''Road Runner'' is a racing video game based on the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts. It was released in arcades 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 1985.

Gameplay

The player controls Road Runner, who is chased by Wile E. Coyote. In order to escape, Road Runner runs endlessly to the left. While avoiding Wile E. Coyote, the player must pick up bird seeds on the street, avoid obstacles like cars, and get through mazes. Most of the time Wile E. Coyote will just run after the Road Runner, but he occasionally uses tools like rockets, roller skates, and

pogo stick A pogo stick is a vehicle for jumping off the ground in a standing position—through the aid of a spring, or new high performance technologies—often used as a toy, exercise equipment or extreme sports instrument. It led to an extreme sport n ...

Development

Originally, the game was set to be released as a LaserDisc game, with the game's graphics being overlaid over video footage showing the road and background scenery. Whenever the player managed to outwit the Coyote - such as tricking him into running off a cliff - a sequence from one of the original ''Road Runner'' shorts showing that exact situation would be played. The game was going to be released in 1984, but Atari decided to cancel the game. In 1985, the game was released by

as a traditional video game. In the released game, all of the original LaserDisc-based elements were either removed or replaced with computer-generated graphics. One prototype cabinet of this original LaserDisc version is known to still exist, and occasionally appears at arcade collector's conventions such as California Extreme.

Music

The background music during attract mode and 4th level is "

Sabre Dance "Sabre Dance" is a movement in the final act of Aram Khachaturian's ballet '' Gayane'' (1942), where the dancers display their skill with sabres. It is Khachaturian's best known and most recognizable work worldwide. In the composer’s own wor ...

" from '' Gayane'' by

Aram Khachaturian Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (; 1 May 1978) was a Soviet Armenians, Armenian composer and conductor. He is considered one of the leading Music of the Soviet Union#Classical music of the Soviet Union, Soviet composers. Khachaturian was born and rai ...

, the 1st level music is "

William Tell Overture The ''William Tell'' Overture is the overture to the opera '' William Tell'' (original French title ''Guillaume Tell''), composed by Gioachino Rossini. ''William Tell'' premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he w ...

" by

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote man ...

, 2nd level music is "

Flight of the Bumblebee "Flight of the Bumblebee" () is an orchestral interlude written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) for his opera '' The Tale of Tsar Saltan'', composed in 1899–1900. This perpetuum mobile is intended to musically evoke the seemingl ...

" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and 3rd level is "

Trepak Trepak () or tropak () is a traditional East Slavic folk dance (Russian and Ukrainian). The dance is included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, whose form is preserved in Tacheng. In m ...

" from ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

'' by

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...

Ports

''Road Runner'' was ported to the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

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 ...

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

, and

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

. The Atari 2600 port was one of

Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of Home computer, home computers and Video game console, video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than ...

's last games for the system, being released in 1989. Like other NES games released by Tengen, ''Road Runner'' was unlicensed by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

itself, released as an unlicensed cartridge avoiding Nintendo's protections.

Reception

While stating that its challenging gameplay "should keep you entertained for hours on end", Gregg Pearlman of ''

Antic Alphanumeric Television Interface Controller (ANTIC) is an LSI ASIC dedicated to generating 2D computer graphics to be shown on a television screen or computer display. Under the direction of Jay Miner, the chip was designed in 1977–1978 b ...

'' in 1988 stated that the player should control Wile E. Coyote, not Road Runner: "In the cartoons, the coyote never wins; in the game, he never loses". Pearlman stated that he had destroyed two joysticks and "acquired unbelievable cramps in my hands and arms". The game was reviewed in 1988 in ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'' #140 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars. The game went to number 2 in the UK sales charts, behind ''

Exolon ''Exolon'' is a run and gun game programmed by Raffaele Cecco and published by Hewson in 1987 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. It was later converted to the Enterprise 128, Amiga, and Atari ST. Gameplay The player takes co ...

''.

References

External links

*
''Road Runner''
at the Arcade History database
''Road Runner''
at the Arcade Flyer Archive * * {{Looney Tunes video games 1985 video games Amstrad CPC games Arcade video games Atari 2600 games Atari arcade games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games DOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Tengen (company) games Unauthorized video games Video games about birds Video games about coyotes Video games based on Looney Tunes Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Fred Gray Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner ZX Spectrum games