GamesRadar - TOCA Race Driver 3

Overlord, Jericho To Get amBX Support (News)

Nov 15, 2007

Philips and Codemasters today announced that amBX patches will be available for Codemasters titles Overlord on November 16th, and Clive Barker's Jericho by the end of the year.

Shorthand for 'ambient experiences', amBX extends the gaming experience by allowing developers to use light, color, sound, rumble and air flow through enabled devices like LED colour-controlled lighting, rumble peripherals and variable speed desktop fans.

TOCA 3 to Feature Realistic Wind and Ambient Lighting Effects (News)

Dec 13, 2006

Philips has announced this week that two more major publishers/developers have been signed up to produce games which are 'amBX-enabled' Â¿ allowing for realistic in-game wind, temperature and ambient lighting effects.

The company will partner with Codemasters and Introversion to amBX-enable TOCA Race Driver 3 and the upcoming titles DEFCON and Darwinia (all on PC).

The Philips release we just received informs us that the company, "...will utilize a special scripting language in Codemasters and Introversion titles that will redefine the experience of playing games by extending the game world out of the screen and into the real world."

What is this amBX, then? It's basically a bunch of wind and lighting effects which are created by a number of add-on peripherals including satellite lights, wallwasher lights (both offering 16 million different colours), twin-bladed desk fans (that can drop the ambient temperature on the skin, or on full-blast at 5000rpm can represent strong wind and almost blow your hair off!) and rumbler effects (via rumble wrist-rests and mouse mats).

The idea being that the combination of ambient lighting, sound, vibration and air movement at the correct moments in a game serve to increase the sensual and immersive feel of being in the game.

In TOCA for example, racers will feel the wind in their hair through the amBX fans and see the flash of lighting through tree lines, tunnels and landscapes via the amBX LED lights all in the real world around them.

TOCA Race Driver 3 gears up (News)

Feb 15, 2006

Witness the pulsating action of Codemasters' TOCA Race Driver 3 with this latest movie footage, which has been curiously offset with narration by a man with a voice as flat as the Netherlands. TOCA Race Driver 3 is the latest in Codemasters' hardcore racing simulator series, which offers a truly comprehensive driving experience. The game features over 120 different championships which allow gamers to test their racing driver credentials in different classes of car that range from the ...