POD
European cover art
Developer(s)Ubi Soft
Publisher(s)Ubi Soft
Director(s)Fabrice Valay
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
  • UK: January 5, 1999
(POD Gold) [2]
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

POD: Planet of Death (titled simply POD in North America) is a futuristic racing video game for Microsoft Windows released by Ubi Soft in 1997.

Plot

Set in the distant future where humanity has successfully colonized one of Jupiter's moons, Io. After years of prosperity, a mining accident unleashes a deadly fungus[3] from within the mining facility, causing widespread destruction and panic throughout the colony. Desperate, most of Io's population escapes the now-termed "p.o.d." (planet of death) while a few survivors remain, voluntarily or otherwise. With only one ship remaining, the survivors soup up cars, which they use to race each other in tournaments throughout the desolated city streets, and the winner of the final tournament will commandeer the last ship and escape to safety, leaving the others to die.

As the player wins the final race on the "HQ" circuit, the creeping fungus nearly engulfs the remaining portion of land where the platform with the last ship still stands. Ditching the vehicle, they successfully take off with the ship before the mold consumes the launch pad. As the last person to leave the "p.o.d.", the player witnesses Io's final stage of destruction: being reborn as a giant flower in outer space.

History

Influences on POD included Super Mario Kart and Ridge Racer.[4]

POD was published in 1997. It was one of the first games to support the MMX instruction set[4] and came bundled as an OEM version with computers using Intel Pentium or Pentium II MMX processors, and some AMD K6 systems. The OEM 1.0 version did not support 3dfx cards or a network mode. A retail version of POD (called POD 2.0 by Ubisoft) was later released and featured more circuits and cars, plus support for 3dfx video cards and network play. A special multiplayer program called "Game Service" was provided by Ubisoft for POD players so that they could race on Ubisoft servers. POD was among the first games optimized for video cards with a 3dfx chipset using the Glide API. Only video cards with the 3dfx Voodoo 1 chipset were supported upon the game's release. Ubisoft later published patches, which added support for the Voodoo 2 using the Glide API and non-3dfx chipsets via Direct3D. Less than a year after publishing POD, Ubisoft issued an expansion pack under the title Back to Hell (also known as Extended Time in France) in late 1997. This pack contained 19 circuits and 15 new vehicles, including motorcycles, a floating purple batlike creature, and a witch riding a broom. Another version called POD: Gold was later released, which included POD, its expansion, plus a new sound set.[2]

A port of POD for the Nintendo 64 was announced,[5] but never released.

In the winter of 2000, Ubisoft released the game's successor, POD 2 (also known as POD 2: Multiplayer Online and POD: Speedzone), for the Sega Dreamcast console. It is another futuristic racing game, but players are able to attack their opponents. Each player is a miner on the colony of Damethra, and an alien virus has taken over the cars on the colony, creating mutant cars. It was one of the first games playable on SegaNet and one of the few games to support the Dreamcast Broadband Adaptor. The game features eight vehicles to use on five tracks. Bonus cars and tracks could be unlocked if the game was played online and the user had a Game Service account, but due to the shutdown of SegaNet, these are now inaccessible.

On October 6, 2011, POD was re-released by GOG.com, with added compatibility with modern operating systems.[6]

Reception

Next Generation rated it three stars out of five, and stated that "Pod is a fantastic ride, with high-color graphics at high resolution and a steady, high frame rate. It could very well be the prettiest racing game you can buy right now."[10]

Reviews

  • Electric Games (1997)[11]
  • PC Multimedia & Entertainment (Apr 11, 1997)[12]
  • Coming Soon Magazine (May, 1997)[13]
  • Game-Over! (Jun 07, 1997)[14]
  • Gamezilla (1997)[15]
  • World Village (Gamer's Zone) (1997)[16]

References

  1. ↑ "Hot Rod, It's Pod!". Ubisoft. March 5, 1997. Archived from the original on June 28, 1997. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Game entry". GiantBomb.com. GiantBomb. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
  3. ↑ "The archives from the official investigation of the evacuation of IO and the proliferation of POD". pod.ubi.com. Archived from the original on 6 March 2004. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  4. 1 2 "NG Alphas: POD". Next Generation. No. 23. Imagine Media. November 1996. pp. 185–6.
  5. ↑ "In Development". Next Generation. No. 29. Imagine Media. May 1997. p. 57.
  6. ↑ "New release: POD Gold". GOG.com. CD Projekt. October 6, 2011. Archived from the original on 28 November 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  7. ↑ Rey, Steve (May 1996). "The rules for racing games are about to be rewritten as multiplayer Internet compatible Pod hits these shores". Computer and Video Games. No. 186. EMAP Images. p. 70 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ Dulin, Ron (17 April 1997). "POD for PC Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  9. ↑ Chick, Tom (15 December 2000). "LPC Retroview: POD". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on 5 September 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  10. 1 2 "Finals". Next Generation. No. 31. Imagine Media. July 1997. pp. 168, 170.
  11. ↑ "Electric Games Review: Pod by UbiSoft". Electric Games. 1997. Archived from the original on 2005-05-15.
  12. ↑ White, Rod (11 April 1997). "PCM&E; Review - POD". PC Multimedia & Entertainment. Archived from the original on 24 June 1997. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  13. ↑ Soucy, Glenn (1997). "Pod - PC Review". Coming Soon Magazine. Archived from the original on 29 April 1997. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  14. ↑ Wilks, Dave (7 June 1997). "Game-Over! - Computer Games Magazine". Archived from the original on 15 July 2003. Retrieved 16 September 2002.
  15. ↑ Law, Richard (1997). "POD by Ubi Soft". Gamezilla. Archived from the original on 21 December 2001.
  16. ↑ Meinfelder, Edmond (1997). "A Beautiful Disappointment – A Review of Pod". World Village. Archived from the original on 28 June 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
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