Video game genre
Racing games
are a
video game genre
in which the player participates in a
racing competition
. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic
racing simulations
and more fantastical arcade-style racing games.
Kart racing games
emerged in the 1990s as a popular sub-genre of the latter. Racing games may also fall under the category of
sports video games
.
Sub-genres
[
edit
]
Arcade-style racing
[
edit
]
Usually,
arcade
-style racing games put fun and a fast-paced experience above all else, as cars usually compete in unique ways. A key feature of arcade-style racers that specifically distinguishes them from simulation racers is their far more liberal physics. Whereas in real racing (and subsequently, the simulation equivalents) the driver must reduce their speed significantly to take most turns, arcade-style
racing games
generally encourage the player to "powerslide" the car to allow the player to keep up their speed by
drifting
through a turn.
Collisions
with other racers, track
obstacles
, or traffic vehicles is usually much more exaggerated than simulation racers as well. For the most part, arcade-style racers simply remove the precision and rigor required from the simulation experience and focus strictly on the racing element itself. 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 sprints, with one or multiple paths sometimes with checkpoints, or other types of competition, like
demolition derby
, jumping, or testing driving skills. Popular arcade-style racing franchises include
Battle Gear
,
Out Run
,
Ridge Racer
,
Daytona USA
,
Need for Speed
,
Sega Rally
,
Cruis'n
,
Burnout
,
Rush
,
Midnight Club
,
Project Gotham Racing
,
TrackMania
,
MotorStorm
and
Forza Horizon
.
Conversely, many arcade racing games in
amusement arcades
frequently use hydraulic
motion simulator
arcade cabinets
that simulate the look and feel of driving or riding a vehicle. For example, a motorbike that the player sits on and moves around to control the on-screen action, or a car-like cabinet (with seats, steering wheel, pedals and gear stick) that moves around in sync with the on-screen action. This has been especially common for arcade racing games from
Sega
since the 1980s.
[1]
[2]
However, this can typically only be found in arcade racing games for amusement arcades, rather than arcade-style racing games for home systems.
During the mid-late 2000s there was a trend of new
street racing
; imitating the
import scene
, one can
tune
sports compacts
and
sports cars
and race them on the streets. The most widely known ones are the
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
and the
Midnight Club
series, certain entries in the
Need for Speed
and
Test Drive
series,
Initial D
series, the
Juiced
series and
FlatOut 2
. Some arcade-style racing games increase the competition between racers by adding weapons that can be used against opponents to slow them down or otherwise impede their progress so they can be passed. This is a staple feature in
kart racing games
such as the
Mario Kart
series, but this kind of game mechanic also appears in standard, car-based racing games as well. Weapons can range from projectile attacks to traps as well as non-combative items like speed boosts. Weapon-based racing games include games such as
Full Auto
,
Rumble Racing
,
Grip: Combat Racing
,
Re-Volt
and
Blur
. There are also
Vehicular combat games
that employ racing games elements: for example, racing has been featured as a game mode in popular vehicular combat franchises such as
Twisted Metal
,
Destruction Derby
and
Carmageddon
.
Simulation racing
[
edit
]
Simulation style racing games strive to convincingly replicate the handling of a real
automobile
. They often license real cars or racing leagues, but will sometimes use fantasy cars built to resemble real ones if unable to acquire an official license for them. Vehicular behavior physics are a key factor in the experience. The rigors of being a professional race driver are usually also included (such as having to deal with a car's tire condition and fuel level). Proper cornering technique and precision racing maneuvers (such as
trail braking
) are given priority in simulation racing games.
Although these racing simulators are specifically built for people with a high grade of driving skill, it is not uncommon to find aids that can be enabled from the game menu. The most common aids are
traction control
(TC),
anti-lock brakes
(ABS), steering assistance, damage resistance, clutch assistance, and automatic gear changes.
Sound plays a crucial role in player feedback in racing games, with the engine and tire sounds communicating what is physically happening to the car. The three main elements of car audio are
intake
, exhaust, and internal engine sounds. Recorded samples of those elements are implemented in-game by methods such as
granular synthesis
, loop-based modelling, or physical modeling. Tire sounds modulate loop samples or pitch based on
slip angle
and deformation to let the player know the limit of grip. The best sounding games effectively integrate the sound model with the vehicle and tire simulation models.
[3]
[4]
[5]
Some of these racing simulators are customizable, as game fans have decoded the tracks, cars, and executable files. Internet communities have grown around the simulators regarded as the most realistic and many websites host internet championships. Some of these racing simulators consist of
Forza Motorsport
,
Gran Turismo
,
GTR2
,
Assetto Corsa
,
iRacing
,
Project CARS
,
Automobilista 2
and many more.
[6]
Kart racing
[
edit
]
Kart racing games have simplified driving mechanics while adding obstacles, unusual track designs and various action elements.
[7]
Kart racers are also known to cast characters known from various
platform games
or
cartoon television series
as the drivers of "wacky" vehicles.
[8]
Kart racing games are a more
arcade-like
experience than other racing games and usually offer modes in which
player characters
can shoot projectiles at one another or collect
power-ups
.
[8]
[9]
Typically, in such games, vehicles move more alike
go-karts
, lacking anything along the lines of a
gear stick
and
clutch pedal
.
[7]
[10]
While
car combat
elements date back to earlier titles such as
Taito
's
Crashing Race
in 1976, the kart racing subgenre was popularized by
Nintendo
's
Super Mario Kart
in 1992 for the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
(SNES), which spawned the
Mario Kart
series. The game was slower than other racing games of the time due to hardware limitations, prompting the developers to use a go-kart theme for the game. Since then, over 50 kart racing games have been released, featuring characters ranging from
Nicktoons
to
South Park
.
[11]
Futuristic racing
[
edit
]
Futuristic racing games are a type of racing game where players use
science fiction
vehicles, such as
sci-fi cars
or other
sci-fi vehicles
, to race against the clock or other vehicles.
[12]
A number of futuristic racing games may also feature
vehicular combat
elements.
In the arcades, futuristic racing games date back to the 1980s. The
laserdisc games
Star Rider
(1983) and
Cosmos Circuit
(1984) featured animated racing, using animated laserdisc video for the backgrounds.
[13]
[14]
Alpha Denshi
's
Splendor Blast
(1985) combined
Pole Position
style racing with
Zaxxon
style sci-fi vehicles, space settings and
shoot 'em up
elements.
[15]
STUN Runner
(1989) by
Atari Games
featured
3D polygon graphics
and allowed players to blast other vehicles.
[16]
On home consoles, futuristic racing games were defined by
Nintendo
's
F-Zero
(1990) for the SNES, which spawned the
F-Zero
series. The
PlayStation
game
Wipeout
(1995) by
Psygnosis
featured 3D polygon graphics and spawned the
Wipeout
series. The
F-Zero
series subsequently made the transition to 3D polygon graphics with
F-Zero X
(1998) for the
Nintendo 64
.
[17]
History
[
edit
]
1941?1976: Electro-mechanical driving games
[
edit
]
The basis for racing video games were arcade driving
electro-mechanical games
(EM games). The earliest mechanical racing
arcade game
dates back to 1900, when the
London
-based Automatic Sports Company manufactured a mechanical
yacht racing
game,
Yacht Racer
.
[18]
Mechanical
car driving games
later originated from British
amusement arcades
in the 1930s.
[19]
In the United States,
International Mutoscope Reel Company
adapted these British arcade driving games into the electro-mechanical game
Drive Mobile
(1941), which had an upright
arcade cabinet
similar to what arcade video games would later use.
[20]
A
steering wheel
was used to control a
model car
over a road painted on a metal
drum
, with the goal being to keep the car centered as the road shifts left and right. Kasco introduced this type of driving game to Japan as
Mini Drive
in 1958.
[19]
Capitol Projector's 1954 machine
Auto Test
was a
driving test
simulation that used
film reel
to project pre-recorded driving
video
footage, awarding the player points for making correct decisions as the footage is played. These early EM driving games consisted of only the player vehicle on the road, with no rival cars to race against.
[21]
EM driving games later evolved in Japan, with Kasco's 1968 racing game
Indy 500
,
[19]
[22]
which was licensed by
Chicago Coin
for release in North America as
Speedway
in 1969.
[23]
It had a circular racetrack with rival cars painted on individual rotating discs illuminated by a lamp,
[19]
which produced colorful graphics
[19]
projected using mirrors to give a
pseudo-3D
first-person
perspective on a screen,
[21]
[24]
[25]
resembling a windscreen view.
[26]
The gameplay involved players driving down a circular road while dodging cars to avoid crashing,
[21]
and it resembled a prototypical arcade racing video game, with an upright cabinet, yellow marquee, three-digit scoring, coin box, steering wheel and accelerator pedal.
[20]
Indy 500
sold over 2,000 arcade cabinets in Japan,
[19]
while
Speedway
sold over 10,000 cabinets in North America,
[22]
becoming one of the biggest arcade hits of the 1960s.
[19]
Taito
's similar 1970 rear-projection driving game
Super Road 7
involved driving a car down an endlessly scrolling road while having to dodge cars, which formed the basis for Taito's 1974 racing video game
Speed Race
.
[27]
One of the last successful electro-mechanical arcade games was
F-1
, a racing game developed and released by
Namco
in 1976, and distributed in North America by
Atari
the same year.
[28]
The gameplay is viewed from the perspective of the driver's viewpoint, which is displayed on the screen using a projector system.
[29]
It was Japan's highest-grossing arcade game for two years in a row, in 1976 and 1977.
[30]
F-1
is believed to have been influenced by
Indy 500
,
[31]
and would in turn be influential on Namco's racing video games in the 1980s.
[29]
Another notable EM game from the 1970s was
The Driver
, a racing-
action game
released by Kasco (Kansai Seiki Seisakusho Co.) that used
16 mm film
to project
full motion video
on screen, though its gameplay had limited interaction, requiring the player to match their
steering wheel
, accelerator and brakes with movements shown on screen, much like the
sequences
in later
LaserDisc games
.
[32]
1970: Mainframe racing games
[
edit
]
The
BBC
television program
Tomorrow's World
broadcast a
mainframe computer
racing game played between TV presenter
Raymond Baxter
and British two-time
Formula One
world champion
Graham Hill
on their 1970 Christmas special, broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1970.
[33]
The game was written by
IBM
-employee, Ray Bradshaw, using
CALL/360
and required two data centre operators to input the instructions.
[34]
1972?1988: Top-down 2D racing video games
[
edit
]
Atari
founder
Nolan Bushnell
had the idea for a driving video game in the early 1970s. When he was a college student, he worked at an arcade where he became familiar with EM driving games, watching customers play and helping to maintain the machinery, while learning how it worked and developing his understanding of how the game business operates.
[35]
When he founded Atari, Bushnell had originally planned to develop a driving video game, influenced by
Speedway
, but they ended up developing
Pong
(1972) instead.
[36]
The earliest rudimentary racing video game to be released dates back to 1972, with the release of the first
video game console
, the
Magnavox Odyssey
. It included a game called
Wipeout
, where the player moves a dot around a race track that is outlined by an overlay placed on the television screen. It required the use of physical items to play, including a
race game
board, screen overlay, car tokens and pit stop cards.
[37]
In 1973, Atari released
Space Race
, an
arcade video game
where players control spaceships that race against opposing ships, while avoiding comets and meteors. It is a competitive
two-player game
with black and white graphics and controlled with a two-way joystick.
[38]
The following year, Atari released the first driving video game in the arcades,
Gran Trak 10
, which presents an overhead single-screen view of the track in low resolution white-on-black graphics.
[39]
[40]
It inspired the
Kee Games
clone
Formula K
, which sold 5,000
arcade cabinets
.
[41]
In late 1974,
Taito
released
Speed Race
designed by
Tomohiro Nishikado
(of
Space Invaders
fame), in which the player drives down a straight track dodging other cars.
[42]
[43]
The game used
vertical scrolling
,
[44]
inspired by two older
electro-mechanical games
: Kasco's
Mini Drive
and Taito's
Super Road 7
.
[27]
Speed Race
was re-branded as
Wheels
by
Midway Games
for release in North America and was influential on later racing games.
[45]
Midway also released another version,
Racer
, with a sit-down cabinet.
[46]
Speed Race
became a hit in Japan,
[27]
while
Wheels
and
Wheels II
sold 10,000 cabinets in the United States.
[41]
Its use of vertical scrolling was adopted by Atari's
Hi-way
(1975), which introduced a sit-down cabinet similar to older electro-mechanical games.
[44]
In 1977,
Atari
released
Super Bug
, a racing game historically significant as "the first game to feature a scrolling playfield" in multiple directions.
[47]
Sega's
Monaco GP
(1979) was one of the most successful traditional 2D racing games, becoming the most popular arcade driving game in the US
in 1981
, and among the highest-grossing games that year,
[48]
while making a record number of appearances on the
RePlay
arcade charts through 1987.
[49]
In 1980,
Namco
's overhead-view driving game
Rally-X
was one of the first games to have
background music
,
[50]
and allowed
scrolling
in multiple directions, both vertical and
horizontal
.
[51]
It also uses a
radar
, to show the
rally
car's location on the map.
[52]
1976?1992: Pseudo-3D racing video games
[
edit
]
In February 1976,
Sega
released the arcade game
Road Race
,
[53]
which was re-worked into a
motorbike
variant
Moto-Cross
,
[54]
also known as
Man T.T.
(released August 1976).
[53]
It was then re-branded as
Fonz
in the US, as a tie-in for the popular
sitcom
Happy Days
.
[55]
The game featured a three-dimensional perspective view,
[56]
as well as
haptic feedback
, which caused the
motorcycle handlebars
to vibrate during a collision with another vehicle.
[57]
In Spring 1976,
[58]
the arcade game
Nurburgring 1
presented a
first-person
view.
[59]
Considered the first "scandalous" arcade game,
[60]
Exidy
's
Death Race
(1976) was widely criticized in the media for its violent content, which only served to substantially increase its popularity.
[61]
Sega released a two-player version of
Man T.T.
called
Twin Course T.T.
in January 1977.
[62]
[63]
1979 saw the release of
Vectorbeam
's
Speed Freak
, a
three-dimensional
vector
racing game, which
Killer List of Videogames
calls "very impressive and ahead of their time".
[64]
Turbo
, released by
Sega
in 1981, was the first racing game to use
sprite
scaling
with full-color graphics.
[65]
Pole Position
, developed by Namco and released by Atari in North America, was released in 1982. It is considered "arguably the most important racing game ever made."
[66]
It was an evolution of Namco's earlier racing
electro-mechanical games
, notably
F-1
(1976), whose designer Sho Osugi worked on
Pole Position
.
[29]
Pole Position
was the first video game to be based on a real racing circuit, and the first with a qualifying lap, where the player needs to complete a
time trial
before they can compete in
Grand Prix
races. While not the first third-person racing video game (it was predated by Sega's
Turbo
),
Pole Position
established the conventions of the genre and its success inspired numerous imitators.
[66]
According to
Electronic Games
, for "the first time in the amusement parlors, a first-person racing game gives a higher reward for passing cars and finishing among the leaders rather than just for keeping all four wheels on the road".
[67]
According to
IGN
, it also "introduced checkpoints," and its success, as "the
highest-grossing
arcade
game of 1983
in North America, cemented the genre in place for decades to come and inspired a horde of other racing games".
[68]
It sold over 21,000 arcade cabinets in the US by 1983,
[69]
and again became the highest-grossing
arcade game of 1984
in the US.
[70]
Taito's
Laser Grand Prix
, introduced in July 1983, was the first racing
laserdisc game
, using pre-recorded live-action footage.
[71]
[72]
In 1984, several other racing laserdisc games followed, including Sega's
GP World
with live-action footage
[73]
and
Universal
's
Top Gear
featuring 3D animated race car driving.
[74]
The same year,
Irem
's
The Battle-Road
was a
vehicle combat
racing game with branching paths and up to 32 possible routes.
[75]
Geoff Crammond
, who later developed the
Grandprix
series (Known collectively as GPX to its fanbase), produced what is considered the first attempt at a racing simulator on a home system,
REVS
, released 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 offered a semi-realistic driving experience with more detail than most other racing games at the time.
[76]
Since the mid-1980s, it became a trend for arcade racing games to use hydraulic
motion simulator
arcade cabinets
.
[1]
[2]
The trend was sparked by
Sega
's "taikan" games, with "taikan" meaning "body sensation" in Japanese.
[2]
The "taikan" trend began when
Yu Suzuki
's team at Sega (later known as
Sega AM2
) developed
Hang-On
(1985), a
racing video game
where the player sits on and moves a
motorbike
replica to control the in-game actions.
[77]
Hang-On
was a Grand Prix style motorbike racer.
[78]
It used
force feedback
technology and was also one of the first arcade games to use
16-bit graphics
and Sega's "
Super Scaler
" technology that allowed
pseudo-3D
sprite-scaling
at high
frame rates
.
[65]
Hang-On
became the highest-grossing
arcade game of 1986
in the United States,
[79]
and one of the year's highest-grossing arcade games in Japan
[80]
[81]
and London.
[82]
Suzuki's team at Sega followed it with hydraulic motion simulator cockpit cabinets for later racing games, notably
Out Run
(1986).
[1]
It was one of the most graphically impressive games of its time, known for its pseudo-3D sprite-based driving engine, and it became an instant classic that spawned many sequels. It was also notable for giving the player the
non-linear
choice of which route to take through the game and the choice of soundtrack to listen to while driving,
[83]
represented as radio stations. The game has up to five endings depending on the route taken, and each one was an ending sequence rather than a simple "Congratulations" as was common in game endings at the time.
[84]
It became Sega's best-selling arcade cabinet of the 1980s,
[85]
with over 30,000 arcade cabinets sold worldwide.
[86]
The same year, Durell released
Turbo Esprit
, which had an official Lotus license, and working car indicator lights.
In 1987,
Square
released
Rad Racer
, one of the first
stereoscopic 3D
games.
[87]
In the same year, Atari produced
RoadBlasters
, a driving game that also involved a bit of shooting.
One of the last successful pseudo-3D arcade racers was Sega's
Super Monaco GP
(1989), a simulation of the
Monaco Grand Prix
.
[88]
It was the third highest-grossing
arcade game of 1989
in Japan,
[89]
and again the third highest-grossing
arcade game of 1990
in Japan.
[90]
In 1992, Nintendo released
Super Mario Kart
, but it was known that it was
pseudo-3D
racing. Here it has items to affect players from racing and the referee,
Lakitu
will help you out to know the rules and rescue racers from falling down.
[91]
1988?1994: Transition to 3D polygon graphics
[
edit
]
In 1988, Namco released
Winning Run
,
[92]
which used
3D polygon graphics
.
[93]
It became the second highest-grossing
arcade game of 1989
in Japan.
[89]
In 1989, Atari released
Hard Drivin'
, another arcade driving game that used 3D polygon graphics. It uses force feedback, where the wheel fights the player during aggressive turns, and a crash replay camera view.
Sega produced
Virtua Racing
in 1992. While not the first arcade racing game with 3D graphics (it was predated by
Winning Run
,
Hard Drivin'
and
Stunts
), 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, laying the foundations for subsequent 3D racing games.
[94]
It improved on earlier 3D racing games with more complex 3D models and backdrops, higher frame rate, and switchable camera angles including chase-cam and first-person views. IGN considers it the third most influential racing game of all time.
[68]
In 1993, Namco released
Ridge Racer
. Its 3D polygon graphics stood out for the use of
Gouraud shading
and
texture mapping
.
[95]
And thus began the
polygon
war of driving games. Sega later released
Daytona USA
, which featured 3D polygon graphics with
texture filtering
.
[65]
The following year,
Electronic Arts
produced
The Need for Speed
, which would later spawn one of the world's most successful racing game series and one of the most successful video game series. In the same year,
Midway
introduced
Crusin' USA
.
1989?1995: Emergence of sim racing subgenre
[
edit
]
The now defunct
Papyrus Design Group
produced their first attempt at a racing simulator in 1989, the critically acclaimed
Indianapolis 500: The Simulation
, designed by David Kaemmer and Omar Khudari. The game is generally regarded as the first true auto racing simulation on a personal computer. Accurately replicating the 1989 Indianapolis 500 grid, it offered advanced 3D graphics for its time, setup options, car failures and handling. Unlike most other racing games at the time,
Indianapolis 500
attempted to simulate realistic
physics
and
telemetry
, such as its portrayal of the relationship between the four contact patches and the pavement, as well as the loss of grip when making a high-speed turn, forcing the player to adopt a proper racing line and believable throttle-to-brake interaction. It includes a garage facility to allow players to enact modifications to their vehicle, including adjustments to the tires, shocks and wings.
[76]
The damage modelling, while not accurate by today's standards, was capable of producing some spectacular and entertaining
pile-ups
.
Crammond's
Formula One Grand Prix
in 1992 became the new champion of sim racing, until the release of Papyrus'
IndyCar Racing
the following year.
[96]
Formula One Grand Prix
boasted detail that was unparalleled for a computer game at the time as well as a full recreation of the drivers, cars and circuits of the 1991 Formula One World Championship. However, the U.S. version (known as
World Circuit
) was not granted an official license by the FIA, so teams and drivers were renamed (though all could be changed back to their real names using the Driver/Team selection menu):
Ayrton Senna
became "Carlos Sanchez", for example.
In 1995,
Sega Rally Championship
introduced
rally
racing and featured
cooperative gameplay
alongside the usual competitive multiplayer.
[97]
Sega Rally
was also the first to feature driving on different surfaces (including
asphalt
,
gravel
, and
mud
) with different
friction
properties and the car's handling changing accordingly, making it an important milestone in the genre.
[98]
1996?present: Modern racing games
[
edit
]
During the early-to-mid-1990s, Sega and Namco largely had a monopoly on high-end arcade racing games with realistic 3D visuals. In 1996, a number of competitors attempted to challenge their dominance in the field, including Atari Games with
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing
,
Gaelco
with
Speed Up
,
Jaleco
with
Super GT 24h
, and
Konami
with
Winding Heat
.
[99]
In 1996,
Nintendo
created a 3D game called
Mario Kart 64
, a sequel to
Super Mario Kart
and has an action so that
Lakitu
needs to either reverse, rev up your engines to Rocket Start, or rescue players.
Mario Kart 64
focused more on the items used.
[91]
Atari didn't join the 3D craze until 1997, when it introduced
San Francisco Rush
.
In 1997,
Gran Turismo
was released for the
PlayStation
, after being in production for five years since 1992.
[100]
It was considered the most realistic racing simulation game in its time,
[101]
combined with playability, enabling players of all skill levels to play. It offered a wealth of meticulous tuning options and introduced an
open-ended
career mode
where players had to undertake
driving tests
to acquire
driving licenses
, earn their way into races and choose their own career path.
[101]
The
Gran Turismo
series
has since become the second-most successful racing game franchise of all time, selling over 80 million units worldwide as of April 2018.
[102]
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 the less serious
Sega Rally Championship
.
Motorhead
, a PC game, was later adapted back to arcade. In the same year, Sega releases
Daytona USA 2
(Battle On The Edge and Power Edition), which is one of the first racing games to feature realistic
crashes
and
graphics
.
The year 1999 introduced
Crash Team Racing
, a kart racing game featuring the characters from Crash Bandicoot. It was praised for its controls and courses. Crash Bandicoot and its racing series has continued, with the most recent game being
Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled
(June 2019). The year 1999 also marked a change of games into more "free form" worlds.
Midtown Madness
for the PC allows 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
, a
sandbox
racing game where you are a taxi driver that needed to get the client to the destination in the shortest amount of time.
[103]
A similar game also from Sega is
Emergency Call Ambulance
, with almost the same gameplay (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.
In 2000, Angel Studios (now
Rockstar San Diego
) introduced the first free-roaming, or the former "free form", racing game on video game consoles and handheld game consoles with
Midnight Club: Street Racing
which released on the
PlayStation 2
and
Game Boy Advance
. The game allowed the player to drive anywhere around virtual recreations of London and New York. Instead of using enclosed tracks for races, the game uses various checkpoints on the free roam map as the pathway of the race, giving the player the option to take various shortcuts or any other route to the checkpoints of the race.
In 2001
Namco
released
Wangan Midnight
to the arcade and later released an upgrade called Wangan Midnight R. Wangan Midnight R was also ported to the
PlayStation 2
by Genki as just Wangan Midnight.
In 2003, Rockstar San Diego's
Midnight Club II
was the first racing game to feature both playable cars and playable motorcycles. Namco released a sort of sequel to
Wangan Midnight R
called
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune
.
There is a wide gamut of driving games ranging from simple action-arcade racers like
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
(for
Nintendo Switch
) and
Nicktoon Racers
to ultra-realistic simulators like
Grand Prix Legends
,
iRacing
,
Virtual Grand Prix 3
,
Live for Speed
,
NetKar Pro
,
GT Legends
,
GTR2
,
rFactor
,
X Motor Racing
,
CarX Street
, and iPad 3D racer
Exhilarace
.
[104]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
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a
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