Super Burnout

The game has four modes of play:[8] Trainer, Versus, Championship and Record. Championship, as the name implies, is the main mode of the game where a single player competes against six computer-controlled opponents over eight tracks. In this mode, finishing each race will allow the player to achieve a certain number of standings points, depending on the position the player finishes in; a first-place finish rewards a maximum of 20 points for each track, and the total maximum number of points possible is 180. Trainer mode is recommended for beginners to practice in any of the available courses with other opponents and refine their driving skills. Versus mode allows two players to compete against each other in head-to-head races on a split screen. Record is a time trial mode where players compete against the clock in an attempt to obtain the best time possible.

Super Burnout features six motorcycles to choose from before starting any game mode, each one having their own pros and cons that players must take advantage of depending on the track, however, a seventh motorcycle can be unlocked by either entering a cheat code or obtaining a high rank after finishing Championship mode:[8]

1. Lightning Racer
2. Sliding Thunder
3. Killing Turtle
4. Super Rabbit
5. Reflex Z
6. Wheels of Terror
7. Punisher[lower-alpha 2]

Many of the members that would later form Shen Technologies, began writing demos for the Atari ST platform.

In 1989, the demogroup Constellations was formed when Atari ST programmer Elysée Adé and graphic artist Kheang Tan met each other during high school in order to compete against other demoscene groups by creating demos that were capable of taking advantage of both the ST and Amiga, with a focus on fluidity.[11] Originally a two-man team, the group grew when programmers Stéphane Bensoussan and Laurent Arquetoux joined them, creating their very first demo during this period.[11] The group grew further when more people joined them including composer Alexandre Habekian and programmers William Ilzizine and Olivier Nallet, creating two more demos before the French division of Atari Corporation approached them and requested a demo for Atari STe to be featured in events and a promotional campaign.[11] However, their activity dwindled when each member restarted pursuing their careers, while Elysée began writing articles for the French publication ST Magazine and eventually becoming editor-in-chief.[11]

Virtual Xperience was a French video game development studio that was founded by Rodolphe Czuba in December 1993 as a successor to Retour 2048, which had closed due to management issues from two of their employees earlier that year.[12] VX had three titles under development for the Jaguar; A platform game titled Indiana Jags, a shoot 'em up named Zzyorxx II and a space combat simulator called Starnet,[13][14][15] neither of which were finished and released to the public.[12]

In 1992, Constellations thought of creating a track and field title inspired by the 1992 Summer Olympics, among other demos and ideas in order to attract a publisher.[11] As the group were fans of Sega's Super Scaler arcade games such as After Burner, Out Run and Super Hang-On, they settled in making a motorcycle racing title modelled after the latter as the Jaguar lacked "a good racing game", according to Kheang in a 2006 online interview.[11] Through one of his contacts who had connection with Virtual Xperience,[12][15] Elysée and the team borrowed one of their Jaguar development kits to start working on the title during weekends,[16][17] while VX acted as an intermediary between them and Atari Corporation,[11] in addition of working on its production.[12][15] Although the idea was conceived in late 1993, the game was created between February and December 1994,[11] with the development process taking approximately 12 to 14 months in completing it.[17] Kheang, Olivier Nallet and Alexandre worked on the game along with Elysée on his bedroom, with graphic artist Olivier Baron later joining the team during development to help with artwork.[11] In a 2007 forum thread at AtariAge and a 2012 online interview, Olivier Nallet recounted more about the game's development process, stating that he worked at high hours during weekends before returning the borrowed development kit back to VX and keep with his college studies, but they later gave the team a development kit full-time to keep working on the project after seeing their results.[16][17]

Besides Super Hang-On, Namco's Suzuka 8 Hours 2, along with the original Ridge Racer and its sequel also served as inspirations for the team during development.[11] All the programming work was done using an Atari TT030, while all the artwork was realized using an Amiga 2000 with Deluxe Paint.[11] Alexandre composed the soundtrack for Super Burnout by using the Atari STe and synthesizers,[11] which was played at 32 KHz with 10 sound channels during gameplay.[16] When showing a demo of the game, Atari Corp. became interested in publishing the title and started being more involved on its development, giving the team a few months to finish it before release.[11][16][17] As the team received a sum of money from Atari for the development of the game prior to its release,[11] they would establish Shen Technologies as a company.[16]