The first racing game

The first racing games were introduced into the video game market in the 70s. One of the first games was Speed Race as it was known in Japan was released in 1974 and then a year later was introduced to the US market as wheels. It featured sprite graphics which is a type of animated 2D graphics. In the game the user was able control the speed of the car and allowed them to steer left and right to avoid other cars. The player gained points based on how long they could drive before crashing and they accumulated more points based on how fast they were going. It was the first games to have scrolling graphics where the car remained in the middle while the track seemed to scroll downward with other cars coming down as you drove by. Other features included collision detection where cars could crash into each other and end the player’s streak. The game was played in arcade cabinet game and the controls consisted of a wheel, pedals, gear shift, and a speedometer. It interesting to see how fast the video game controls advanced from the knobs that were used in pong just two years before.

Video Clip of Speed Race- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BRDxZiK-1s                                                         

    Another game that also introduced in 1974 was Gran Trak 10 by Atari. It was similar to speed race in that it was an arcade cabinet with a wheel, pedals and gear shift. But one difference was that it did not have scrolling graphics but showed the entire race track on the screen. Also the player had to race against a timer to get the most number of laps. It had obstacles such as oil slicks which would appear on the track as black patches which made the car uncontrollable momentarily. One reason it became famous was that it was a game that was played by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. He said he got so good at the game that he went to a pizza parlor that offered free pizza to the person that got over 36 points and he won twice so they end up taking out the game.

Video Clip of Gran Trak 10- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPSnhHx1s5w

These early games where both rudimentary but advanced for their time because they had steering wheel controls and advanced graphics. But both of these games where in black in white and had limited steering control.