World's Scariest Police Chases: Deadly Pursuit, an Unreleased Dreamcast/PC that escaped
While the PSX version of World's Scariest Police Chases, developed by Unique Development Studios and published by Activision, is well known, few people are aware that a game in this franchise was on the horizon for the now-defunct Dreamcast. Called World's Scariest Police Chases: Deadly Pursuit, this version diverged from the one released in 2001 for PlayStation 1.
Chris Bateman (Game Designer and Writter): « It was indeed a completely different game! »
As detailed throughout this article documenting Scariest Police Chases: Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast to the greatest extent possible, the game had great potential and would have delighted White Queen aficionados with a title similar to Grand Theaft Auto 3 long before Rockstar Games' global smash hit materialized.
Leon Walters (Producer): « Initially it was a game called ' deadly pursuit ', Fox took it over, added the intellectual property and made it a game for police officers. »
John Bunnel one of the presenters of the American Reality Show
World's Scariest Police Chases: Deadly Pursuit, designed by English studio Teeny Weeny Games, was based on the American TV Show World's Scariest Police Chases (later renamed “World's Wildest Police Videos”), a 56-episode reality series (1998-2001) broadcast by Fox featuring in-car and helicopter video chases between desperate criminals and law enforcement.
Dominic Jackson (Senior Programmer): « I’m pretty sure that for the duration of the game that the company developing the game was Perfect Entertainment Ltd.. I don’t know the actual structural details, but there was a stage where Teeny Weeny Games was re-branded and probably reformed as Perfect Entertainment Ltd.. TWG were the original developer of Discworld. »
Interrupted at around 40% of its development stage, Dealy Pursuit (DP) on Dreamcast was “playable” - the word “explorable” would be more appropriate. Fox, the title's publisher, put an end to the project, not seeing a bright future for SEGA's latest console, and had no ambition to continue funding it. The Teeny Weeny Games/Perfect Entertainment development team, which numbered around 20 at the outset but dwindled as the game's design progressed, had integrated cars, physics and most of the city into their latest prototype. However, no missions had yet been implemented when the game was abandoned.
Leon Walters: « It's a shame, it was a magnificent game. They pretty much canceled everything because it was clear that the DC was doomed. It was also a very strict PI with an America centric audience. »
Perfect, or Teeny Weeny, didn't have the budget to buy music licenses and collaborate with big-sounding artists. Perhaps the American film production company would have helped them, nothing is less certain. Rob Lord, DP's Audio Director and now film music composer, would undoubtedly have been in charge of the game's soundtrack without knowing whether this aspect of Dealy Pursuit's development had already begun. He doesn't remember. He has composed the soundtracks for games such as Fuzion Frenzy (Microsoft), Discworld (Psygnosis / Sony) and Just Cause (Eidos), to name but a few.
Chris Bateman: « He once filled in on keyboard for Michael Jackson's tour because the regular keyboard player wasn't available for some reason. »
Mark Bandola, certainly in collaboration with Rob Lord, had already composed the game's theme tune. It was a very rocking live guitar track. He is known for his work on Primal Rage, Pocahontas, Discworld Noir and Screamball.
One of Perfect's logos
One of Teeny's logos
Dominic Jackson: « They were both previous employees but by then I expect that they would have done the work freelance due to the state of the company and redundancies due to the company losing other projects.»
This police simulation was discreet. Not many people talked about it. Some specialized websites and magazines had received a few screenshots to show to their readers. Unfortunately, they could be counted on the fingers of one hand!
Leon Walters: « We would have had to wait another year before its release, it was not really covered. »
Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast took advantage of the “Tantalus” engine. It was programmed by Tantalus Entertainment, an Australian development studio based in Melbourne and partly owned by Perfect Entertainment.
Dominic Jackson: « For me the experience included two 3 month trips – one to Melbourne to go to pick up the Saturn engine we were using from a company called Tantalus who were a very tight technical team and the other to go to work on the World Cup 98 front end to assist EA in getting that game to release – both were interesting trips getting to experience a bit of culture in and around both cities. »
This article, which I hope is as complete as possible about this Dreamcast exclusive, was not easy to write. As the IP is owned by FOX, a film publisher and not specific to video games, the research carried out on it was trickier than for other Unreleaseds. As a result, photos used to illustrate this page are used under the “fair use doctrine”. If in the future a DP prototype were to surface, it would be complicated to manipulate it and offer it for free download, for copyright reasons, not knowing FOX's reaction. Let's be clear, this practice in the preservation world is illegal. Fortunately, some publishers and manufacturers tolerate it, but until when?
Dominic Jackson: « I don’t remember much about Fox other than they hosted us once at E3 and we got to go to some of the industry parties out in LA which was quite a fun trip. »
Home-made cover created by Dreamcast Me That
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Teeny/Perfect's title is one of SEGA's latest 128-bit exclusive Unreleaseds to be unearthed from the graveyard of abandoned Dreamcast projects, or not....
The script borrows the codes of classic buddy cop movies, such as Tango and Cash, The Lethal Weapon and 48 Hours, to name but a few. A woman, Officer Jeanette Deveraux, a gun fanatic with a distinct sense of humor, teams up with a man, Officer Don Sefcik, who is more experienced and calmer than she is. The story focuses on drugs, arms trafficking, turf wars between gangs and cartels, ending with corruption between the police and the DEA (a US federal agency fighting drug trafficking and distribution). The news is reported by the local media in the form of cutscenes in the engine, no doubt in the same way as Headhunter Dreamcast would do two years later.
Leon Walters: « We recorded the script in Los Angeles with Ice-T as the main antagonist and a lot of supporting actors. »
No one can sow the police
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Progress in Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast depends on the player's actions. However Teeny Weeny Games' title is approached, all missions will be completed, although the emphasis on a particular action may change depending on past events and how they were played. The game offers a high degree of replayability, with each new playthrough being different.
Dominic Jackson: « TWG / Perfect entertainment was quite an experience for a first job. Certain member of the management team could be somewhat volatile. It was lots of fun, but there was a certain amount of crunch at times. Overall, a great experience that I don’t regret but there were some tough moments. »
The game's plot takes place in the fictional city of “The Oceansie-Fort Nor Metroplex”, divided into 9 districts: Oceanside (Beach district) - Summer Beach (Beach district, by the seafront) - Ashland Hills (Beach district, southern hills) - Bellevue (Castiron & Café district) - Downtown (Highrise, Red Light & Tower district) - Chinatown (Chinatown district) - East Town Mall (Mall) - Salem Bay (Docks and Prison) - Meridian Airport (Airport).
Chris Bateman: « It's important to note that I left the project before it was cancelled, so most of my perspective comes earlier in the process - pre-production especially. I worked for about 7-8 months on the project, but wasn't there in the last days. I do not recall ever seeing a build I would call 'playable'. I saw the city coming to life, but I never got to live in it. »
The city's two main sports teams, the Oceanside Surfers (baseball) and the Metro City Swine (American soccer) compete at Channel 23 Park at Shlabotnik point, the stadium near Chinatown. Two major hospitals, Fort Nord General and Saint Elegius, care for the injured and sick.
Chris Bateman: « I'd say the road network was comparable to Toyko Highway Challenge/Shutokō Battle though.»
A view of the city from the top
It's a city you need to know by heart if you hope to get out of the most perilous situations. Driving at breakneck speed through The Oceansie-Fort Nor Metroplex to restore order, that's the goal!
Don Sefcik : At the age of 30, this classically handsome man displays a keen tenacity in the face of adversity. Despite a penchant for drink, his alcohol tolerance is abnormally high, and his intelligence, self-esteem and honesty make him a respectable person. Slightly mentally unbalanced, he doesn't show it and never breaks down in the face of life's trials. He lives in the present, refusing to talk about his past, as he did when he was a young singer in a band. Passionate about sport, he's a living encyclopedia on the subject. He lives alone with his dog, a Labrador Retriever cross. Since transferring to The Oceanside-Fort Nord Metroplex from another state, he's never taken the time to unpack. His new co-workers suspect Don of having been covered up by internal affairs in a serious case that occurred during his previous assignment, forcing him to relocate.
Jeanette Deveraux : She's a naive young woman in her twenties. Men find her attractive. She has a nihilistic view of life and the police profession, yet she has ambition. Her dangerous behavior unfortunately prevents her from being promoted. Underneath her cynicism, however, she remains committed to her job of catching criminals. Her sense of humor is easily mocked or even insulted. A gun fan, she supports the idea that everyone should own a gun to defend themselves. She believes that the Second Amendment is what establishes the superiority of the United States. For her, domestic animals should be slaughtered; she considers them stupid. Unlike her partner, she cooks succulent dishes. Raised in the Deep South, she joined the police force as soon as she was old enough to attend the academy. She misses living in a big city, the bayous and the hunting parties of her youth.
Jeanette Deveraux ?
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Secondary characters: Other characters who are relegated to the background but are essential to the story of Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast or to the way it is told appear throughout the adventure. Li Tang, a woman of color as beautiful as she is determined, and her street gang the Fallen Angels/Wing Kong sow chaos in the alleys of “The Oceanside-Fort Nord Metroplex”. Some frightened residents have banded together to form a private pro-gun militia, the CDM (Civil Defense Militia), a well-armed vigilante gang led by wealthy affluent businessman David Searl. The mayor of the metropolis, Mayor Jackson, hopes to stem this crime wave with the help of the police department to which Jeanette and Don are assigned. Karen, the operator of the city's dispatch center, regularly radios the police tandem to warn them of misdeeds in progress. Missions are occasionally introduced or interspersed by cinematic sequences featuring Channel 23 News reports covering the city's current events in the famous “Deadly Pursuit” program presented by Scott Haring and produced by the company's CEO Monica Stephens.
The characters, stereotyped and caricatured, draw their inspiration from the action films of the end of the second millennium. Don Sefcik certainly resembles Mel Gibson's Martin Rings in Lethal Weapon!
Jeanette Deveraux and Don Sefcik begin their investigation equipped only with a handgun, the Desert Eagle 50. As their investigation progresses, their weaponry becomes more sophisticated, with the acquisition of a shotgun, an M16 Assault Rifle/H&K MP5, grenades, a Rifle-mounted RP Grenades and an anti-tank weapon. Equipment evolves and becomes increasingly devastating. The trick to shooting from behind, using the controller's “A” button, is to switch to a view specially designed for this purpose. The camera is then directed backwards from the front of the car.
Chris Bateman: « To my knowledge, there was no plan for a romantic subplot, and I certainly hadn't planned on one. Maybe for a sequel! »
In third-person view, from the inside (front or rear) identical to the cameras mounted on the dashboard or back seat of real police cars, and even sometimes from the sky as if a helicopter were filming the chase live, the player can drive a selection of around 10 vehicles with their own characteristics, even a tank. Most are equipped with a portable light projector to illuminate Mayor Jackson's inner-city neighborhood. To maximize the realism of this police simulation, buttons on the Dreamcast controller trigger the blue and red sirens of the rotating beacons, as well as honking the horn - enough to make you feel like a real gendarme!
The view from the emergency lights
Unlike Grand Theft Auto III, Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast doesn't allow players to get out of their cars and freely explore the countryside on foot. Teeny/Perfect's title is the equivalent of a chase game, with Gun Figth phases at the wheel of a car. It sets itself apart from other productions in the genre by adding modular missions, playing the role of police officers and a carefully crafted storyline.
Leon Walters: « He looked a lot like GTA before GTA. The city was open-world, with a linear mission structure supported by many side quests. »
To keep graphics to a minimum, the developers didn't want the vehicles' bodies to be deformed by collisions. On the other hand, damage effects, such as bullet holes, were applied to the bodywork. Various components of the cars suffered continuous damage, not necessarily visual, if they were constantly under attack. Shooting at the windows shattered them, legitimizing more precise targeting of the enemy car's occupants. Flat tires affected the car's handling until it came to a complete stop. If the engine took too much damage, the vehicle's speed would be reduced, the hood would warp and fly off, and steam would escape from the engine compartment, heralding an imminent explosion. An excellent way of eliminating fugitives was to neutralize them by touching their vehicle's fuel tank - BOUM!
Dealy Pursuit Dreamcast's playable top view, cleverly explained by the vision of the scene from a helicopter recording it, helps make the connection with real-life chases broadcast in the media or on the eponymous TV show.
Deadly Pursuit is a story-driven, mission-based police driving game. It takes place in the exact same way as American bandit car chase reality shows, and is inspired by their camera angles and helicopter views. As a police officer, the player has several cars to choose from and numerous weapons at his disposal as he attempts to complete over 75 missions designed to test his reactions and nerve.
The action takes place in a real-time 3D environment, with the aim of completing all available missions to rid the city of crime. The missions can be played from several different angles, transforming the gameplay experience every time.
Chris Bateman: « The term Open World only came into use later. But Driver was on its way at this point, and there was a push towards these larger worlds, and this project was on point in that regard. »
The key word: drive carefully
Despite the serious tone of Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast, the developers were imaginative in many respects, and thought to include a touch of originality in their game, with optional choreographic sequences worthy of the greatest Hollywood blockbusters. When approaching railroad tracks, a timer was triggered, inviting the player to perform an improbable swerve over, and why not through, a freight train. Another improbable stunt involved driving under a semi-trailer with the roof of the police car ripped off. Why not perform a jump from the roof of a building to land below on the back of a moving car transporter? Since DP on SEGA's latest console was at an early stage of development at the time of its cancellation, obviously in Alpha version, it's impossible to say whether these elements were technically feasible and whether they would be retained for the game's further development. The idea was there...
A local or network multiplayer component for up to four players was planned. Players would compete in basic deathmatches, classic races or manhunts. One of the multiplayer mods even offered them the chance to take part in an extravagant competition in a city district sealed off for the occasion. They all started with a bomb in their car, timed to explode within 60 seconds. If they were driving below 30 mph (50 km/h), the countdown was reduced more rapidly. To gain time and extend the timer on the explosive device, and hope to stay alive as long as possible, the aspiration was to shoot at or ram opposing cars. The Dreamcast is said to have featured a console-exclusive co-op mod in which Player 1 piloted the vehicle while Player 2 handled the weaponry.
Single-player missions range from the simplest, such as arresting drunk drivers, to the most complex, such as attempting to control civil unrest during a power outage. Most of them can be completed in more than one way, although some branches are more complex than others.
Dominic Jackson: « Where we were before it was cancelled, it was more of a driving experience than a game – the physics and performance was starting to come together, but we’d only just started to get the missions working. There many have been some instabilities in the physics engines and some performance spikes but we were getting pretty close in that regard. »
The missions are presented as a series of five, each following a different part of the story. These 5 modules can follow each other in multiple combinations, depending on how the player has completed the previous ones. Missions differ depending on how the other modules have been played. Thus, an enemy created in a previous module will make life more difficult for the player in the current one.
A risky overtaking maneuver
Dominic Jackson: « Additionally a lot of the engine resources were intricately tied to the PC version of the Tantalus engine we were using – it would be very hard to reverse engineer some of these assets without the engine code from that time.»
Once a module has been completed, the game evaluates it as having been completed professionally or destructively. If the player has caused a great deal of collateral damage (damage to city infrastructure, vehicles etc.), the game considers it to have been completed destructively.
The result of modules already completed not only controls the course of the scenario, but also affects the characters' dialogues. Conversations fluctuate in proportion to the degree of destructiveness caused.
The player cannot kill innocent bystanders and successfully complete missions. He can adopt a zero-tolerance attitude towards criminals, but as soon as he slaughters innocent people, the mission is automatically doomed to failure.
Dominic Jackson: « I do remember that we had a novel *ragdoll physics system, so you were able to hit pedestrians in the game ( and yes, I’m sure that hitting innocent civilians would have been detrimental to your success in missions ). Having said that, the mission system was still in development when the project was stopped so I don’t know how far the publisher would have allowed that to develop. »
*Ragdoll physics is a type of real-time animation used by physics engines to simulate a character getting hit, falling, dying etc.
With these game rules, players feel that their characters' actions affect life in the imaginary city of The Oceanside-Fort Nord Metroplex.
The game provides a number of ways to accomplish a mission, leaving the player a certain amount of freedom to improvise. Radio calls, character discussions and introductory cutscenes set out the objective of the upcoming police operation. Deadly Pursuit contains the following mission types:
Chases : The aim is to find a way to force a fleeing vehicle to stop.
Solo Races : These missions involve liaising between fixed points in a limited time, such as transporting a pregnant woman to hospital, or crossing the city to defuse bombs.
Competitive Races : A cross between a race and a chase, the challenge is to beat one or more of the other vehicles taking part in the event.
No time to visit the city
Fights : All operations involving the destruction of other vehicles are classified as combat missions.
Crimewaves : The most difficult of all operations, “Crimewave” consists of a succession of calls to the police switchboard, all of which must be answered within the allotted time. The result is a series of “Figths”, “Solo Race” and “Chase” missions, all rolled into one perilous mission.
There's something for everyone, putting piloting skills to the test. Whether you make it out alive depends on your driving skills!
Pregnant Woman : An emergency call comes in from police headquarters as Don is running errands, drinking coffee and chatting with Deveraux. In his hands, he holds a bag which he drops in a hurry. There's not a minute to lose. The mission begins with sirens wailing, the woman screaming and the car speeding away. The player then takes over and has to get to one of the city's two hospitals within the allotted time. As the seconds tick by, the woman becomes increasingly hysterical, in true Hollywood movie style.
The mission is interspersed with cutscenes and dialogue, and ends in front of one of the hospitals. On successfully completing the mission, the police car suddenly stops in front of the hospital, and the pregnant woman, screaming in pain, is immediately attended to by doctors. One of the policemen, looking satisfied, watches her walk away on a stretcher, leaning on the roof of the car with arms folded. If she fails, the child will be born in the back seat of the car.
Escort Prison Van : During a prisoner transfer, the cops are informed by radio of a possible attack on the prison convoy. The lines of dialogue reveal more about this dangerous criminal and foreshadow the future development of the mission's plot. Agents Deveraux and Sefcik's car speeds off to escort the cell van. The cinematic sequence continues with a view from the Channel 23 helicopter, with live commentary by Channel 23 journalists.
In the first part of the mission, the player must follow the van at a given distance, or risk losing sight of it and failing. Halfway through the mission, a cutcene occurs, with two vehicles appearing out of nowhere to block the way of the police escort. The camera switches to helicopter view as a firefight breaks out between the police and a heavily armed commando. During the assault, one of the men exfiltrating the prisoner grabs the armored van and flees at full speed.
Now the aim is to fight your way through the bullet-riddled vehicles and chase down the fugitives. To complete the mission, the prison van must be disabled by either destroying it completely or immobilizing it. The final cutscene reveals Deveraux standing next to the smoking carcass of the van with a rifle in hand, the flames consuming it in the background. If he can't be apprehended in time, the police car stops. Inside, given the turn of events and their abject failure, Don and Jeannette worry about the captain's reaction when they get back to the office...
At breakneck speed
The missions follow one another in a frenetic rhythm. They alternate between serious and unusual approaches.
When a video game does not reach the end of its development, there is no complete list on the Internet of the individuals who worked on the project to congratulate them on their involvement, as is done by the MobyGames (Video Game Database) website, among others. In rare cases, the credits are already integrated into the game following the evolution of its design before its cancellation.
Information about the people who contributed to an Unreleased game and their roles is impossible to find, so it gets lost and forgotten. Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult to establish the organisational chart of a development team. Below is a non-exhaustive list of people who worked on World's Scariest Police Chases: Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast:
Martin Clemie: Artist City Team
Julian Hughes-Watts: Artist City Team
Mark Tatham: Artist City Team
Steve Packer: To Be Confirmed
Jim Ellis: To Be Confirmed
Simon Turner: Artist Characters
Ben Wilshir: Artist Characters
Mark Booth: Artist Characters
Darren Hatton: Artist Characters
Chris Bateman: Production/Design
Siobhan Reddy: Production/Design
Luci Black: To Be Confirmed
Jason Bardford: Production/Design
Leon Walter: Producer
Jon Forshaw: Lead Programmer
John Southgate: Lead Artist
Rob Lord: Audio Director
Ian France: Programmer
Matt McGinity: AI Programmer
Gareth White: Junior Programmer
Mark Judge: To Be Confirmed
Mark Jones: Artist Vehicle Team
Martin Issit: Artist Vehicle Team
Warren Hawkes: To Be Confirmed
Chi Chan: Artist City Team
David Gear: Artist City Team
I'd like to thank Chris Bateman, Dominic Jackson, Leon Walters and Rob Lord for their availability, their kindness and for taking the time to answer my questions. Their testimonials allow us to go back in time to the development of Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast and understand its gameplay mechanics and concept!
I'd like to thank the entire Teeny Weeny Games/Perfect Entertainment team involved in the World's Scariest Police Chases: Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast project (Mobygames from Discworld Noir).
If other people who have worked on this game are reading me, to better visualize it and project themselves playing it, I'm looking for:
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Photos taken from the engine, artworks and, why not, models of the game's characters, at least the two police officers.
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Visuals of the city, whether in artworks, photos taken from the engine or gameplay, and why not models of the buildings.
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Photos, artworks or models of vehicles or even weapons.
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A video of the game.
The idea would be to correlate the information contained in this article with visuals from Deadly Pursuit Dreamcast.
Special thanks to:
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Hicks for proofreading and editing the French texts
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XXXXXXXXXXX for the English correction of the article (WORK IN PROGRESS)
In my research focused on unreleased games, I have had the opportunity to interview a number of developers. I took the opportunity I had to create some articles for these cancelled games, complete with previously unpublished information:
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Proof of the existence of the Smurfs (The Smurfs) on Dreamcast and Playstation 2
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World's Scariest Police Chases: Deadly Pursuit, an escaped Dreamcast Unreleased
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Planet of the Apes Dreamcast crashes on an Unreleased planet
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The discovery of Farnation Dreamcast in video: when SEGA wanted to offer MMOs on its latest console
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Frontier Dreamcast, when Turbine's MMO almost arrived on Dreamcast
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The making of Prodigal Xbox 360/PlayStation 3: When Need For Speed met Devil May Cry
