I'm having serious problems running Pod Racer on my PowerBook G3 500Mhz with 256MB RAM running OS 9.0.4.... I can launch the game, but when I go to choose my pod racer, the graphics become all distorted and I can't see the pod racers of any of the following screens.... and if I stay on these distorted screens too long (say about 15 seconds - but shorter if I have "model detail" set to "high" in the Video Preferences of the game) my machine will crash... however, if I quickly choose a pod, than I can race without problems... however the problem reappears once the race is over... I have no idea what the problem is... I have installed the latest firmware, Multimedia Update 1.0, and Quicktime 4.1.2... any ideas? I also followed the suggestions on the LucasArts website to create a custom extension set, to deactivate specific features using the "switches.txt" file, but the problem still happens... I've also tried running the game with and without virtual memory on, and with and without the update from LucasArts' website.... and the demo version of the game taken off the site has the same issues. This game worked perfectly on my machine when I first got it, and I would really like to play it again! Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

[roders]

I think I read somewhere about graphics anomalies in the intro secnes of pod racer, the remedy was to turn off a relavent switch in the switches text.
But your probs sound quite strange, you say that pod racer worked in the past on your machine, if this is the case then the logical explanation would be that a piece of sotware you have installed since then is causing your probs (App, extension etc) but to be honest I reckon you might have a 3d Hardware related failure (Have you started having probs in any othe games?) although this is unlikely.
The only other things I can think of are uninstalling & reinstalling pod racer (trash the pref's) & check you have all the required & latest software to run the game (ATI, OpenGL drivers etc).
One last thougth I guess it's possible although again unlikey that your 3D card is overheating.
Hope you could your prob sorted soon!

roders, thanks for replying... I've tried turning all of the switches in the switches.txt file on and off one at a time, but no luck... SW racer actaully used to work perfectly on this machine. A couple of months ago I took it off because I needed some more space on my hard drive, and I just reinstalled it a couple of days ago. The only things that I can remember installing on my pismo while I didn't have SW racer on are Multimedia Update 1.0, Quicktime 4.1.2 and the firmware update... otherwise nothing else, er.. maybe codewarrior, but I can't see how that would cause any problems... All other games are still working correctly too, so I'm totally out to lunch on what's wrong! I really hope it's not my graphics card, but I can't imagine it is because other games are working okay... I've tried running the game with the minimal number of extensions necessary enabled, but still the problem... I've posted a couple of screen captures... maybe someone will be able to tell what wrong by looking at them...?!? http://members.home.net/malcolm3/sw_racer/screen1.jpg and http://members.home.net/malcolm3/sw_racer/screen2.jpg Any other ideas??? Thanks again for everyones help!

[roders]

The pics look very strange, & unfortunatly I've never had this or any other probs with pod racer so I'm not really in a position to help, but if you've got other games that require 3D acceleration (& especialy OpenGL) then I think you can saffly assume it's not a 3D hardware failure.
The only things I can suggest are contacting lucasArt's & making a post on Apples TIL.
Common somone give this guy a hand!
P.S you WILL need the Rave/QD3D drivers/extensions enabled aswell as OpenGL to play this game.

anybody know how to get racer demo to work with 8mb imacgamewuzard voodoo 2?

I can help you with this I had the same problems with other programs. i dont think its your card sounds more like a software problem.

It would be easier if you had icq so i can talk to you my name is the same their www.icq.com

If not try downgrading to quicktime 4.x I found it to be a lot more compatible and optimized for my system also try uninstall all the opengl and ati drivers then reinstall them do ati last

hey guys.... so after staying up last night and reinstalling OS 9 and every upgrade and driver (openGL, ATI, Quicktime 4.1.2 and the like), I got Racer working...! I have no idea what the problem was, because I have reinstalled everything that was on my computer before, and Racer runs fine. I suspect that a driver had gone corrupt or something like that... Thank you again for everyone's help!