A delve into the history of racing games, from humble arcade machines through to next-gen gaming wit

There is a divided opinion of racing games in the current gaming climate - you'll either fully enjoy them or just find them a bore. Disappointingly I was originally party to the first statement, but this gradually changed, ensuring that it was inevitable that I would move onto the second one, and lose all passion for the genre.

Initially, racing games were little more than a few white pixels on a black background but these would begin to evolve into cartoon-like drawings, through to simple polygonal shapes, up to intensely realistic graphics that even resemble real life Just take a look at these side-by-side images and guess which ones are in-game and which are real life...

From Project Gotham Racing 4 - Courtesy of GameTrailers Forums So, just how did we arrive at this point? Obviously, game developers didn't just suddenly dream up Mario Kart or Forza without the inspiration gained from earlier games, but where exactly did these ideas come from? Travel back to 1973 and to an (at the time) obscure company called Taito who changed their business model from providing jukebox leasing to creating video games, the first ever of which was 'Astro Race'. Annoyingly, I haven't been able to find a great deal of information about this game, save for a few photos of the machine cabinet and some paperwork, but really it doesn't reveal anything about the game. If you have any photos, footage or descriptions of the game, then please feel free to comment so I can find out more! Courtesy of Arcade Museum Flyers The next year, Taito would then release their more popular and successful game, Speed Race, which would form a basic foundation of racing to inspire many others. It incorporated collision detection, (slightly choppy) scrolling graphics and was controlled using a basic driving hardware interface, complete with a steering wheel and pedal. Other companies such as Nintendo and Atari would quickly follow suit by releasing their own racing games, such as a horse-racing simulation game. In 1976, Sega created Moto-Cross (later rebranded as Fonz) which provide relatively successful, particularly for introducing a third-person perspective (Gran Turismo fans, you have these guys to thank!) as well as haptic vibration feedback. The same year, Atari released Night Driver, a game that remains popular today. More improvements to the genre would arrive in 1980 with Namco's Rally-X, such as a tracking radar (so that you can identify yourself on the map), scrolling along both horizontal and vertical axes and catchy background music. The following year, Sega released Turbo, which is widely recognised as the first racing game to use the trademark third-person view that is the default for almost every driving game since. But it wan't until the next year (1982) that things would change in a pivotal improvement, as Namco released Pole Position to Wide acclaim and high popularity. The game created the template for the third-person positioning view that is the default for most driving games today, as well as a time trial qualifier lap, Balanced AI opponents and, in true arcade style, collisions that would make the player car explode. In 1984, Nintendo would release Excitebike, which allowed for excellent customisation of tracks, and even though it was not a driving game in the same vein as the aforementioned examples, it helped properly introduce me to the genre. Sega then released motorbike racing game, Hang On, which proved to be a huge success, but it was not until 1986 that they produced their greatest (imo) example of the genre - OutRun - an impressive game that still wows gamers today. 8 years later (which is about the time I can start recalling these events) and the genre sees more diversity within its games - on the realistic side we have Virtua Racing, a 3D game that used vivid and well-rendered graphics that outshone other arcade machines at the time. However this also was the year that the public were introduced to the Mario Kart series, perfecting the competitive cartoonish formula. Following this, a war of polygonal games began - often placing graphics and immersion beyond the actual gameplay. Into 1997 and the massively popular series (even today) Gran Turismo arrives on the Playstation, placing a great importance on realism and simulation, as well as perfectly-rendered car models such as Mazda. This year seemed to mark the start of a period of visually-impressive and graphically-polished racing games - however many gamers were noticing a slant towards graphics and seeing the gameplay suffer as a result. I had spent some time trying to get into these simulation games, but there was really only one driving game that I could still enjoy... Back in 1996, Reflections had released Destruction Derby 2 for the Playstation and I fell back in love with driving – hours were spent trying to perfect a ramp jump or blow up an opponent whilst listening to Green Day, Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins. But being young and fickle, I eventually became bored with the genre, well that was until... Burnout! Well, ignoring the first one (and the most recent, Paradise) and looking at the middle three Burnout 2, Takedown and Revenge - it's a glorious experience seeing your opponents directly crash because of you, as they smush up into a crumpled pile of wreckage in slow motion. For me this was the ultimate driving experience – it was a nice mixture of arcade competition and driving realism. It’s just a shame that I’ve yet to find a game that perfected the formula so well. So in this world of Forza, Gran Turismo and Need For Speed, we can safely say that in many ways we have travelled a long way, but if you look at the base of it, Speed Freak, Speed Race and Night Driver already had the formula down, back in the 1970s. Add some HD textures, busier environments and smoother scrolling and you're pretty much at the modern games of today. Night Driver vs Gran Turismo 5 Also, if you want to try out a lush-looking update of these games, have a look at Drivey (and for the full retro experience, press 1, F3, and F5) If you want to add any more information, want a chat or know a game I should be playing, feel free to leave a comment/reply below on the site. Well, I'm out for now, will post another blog soon, Ella Cox x