Driving and Racing Games
Since the very earliest video games, one of the most popular genres has always been driving simulations. Night driver by Atari, released in the late ’70s was the very first driving game, although it was really nothing more than white posts on the screen to signify the edge of the road.
It wasn’t until 1983 when the first real driving game hit the arcades, it came from Atari again and this time was the might Pole Position. While incredibly simplistic by today’s standards, it set the trend for a flourish of arcade and home computer games for the next 2 decades.
As technologies improved, so games developers took advantage of them, and the slow but steady improvement of the driving genre could be seen year on year. In 1986 Sega released a game which quickly became a classic, as much for the soundtrack as the game play itself, and is still remembered fondly by gamers today – that game was Outrun. With Outrun the cars started to look like real cars, there were multiple levels and semi-realistic scenery. Opposition cars behaved roughly as you might expect them to, and the game was a massive hit.
The genre continued to advance. Graphics improved and the change from 2 dimensions to 3 dimensions allowed greater realism, and cars which appeared to perform like they do in the real world. Through the 1990s a slew of releases in the arcades pushed the driving game to new heights. Notable releases such as Sega’s Virtua Driving, and Sega Rally, and Namco’s Ridge Racer drew huge crowds and sucked up millions of teenager’s pocket money.
On the home systems the genre was just as popular. Titles such as Sega Rally and Ridge Racer were ported from the arcades, but home systems allowed designers to develop games with more depth. While in the arcade a player might only play a game for 2 or 3 minutes, at home they might play for several hours at a time. This lead to the development of games with many more tracks, “career” modes and unlockable gameplay features.
Notable games on home systems include the Gran Turismo series, known for its incredible realism and attention to detail, the Wipeout series for taking on the concept of sci-fi racing, and of course Nintendo’s Mario Kart which is widely considered one of the greatest games of all times, and appeals to almost every type of player.
With each new console the driving genre evolves. Driving games are as popular today as ever, and they can be found on every system from the PC to Xbox, DS to Flash. Their appeal is universal, with men and women, old and young alike drawn to the experience of the driving game.