Greetings, dear reader! On the eve of the imminent release of the exclusive car simulator for PlayStation 4 — Gran Turismo Sport from Polyphony Digital, I would like to tell you about the history of the genre. Since a story about the same Gran Turismo is impossible without mentioning other representatives of realistic rides on everything that has 4 wheels, then the discussion will be in this vein. I hope that you, the reader, will be interested in my story. Have a nice time!
Part 1. Origin. Period of pseudo-3d and arcade halls.
Atari is ahead of the rest. 1974-1976
According to various sources, the first attempt to transfer races along the track to arcade halls was Gran Trak 10 by Cyan Engineering and published by Atari. The cabinet is an unusual 25-cent coin collector for 1974. Although this automatic was the first of its kind, it already had a steering wheel, gas and brake pedals, as well as a simple gearbox variation. The goal in the game is very simple: pass as many checkpoints as possible, observing all the actions from above, within the allotted time, configured by the operator of the gaming hall. There was only one track (with an oil spot on the straight?!), so there was clearly a lack of variety.
But still, the uniqueness of the product played into the hands of its creators: from 1974 to 1976, Atari released several variations of its product.
Formula K (1974)
The same game, but with a new cabinet design and a new track
Gran Trak 20 (1974)
Again a new track and the opportunity https://neptune-play-casino.co.uk/ to play together
Le Mans (1976)
This is where it gets more interesting: in addition to the presence of 6 main tracks, which refer to such real tracks as Le Mans, Nürburgring, Laguna Seca, etc.d., there were also 4 secret routes. Of these, only two, randomly selected, will be available to the player to complete if the player completes the main six tracks with dignity, which is shown on the top panel of the cabinet.
Sprint 2 (1976)
The differences from the original Gran Trak for two players may seem minor at first glance, but they are not. First of all, we removed the brake pedal from both players and introduced support for multiple tracks, like in Le Mans. Atari later released other versions of Sprint: for one, four and eight players (Sprint 1, Sprint 4 and Sprint 8 respectively)
Atari clearly found a new working way to earn “a little” more, and already in 1976 they released a new cabinet for arcade halls: Night Driver. For the first time in the genre, a first-person view was used, which was realized by applying a print depicting the front of the car on the protective screen of the machine gun, which was dictated by insufficient technical development at that time. In the game itself, the player had to drive as far as possible in a time that he could choose himself.
The low power of the hardware also did not allow the player to provide any detail on the road, so he had to focus only on the glowing “fence posts” in full hopelessness blackness.
At the end of the story about this time period, I would like to clarify that for these 3 years Atari was not a monopolist in the genre. The fact is that other game content producers either copied Atari’s ideas or made a completely arcade control model in their games.
Switch to color image. View from behind. The beginnings of simulation physics.1981-1986.
No, reader, you are not mistaken, I really skipped five years, it’s just that nothing really important happened during these years. Is it possible to mention Rally X 1980 from Namco, as it introduced background music for the first time.
So, it’s 1981. Sega releases its arcade hit-Turbo.
Sega applied quite a lot of innovations to its creation; some of them are still used in modern game development. Here’s a list of what Turbo brought to driving simulators:
1. Third person view.
2. Changeable scenery of the player’s environment (cities, countryside, coastline, bridges, tunnels).
3. Changes in time of day and weather.
4. Scalable sprites of opponents and the player’s environment.
The player had to overtake rivals controlled by AI, a collision with which would lead to the inevitable loss of life. If the player bypassed at least 30 opponents until the end of time, then the game continued for him. In addition to time and opponents, there were other problems, such as a limited number of lives and the presence of an ambulance appearing from behind, a collision with which also led to the loss of life.
The game was received quite warmly by both gaming publications and arcade regulars. Later, namely in 1983, the game received very good ports for ColecoVision and Intellivision.
In the meantime, let’s go back to 1982. He was notable for his exit Pole Position again in the 25 cent coin ransomware format.
It was created by the Japanese company Namco, but the publisher was Atari. Once again, the game we are considering has set new standards in the genre. Finally, the beginnings of realistic car control physics have appeared, a system of qualifying races has been introduced, which will determine your place on the starting grid. For the first time, the player could drive along a real track — Fuji Speedway (as far as technology allows, of course).
Pole Position was received very positively by players and the specialized press. In 2015, IGN awarded Pole Position the title: “The Most Influential Racing Game Ever.”. During the entire existence of the arcade machine, the creators sold more than 21,000 copies for more than 61 million US dollars.
Since the game was very successful in absolutely all plans, the continuation of the original was a very expected development of events. And in 1983, Atari released Pole Position II, developed by the same Namco.
In addition to cosmetic improvements, such as the addition of new billboards, a new main screen and car explosions that scatter debris, the creators have added new tracks: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Suzuka and a replica of the 7th Toyota United States Grand Prix West (a temporary track for the 1982 US Grand Prix as part of Formula 1).
Worth mentioning in passing Pitstop II, published by Epyx in 1984. Not only is this game the first that is not a product for arcades, but it was also the first to use split screen for playing with two people.