The Origins of Video Game Racing Tournaments
What we know today as racing video games started as something that could barely be described as a race at all…unless you consider a race against yourself around a primitive track a “competition.” This was Atari’s Gran Trak 10, released in 1974, which is generally considered the prototype for today’s video game racing challenge. In this online racing tournament, players raced against the clock to accumulate points, their view of the “action” consisting merely of a black-and-white, low-resolution, overhead view of the track.
In 1982, “racing” as we now know it began with the introduction of the Namco game Pole Position. In this video game racing competition, players had AI cars to compete against, as well as a time limit to further spur their speed. Additionally, Pole Position was the first of the video game racing tournaments to offer higher-resolution color graphics.
In 1984, however, the face of the racing video game genre was changed forever with the introduction of what is known as the first attempt at simulation style racing: Revs for the BBC Microcomputer. While certainly not advanced by today’s standards, this racing video game presented an unofficial replica of the British Formula Three vehicle and graphics boasting a level of detail previously unseen in video game racing challenges.
For the next 10 years, the racing video game battle passed through numerous incarnations, with each title surpassing its predecessors in terms of features, degree of realism and dimension, agility, and of course, all-holds-barred destruction. Racing video games such as Indianapolis 500: The Simulation, Formula One Grand Prix, Virtua Racing, Super Mario Kart, Ridge Racer, Daytona USA, and Gran Turismo continued to raise the bar and shape the online car racing genre.
In 1999, simulation car racing went free form with the release of the PC-based Midtown Madness, which enabled gamers to blaze their own paths through the city of Chicago in their choice of vehicle. Following closely on its heels, in 2000, Midnight Club: Street Racing for Playstation 2 and Game Boy Advance marked the official beginning of free roaming video game racing competitions, as opposed to enclosed tracks. This enhanced games by including strategy, as racers could utilize—and be challenged to remember—various shortcuts and routes to hasten their time to checkpoints.
Today's Racing Video Game Tournament: Get Paid to Haul Your Horsepower
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