''Race Drivin'' is a
sim racing
Sim racing is the collective term for racing games that attempt to accurately simulate auto racing, complete with real-world variables such as fuel usage, damage, tire wear and grip, and suspension settings. To be competitive in sim racing, a dr ...
arcade video game
An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-oper ...
released by
Atari Games
Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade video games, active from 1985 to 1999, then as Midway Games West Inc. until 2003. It was formed when the coin-operated video game division of Atari, Inc. was transferred by its owner Wa ...
in August 1990. Players test drive several high-powered sports cars on stunt and speed courses. The game is the sequel to 1989's ''
Hard Drivin''' and was part of a new generation of games that featured 3D polygon environments. Unlike most racing games of its time, it attempted to model real world car physics in the simulation of the movement of the player's car. Like ''Hard Drivin'', it includes a force feedback steering wheel, an ignition key, a four-speed shifter, and three foot pedals. Approximately 1200 arcade cabinets were produced for roughly each.
Home ports of ''Race Drivin'' were released in the mid-1990s for the
Super NES
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...
,
Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
,
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
,
Game Boy
The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...
,
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
,
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...
, and
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...
. In 2005, it was included in the ''
Midway Arcade Treasures 3'' collection for the
PlayStation 2
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,
GameCube
The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...
, and
Xbox
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. An expanded port, ''Race Drivin' a Go! Go!'', was released in Japan in 1996 for the PlayStation, developed and published by Time Warner Interactive.
Gameplay
left, In-game screenshot exhibiting some of the enhanced stunts (dual landing ramps and the 'jump loop')
The screen shows a first person perspective from inside the car, through the windshield. The car's dashboard is visible and displays the car's instruments, like the speedometer, tachometer and fuel level, as well as a few other functional but non-gameplay important ones, such as the oil, temp, and amp gauges and lights. Each car has its own unique dashboard.
There are 3 cars with manual transmissions (speedster, roadster, and original), 1 automatic, and 3 tracks to choose from: the stunt track which is very similar to the one in ''Hard Drivin'', the Autocross track, and the Super Stunt track.
The game consists of racing 1 or 2 laps around the player's chosen track within the allotted time. The gameplay and vehicle operation in ''Race Drivin'' are very similar to ''Hard Drivin'' and gameplay elements such as the Instant Replay and the off-road timer are still there. A noticeable difference between the two games though is that although the car traffic in ''Race Drivin's'' stunt track is still there like in the original ''Hard Drivin'' track, the two new tracks included in ''Race Drivin'' (Autocross and Super Stunt track) are absent of any additional car traffic. Also, unlike ''Hard Drivins'' original track that offers the driver two different driving paths, the two new tracks in ''Race Drivin'' only offer one driving path per track. The finishing time of the original track shared by ''Race Drivin'' and ''Hard Drivin'' takes roughly 1:30 to complete. By comparison, the Autocross track is very short requiring roughly only 30 seconds to complete and the Super Stunt track is considerably longer (taking roughly 3 minutes to complete). The Super Stunt track includes enhanced versions of the stunts in the original ''Hard Drivin'' track and new stunts entirely, like the corkscrew loop, the mountain road, the 45° inclined hill, and the cylindrical tunnel.
Like its predecessor ''Hard Drivin'', the game has an ignition key, a realistic manual transmission mode (which includes a 4-speed shifter with neutral and reverse, a clutch pedal, and the possibility of stalling the car should one mis-shift) and a force feedback steering wheel, in which the driver has to all properly operate as they would in a car in real life. The cockpit version of the game also includes an adjustable bucket seat and, if it is a 'Panorama' version (only 100 of which were made), it sports 3 to 5 monitors for a full 180° peripheral view.
''Race Drivin'' includes "Buddy Race", where a second player can race against a previous player's recorded performance, and "Linked Race", where by connecting a cable between two ''Race Drivin'' cabinets, players can race each other simultaneously.
Development
Doug Milliken, who also worked on ''Hard Drivin'', is credited as a "test driver", but actually worked as a consultant for developing the car model. This model was used to lay out the physics of the game's car.
The arcade version of ''Race Drivin'' was exhibited at the UK's
Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI) in 1991.
''Race Drivin'' has improved vehicle handling courtesy of a faster microprocessor and more efficient software.
The TMS34010 used for car modeling in the original was replaced with an AT&T DSP32C which is faster and has floating point. Instead of modeling a car with only two wheels as ''Hard Drivin'' did, ''Race Drivin'' models a car with all 4 wheels.
Ports
''Race Drivin' a Go! Go!'' is an expanded port that was released only in Japan for the PlayStation in 1996 developed and published by Time Warner Interactive. It includes the original ''Hard Drivin'' course, the courses added in the original ''Race Drivin'', and three new courses only found in this new version. The number of available vehicles was also increased from 3 to 8. The game includes both a single-player championship mode and an arcade time attack mode.
Reception
In North America, the arcade version was the top new video game on the ''RePlay'' arcade charts in
October 1990, and then the top upright arcade cabinet from November 1990 through
early 1991 to May 1991. ''Race Drivin' Panorama'' was later the top new arcade video game in August 1991.
''
Electronic Gaming Monthly
''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews.
History
The magazine was fou ...
'' gave the Genesis version 23 out of 50, calling it "another so-so entry in the driving scene" due to its "very choppy" scrolling.
References
External links
''Race Drivin''at Arcade History
*
{{Authority control
1990 video games
Amiga games
Argonaut Games games
Atari arcade games
Atari ST games
Domark games
DOS games
Game Boy games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Multiplayer hotseat games
PlayStation (console) games
Polygames games
Racing simulators
Sega Genesis games
Sega Saturn games
Super Nintendo Entertainment System games
Tengen (company) games
THQ games
Time Warner Interactive games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games scored by David Whittaker
Video games scored by Mark Van Hecke