Nuclear Rush

Nuclear Rush
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Sega of America
Developer: Futurescape Productions
Sound driver: GEMS
Peripherals supported: Sega VR
Peripherals supported: Sega VR
Development timeframe: 1993
Planned release date(s): Late 1994
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
State before cancellation: Complete
Status of prototype(s): Source code compiled

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Nuclear Rush is an unreleased Sega Mega Drive tank combat game for use with the Sega VR headset, developed by Futurescape Productions and slated to be published by Sega of America. Intended to be the hardware’s pack-in game, it features gameplay similar to Battlezone and Stellar-Fire.

It is the only Sega VR game to be accurately preserved, with a playable version publicly released in November 2020.

Plot

“	Arm up for a cataclysmic trek into a post-nuclear gold rush. Corrupt power companies are siphoning off low level nuclear waste as an energy source. Pose as a nuclear pirate and pilot a weapons-loaded hovercraft through radioactive wastelands guarded by intensely possessive-and heavily armed-robots and drones! 3 levels of 3-D, 360° battlezones over barren deserts, wasted forests and irradiated plains. America the Beautiful this ain't!	„
— 1993 Sega of America trade catalog

History

Development

“	I don't recall ever getting a fully workable prototype for the VR headset. I had an early prototype with two eye displays, but no video switching, and later got the head tracking prototype, but never a complete unit and the hardware I used never looked like the advertised picture. Over all we were excited at the thought of having one of the games that shipped with the hardware, but this was really toy VR. The headset itself had pretty poor displays with very limited field of view and the head tracking was plagued with tracking delays, which would get you motion sickness after using it for a little while, and the Genesis is just not a real powerful computer. 3D graphics hardware for the consumer just wasn't around yet, so the games were limited to using pre-scaled sprites and fixed point 3D to 2D conversions. You basically got a fake horizon with sprites sprinkled around to give the impression of a 3D VR world. It was frustrating to work with all these limitations, but that seems to be the main thing I enjoyed the most from my whole career, getting a limited machine to do things that others didn't think was possible. I think I excelled with the technical aspects of my career, but not with game design. We went through the whole development process, got the game done in time and on budget, even got a completion bonus, and although it was a technical achievement, it just wasn't very compelling to play in the headset.	„
— Developer Kevin McGrath

Futurescape Productions artist Rick Lucey recalls creating the game's 3D ship models in the program Animation:Master, and that "it was interesting watching my creations zipping around through the VR head gear." Lead programmer Kevin McGrath states the project required 25,000+ lines of C and Motorola 68000 assembly language to finish.

Nuclear Rush was reportedly completed; however, numerous lingering hardware glitches would eventually see the game's release permanently shelved.

Prerelease

According to lead programmer Kevin McGrath, Nuclear Rush was shown at three separate CES conventions. It made its first and most publicly known appearance at Summer CES 1993 where it was announced alongside the Sega VR headset. From a number of references to WCES94 in the code, it also appears to have made an appearance at the following show, Winter CES 1994, but has not been spotted in existing event footage. Reportedly, it made one final appearance at an unknown trade show before disappearing from the public eye.

Legacy

On November 20, 2020, the Video Game History Foundation and Gaming Alexandria announced the release of a late prototype of Nuclear Rush. Futurescape Productions co-founder Kenneth Hurley had retained his copy of the game’s source code on an old CD-ROM, and was able to successfully compile a working ROM image.

“	Kevin spent much of the Nuclear Rush development cycle working without access to Sega VR hardware. Prior to receiving the Sega VR prototype headset, Kevin even tried to rig up his own solution to simulate a stereo flicker effect by rapidly flipping a composite signal between monitors. Difficulty obtaining prototype hardware may have been a common theme among developers, given Kevin’s experience in conjunction with another account from Alex Smith, lead programmer on the Sega VR title Outlaw Racing. In response to one of Dylan’s questions about the headset, Alex shared that he never saw the prototype hardware. This would seem to further narrow the list of games which actually implemented Sega VR support, even among the games developed with Sega VR in mind. We’re all the more fortunate to have come upon one of the games which did manage to fully implement support for the headset!	„
— The Video Game History Foundation Head of Digital Conservation Rich Whitehouse

Among other contributions like Kevin McGrath and Alexander G. M. Smith, Sega Retro was given special credit for the game's public release. Video Game History Foundation author Rich Whitehouse said, "Nearly every time I went looking for a good link to provide further reading on a topic broached by this article, there was already a Sega Retro article to fit the bill. They’re doing great work over there."

Production credits

• Developed By: Futurescape Productions
• Programmed By: Kevin McGrath, Matthew Hubbard
• Graphics By: Tom Collie, Rick Lucey
• Music By: Davorin Kuchan
• Design By: Kevin McGrath
• Produced By: Carl Mey

Source:

In-game credits

---

• Cover Artwork By: Marc Ericksen

Source:

Uncredited

Magazine articles

Main article: Nuclear Rush/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

PDF

1993 Sega of America trade catalogue. The game’s screenshot is erroneously swapped with Outlaw Racing.

Artwork

Prototype cover art

Screenshots

• 

  Panoramic title screen render used in Sega of America's 1993 trade catalogue.

• 

  Nuclear Rush and Chameleon models by artist Rick Lucey.

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 a2dd6d09 MD5 edd6792de71be35d3554f7b51e39cbda SHA-1 add0677c5dfe566a5841a3c37ee99ae7ee8e62af	4MB	1994-08-06	Compiled source code	Unmodified				Page

External links

• Sega VR Revived: Emulating an Unreleased Genesis Accessory article and release page at Video Game History Foundation
• Nuclear Rush release page at Hidden Palace

References

Nuclear Rush
	Main page | Magazine articles