The Evolution of Arcade Driving Games
It's really amazing how far we've com when you look at the history of arcade driving games. It wasn't that long ago people were perfectly content playing Pole Postion with a loose steering wheel. They didn't care if the turns were completely unrealistic or the cars looked like vomit. It was fun.
But certainly, things have evolved. The first arcade driving game to really distinguish itself from its predecessors was Sega's Outrun. The game was so cool. It didn't try to be a break-neck, reflex torchering kind of racing game. It had that great laid-back California sytle gameplay that really reasonated with gamers. But what made it best is that it was one of the truly great sit-down cabinet racing games. Of course you had to be lucky enough to have an arcade that had the sit down cabinet. They were pretty hard to find. But, Outrun along with Afterburner were probably the best sit down arcade cabinet games to come out of the 1980s. You knew you were going to be waiting a long time to finally get to play.
Also some credit should be given for the arcde driving shooter games such as Spy Hunter.
But the 90s ushered in a new time for racing games. Games like San Francisco Rushushered in the true arcade style driving games. The incredible stunts and the ability for your car to go airbome and jump buildings. It was just too cool. It also influenced other classic arcade style racing games like Crazy Taxi.
But the king of the 90s racing games would have to be Daytona USA. Moving at an incredible (at the time) 60 frames per second, the driving was smooth as silk. There was nothing quite like the massive 8-player game. It was both intense and incredibly fun.
Although the new century has brought us some great driving games, we don't the same quantity and quality of arcade racing games that we had in the past. It's a shame but thank goodness we still have the old games to replay.
