There was a time, from the late ’70s to the mid-’90s, when access to next-generation video games cost you… five bucks. Of course, after visiting a bar or billiards. These are the ten retro car video games that were the most popular in those years.
Night Driver (1976)
One of the pioneering video games on four wheels came from the legendary Atari. And since we are still talking about the 70s, the simplicity of the graphics had to be combined with a gameplay never seen before. The Japanese engineers thought until the light bulb went on: if the car drove at night… you didn’t have to draw streets or roads or anything. And so “Night Driver” was born, at first a simple track that twisted the more we stepped on the accelerator. In fact, the car that appeared in later versions was “painted” on the screen.
“Night Driver” is considered one of the pioneering arcade video games on wheels
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Sprint 2 (1976)
Kee Games, a subsidiary of the powerful Atari, released a car arcade in the mid-70s that was successful due to its simplicity… and the possibility of competing against another “driver” (friend or not), since the machine incorporated two flyers. In fact, in 1978 “Sprint 1” was released, in which the number does not indicate the version, but the number of players. In glorious black and white, it was very difficult to get the point for the little car, which in addition to curves and other cars had to navigate the many oil stains on the track. A circuit that, in addition, changed at its own will in the middle of the race.
“Sprint 2” already left back in 1976 a double-wheel drive race
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Pinball Grand Prix (1976)
We strayed a bit from the video game concept to pay homage to the “pin-ball”, the ball machines of a lifetime, the first electronic element in Spanish billiards in the 60s, and which had a good number of versions with the motor world as a protagonist.
In those years of bars and billiards there were many “ball machines” with motor themes
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Monaco GP (1979)
Simplicity raised to the cube. With the color already installed in the arcade machines, “Monaco GP” was still a driving game with a very simple architecture, because no matter how “Monaco” it is, it drives on an immense straight line, without a single curve, in which, Of course, we have to avoid the rest of the single-seaters, which come at us from the front and from behind, especially slippery asphalt sections, night driving and, even, watch out for ambulances… which circulate faster than the Formula One cars.
Steering wheel, pedal and screen, all the necessary elements to enjoy “at full speed”
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Monza (1979)
Here we not only stray from the “video game” concept, but the headline of the “hard five” in this report is also not worth it. Because we are dealing with a completely mechanical machine, without electrical elements, since the “race” only consists of the five pesetas coin that we introduce in the upper part… reaching the finish line safely, after dodging several “paellera” curves “at the wheel. If we go off in a curve, we will lose the hard. If our coin reaches the goal we will win… the coin. We will have played for free. Pure romanticism.
Here we are not exactly talking about “video” games, not even five bucks…
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Rally-X (1980)
One of the pioneering racing video games without a doubt the horniest. The Japanese Namco, another of the video game giants of the time, launched the 80s with this game, which encompasses the concepts of racing and maze, in which a blue single-seater struggles to escape from the very bad red cars, which are going for you, in addition to having to dodge rocks that suddenly appear in the middle of the track. Of course, we have an “infallible” weapon to get rid of the enemy: the exhaust of our vehicle. For once, the emissions are beneficial. A game, moreover, in which sound and music had an absolute role.
“Rally-X” was undoubtedly one of the funniest car arcade games of those years
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Frogger (1981)
We allow ourselves another small license and we bring to this list of car video games a machine that does not have four wheels as protagonists. Although, of course, cars appear, what we control with the control is… a frog. A friendly frog who has to tackle, first of all, cross a highway with several lanes (each one going in one direction), where cars and trucks try to turn it into a sticker. And, once this first stage is over, comes the aquatic crossing of a river, leaning from trunk to trunk, and dodging even killer snakes. And all to reach one of the five “houses” where she can finally rest in peace. Imagination to the power.
Although not exactly a car game, the adventure of the frog dodging vehicles is arcade history.
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Pole Position (1982)
Although there will be opinions for all tastes, “Pole Position” is, for most, the best racing game of the first generation of video games, the ones that could only be played in bars and billiards. Namco signed a round game, the first great Formula One simulator, in which, in addition, its great success allowed the machines to evolve. And if in the first years it was played standing up, there were editions in which the machine recreated the seat of a single-seater, so it was played sitting down, with which the sensations were multiplied by ten. This game, like many others in those years, had a “version II”.
“Pole Position” was one of the most popular machines, with its versions of playing standing and sitting in a “car”
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Hang-on (1985)
Although car games are the vast majority in those years, there were also versions for motorcycle enthusiasts. The most famous of all of them was undoubtedly “Hang-On”, a motorcycle version of “Pole Position”, but this time signed by another big player in the video game industry, Sega. And it also had a version to play standing up and to do it “mounted”.
The bikers also had several “maquinitas” in the billiards; the most popular, without a doubt, “Hang-On”
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Out Run (1986)
The technical evolution of video games during these years traveled at the speed of light. And to verify it we only have to take a look at the first game in this report, “Night Driver” and compare it with this “Out Run”, released just a decade later. Graphics, music (the main character in this game, in which for the first time you could also choose between three melodies) and gameplay, everything has improved dramatically in just ten years. And, on top of that, the concept of “Out Run”, by allowing us to get on a Ferrari Testarossa (with blonde included), and ride at full speed through the streets, highways and beaches of California. In subsequent versions of the game, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Chevrolet Corvette, the Porsche 911, the BMW 325i Cabriolet E30… and even a truck would be incorporated into “Out Run”.
The image of the Ferrari Testarossa (and the blonde) is an icon of the 80s
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