Racing games of the late 80s

The racing game industry shifted in the late 80s since developers started to create games with different themes and different types of racing. Turbo Espirit of one of those games that was very different from its predecessors. It was released by  Durell Software in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. It introduced a whole different type of game play, it allowed users to roam around the map like in a open world game. It also allowed you to change between the cities you were driving in. It influenced later games that were open world such as the infamous grand theft auto series. Another revolutionary concept that this game had was a plot line. The player plays as a special agent, and as this agent you must travel around the city looking for drug smugglers. As you drive around the city a message would pop up giving you the location to an armored car. The player had to capture or destroy the armored car, which could be done by the built-in machine guns or by ramming the car. However you got more points for disabling the car rather then destroying the car, and points are deducted for hitting objects while driving. 

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CIEHfVIEMM

Screenshot

Wec Le Mans was another game that was revolutionary as it simulated an actual racing event which as its title suggest is 24 hour race called Le Mans. It was developed by Konami and released in 1986. It had features that tried to recreate the experience of driving a race car. It allowed the player to counter steer to prevent the car from spinning out while cornering. It had a force feedback system that simulated all the bumps and dips in the road and this was achieved through vibrations in the steering wheel.The game was available in three forms the regular cabinet, cockpit, and one that could spin around 360 degrees. 

Gameplay- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Vmxi_wMCU

360 Cabinet 

Racing games of the early 80s

The 80s can be considered the golden age of arcade games as they were starting to become more popular. One game that pushed the boundaries was called pole position. It was designed by  Tōru Iwatani who is responsible for the world famous PAC man game. This game was released by namco in 1982 as a arcade style cabinet. There were two styles of the arcade cabinet one was the standard upright one and the other was more like a cockpit. The cockpit cabinet had a seat to make the player feel like a driver and it also included 4 speakers 2 of which are located on the sides of the seat.  It featured Japan's Fuji racetrack which made it the first game to feature a real race track in a game. It was a major success making tens of millions of dollars which made it the highest grossing arcade game of the year. The game began with the player competing a timed lap to qualify for a F1 race on the Fuji racetrack. After that race the player raced against 7 other computer controlled cars. The player had to avoid crashing into the other cars as well as the billboards on the side of the road and going into the grass reduced the cars speed.

Cockpit Cabinet

Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeYZGtwydIA 3:15- 4:27

Regular Cabinet

Pitstops II was another revolutionary game that was developed by Epyx released in 1984. It was the first 3D racing games to feature a two player split screen. The players of the game raced against each other while maintaining there tires and fuel as its name suggests. It was more realistic since the car could run out of fuel or wear out the tires while in other games you wouldn't have to worry about that. When you went in for a pit stop the player had to click the gas guy or the tire guy and take control over them. As the tire guy you could walk over to the tire you want to change and put it to the side and put on a new one. The game also gave the user the choice of the number of laps which was 3, 6 or 9 and a choice of 3 different difficulty levels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn6ytoaMdvE 4:45-5:20 (video showing a pitstop)

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.

Introduction

Racing games have changed tremendously since the first racing games were introduced. Early games had very little detail and were unrealistic in terms of how the cars handled. On the other hand modern racing games give you the feeling of sitting in the cockpit of the car. Another advancement in the genre of racing games is the controller technology. The controller technology has advanced a great deal from the joysticks to a setup consisting of a steering wheel and pedals. Early racing games were played in arcade cabinets that had rudimentary controls such as joysticks. There have been many technical advances over the years that have allowed game developers to create a full racing simulation. These advances have improved racing type games in terms of graphics, controls and the physics of how the cars handle in comparison to real life.