Everything about Racing Game totally explained
* Many
board games can be said to be racing games, such as
Snakes and Ladders,
Cribbage, or
Formula Dé. (see
race game)* There are also
toys made for racing, like
slot cars and
radio controlled cars.
One of the more common uses of the term
racing game is to describe a genre of
computer and video games. Racing games are either in the first or third person perspective. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings, and feature any type of land, air, or sea
vehicles. In general, they can be distributed along a spectrum anywhere between hardcore
simulations, and simpler
arcade racing games.
History
arcade title
Gran Trak 10, released by
Atari in
1974 is generally considered as the progenitor of the genre. In Gran Track 10, the player races against the clock to accumulate points. While challenging, it isn't competition racing. True "racing" as we know it was started by the
Namco game
Pole Position in 1982. This time the player has AI cars to race against, and time limit to keep pushing the players to go faster. Pole Position is also the first game to be based on a real racing circuit.
Racing games in general tend to drift toward the arcade side of reality, mainly due to hardware limitations, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. It is however untrue to say that there were no games considered simulations in their time.
In 1984
Geoff Crammond, later to develop the
Grandprix series (Known collectively as GPX to its fanbase) produced what is considered the first attempt at a racing simulator,
REVS, for the BBC Microcomputer. The game offered an unofficial, (and hence with no official team or driver names associated with the series} recreation of British Formula 3. The hardware capabilities limited the depth of the simulation and restricted it (Initially) to one track but it was far above any other games at the time in terms of detail.
In 1986, Sega produced
Out Run, one of the most graphically impressive game of its time. It used two Motorola 68000 CPUs for its 2D sprite-based driving engine, and it became an instant classic that spawned many sequels.
In 1987, Namco produced
Final Lap, the first arcade game that allowed multiple machines to be linked so you can have multiplayer races. In the same year, Atari produced
Road Blasters, a driving game that also involved a bit of shooting.
In 1988, Atari introduced
Hard Drivin', the first arcade driving game that included force feedback as well as 3D polygonal graphics. This is the first game where the wheel actually fights you as you take harder/faster turns. It also featured a crash replay camera view that plays back your biggest crashes.
In 1990 the now defunct
Papyrus Design Group produced their first attempt at a racing Simulator, the critically acclaimed . Accurately replicating the 1989 Indianapolis 500 grid it offered advanced (For its time) 3D graphics, setup options, car failures and handling. It was later almost forgotten with the success of Crammond's
F1GP but to this day many argue that it boasted superior graphics to the 1992 title.
In 1992 Sim Racing gained a new champion in the shape of World Circuit, developed by Geoff Crammond's group
Simergy. It boasted unparalleled detail and a full recreation of the cars and circuits of the 1991 Formula One World Championship, though as with REVS it wasn't granted an official license by the series, thus teams and drivers were renamed (Though could all be changed back to their real names using the Driver/Team selection menu) with Ayrton Senna becoming Carlos Sanchez and so forth.
On the other end of the spectrum Sega produced
Virtua Racing. While not the first game with 3D graphics (see REVS), it was able to combine the best features of games at the time, along with multiplayer machine linking and clean 3D graphics to produce a game that was above and beyond the arcade market standard of its time. Also
Nintendo broke new ground by introducing the
Mario Kart series on the SNES with
Super Mario Kart. Using the familiar characters from the
Mario franchise, the game not only departed from the realism paradigm by using small karts for the players to drive, but also featured bright, colourful environments and allowed the players to pick up power-ups to improve performance or hamper other racers. This franchise also spawned multiple sequels.
In 1993, Namco struck back with
Ridge Racer, and thus began the polygonal war of driving games. Sega struck back in 1994 with
Daytona USA, while Midway introduced Crusin' USA. Atari didn't join the 3D craze until 1997, when it introduced
San Francisco Rush.
In 1996, Konami introduced
GTI Club which allowed free roaming of the environment - something of a revolution that had only been done in 3D before in
Hard Drivin'.
By 1997, the typical PC was capable of matching an arcade machine in terms of graphical quality, mainly due to the introduction of first generation 3D accelerators such as 3DFX Voodoo. The faster CPUs were capable of simulating increasingly realistic physics, car control, and graphics.
Colin McRae Rally was introduced in 1998 to the PC world, and was a successful semi-simulation of the world of rally driving (previously only available in Sega's less serious
Sega Rally Championship).
Motorhead, a PC game, was later adapted back to arcade.
In 1998
Gran Turismo was released for the
PlayStation, and has since become one of the most popular racing franchises ever, with the series selling more than 44 million copies worldwide. The series combined fairly realistic racing with playability, enabling players of all skill levels to play.
The year 1999 marked a change of games into more "free form" worlds.
Midtown Madness and for the PC allow the player to explore a simplified version of the city of Chicago using a variety of vehicles and any path that they desire. In the arcade world, Sega introduced
Crazy Taxi, where you're a taxi driver that needed to get the client to the destination in the shortest amount of time. A similar game also from Sega is
Emergency Ambulance Driver, with almost the same game play (pick up patient, drop off at hospital, as fast as possible). Games are becoming more and more realistic visually. Some arcade games are now featuring 3 screens to provide a surround view.
There is a wide gamut of driving games ranging from simple action-arcade racers like
Mario Kart Double Dash (for the Nintendo
Gamecube) and Nick Toon Racers to ultra-realistic simulators like
NASCAR Revolution,
rFactor,
Live for Speed and
Grand Prix Legends to sci-fi racers and everything in between.
General genres
Racing simulators
automobile. They often license real cars or racing leagues, but will use fantasy cars built to resemble real ones if unable to acquire them.
Although these racing simulators are specifically built for people with a high grade of driving skill, it isn't uncommon to find aids that can be enabled from the game menu. The most common aids are
traction control (TC),
anti-lock brakes, steering assistance, damage resistance, clutch assistance,
automatic gearbox, etc. This softens the learning curve for the difficult handling characteristics of most racing cars.
The
Formula One World Championship has a fan base all over the world and is one of the racing series with the most simulation adaptations.
Some of these racing simulators are customizable, as game fans have decoded the tracks, cars and executable files. Large internet communities have grown around the simulators regarded as the most realistic and many websites host internet championships.
Arcade racers
Arcade style racing games put fun and a fast-paced experience above all else, as cars usually compete through odd ways. They often license real cars and leagues, but are equally open to more exotic settings and vehicles. Races take place on highways, windy roads or in cities; they can be multiple-lap circuits or point-to-point, with one or multiple paths (sometimes with checkpoints), or other types of competition, like
demolition derby, jumping or testing driving skills. Popular arcade racers are the
Daytona USA series, the
Rush series, the
Cruis'n Series and the classic
Out Run.
Over the last three years there has been a trend of new
street racing; imitating the
import scene, one can tune
sport compacts and
sports cars and race them on the streets. The most widely known ones are the series,,
Street Racing Syndicate,
Burnout and
Juiced.
List of racing game sub-genres
On the road
Simulation-style racing games
Racing games that are more focused on realism.
