H2Overdrive

H2Overdrive
Developer: Specular Interactive Publishers: Raw Thrills (US), Unis (CN) Platform: Arcade (Raw Thrills PC-based) Released in US: May 2009 Released in CN: 2009 This game has unused areas. This game has uncompiled source code. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has a prerelease article

H2Overdrive is a powerboat racing game, believed to be a spiritual successor to Hydro Thunder.

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Prerelease Info

Unused Levels

There exists six levels mainly for testing, which can be accessed by overriding level select data.
The data works off of a list of two-character IDs. For example, Hong Kong Buoy is identified as HK, and London Underground as LU.
These are accessible by changing the list of said IDs in the executable at 257070.

Most test levels appear to only allow one player and do not have a goal. It can also be noticed that going off the water without a platform in place in a level will cause the game to teleport you back into the main area. This even happens in the middle of Quake Canyon when jumping in a certain direction.

xy

A lot of broken scenery is present in this level.

h2 - "H2Os"

Just water...

pp - "Physics Playground"

Many entities exist here which are used to test physics, such as hull-able props, and collision boxes to flip over or crash the player. There are also many duck models placed in one portion of the level.

pw - "Particle World"

Nothing appears to be in this level except text written in Arial named "particle world."

Unused Graphics

Many of the unused graphics in the game resemble that of the graphics seen in pre-release media, stored in DirectDraw Surface files.
Before the final release, the main typeface used within the game was Century Gothic, and imagery presenting Easy difficulty took the color of blue instead of green.

A lot of the textures use an uncompressed format, making their size a few megabytes big.
In some cases, textures take up space because they might be copy/pasted for localization in China and Japan.

Each loading screen has its own texture, too, instead of drawing text and a smaller image.

In one section of data, there are textures that only contain text of level names including the unused levels fitting into 128x64 pixels, and following those are preview stills of the levels, which reveal some differences beyond existing video and images.

Here, a later part of Temple of Flume can be seen in a brighter daylight.

Compared to another preview texture found later.

Old Level Titles

Compared to Now

Old Logo

The final logo with a blue tinted reflected propeller and dry text, which can be seen in Down Underdrive.

Artwork

Images which appear to have the style of paintings.

Icons for one of the old level selection screens.

HUD

Old Boost Meter Body + Speedometer

Boost + Super Boost Meter

Old Gem Texture

This can be seen in pre-release gameplay.

An editor?

A set of cursors (in separate files) most likely used for a debug tool.

A top down view of Down Underdrive backwards with debug text to the side.

Other

A map outline of what almost looks like Revenge of the Nile.^

The logo of the unused level H2Os.

A level select icon showing a picture of Froot Loops, most likely alluding to the H2Os level.

A menu icon indicating that its level or boat is under construction.

This texture can be seen in this pre-release screenshot and in a video of the game at ATEI 2009.

A real life picture of an unknown place.

A picture of someone, most likely a developer of the game, internally named "dman".

This specific loading screen texture for localization in China is missing the buoy.

These textures include graphics from the original Hydro Thunder.

Scorpion

A rendering of the boat's sides in its early stages, which have notable differences such as the different position of where the "29" is placed.

One of the boat's old textures, which have elements carried from the previous image.
There is also a "MANTA" label, in addition to the Scorpion's internal name being "stingray."

Other Boats

A rendering of Rogue Runner with red coloring, which has changes that can be seen in the attract videos.

A rendering of an unknown boat.

Unused Sounds

The full sound that can be heard during level loading.

The announcer saying "H2Os" in the level select.

A variant of the Hull Crusher sound.

Announcer Sounds

A person saying various things and then saying "Go!" after.

"Oh you got some tight turns ahead!"

"Megahull!"

Another person saying "H2Overdrive," most likely used after pressing Start.

Previous takes of the announcer woman saying "Time extended".

"Outstanding high score"
Despite "scores" being times.

Starting Race Voicelines

One of which can be heard in the main attract video.

Level Specific Voicelines

This audio can barely be heard, if even played at all during gameplay.

Quake Canyon

These might be used near the end of the level where the dam breaks.

"Please stay back for your own safety!"

"Why does no one listen to me!"

"Sure, hit the rescue boat! Very helpful!"

"My retainer!"

"I'm telling you, it's not safe in there!"

"You're all a bunch of crazies!"

"Come on, you guys, you're not helping!"

London Underground

These voicelines include the announcer mimicking a British accent.

"'Ello, 'ello! What's all this, then?!"

"Roight, I'll 'ave you for that!"

"Bloody 'ell!"

"Well I'll have to leg it back home, then!"

"Put it to the curb now, guv'nor!"

"Cheeky monkey!"

"Well, that's just not cricket!"

Unused Music

Some files have exact duplicates of other track songs, such as Frozen Tundra and Down Underdrive.

"so_com_music_post6"

This is assumed to be unused menu music since its sibling file "so_com_music_post8" is the used menu music for the Track Summary after finishing a track.

"so_wn_menu_3"

In this song, the main theme melody can be heard.

Miscellaneous Data

All data in the game appears to be stored in an uncompressed archive like file.

• At 107EC in the data file, an INI file can be found that is used to define each level with their respective IDs.
• At 2459D0 in the executable, vertex and shader-related code can be found.
• At 26B86C, there exists a padded array of mainly offensive words, which are replaced with kid friendly terms for best times and profile names. Apparently, one of these words is MIDWAY.