Maze Games to Platformers (again?) (Racing Games pt. 5)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

This is a continuing history of the evolution of early car racing games as analyzed according to each game's visuo-spatial configuration. Be sure to read part 1 and part 2 and part 3 and part 4 before continuing.

This post covers the earliest racing games and shows how they may connect to the genre of maze games.

Head-Onkyo Alien

Head-On (SEGA/Gremlin, 1979)

I previously wrote that SEGA's hit racing/maze game was likely influenced by early single-screen race games like Gran Trak 10 (Atari, 1974) and was likely an influence on Pac-Man (NAMCO, 1980).

Heiankyo Alien (Denki Onkyō Corporation, 1980)

Another important maze video game from that year was Heiankyo Alien (1979), which started out as an Apple II game created by a group of students at Tokyo University. Heiankyo Alien was designed over "two days" and inspired by a go game board though Head-On could have possibly been an influence if it was released early enough in the year. It may have simply been a case of simultaneous invention, where different developers were unaware of each other when they both created narrow passageway maze games.

Heiankyo Alien is no dot-eater. The human player character must dig pit traps in the maze to capture roving alien monsters. Once caught in a pit (seemingly falling into a space "under" the screen), the player must bury the alien before it can escape from the trap. Once all aliens are trapped, a new wave of aliens starts wandering the streets.

What is certain is that Denki Onkyō Corporation had developed a Head-On clone (unclear if it was licensed from SEGA or not) and reused the same arcade PCB to port Heiankyo Alien! When SEGA licensed Heiankyo Alien, it was also manufactured with Head-On boards (and renamed the game as Digger (1980) for the US market). Even if one game was not inspired by the other, there is a strong technological tie between the two games. The upgrade from Apple II prototype to Head-On PCB moved the game from a simple discrete spatial model to a continuous spatial model.

Space Panic (Universal Co. Ltd., 1980)

As I extensively posted about previously, there is strong evidence that Heiankyo Alien became a critical inspiration for Space Panic (Universal Co. Ltd., 1980), what is often considered the first "platformer game." The Space Panic gameplay turns the earlier game on its side, almost literally. 4-way movement is almost identical, with the characters locked to moving vertically on ladders and horizontally by walking on platforms (no jumping). The player digs holes to trap the aliens, knocking them through the floor when buried, and squashing any other alien caught underneath. The player may also drop through a hole for a quick trip to the floor below.

All of this gameplay is only possible with the addition of gravity. Which leads me to my theory...

Platformers are Maze Games with Gravity

At least, this holds true for many platformers that don't include jumping. These are what I sometimes call "ladder" platformers, where jumping is not a major method of navigation (at least, not vertically). I would make the argument that Donkey Kong counts as a ladder platformer but Donkey Kong Jr. does not. Maze games typically lock the player into orthogonal movement along proscribed paths. Gravity gives objects a different way to move toward the bottom of the screen and adds a new wrinkle for navigation.

Example figure from Atari Graphics and Arcade Game Design (Jeffrey Stanton and Dan Pinal, 1984, Arrays Inc., pg. 387)

This theory is not entirely new. Many game writers in the 1980s classified these platformers as maze games before the new genre became prevalent, as the examples below show.

"While most people do not think of games like Donkey Kong and Apple Panic as maze games, they too require a set of movement rules to keep the player confined to floors and ladders" (Jeffrey Stanton and Dan Pinal, Atari Graphics and Arcade Game Design, Arrays Inc., 1984, pg. 387) (see figure above).

"Donkey Kong [is] a game that looks a little like a race game with intelligent obstacles... Apple Panic... is like a maze game in some ways and like a combat game in others" (Chris Crawford, The Art of Computer Game Design, Osborne/McGraw Hill, 1984, pp. 29-30).

Crawford's comparison of Donkey Kong to a "race game" is because the goal of most levels is to move from starting point to the finish line as quickly as possible. The rivet stage is the only one that has a set of objectives to complete (remove all 8 rivets). Also note that Apple Panic (Broderbund, 1981) was an unlicensed port of Space Panic for Apple II and was far more prevalent example in the USA than the original arcade game.

Donkey Kong is "more like being in a cartoon than any other maze game" (Walter Lowe, Jr., Playboy's Guide to Rating the Video Games, PBJ Books, 1982, pg. 257).

Donkey Kong and Popeye are games where "the player element on the screen can be moved to different parts of the screen, which is basically a maze. The concept of each of these games is different; most are obstacle courses with some maze-like features" (Paul Kordestani, Gamester's Guide to Arcade Video Games, Tab Books, 1983, pg. 15). "Burger Time is a maze game..." (pg. 297).

Platformer games (side elevation orthographic, gravity down) can thus be seen as an augmentation or evolution of the visuo-spatial configuration of most maze games (plan orthographic, no gravity).

Single-Screen Racer to Maze Game Evolution (Racing Games pt. 4)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

This is a continuing history of the evolution of early car racing games as analyzed according to each game's visuo-spatial configuration. Be sure to read part 1 and part 2 and part 3 before continuing.

This post covers the earliest racing games and shows how they may connect to the genre of maze games.

The Grandaddy of Them All: Gran Trak 10

Gran Trak 10 (Atari, 1974)
Photo by PresN (image source)

Atari pioneered the racing genre with the arcade game Gran Trak 10 (1974) (shown above). The game put players behind the steering wheel of a Formula One race car, complete with gear shift and gas pedal. The car is drawn to the screen in plan orthographic view with its extended axles and big tires making a distinctive silhouette. The car's "sprite" graphics data is stored in ROM (a first for a video arcade game) with enough image data to rotate the car in 32 different directions.

Gran Trak 10 (Atari, 1974)
image sourced from this video

The race course is also drawn in plan orthographic view with the entire circuit on one screen - no scrolling needed. This gives a sense of having an elevated view of the course, as if watching the race from the grandstands instead of seated in a car on the track.

"Cartopia" remote controlled car installation by Kansei Seiki Seisakusho (a.k.a. KASCO)
probably from a sales flyer (1975) (image source)

This feels more like controlling a remote controlled car from afar (see above). This isn't necessarily a bad thing; the all-in-one view allows multiple players to share the same screen.

Indy 800 (1975)
from a Kee Games sales flyer

This same plan orthographic visuo-spatial configuration was repurposed for Atari's Le Mans (1976) and Sprint One (1978) while secret Atari subsidiary Kee Games released Formula K (1974). The two companies reused the overhead view in a number of multiplayer racers: Gran Trak 20 (1974), Twin Racer (1974), Sprint 2 (1976) (the "2" in the title is for the number of players), Sprint 4 (1977), and the astounding eight-player games Indy 800 (1975) (see above) and Sprint 8 (1978). 

As explored previously, Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell wanted to develop a game that gave more of a first-person driving video game experience like some exciting electromechanical racing games he had played. Atari later met and exceeded those expectations with Night Driver (1976) and by licensing NAMCO's Pole Position (1981). But, that doesn't mean that the overhead view of Gran Trak 10 disappeared from the video landscape.

Destruction Derby and Car Polo

Crash 'n Score (Atari, 1975)

Crash 'n Score (1975) is Atari's modification of a destruction derby competition. In this one or two-player game, the goal is to drive your car through as many illuminated, numbered flags as possible while avoiding oil slicks and collisions with the other car. The controls and plan orthographic car graphics are nearly identical to those of Gran Trak (the two games may have some of the same data in their graphics ROMSs). The race course circuit is replaced by an open arena littered with flags and hazards. The big difference is that Crash 'n Score uses a toroidal topology: driving off one side of the screen causes your car to reappear on the opposite side (just like in Asteroids (1979)).

Death Race (Exidy, 1976)

The story behind Death Race (Exidy, 1976) is well known and oft-told, so I won't dwell on it here. Exidy was a small arcade game company when it developed Destruction Derby (1975). The game became popular, but Exidy was too small of a company to meet with demand, so the company gave Chicago Coin an exclusive license to make the game as Demolition Derby (1975). Unfortunately, Chicago Coin went out of business soon after, taking its exclusive license on the game into oblivion. Exidy needed a new design to bring in money, so they turned to hotshot game designer Howell Ivy, fresh from his stint at Ramtek designing games like Clean Sweep (1974) (inspiration for Breakout (Atari, 1976)), to create a new take on the old game. Ivy added "stick figure" targets to the destruction derby arena and a cylindrical topology that allowed players to freely drive between the top and bottom edges of the screen.

Car Polo (Exidy, 1977)

With a color screen and four driving controls, Howell Ivy was able to repurpose the old Destruction Derby design into Exidy's Car Polo (1977). The game features two teams of cars driving to knock a large ball into their opponent team's goal, which seems to be based on the dangerous sport of auto polo from the early 20th century. While the game is not well remembered today, it does eerily predict the success of Rocket League (Psyonix, 2015).

Atari Sprints Into the '80s

Track 7 from Super Sprint (Atari Games, 1986)

Atari returned to the Gran Trak/Le Mans/Sprint arcade racing game series eight years after the previous titles, Sprint One and Sprint 8. Super Sprint (1986) featured the same general overhead view of a racetrack circuit in one screen, but the environment uses vertical orthogonal rendering to give a sense of elevation change on the course. This allowed for banked turns (see the last two hairpin turns, above), jump gaps, and overpasses (see below). The environments are also drawn with perspectival clues, like slightly receding lines at the left and right edges of the image, though this is inconsistent with the rest of the imagery (cars do not reduce in apparent size when they are at the far side of the screen).

Track 8 from Super Sprint (Atari Games, 1986)

The game supported up to three human players to race against one or more computer-controlled "drone" cars. 

Badlands (Atari Games, 1989)

The quickly-released sequel Championship Sprint (Atari Games, 1986) included a few new obstacles and numerous new race courses, but did little to change the Super Sprint formula. Badlands (Atari Games, 1989) (above) added armed and armored cars for autoduelling in a post-apocalyptic future hellscape, but the Sprint series seemed to be overshadowed by a new racing upstart released in the same year as Badlands.

Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road

Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road (Leland Corporation, 1989)

The Leland Corporation was a video game company that rose from the ashes of former vector and laserdisc game pioneer Cinematronics. Leland produced the 3-player off-road arena racing game Super Off Road (1989) with a license to use racing star Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's name and likeness. The smooth race courses of the Super Sprint games are replaced by dirt tracks with hills, jump ramps, pits, water hazards, slopes, corrugations ("washboards"), water hazards, and   other challenges. The Super Off Road environment is rendered in an elevation oblique style, where the face of the back wall is co-planar with the screen. This makes it easier for the players to see these changes in elevation in contrast to the Super Sprint series, where the ground plane is co-planar to the screen.

Super Off Road: The Baja for Super Nintendo (Leland Corporation, 1993)

Later games in the Super Off Road series abandoned multiplayer, the video arcade, and the overhead view for single-player home console games with depth horizon/Super Scaler inspired visuals. This line of single screen multiplayer racing games largely disappeared after 1989. 

Head-On?

Let's rewind time back to the late 1970s, in the heyday of Atari's original Gran Trak 10 inspired games. I argue that the lineage of maze games that became so prevalent in the early 1980s owes some inspiration to these single-screen racing games.

Head-On (SEGA/Gremlin, 1979)

As I wrote about extensively in a previous blog post, Head-On (1979) was a successful and influential maze game, probably the first of the "dot eater" genre. Game designer Lane Hauck said the idea for the game "just came to him," but it is hard not to see a Gran Trak 10 influence in the game's Formula One-style car graphics. The connection between the games is not explicit, but Atari's racing games were popular in the arcades and Hauck would have certainly been aware of them. This move from complex driving controls to a simpler single-joystick and "accelerator" button for movement that was both easier to learn and less expensive to manufacture.

The dot-eating (an early form of item collection) of Head-On was somewhat unusual in the post-Space Invaders (TAITO, 1978) era where clearing a game stage required eliminating all enemy targets. This is more similar to the Crash 'n Score flag-collecting model.

Car Hunt (SEGA, 1979 or 1980)

SEGA quickly followed up on the game's success with sequels Head-On 2 (1979) and Car Hunt (dated 1979, but probably 1980). Car Hunt introduced layered 2-D space to Head-On with the inclusion of an overpass.

Head-On was successful in the US and Japan and certainly influenced game designers in both countries. The orthogonal movement, tight passageways, dot-eating, and enemy avoidance are all elements of Pac-Man (NAMCO, 1980). I don't think Toru Iwatani ever admitted to being influenced by Head-On, but it would be quite a coincidence if he wasn't thinking about it when he created Pac-Man. Again, you can read more about this lineage of game development in a previous blog post.

NAMCO's Other Maze Game

Rally-X (1980)

Pac-Man is not the only NAMCO maze game of 1980 that appears to have a strong Head-On influence. Rally-X has the player driving a Formula One inspired car along orthogonal roads avoiding collisions with enemy cars. The player can only move in the four orthogonal directions, though there is a slight diagonal movement for about one frame when turning corners. A set of flags replace the dots to eat/run over (not unlike Atari's Crash 'n Score), but the primary player goal is to complete an exploration of the maze.

Note that a major change with this game is the player is not moving an object on the screen, they move the frame around the game environment. The player car remains stuck in the center of the view and the world moves around it. This frame navigation is not dissimilar to how Pole Position (1982) functions (and NAMCO programmer/hardware designer Kōichi Tashiro worked on both games). It also means that the Rally-X world does not have to be confined to a single screen.

Comparing mazes from Pac-Man and Rally-X (image source)

The Rally-X maze absolutely dwarfs the one in Pac-Man as seen in the comparison image above from the Retrogame Deconstruction Zone. This massive environment is far more than can be viewed on the screen at one time, which spurned the creation of a mini-map in the lower right corner of the screen. It acts like a radar screen, showing the locations of off-screen cars and flags, not the layout of the maze, and is similar to the one seen in Battlezone (Atari, 1980), released in the same month.

The concept of a game with a consistent "off-screen space" was still fairly new. You could not turn your car around and revisit an environment in an upscroller game. Rally-X and Battlezone both feature lasting game environments that don't disappear when you stop looking at them. The mini-map/radar displays enabled the user to think about the gameworld in two different scales: both what is currently in frame and the surrounding area beyond the edge of the screen. This is similar to using an in-car GPS navigation aid while driving, focusing on the road with a mini-map in the corner of your vision.

Beyond the Maze

Bosconian (NAMCO, 1981)

NAMCO's Galaxian (1979) and Galaga (1981) both innovated on the Space Invaders-style "upshooter" game design, but Bosconian (1981) (released a few months after Galaga) combined space shooting action with the free roaming environment and some visual technology of Rally-X.

The player is tasked with flying their "Starfighter" through open space, hunting down the large Death Star-like enemy "Bosco Bases." The visuo-spatial configuration of the game is almost identical to Rally-X, with frame navigation, frame mobility in any direction, plan orthographic projection, and a mini-map. The only real differences are that this game adds 8-way movement and toroidal "wraparound" topology.

Bosconian uses a combination of a Galaga PCB with a Rally-X video board. It appears that NAMCO was working to develop games with more interchangeable technologies, so one game can be replaced by another by swapping out the ROM chips and maybe other minor modifications.

Bosconian multidirectional movement with a simple joystick marked a step away from the momentum-based shooter movement of Asteroids (Atari, 1979) and other games inspired by Spacewar! (1962). Bosconian was likely a direct influence on Time Pilot (Konami, 1982) and Sinistar (Williams Electronics, 1982), though the last game uses object navigation instead of frame navigation.

Next post starts with Head-On once again, as that game's influence hasn't adequately been explored here yet.

Spinning Disks to Super Scaler Evolution (Racing Games pt. 3)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

This is a continuing history of the evolution of early car racing games as analyzed according to each game's visuo-spatial configuration. Be sure to read part 1 and part 2 before continuing.

Thie post covers the evolution of NAMCO games that foretell Yu Suzuki's "Super Scaler" visual style developed with SEGA.

The Mysterious Racer X

Nakamura Manufacturing Company developed an electromechanical race driving arcade game called The Racer (1970) in Japan. The game was similar to the Chicago Coin game Speedway (1969), covered in in part 2 of this series, although Masaya Nakumura would clarify that the device used for the racecourse is different between the two games ("Projection Racing," Play Meter, Jan 1977, v. 3, n. 1, pg. 13).

The Racer (Nakamura Manufacturing Company, 1970) (image from BANDAI NAMCO group)

The Racer has no video monitor. It projects the image of a spinning plastic race track with independently moving model cars on it onto the screen, giving the player a convincing driver's eye view as if from another car on the track. The game proved to be popular and about one year later, the company started using the more familiar brand name of NAMCO.

Formula-X (NAMCO, 1973)

Three years later, NAMCO scaled up the projection mechanism seen in The Racer for the creation of the massive Formula-X (1973). This game seated the player in life-sized car chassis, complete with an authentic steering wheel and real racing slick tires. The game used a four-gear gearshift and the player could select from three levels of difficulty. The pro level requires the player to use the clutch when shifting gears while the easiest level features an automatic transmission. The cabinet was massive: about 6' wide, 10' long, and 7' tall. Formula-X was installed mostly in bowling alleys as most other types of establishments did not have room for such a large game.

In 1974, NAMCO entered the video game business when the company bought the assets of Atari's flailing Atari Japan division. NAMCO also became the exclusive distributor of Atari games in Japan, but the company continued to design electromechanical games and did not yet start developing video games in house.

F-1 (NAMCO, 1976)

NAMCO repurposed and improved the projection mechanism of The Racer once again for F-1 (1976). This sit-down driving experience had a much smaller footprint than Formula-X, so it could be more easily installed in many locations. Atari licensed the game for the US market, and it proved to be a hit, topping many of the coin-op sales charts in the US and Japan alike.

Dawn of the Dead (United Film Distribution, 1978)

F-1 had some cross-media cultural cache as it was featured in the horror film Dawn of the Dead (1978) (see above).

In an era when most video games were still played on small black-and-white television screens with limited sound effects, F-1 gave players authentic driving controls, loud engine sounds, colorful visuals on a big screen, and a flashing "crash" graphic if they collided with another car. It would be some years before a video game could hope to match that level of immersion and excitement.

Prepare to Qualify

After seeing the success of Space Invaders (Taito, 1978), NAMCO started developing their own video game designs, in addition to licensing titles from Atari. Galaxian (1979), Pac-Man (1980), Rally-X (1980), and Galaga (1981) brought NAMCO international success and experience with digital game development. What Galaxian designer Kazunori Sawano really wanted to make next was a driving game, one to rival the experience of F-1.

Racing game concept sketch credited to Kazunori Sawano (image from BANDAI NAMCO group)

Sawano sketched out what the game should look like (see above), an image of several cars facing away from the viewer driving down a straight road in one-point perspective. The car at the bottom center of the image is labeled "my car" (マイカー). Sawano used that image to enlist fellow designer Shinichiro Okamoto to the project while Okamoto was still working on two NAMCO maze games: Tank Battalion (1980) and Warp & Warp (1981). Programmer Koichi Tashiro from Galaxian and Rally-X also joined the team. None of the team had any real experience with 3-D graphic techniques in games when they started to develop Pole Position (NAMCO, 1982).

Pole Position in Computerspielemuseum, Berlin, by Bsivko (CC BY-SA 4.0) (image source)

It took about three years for the team to complete Pole Position ("BANDAI NAMCO New Insights Part 2: The Evolution of Car Racing Games (Part 1)", BANDAI NAMCO, 25 April 2019, https://www.bandainamcoent.co.jp/asobimotto/page/carracinggames1.html). The high fidelity of graphics involved required that the team use two 16-bit Zilog Z8000 series microprocessors, probably the only arcade game series to use this type of chip. This was an era when a game like Pac-Man still used one 8-bit Zilog Z80 processor.

Pole Position (1982)

The game's visuals were compared favorably to SEGA's Turbo from the previous year. Pole Position used similar techniques to "upscroller" games like Moto-Cross (SEGA, 1976), where a one-point perspective road is drawn to the horizon, then each scanline of the image is adjusted depending on the road curvature, the player car's position on the road, alternation of red/white palette at the road barrier, gray/white palette down the center line of the road, etc. 

Most importantly, what really sets this game apart from Turbo and its predecessors, is that the player navigates the frame moving across the game world instead of an object moving across the screen. The logical interface, the player representation in the virtual world (what Sawano dubbed "my car"), never moves on the screen. The car wobbles, vibrates, animates, pivots, and explodes spectacularly in a collision, but it does not move from its position at the center of the screen. "My car" becomes the player's anchor in the Pole Position world and the screen becomes the windshield on their view of that world.

After Pole Position was completed, all electromechanical racing game projects at NAMCO were cancelled. The video game had finally surpassed the quality level set by F-1.

Pole Position II (1983) quickly went into development on the heels of its predecessor's success with three new racetracks. The games were ported to many computers and home consoles of the era. Yet, NAMCO did not develop another racing game in-house for some years afterward. However, that doesn't mean they didn't publish or license any racing games.

TX-1 (Tatsumi, 1983) sales flyer from Atari

NAMCO licensed and produced TX-1 (1983), an ambitious driving game with three screens developed by Tatsumi Electronics. This widescreen view gives the player an expansive view to the left and right, filling most of their forward vision. The game is sometimes called a "spiritual successor" to the Pole Position family because it is published by NAMCO, and licensed to Atari. The graphic methods used to display the environment are similar to Pole Position with added forking and merging roads, overpasses, tunnels, multiple paths (with a possible influence on Out Run (SEGA, 1986) in the course map design seen above) and smooth transitions between environments (unlike Turbo). 

TX-1 can't render a hairpin turn (image source, Data Driven Gamer)

TX-1 shows the limits of these Pole Position-derived graphic techniques. When the player has such a wide view and enters a hairpin turn, the graphical calculations don't handle the road doubling back toward the viewer (see above).

Buggy Boy/Speed Buggy (Tatsumi, 1985)

The game did well enough for Tatsumi to use the same "engine" for the sequel TX-1 V8 (1984) and the more cartoony off-road (sort of) racer pictured above, Buggy Boy (Speed Buggy in the US, 1985). Tatsumi may have learned the limits of their road renderer as Buggy Boy does not seem to have any hairpin turns.

SEGA in the Race

Before Pole Position, SEGA's Turbo was the big arcade driving hit that gave the player a sense of moving into the depth of the game world with one-point perspective drawing cues and custom hardware for scaling sprites as they recede into the distance.

Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom (SEGA, 1982) (image source, Data Driven Gamer)

SEGA repurposed and improved upon the original Turbo arcade hardware in the creation of Zoom 909 (1982) a.k.a. Buck Rogers and the Planet of Zoom (1982). The vertical monitor orientation of Turbo was abandoned for a horizontal orientation a second Zilog Z80 processor and more VRAM memory were added, allowing for many fast-moving sprites and more colors to be rendered on the screen at once. The environment vary from outer space battles, flights over planet surfaces, Death Star inspired trench runs, and the "tunnel" scene shown above. A Japanese sales flyer touts the game for its "pioneering perspective effects" (パースペクティブ効果を初めて採用).

SEGA needed to evolve beyond their 8-bit Z80 microprocessor architecture to meet the high water mark of Pole Position's own "pioneering perspective effects" rendered by dual 16-bit Z8000 series chips. Yu Suzuki worked on a new hardware design that incorporated dual 16-bit Motorola 68000 microprocessors and a suite of dedicated graphics processors that became the first of the "Super Scaler" series of arcade hardware variants.

Hang-On (SEGA, 1982)

Suzuki and his team used the new Super Scaler hardware to create Hang-On (1982). The game is often remembered for its distinct motorcycle-shaped control mechanism that pioneered SEGA's genre of "taikan games" with moving cabinets. This post focuses solely on the game's graphic techniques.

Hang-On was described at the time as having "the superb graphics of a Pole Position style race" (Clare Edgely, "Arcade Action," Computer & Video Games, Dec 1985, pg. 89). The roadside billboards, the shape of the curving road, and the distant mountain range in the background are all similar to Pole Position. The vehicle sprites are bigger and the background has a multiplanar parallax effect for added depth, but the graphic similarities outweigh the differences.

The raw Hang-On road (image source)

Lou Gorenfeld wrote an excellent overview of the graphic techniques used by these games and he extracted the raw road image used in the game (see image above). As described earlier in this post, this image is modified in memory before it is drawn to the screen. Shifting the entire road left or right on the screen gives the impression that the player is steering right or left. The colors of the tarmac, curbstones, and lane dividers alternate along horizontal scanlines to give the illusion of moving down the road. The vertical lines of the road are skewed left or right to give the impression that the road is curving.

It is unclear how much Suzuki was intentionally influenced by Pole Position. When asked what he thinks about other games, he often replies, "I don't play other games" ("TBS Interview with Yu Suzuki: Arcade Game Development at SEGA," X Years Later: Those Who Were Involved (X年後の関係者達), TBS, Feb 2022, translation: https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2024/06/tbs-interview-with-yu-suzuki-arcade.html) ("Interview with Yu Suzuki, Producer of the 'Shenmue' Series," Tokyou Otaku Mode, 1 Sep 2015, https://otakumode.com/news/55c62e97887d92a516b043ae/Interview-with-Yu-Suzuki-Producer-of-the-%E2%80%9CShenmue%E2%80%9D-Series). However, there was a desire to compete directly with NAMCO in their dominant genre, as Suzuki described the situation behind the creation of Hang-On, "Namco had games like Pole Position, and there was a general perception that racing games were Namco's thing. So when [SEGA President] Mr. [Hayao] Nakayama said, 'Don't we have a racing game?' I thought, "I should make one.'" ("Yu Suzuki Interview," Sega Hard Historia, Mar 2021, translation: https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2021/08/march-2021-yu-suzuki-interview-part-two.html ).

Hang-On was just the start for Suzuki and the Super Scaler technology. The next games fulfulled players' fantasies of soaring over a science fantasy world, piloting an F-14 Tomcat, and getting behind the wheel of a Ferrari Testarossa.

Part 4 of this series will look at early single-screen racing games and how they may have influenced the maze game genre.

Night Driver to Star Raider Evolution (Racing Games pt. 2)

Taxonomy of Virtual Spaces

This is a continuing history of the evolution of early car racing games as analyzed according to each game's visuo-spatial configuration. Be sure to read part 1 before reading this blog post.

As a refresher, Atari pioneered the genre with the arcade game Gran Trak 10 (1974). Its overhead view shows the entire race course on one screen. That works great for multiplayer games, but doesn't give the player the feeling of being in the cockpit and behind the wheel of the car as they drive it through the race course.

First Person German Engineering

Dr.-Ing. (Doctor of Engineering) Reiner Foerst working on creating a driving simulator when he ended up inventing the first first-person arcade video game. It was nigh impossible simulate a three-dimensional view through a car's windshield using cost-effective 1973-era technology, but Foerst was encouraged when he acquired a Pong (Atari, 1972) arcade machine. The machine was capable of generating white rectangles at different points on the screen. Foerst realized that the rectangles could be repurposed into reflective road markers, illuminated by headlights as one drives along a winding road at nighttime.

Nürburgring 1 (Dr.-Ing. Reiner Foerst GmbH, 1976)

Soon enough, Nürburgring 1 (1976) was born. The game is named for the Nürburgring motorsports track in the German town of Nürburg. Like Gran Trak 10, it includes a steering wheel and gas pedal, but the visuals are completely different. The rectangle "road markers" scale in size and move down the screen in a convincing emulation of driving down a winding road at night.

The graphic techniques are similar to SEGA's Moto-Cross and related games analyzed here. The edges of the road appear to converge in the distance and smoothly adjust left or right to simulate curves in the road. Unlike with other games, Nürburgring 1 has the player navigating the frame across the game world rather than navigating an object on the screen. The front of the driver's car is displayed but it doesn't move. In fact, the car hoodis just part of the plastic screen overlay that includes the speedometer. As the player steers to the right, the road markers move left on the screen in an example of induced movement.

Foerst released a few sequels in the following years, including Nürburgring 2 (1979?) with a motorcycle handlebar replacing the steering wheel and Nürburgring 3 (1980) with a daytime scene and a full color display. In fact, Foerst's company is still working in the car simulation business to this day.

Early Copy Cats

It is said that arcade game developer Ted Michon of Digital Games played an early Nürburgring 1 cabinet in a West German bowling alley and met with Foerst. Upon returning home, he designed a simpler clone version of the game titled Night Racer (1976). Digital Games went out of business by summer 1976 and its assets were bought up by a new company named Micronetics, which manufactured Night Racer. It looks like Micronetics didn't stay in business long, either, as industry magazine Play Meter stopped listing Micronetics' contact info. after January 1978.

Before Digital Games closed its doors, Michon's boss licensed the design to Midway (the video game division of Bally) as Midnite Racer (1976). Midway hired Dave Nutting Associates (not to be confused with Nutting Associates founded by Dave's brother Bill) to develop it. Midnite Racer was renamed as 280 Zzzap (1976) when Midway entered into a tie-in promotion with Datsun for a special edition 1977 Datsun 280Z. 

Atari Takes "Inspiration"

Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell stated in a 2017 interview (pg. 33) that he had planned to make a "driving game" "in a week" based on the same methodology used to create Computer Space (Nutting Associates, 1971). He cited Chicago Coin's electromechanical (EM) game Speedway as a direct influence. This driving game would be "the magnum opus," "the big kahuna" hit game design for his burgeoning new Atari company.  

Speedway (Chicago Coin, 1969), image from this video

Speedway has no video screen. The image of a looping race track is projected from a spinning plastic disk. This gives the game a "3-D effect" with "spectacular realism" according to a Chicago Coin sales flyer. The player steers the red race car left and right to pass six other projected car images moving independently on the track. It is not quite a first-person view, but it was an impressive effect for late 1960s technology.

Speedway was Chicago Coin's licensed design of Indy 500 (1968) by Japanese amusement machine manufacturer Kansai Seiki (a.k.a. Kasco). Other similar designs released at that time include Grand Prix (SEGA, 1970) and The Racer (NAMCO, 1970) (more on The Racer in the next post).

Bushnell's vision of creating a video arcade version of Speedway took much longer than "a week," and it appears that Nürburgring 1 that served as Atari's ultimate inspiration. In an undated quote, Atari designer Dave Sheppard remembers being shown "a piece of paper with a picture of a game cabinet" that he remembers being "a German game" with "a few little white squares showing." This was probably Nürburgring 1, and the game may have been "based on a license from a German affiliate" (Atari Inc. - Business is Fun (Goldberg and Vendel, 2012, pg. 211)).

Night Driver (Atari, Oct? 1976)

Sheppard developed Night Driver (1976) using the same techniques as Nürburgring 1. An illustrated plastic overlay over the screen serves as the player car's hood (it's hard to see in the above image. I think the cabinet uses a fluorescent black light hidden under the monitor bezel to illuminate the orange car hood image, but it doesn't appear to be functioning in this example).

This was like Bushnell's vision of a video Speedway, but in some ways better. The Night Driver curves left and right, not just turning left in a circle. The screen flashes bright white if the player crashes into the side of the road. There is only one thing missing in this racer: other cars.

Chicago Connections

At least two of these games made their debut at the AMOA (Amusement & Music Operators Association) show held in Chicago in November 1976. Midway brought Midnite Racer, newly renamed as 280 Zzzap (pronounced "zap"), and Atari debuted Night Driver ("Chicago Chatter" and "Eastern Flashes," Cash Box (18 Dec 1976, pg. 43)). Micronetics may have also featured Night Racer as one attendee noted that there were "about four different night driver games" at the show ("Projection Racing," Play Meter, Jan 1977, v. 3, n. 1, pg. 14).

Midnite Racer sales flyer announcing the name change to 280 Zzzap (Midway, 1976)

In the long run, Atari's Night Driver beat out all competitors in the American market. Play Meter's operator poll of top-earning arcade video games for 1977 ranked 280 Zzzap as #9 and Night Driver as #6 ("Mr. Average and his Operation," Play Meter, Nov 1977, v. 3, n. 21, pg. 25). While 280 Zzzap quickly fell out of the poll rankings, Night Driver was a top 10 earner through 1978 and ranked #11 in 1979.

The Road Home

In 1978, Dave Nutting Associates created a port of 280 Zzzap for Bally's little-remembered home video game console, the Bally Astrocade (a.k.a. Bally Home Library Computer, a.k.a. Bally Professional Arcade, a.k.a. Bally Computer System). It was packaged with an unrelated overhead view racing game named Dodgem.

280 Zzzap/Dodgem for the Bally Astrocade (Bally, 1978)

The home version of 280 Zzzap took advantage of the Astrocade's built-in ability to display 5 x 7 pixel text characters to add text like "FINISH LINE" when a game is complete. The lower HUD displays time remaining, a speedometer (evidently rated in km/h), and distance traveled.

Night Driver for Atari VCS/2600 (Atari, 1980)

In 1980, Rob Fulop ported Night Driver to Atari's home game console, the Atari VCS (later known as the Atari 2600). Fulop made several improvements to the original design by adding color (while still making it look like a nighttime scene), roadside terrain (houses and trees), and oncoming cars with their own headlights (see above). This was another hit for Atari, becoming one of the top-selling VCS games of the year (although it couldn't compare to Fulop's unprecedented hit Space Invaders VCS port (Atari, 1980)).

Atari Leaves Orbit

The "night driver" game formula worked well for creating a fast-moving world from a first person view while restricted by 1970s game graphics technology. The nighttime scene eliminated the need for an environment, background, or horizon line to be displayed; it's too dark to see them! The entire scene is created from scaling, white rectangles: simple "spots" of light that define the edge of the navigable environment. The difficult part was creating a system that calculates the positions to display those spots according to the player's speed and steering, giving the appearance of moving through a continuous, three-dimensional space while traveling across the two-dimensional ground plane of a flat road.

Starship 1 (Atari, 1977)

Atari's Ron Milner, a member of the Night Driver engineering team, used a similar approach when he designed Starship 1 (Atari, 1977). The player flies through the inky blackness of outer space, as distant points of starlight zip past the player. A sales flyer boasts the game's "realistic 3-D graphics" with spacecraft and planets that "[grow] larger as they approach, giving the player the illusion of speeding through space." The control yoke lets the player pitch their view up and down or yaw left and right, creating the illusion of a full, three-dimensional galaxy to explore. An early viewer of the game noted its similarity to Night Driver, stating "the target ships come out at the player much like the pylons on Night Driver do, thereby creating the illusion of depth" ("AMOA Report '77," Play Meter, Dec 1977, v. 3, n. 23, pg. 23, emphasis added).

For all its visual technical prowess, Starship 1 wasn't much more than a target gallery. This was still in the days before Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) set the precedent that video game enemies should feel like a menacing threat. 1977 was the year of Star Wars, and Starship 1 didn't really reproduce the feeling of piloting an X-wing into a dogfight with Imperial TIE fighters. It didn't help that the spaceships in Starship 1 were clearly inspired by Star Trek.

Star Ship (Atari, 1977) was a launch title for the Atari VCS and a home port of Starship 1. However, it does not appear that the game sold well for Atari and it was discontinued within a few years.

Star Raiders for Atari 8-bit computers (Atari, 1980)

Atari engineer Dave Neubauer envisioned mixing a Star Wars-style outer space dogfight with the strategic elements of the text-only mainframe computer game, Star Trek (Mike Mayfield, 1971). He was also inspired by another coin-op game with similar graphics but could not remember the name (maybe Starship 1 or Ted Michon's Star Fire (Exidy, 1978)). Neubauer had experience programming computer-generated starfields in his spare time at his previous job with National Semiconductor. After about six months of diligent work, Star Raiders (1980) was born.

Star Raiders soon became the "must-have" game for Atari 400 and 800 model 8-bit computers. It was a thoughtful mix of short range excitement and long range planning. The game offers multiple views, with a rear view, galactic map view, and a small targeting computer in the lower right corner of the screen. The player's view of the game environment ranges from minutely detailed to galaxy-spanning. The game was ported to other Atari computers and consoles, even an impressive 1982 port for the Atari VCS that required a custom keyboard controller.

Star Raiders paved the way for later important 3-D spaceflight games like Elite (1984), Wing Commander (1990), X-wing (1993), and TIE Fighter (1994) (although David Braben states it did not have a direct influence on Elite: "I know that’s surprising, but the problem is I didn’t have an Atari and none of my friends did."). Star Raiders is often placed on many "most important video games" lists, including the first 10 games of the "game canon" submitted to the Library of Congress.

Epilogue and Prologue

The advent of realtime, three-dimensional, first-person visuals in video games did not start with polygonal graphics. It started with simple shapes, easily repeatable and scalable, that could be moved on a screen to give the impression of embodied, induced movement through a continuous space. This technique was used in evolution from simulated driving on a flat racetrack to the thrill of taking the flight controls and dogfighting in outer space.

In the next blog post, I will examine the evolution of racing games that culminated with the creation of Yu Suzuki's "Super Scaler" SEGA games of fast, 3-D motion using sprite technology. 

Spasim for PLATO (Jim Bowery, 1974)

Like so much of computer game history, there is a precedent that can be traced back to the PLATO computer network. Jim Bowery created (and then deleted, and then recreated) Spasim in 1974 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ground zero for the sprawling PLATO IV network. Billed as "An Investigation of Holographic Space," Spasim is a 32-player multiplayer game of realtime dogfights in space with wireframe polygonal graphics.

Some PLATO games are highly influential, but only a select few people had access to the system (mostly university students). Atari was more influenced by EM games and other video arcade games than by relatively obscure computer games of the day (Spacewar! (1962) and Star Trek (1971) are two exceptions, of course). Spasim is one of the first (if not the first) first-person 3-D spaceflight simulator computer games, but its graphic techniques were not feasible for arcade game technologies until the vector graphics era of Battlezone (Atari, 1980) and Star Wars (Atari, 1983).