We now finally have a small patch that includes all of these features if you already have the last version installed, v.2012.06.19. You can download it or the latest installer here:

>> Download: Nitronic Rush v.2012.12.21.0

Before you start looking for these features, please make sure to read these descriptions:

LAN Auto-Discovery pseudo-multiplayer (developed by Chris Barrett)

The multiplayer mode unfortunately has no in-game menus, but instead it works in a way where 2 or more people playing on the same local area network (LAN) can automatically connect and see ghosts of each other’s cars. There is no collision between the cars, but you can see all of their movements and explosions.

By default there is a cooperative mode enabled which we had been testing as a potential mode for Distance, and it works in that being near another player keeps you cooled down, and being far away automatically heats both cars. If you stay too far away for too long both of you will eventually blow up (unless you do some tricks to stay cool). Racing together keeps both of you cool, so if you’re synchronized well you can make it through the whole level without heating up.

If you want to race against each other without the cooperative mode, you need to simply disable the heating and cooling feature in the config files (in \config\) for some options regarding these things. You can also use this file to supply IP addresses to play others over the internet!

Automatic Level Generation

To create randomly generated levels, follow these instructions to enable the level editor, and use the menu on the right side of the screen to pick a random seed and generate a level. This was developed as a CS380 project at DigiPen by Shawn Pierce and Chris Barrett.

NVIDIA 3D Vision Support

Andrew Nollan reworked several of our shaders and the graphics engine to best support NVIDIA 3D Vision. If you have a 3D monitor and NVIDIA glasses you can now play the highest quality 3D available for games today with Nitronic Rush!

• Arrow keys no longer subtlely rotate the car when driving with the keyboard. This should help prevent deaths due to confusingly short jumps.

• Community Hardcore
• CRUIS’N EGYPT (by Fzeroman)
• Community Challenge
• Totally Tubular (by Fzeroman)

• Added LAN Auto-Discovery pseudo-multiplayer alpha test
• Added Automatic Level Generation from CS380 (in level editor)
• Added NVIDIA 3D Vision Support

New music in Nitronic Rush? And it’s free? Madness!! Well, I guess that it’s Friday so we’re allowed a little bit of madness. We’ve been getting a crazy number of requests about the music included with the COMMANDER UPDATE (which if you haven’t already, you should download now), so I figured we’d share what we have until we can release an “official” extension to the soundtrack.

Not only does this update include two new EPIC tracks from The Quiggles, it also includes two tracks from members of the Nitronic Rush community! Honestly, they’re pretty good, so I hope we can make this a “thing” down the road.  Anyways…

The Observatory by The Quiggles The Quiggles’ created two new songs for this update, this one being a nature-themed track for Kyle’s new level “The Observatory“. To hear the song with the layers included, you can check out forum member Ciastex’s remix here. Thanks to Venomxx97 for the screencap.

Nitro Tunnel by The Quiggles The other track is a full remake of the music from Battletoads’ Level 3 (Turbo Tunnel). It’s used in Jason’s level “Nitro Tunnel“, which is actually a full 1:1 replica of the classically challenging Battletoads level.

But That’s Not True (WIP, June 2012) by Montlygon An initial version of forum member Monty’s track (used in “Enter the Matrix“) can heard here. You can check out his SoundCloud for more of his work.

Plutonium 7 by Quargzon Plutonium_7_by_Quargzon "Plutonium_7_by_Quargzon" And finally, Quargzon’s song Plutonium 7 was used in both of his Community levels “Nitroception” and “Plutonium 7“. Unfortunately it isn’t available on his SoundCloud but you can check out more of his work there if you like. Like before, to hear the song with the layers included you can check out forum member Ciastex’s remix here.

As for the song used in the Commander Update trailer, it’s not complete yet so unfortunately it’s not available for download. You’ll have to live with watching the trailer for now:

As many of you know, we’ve been working hard on the 4th update for Nitronic Rush for a while now. Today we’re finally shipping the biggest update of the game we’ve ever released, the Commander Update (v.2012.06.19)!

This update features 2 new Hardcore levels, 7 new Community levels, 45 new announcer phrases, 4 new music tracks, several bug fixes, and a brand new vehicle called The Commander! You can check out all of these features in the Commander Update video above!

>> Download: Nitronic Rush v.2012.06.19.0

Kyle’s level The Observatory and Jason’s level Nitro Tunnel comprise the 2 new Hardcore levels. The Observatory is heavily based around nature and features almost every obstacle in the game. Nitro Tunnel on the other hand is a nearly 1:1 remake of the grueling Turbo Tunnel level from Battletoads,  featuring all of the same obstacles from the original level plus a couple of new hidden features. Both include new music from The Quiggles, with the Nitro Tunnel music being a full remake of the music from Turbo Tunnel.

The community really pulled though in the update and gave us 7 more levels to include. Joining in the fun, Andy (lead level designer) actually created his own level, Kill it with Fire, and included it in the group. Community members Quargzon and Monty also wrote 2 custom music tracks with interactive layers that work within the game. We also requested new ideas for announcer phrases on the Nitronic Rush forum, and 45 of the top phrases were recorded and included.

Finally, The Commander (CMD) is a new vehicle based on the highly requested Back to the Future DeLorean DMC-12, complete with gull wing doors, flux capacitor, and a couple of other interesting features.

To install the update, you’ll need to download the newest version of Nitronic Rush on our download page and run the new installer. As before, your old scores and ghosts should be fine and won’t be deleted. Like the last update, we planned on using a patching system but since we’re pretty indie we decided to avoid possible bugs and packaged a new installer. You can read the full changelist below.

• Vehicle selection screen Interceptor locked bug fixed
• Conversion of model files during initial game loading has been fixed making loading times much faster
• Bloom and motion blur disabling bug fixed
• Particles emitted from moving objects are more evenly spaced
• Converted some audio files from being loaded at launch to now being streamed, lowering memory overhead while playing

• Gladiator
• Added lava to pit

• Hardcore Levels
• Observatory
• New music by The Quiggles
• Fish swim outside of the track tunnel
• Nitro Tunnel
• Remake of the NES classic Battle Toads Turbo Tunnel level
• New music by The Quiggles which is a remake of the Turbo Tunnel music
• Lava and platform roads
• Block dropping drone obstacles
• Epic explosions
• Community Levels
• Kill It With Fire! (by Haligen)
• Created by our lead level designer, Andy Kibler
• Blue Isn’t That Safe (by Ciastex)
• Enter The Matrix (by Fzeroman)
• Features new music by community member Monty
• Plutonium 7 (by Quargzon)
• Nitroception (by Quargzon)
• Both Plutonium 7 and Nitroception feature new music by community member Quargzon
• Nightmare on Christmas Street (by Fzeroman)
• Insanity Rings (by Zarozorak)

• The Commander (based on the Back to the Future DeLorean DMC-12)

• Lava
• Lava spikes
• Drop ships
• Platform roads
• Fish (fish zones)

• 45 new Announcer Phrases added based on community members’ ideas from the forum

We wanted to give you all a quick mini-update on the team and Nitronic Rush in general since it’s been a while since we’ve posted about the game. Several members of the team (Kyle, Andrew, Jason, Andy, and myself) all graduated from DigiPen a few weeks back, so there’s been a lot of craziness with job hunting and other cool secret stuff that we’ll be talking about soon.

There have been a number of awesome community levels posted on the Nitronic Rush forums which you can go download for free! For example you can check out:

• Enter The Matrix (by Fzeroman)
• Insanity Rings (by Zarozorak)
• Kill It With Fire! (by Haligen)
• Blue Isn’t That Safe (by Ciastex)

… and a few more that are all available on the forum. If you have a level that you’d like included in Update #4, make sure to upload it to the forum before June 8th (6/8/12) so we have time to check it out.

As usual, we really believe in giving back to the community and providing updates to continually improve the game. A few of us are working on new content and a few new features for the game which we hope you’ll find interesting. Until Update #4 is released (fairly soon-ish), check out some more screenshots below for one of Kyle’s new levels. On the far right there’s also a bonus teaser screenshot for a new, secret piece of “content” that Jason’s been slaving over. Let us know what you think it is!

Thanks again for all of the support, we can’t wait to see what you all think of the new content!

– Torcht

Follow @torcht

This update features tweaks to existing levels, a couple bug fixes, 3 new Community levels, a new Stunt Mode level, and a new Hardcore level which is our remake of the classic Rush 2049 Gauntlet level!

As usual, to update you simply need to download the newest version of Nitronic Rush on our download page, and run the new installer. Your old scores and ghosts should be fine and won’t be deleted. We originally planned on using a patching system for this update, but since there are new audio tracks the patch would be nearly the same size as a full download. You can read the full changelist below.

>> Download: Nitronic Rush v.2012.03.03.0

• Particles can have negative brightness again (volcano smoke works in Mountain Top now)
• Still Alive achievement now possible to get on level restart if previously destroyed by a high-speed collision or -70 fallout

• Christmas Court
• Added train that circles the court
• Credits
• Made it so if destroyed while driving through the level the vehicle is respawned on the road at the distance traveled previously

• Hardcore Levels
• Gladiator (with new music)
• Stunt Mode
• Floating Free Zone
• Community Levels
• Starlight (by Chiigan)
• Loopy (by Zallist)
• But Can it Dance? (by Zallist)

• Goldenceptor (unlocked by getting all achievements)

• Partial vehicle serialization support added
• Improved HDR rendering (faster framerates)
• MiniDump support added for ease of debugging crashes

The annual Game Developer’s Conference is this week, and several members of Team Nitronic will be in attendance. If you’re a developer and you’ll be at the event, we’d love to meet you and say hello!

If you’d like to meet up, tweet us @NitronicRush or send us an email at team [at] nitronic-rush.com and we’ll figure out a time/place! To reach us more directly you can reach us @torcht or @kyleholdwick since the two of us will be there pretty much the whole week.

Also, during the expo Nitronic Rush will be playable at the OnLive booth near the IGF area, as well as at the DigiPen booth. We’ll probably be hovering around those areas from time to time so you might see us there.

Either way, we hope you have a safe and fun GDC this year!

For a limited time, Nitronic Rush is now available on OnLive! This is great news for our Mac and Android users since OnLive is fully supported on both the Mac OS and several Android devices like the Xperia PLAY!

Also, it looks like the most liked games in OnLive’s Indie Showcase will win something, so if you have a moment head over to OnLive’s Facebook page and “Like” Nitronic Rush. We’re #3 right now but with your help we can hopefully reach #1 (click on the massive image above).

Give the game a shot on OnLive and let us know what you think: http://www.onlive.com/launch/trial/nitronic-rush

Thanks again to everyone who voted and believed in us! We couldn’t have done it without all of you. Check out the following images/links for more details on the awards.

>> Kyle’s interview with Adam Sessler during the IGC award ceremony (YouTube)

>> Official IGC page with the 2012 winners.