Supersonic Software

Credits

Descriptions by
2K-tan

Captures by
Camenati

Video captures courtesy of
ENunn, Broken Saw and Introsation

Background

Supersonic Software is an English game developer formed in 1989. The company is known for its contribution on the Micro Machines franchise and its certain spinoffs, as well as other racing games and co-operations with Codemasters, Mindscape and Atari. Starting in 2012 most of the company's focus has gone into developing quiz and puzzle style games for smartphone devices. The company was acquired by Miniclip in 2021.

1st Logo (November 1994-1996)

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Visuals: On a white background, a blue square with a cut curved "S" and the word "Supersonic" (without the dot of the "i") slide and abruptly brake one-by-one. A small kart car drives into the square logo as a ramp, and bounces into the letters of the logo before placing at the top of the "i", spinning and changing into a black dot. The logo then "shines", with the words "DEVELOPED BY" and "SOFTWARE LTD" appearing above/below the logo.

Technique: Sprite-based animation.

Audio: The sounds of braking, the engine of the car, a synth arpeggio, and then two dissonant notes (probably representing car horns).

Availability: Seen on Micro Machines: Turbo Tournament 96 and Micro Machines Military on the Genesis/Mega Drive.

2nd Logo (Daredevil Derby 3D custom variant) (October 1996)

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Visuals: A racing finish line post with white/light blue colors and the words "Developed By" is shown on a white background, as a pink truck drives into it and turns into the right, causing the camera to move right and revealing a trailer with the parts of the horizontal Supersonic logo, which fall down and bounce into the screen while the camera moves to the left and the logo is formed. The post behind the logo fades out, leaving the "Developed By" in a smaller black font. A fat male character wearing a striped shirt and jeans then sneaks into the logo, holding a TNT bomb, and leans over to swap the "i" of the logo with the bomb. The pants rip off revealing part of his dotted underwear, before turning back into the camera with a surprised expression and running out to the screen. One second after, a cartoon-like explosion covering most of the screen occurs.

Technique: 3D CGI for the first part, then 2D cartoon animation.

Audio: The sounds of the truck and the characters falling down, then the sounds of the bomb with a 3-note brass ditty that repeats twice (the second time being faster and up an octave).

Availability: Seen on Daredevil Derby 3D for the PS1 (also called as Supersonic Racers).

3rd Logo (Circuit Breakers custom variant) (July 1998)

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Visuals: On a white background, the 3D logo for Circuit Breakers (the text in yellow with a bold black outline) is shown spinning to the left and facing the camera, while a green Mini Cooper-like car drives in behind and jumps into the logo as a ramp. The camera moves to the opposite direction as the car lands into a ramp with two bold blue walls, and follows it from a rear view. The car drifts to the other side as the camera pans up and reveals the Supersonic curved "S" logo of the time, and the car vanishes away with the logo turning 2D (a shadow is still shown), with "DEVELOPED BY" above the logo. The logo disappears with an iris transition as part of the still Mindscape logo is shown.

Technique: 3D CGI.

Audio: The engine and tire sounds from the car.

Availability: Seen on Circuit Breakers on the PS1.

4th Logo (October 22, 1999)

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Visuals: On a white background, the letters of the word "Supersonic" are seen arranging. One of them is a blue "I", which is seen playing with a ball while it also gets close to the other letters. The "I" then suddenly arranges with the other letters so the text forms, and the ball gets thrown up and it becomes the dot of the "I". The camera pans to reveal the logo on the front while it flashes and a blue square is shown above the text, having a "S" cutout. The camera then suddenly zooms in between the square and text before the logo cuts to black.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Spring sounds and synth pulses are heard when the letters arrange. A reverse tape sound and a soft hit when the screen zooms in at the end.

Availability: Seen on PONG: The Next Level.

5th Logo (March 17, 2000-July 26, 2002)

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Visuals: A redesigned version of the square "S" logo zooms out on the typical white background, with the letters of "supersonic" spinning in after placing.

Variant: The logo made its first appearance in Breakout, with the print logo appearing in the opening cutscene as a vinyl label placed in a DJ turntable.

Technique: Simple 2D effects (32-bit 3D for the Breakout variant).

Audio: A cinematic percussion theme. The opening theme of the game for the Breakout variant.

Availability: First appeared in Breakout for the PC and PS1, with the animated logo making its sole appearance in the 2002 game Antz Extreme Racing.

6th Logo (June 20, 2003-March 28, 2012)

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Visuals: On a cloudy sky, there is a white/blue infinity symbol rotating at a very fast speed as it flies from the top-left to the near center of the screen, before zooming into view and stopping once it gets to the center. The background suddenly changes into a white background with a transparent stripe as the word "supersonic" spins in below the symbol.

Variant: The logo appears still in later games.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Spinning air sounds caused by the symbol which end by a warbling synth, a low hit and a soft clang.

Audio Variant: On the GameCube port of Starsky & Hutch, it is silent.

Availability: Seen on Starsky & Hutch (XBOX and GameCube ports), Mashed: Drive to Survive and Micro Machines V4. The still logo has appeared in the Wii exclusive Emergency Mayhem and Wrecked: Revenge Revisited.