What racing game started it all?
- Thread starter frentzey
- 94 comments
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- 441
I AM A BIT OF A NEWBIE, I GUESS IT WAS GT1, I WAS BLOWN AWAY BY IT, I PLAYED A FRIENDS COPY ON HIS PS1 AND HAD TO BUY A PS1 THAT DAY I WAS SO IMPRESSED!! 
- 10,574
- United Kingdom
the game that got me into driving games ?? i would have to say 2 games OUTRUN and CHASE HQ , very addictive at the time , progression from then till now has been awesome , with gran turismo series and driver series taking top marks for real feel and playability ! 
i cant wait for the next installment from each of these great titles
i cant wait for the next installment from each of these great titles 
- 3,823
Originally posted by mr persistance
the game that got me into driving games ?? i would have to say 2 games OUTRUN and CHASE HQ , very addictive at the time , progression from then till now has been awesome , with gran turismo series and driver series taking top marks for real feel and playability !
Mmmmm Chase HQ..... I forgot about that one. Wasn't that george Tekai's voice in that game?
- 7,271
The game that started it all for me would have to be Andretti Racing for Sega That was a great game:thumbsup:
That was a great game:thumbsup:
- 43
I totally agree:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
- 88
Grand Prix on PC, back in 1992/3, then Indycar/Nascar racing by Papyrus.
So, Matt, this is where you hang out now? Cute picture, BTW.
So, Matt, this is where you hang out now? Cute picture, BTW.
- 226
erm, what about rock'n'roll racing for hte SNES? that had the best soundtrack in the world.
and the game that started it for the PSX? wipeout. i believe that was one of the first racing games out for the PSX.
and the game that started it for the PSX? wipeout. i believe that was one of the first racing games out for the PSX.
- 173
I started with Pole posisition on the Atari 2600 and then it was Rad Racer on NES....ferrari against Lambo and the Ferrari wins every time...weird
- 10,081
- WFG9
i don't remember the first. we had rc pro-am.
- 19,420
- HSV
History lesson:
The first arcade game for racing cars was F-1. It debuted in 1974 with a video image of a car you steered left and right against a rolling background that had other impediments that you steered around.
In 1977, circuit racing improved with "Indy 500", except the course was not oval, it was more of a road circuit. The layout looked a lot like "Super Sprint", which came out about 10 years later. The Indy 500 game was black and white.
For home use, the Atari 2600 had "Night driver", you moved the road, not the car (it was in fact, motionless!) with a left-right motion paddle. The Indy 500 game was available for Atari, and it came with its own specially-designed controllers.
Coleco came out with "Turbo", and you just moved the car left and right from a blimp's-eye view. Pole Position debuted in 1982, and it was really the first racing game with any sort of feeling to it. Sure, you exploded by merely touching wheels or crashing into billboards, but you could steer a little or a lot, shift between two gears, and "qwalwify" for a grid of eight cars. (Funny how it has 8 cars, the GT series has 6.)
Variations upon the theme arrived over the next couple of years, mainly by Atari. Pole Position II (chose between 4 tracks) in 1983, FX-1 with 3 screens (!) in 1984, and a great game called "Final Lap" in 1987. You could actually spin the car because you had to make delicate steering inputs in to the car. You could really oversteer the car over the curbs which was really fun at times. The track was Suzuka, and the best machinery of 1987's F1 trail was in the game.
The "paddle-shifter" which was introduced by Ferrari in 1989, was emulated by Sega in "Super Monaco GP" later that year. (There was a Monaco GP in 1980, but it was no better than "Turbo"). This game had a unique rendition of Monaco (elements of the famous circuit, but not the real thing), and seven speeds. The game featured qualifying on a "short-circuit" and if you placed in the top 3 of the first race, you competed in a wet race after wards. This game was maddeningly difficult, but so much fun to play. The cars looked like real F1 cars (with paintjobs, and all), and you had to stay in a certain place in order to keep playing. You could crash out of the event, and punt other cars into the harbor every so often! The caveat is that most times I plaed this game, the shfter was broken!!!
Another neat game was Konami's WEC Le Mans, you sat in a sports-car looking device that moved around when you drove around a track that was very much like la Sarthe, and you had to keep up with checkpoints and the sky would change color from light to night and back again over the course of 4 laps. The steering wheel had "force-feedback"; if you ran over a curb or spun, you'd feel it though the wheel.
Sega took the lead with driving simulators, but most home-gaming systems had poor renditions of their arcade brothers. Nintendo had Mario Kart and RC Pro-Am, proving that it couldn't make real car games and just pandered to kids who were years away from legally driving real cars. Sega followed it up with F1 Exhaust Note, and later, VR Virtua Racing. NASCAR's popularity spawned Daytona...you could race 8 other players, and after the race, a voice told you to "get out your seat".
Home gaming consoles improved vastly around 1994, and this is where racing games took off. The PC did too, with games like Test Drive and various others. Even Microsoft tried a few racing games. Anyone want to take wheel from here?
The first arcade game for racing cars was F-1. It debuted in 1974 with a video image of a car you steered left and right against a rolling background that had other impediments that you steered around.
In 1977, circuit racing improved with "Indy 500", except the course was not oval, it was more of a road circuit. The layout looked a lot like "Super Sprint", which came out about 10 years later. The Indy 500 game was black and white.
For home use, the Atari 2600 had "Night driver", you moved the road, not the car (it was in fact, motionless!) with a left-right motion paddle. The Indy 500 game was available for Atari, and it came with its own specially-designed controllers.
Coleco came out with "Turbo", and you just moved the car left and right from a blimp's-eye view. Pole Position debuted in 1982, and it was really the first racing game with any sort of feeling to it. Sure, you exploded by merely touching wheels or crashing into billboards, but you could steer a little or a lot, shift between two gears, and "qwalwify" for a grid of eight cars. (Funny how it has 8 cars, the GT series has 6.)
Variations upon the theme arrived over the next couple of years, mainly by Atari. Pole Position II (chose between 4 tracks) in 1983, FX-1 with 3 screens (!) in 1984, and a great game called "Final Lap" in 1987. You could actually spin the car because you had to make delicate steering inputs in to the car. You could really oversteer the car over the curbs which was really fun at times. The track was Suzuka, and the best machinery of 1987's F1 trail was in the game.
The "paddle-shifter" which was introduced by Ferrari in 1989, was emulated by Sega in "Super Monaco GP" later that year. (There was a Monaco GP in 1980, but it was no better than "Turbo"). This game had a unique rendition of Monaco (elements of the famous circuit, but not the real thing), and seven speeds. The game featured qualifying on a "short-circuit" and if you placed in the top 3 of the first race, you competed in a wet race after wards. This game was maddeningly difficult, but so much fun to play. The cars looked like real F1 cars (with paintjobs, and all), and you had to stay in a certain place in order to keep playing. You could crash out of the event, and punt other cars into the harbor every so often! The caveat is that most times I plaed this game, the shfter was broken!!!
Another neat game was Konami's WEC Le Mans, you sat in a sports-car looking device that moved around when you drove around a track that was very much like la Sarthe, and you had to keep up with checkpoints and the sky would change color from light to night and back again over the course of 4 laps. The steering wheel had "force-feedback"; if you ran over a curb or spun, you'd feel it though the wheel.
Sega took the lead with driving simulators, but most home-gaming systems had poor renditions of their arcade brothers. Nintendo had Mario Kart and RC Pro-Am, proving that it couldn't make real car games and just pandered to kids who were years away from legally driving real cars. Sega followed it up with F1 Exhaust Note, and later, VR Virtua Racing. NASCAR's popularity spawned Daytona...you could race 8 other players, and after the race, a voice told you to "get out your seat".
Home gaming consoles improved vastly around 1994, and this is where racing games took off. The PC did too, with games like Test Drive and various others. Even Microsoft tried a few racing games. Anyone want to take wheel from here?
what an EXCELLENT chronology!
Just to add, I don't think console racing games would've taken off they way they did if it weren't for the original Ridge Racer on the playstation. That game sold millions of copies and was responsible for the encouragement of other developers to make their own racing games(ala Polyphony Digital).
And if I'm not mistaken, it was the first racing game in the arcade to feature fully texture mapped polygons and a smooth 60fps. It was breathtaking to look at at the time.
RAD RACER was such a great game, I think the sound the cars made still beats out most games coming out these days.
