with care. What’s nice is that the spent ammunition is tied to the physics of the track, so both will fly around corners chasing their targets. It’s a fun angle and provides some much-needed relief while trying to manage all the other controls. 

From the rear of the ship come defensive mines. While they’re obviously a deterrent to oncoming racers, they can also be dropped to catch fired missiles. To launch them requires using the rearview camera – meaning your eyes can’t see the oncoming angle changes and compensate for them. It’s a strange gamble that may or may not pay off, and I used them less than I probably should have. 

The music is really interesting – it’s a beautiful mix of techno and house tunes and doesn’t interfere with the sound effects and voiceovers. It can be easily listened to on any CD player. The announcer is fairly on par while most of the sound effects are fine. One oddity is that the game claims if one goes fast enough, they’ll break the sound barrier. If I’m to believe what I heard was the sound barrier, I think it was more of a glitch they couldn’t find and just made it canon. It sounds more like an explosion effect randomly garbles than anything. 

With all that going for it, one would be forgiven if they didn’t see where the problem lies. Remember that thrill of weaving between the racers I mentioned earlier? This is where CyberSpeed falls apart, and it falls fairly hard. There is no logic to its main race feature in regards to scoring and rivals’ artificial intelligence. 

Let’s start with the scoring system. If players earn a 3rd place finish or higher, they will move on to the next race, all the way to the final heat. If they fail even once to make that cut-off point, the game is over and it’s back to the first race. This would be fine – extremely lenient even – except that means there’s a useless points award system. After each race, points are given for each place – 9 points for 1st and so on down the line. Because the player is disqualified for a single 4th place or worse finish, there’s no redemption arc available. These tallies are meaningless. What should have happened was it only showed the top 3 point values and then the rest are listed as disqualified; then there’s at least some sort of urgency. 

Which then rolls into the lack of continues. If you lose, that’s it. Fumble through multiple race results until you’re all the way back at the title screen, and then continue till you’re back to the 1st track. It’s a harsh penalty only deflected if you remember to either manually Save or acquire the password after every successful race. 

Finally, there’s the racers’ aggressive behavior. The best racing games always have the opposing players spread out evenly on the track – providing a set rhythm to how far one must be in the ranking each lap to succeed. There’s none of that here: all 7 opponents are almost always traveling in a giant pack. If one takes a turn too wide or gets bitten by a missile – it’s guaranteed at least 2 to 3 racers will zoom past. Should the player not recover fast enough…last place is all you’ll have. 

This lack of properly paced opponents, which would allow for more chances to live that amazing weaving in-and-out experience is what drains the interest of competing. The gamer is simply beaten down too quickly in all facets of the race. 

That’s not to say CyberSpeed isn’t without its amusing perks. Expert racers will have to deal with the game’s fairly amusing unlockable items: the Supership….and the cow. Yep. A cow. To properly unlock the ships, you’ll need to place 1st in at least every other race after the 3rd race. Once the circuit is over, the final race will be against the hidden ship. Thanks to Project Up1, players can not only access these two items right away, but they can access any track with any character.

CyberSpeed in 2022 is a lost tale in the PlayStation’s long box library. The game was quickly abandoned at retail, with copies still available for a dollar as late as 2005. It’s never climbed back up to its original MSRP and now acts as a cheap thrill to check out. 

Game-Rave’s official review scale sees it as an average of 5 out of 10. It’s a sad tale of a game full of commercials that ended up a commercial failure.

Final Score: 5/10 – Average

CyberSpeed is by no means a bad game – it’s just a game that squanders the very gimmick that gives it its identity.

Screenshots

PSX PlayStation Cyberspeed Screenshot (3)

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Videos

The video version of CyberSpeed’s review.

Trivia

• The game uses made-up products for commercial breaks between races. You can even see billboards for the products in some of the earlier stages.
• One of the commercials has trouble playing, but you can tell it’s for milk. This is alluding to Daisy The Cow, the final hidden ship.
• Credits include some wacky notes and nicknames for the various programmers.
• Look closely at the track selection screen in Time Trial or Free Race. Several stages still have their pre-release track designs in their maps. For example, one of them is shown upside down. A later stage features what looks like larger areas not present in the final game.
• The Supership has no pilot. The name and country fields are left blank.

Secrets

Cyberspeed has a pretty player-friendly ecosystem when it comes to unlockable items. While the game does pose a challenge, you can easily see everything that it has to offer.

Unlockable Content

• Play All Movies
  Highlight Options and press Circle, Square, Triangle, Left, Right, Up, Square, Right. You’ll hear, “Hey, who told you about that?!” to confirm. Now press Cross on options to get the credits, cinematics, commercials, and all other FMV to auto-play. Controls: Cross and Start will keep skipping FMVs till you reach the end. The game will go black, then return you to the Main menu.
• Game Compilation Info
  At the Main Menu, press Press Up, Left, Right, Triangle, Circle, Square, Left, Right, Square, Circle. You’ll hear “Hey, who told you about that?!” You will now see the game’s code compilation date at the top.
• Unlock Stages in Free Race and Time Trials
  You will need to place at least 3rd or higher in the standard race track to unlock it in the Time Trial and Free Race mode.
• Unlock the Supership
  Successfully place 3rd or higher in the first 3 races. You will now have a race against the purple and black Supership. Make sure to place 1st against it. From here, you will have to place 1st in at least every other regular race to continue your rivalry. After every 2nd regular race, you will face the Supership again. So long as you always place 1st against the Supership, the true final race will be against it in a hidden cartoon farm stage. Winning this 4th race will unlock the Supership to use. It’s in the middle of the character selection.
• Unlock Daisy the Cow
  Unlock the Supership and then play as it.  Successfully place 3rd or higher in the first 3 races. You will now have a race against the cow. Make sure to place 1st against it. From here, you will have to place 1st in at least every other regular race to continue your rivalry. After every 2nd regular race, you will face the cow again. So long as you always place 1st against the cow, the true final race will be against it in its hidden cartoon farm stage. Winning this 4th race will unlock Daisy the Cow to use. She’s in the middle of the character selection.

Race Passwords (Character Specific)

NOTE: Make sure you have both memory cards unplugged from the console before proceeding. These only take the main races into account. Time Trial and Free Race tracks will still be locked.

There are no spaces in the Passwords. I added them for easier reading.

• Play as the Cow Ship Right Away
  • Go to Options and choose Load Game. Once the game confirms you have no memory cards installed, the Password Screen pops up. Enter “L L L L L L L L L L L L L L” as a password. You’ll now race as Daisy the Cow.
• Play as the Supership Right Away
  • Go to Options and Load Game. Once the game confirms you have no memory cards installed, the Password Screen pops up. Enter “V V V V V V V V V V V V V V” as a password. You’ll now be able to race at the Supership.
• Higuchi – Normal Difficulty
  • Start at Track 2 – G C V 7 B C B C D B D C B B
  • Start at Track 3 – G D V J B D C C G C F G B B
  • Start at Track 4 – G F V Q B D C D J C G H B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 5 – G H W 2 B F C F L D G L B B
  • Start at Track 6 – G J W D B H D G P D H N B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 7 – G L X R B J D G R F K Q B B
  • Start at Track 8 – G M X O B K D G T G L S B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 9 – G P Y B B L D H W H M V B B
  • Start at Track 10 – G Q Y N B N D J Z J M X B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 11 – G S Z 1 B R D K 1 K N Y B B (Hidden Cow Stage)
• Pearl – Normal Difficulty
  • Start at Track 2 – F C V 6 B C C D B B C D B B
  • Start at Track 3 – F D V D B C C G B C D G B B
  • Start at Track 4 – F F V R B D C K C C G K B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 5 – F H W 3 B F D M D C H M B B
  • Start at Track 6 – F J W B B G D P D D J P B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 7 – F L X R B H F R F F L R B B
  • Start at Track 8 – F M X 2 B K F V F F M V B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 9 – F P Y D B K H X G F N X B B
  • Start at Track 10 – F Q Y P B L H Z H G P Z B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 11 – F S Z O B M H 1 J G Q 1 B B (Hidden Cow Stage)
• Mia – Normal Difficulty
  • Start at Track 2 – D C V 5 B C D B B C D C B B
  • Start at Track 3 – D D V C B C G B C C F F B B
  • Start at Track 4 – D F V M B C J C D C G H B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 5 – D H W 1 B D L D F D J K B B
  • Start at Track 6 – D J W ! B F P D F D K N B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 7 – D L X P B H R D G F L Q B B
  • Start at Track 8 – D M X X B H T F H F L S B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 9 – D P Y 9 B L W G H F N T B B
  • Start at Track 10 – D Q Y K B M Z H H G N W B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 11 – D S Z W B N 1 H J G P Y B B (Hidden Cow Stage)
• Nadia – Normal Difficulty
  • Start at Track 2 – C C V 4 B D B C B C C D B B
  • Start at Track 3 – C D V C B G B D C C D G B B
  • Start at Track 4 – C F V M B J C F D C D J B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 5 – C H W O B L D H F C F L B B
  • Start at Track 6 – C J W 8 B P D J F D F N B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 7 – C L X L B R D K G D H Q B B
  • Start at Track 8 – C M X W B T F M G D J S B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 9 – C P Y 6 B W F N H D K V B B
  • Start at Track 10 – C Q Y G B Y F P J F L X B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 11 – C S Z V B 1 G P J F N O B B (Hidden Cow Stage)
• Anderson – Normal Difficulty
  • Start at Track 2 – B C V 3 D B C C B B C D B B
  • Start at Track 3 – B D V B G C C D B B D G B B
  • Start at Track 4 – B F V L J C F F B B D J B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 5 – B H W 1 M D F J B C F L B B
  • Start at Track 6 – B J W ! P F G K B C G N B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 7 – B L X M R F G M C C G Q B B
  • Start at Track 8 – B M X Z T G G P D D H S B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 9 – B P Y 9 W H H Q D D H V B B
  • Start at Track 10 – B Q Y L Y J H R D F K X B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 11 – B S Z Z 1 J H R F G L O B B (Hidden Cow Stage)
• Dre – Normal Difficulty
  • Start at Track 2 – K C V 9 B C B B C B D D B B
  • Start at Track 3 – K D V K B D C C C C G G B B
  • Start at Track 4 – K F V W B G C F D C H K B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 5 – K H W 7 B J D G D D J M B B
  • Start at Track 6 – K J W J B K F K F D K P B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 7 – K L X T B L F K G D M R B B
  • Start at Track 8 – K M X 4 B N H K G F N V B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 9 – K P Y F B P H L H F Q X B B
  • Start at Track 10 – K Q Y Q B Q H M K F S Z B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 11 – K S Z 3 B R J P K G V 1 B B (Hidden Cow Stage)
• Mad Frank – Normal Difficulty
  • Start at Track 2 – J C V 9 B C B C B C D D B B
  • Start at Track 3 – J D V J B C C D B D G G B B
  • Start at Track 4 – J F V W B D F D C D K K B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 5 – J H W 7 B F F F D F M M B B
  • Start at Track 6 – J J W H B G F G G F P P B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 7 – J L X S B G F H G G R R B B
  • Start at Track 8 – J M X 4 B H G K G G V V B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 9 – J P Y F B J G L H G X X B B
  • Start at Track 10 – J Q Y P B K G N H G Z Z B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 11 – J S Z 4 B L G P K H 2 2 B B (Hidden Cow Stage)
• Maurice – Normal Difficulty
  • Start at Track 2 – H C V 8 B C B B C D C D B B
  • Start at Track 3 – H D V H B D C B C G D G B B
  • Start at Track 4 – H F V T B F C C C K F K B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 5 – H H W 4 B G D C C M H L B B
  • Start at Track 6 – H J W F B H D D F P H P B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 7 – H L X T B J D D G S K R B B
  • Start at Track 8 – H M X 3 B J F F H V L T B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 9 – H P Y F B M F F H X M W B B
  • Start at Track 10 – H Q Y P B M F G K Z P W B B (Race Supership First)
  • Start at Track 11 – H S Z 2 B N F H K 2 R Y B B (Hidden Cow Stage)
• Supership – Normal Difficulty
  • Start at Track 2 – M W V W B C B C C D B B B D
  • Start at Track 3 – M X V 4 B C B C D F C D B G
  • Start at Track 4 – M Y V D B D C F D F C G B J (Race Cow First)
  • Start at Track 5 – M O W T B G C F F F D K B M
  • Start at Track 6 – M 1 W 3 B G C H H F F L B P (Race Cow First)
  • Start at Track 7 – M 3 X F B H C L H G F M B R
  • Start at Track 8 – M 4 X Q B K C L H H G P B T (Race Cow First)
  • Start at Track 9 – M 6 Y 4 B L D L J J G S B X
  • Start at Track 10 – M 7 Y F B M D M K J J V B Z (Race Cow First)
  • Start at Track 11 – M 9 Z R B N D M K K L W B 1 (Hidden Cow Stage)
• Daisy Cow – Normal Difficulty
  • Normal Start at Track 2 – L W V V B B B C B C D C D B
  • Normal Start at Track 3 – L X V 3 B C B C C D D F G B
  • Normal Start at Track 4 – L Y V D B C B F D F F H J B (Race Cow First)
  • Normal Start at Track 5 – L O W R B F C G D F F J M B
  • Normal Start at Track 6 – L 1 W 3 B H D H D F G M P B (Race Cow First)
  • Normal Start at Track 7 – L 3 X D B J D J D F H P R B
  • Normal Start at Track 8 – L 4 X N B J D K F G H R T B (Race Cow First)
  • Normal Start at Track 9 – L 6 Y 3 B L F K G H K S X B
  • Normal Start at Track 10 – L 7 Y C B M F L G H L W Z B (Race Cow First)
  • Normal Start at Track 11 – L 9 Z R B P G L H H M Y 1 B (Hidden Cow Stage)