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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 .

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103-551: Hang-On is an arcade racing game released by Sega in 1985 and later ported to the Master System . In the game, the player controls a motorcycle against time and other computer-controlled bikes. It was one of the first arcade games to use 16-bit graphics and uses the Super Scaler arcade system board , created with design input from Yu Suzuki , as technology to simulate 3D effects . The deluxe cabinet version also introduced

206-418: A 3D game, though the technology of the time made full 3D environments impossible. Instead, he specified the design of Sega's new Super Scaler arcade system board —initially known as Sega Hang-On hardware—enhanced from the existing VCO Object system board that would use multiple CPUs and back end DSP compatibility to create 3D effects , while using 16-bit graphics. The game achieves its 3D effects using

309-401: 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. The game was written by IBM -employee, Ray Bradshaw, using CALL/360 and required two data centre operators to input the instructions. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell had the idea for

412-434: A racing video game where the player sits on and moves a motorbike replica to control the in-game actions. Hang-On was a Grand Prix style motorbike racer. 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 . Hang-On became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1986 in

515-483: A radar , to show the rally car's location on the map. In February 1976, Sega released the arcade game Road Race , which was re-worked into a motorbike variant Moto-Cross , also known as Man T.T. (released August 1976). It was then re-branded as Fonz in the US, as a tie-in for the popular sitcom Happy Days . The game featured a three-dimensional perspective view, as well as haptic feedback , which caused

618-466: A sprite -scaling technique. In designing the game, Suzuki had to decide on a style of motorcycle racing for the game. Suzuki himself was a fan of dirt bikes, along with motocross and Enduro , and dirt bikes would later be used in Suzuki's Enduro Racer , but Sega's market research concluded that road-based GP 500 racing was more popular worldwide. While Suzuki was doing research for the game, he admired

721-491: 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. 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. It

824-503: A Japanese bike magazine. Suzuki later learned the technique was called "hang off" in North America, but he chose to keep the former name. Hang-On is considered well-regarded for its music, which was composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi . He came to Suzuki's attention after Suzuki heard he played in a band. Suzuki wanted songs for the soundtrack to Hang-On that would be like what a band would play. This led to Kawaguchi writing four songs for

927-557: 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. 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. The earliest rudimentary racing video game to be released dates back to 1972, with

1030-416: A game mode in popular vehicular combat franchises such as Twisted Metal , Destruction Derby and Carmageddon . 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

1133-404: A game where the arcade cabinet simulated an actual motorcycle and players would have to move side to side on the motorcycle to turn. He also had a desire to make his game better than Pole Position , a Namco game which had beaten out Sega's Turbo in popularity. In developing the game, Suzuki wanted to make his new motorcycle racing game a realistic experience. His initial desire was to create

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1236-400: A handlebar and levers, and the deluxe cabinet which featured the full motorcycle to be tilted. Suzuki had additional features he wanted to implement that could not be done due to cost, including a gyroscope to simulate motorcycle acceleration and deceleration. The title is derived from when the biker is turning and has to "hang on" to the bike while the bike is leaning, which Suzuki had read in

1339-445: 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. 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

1442-535: A hit in Japan, while Wheels and Wheels II sold 10,000 cabinets in the United States. 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. In 1977, Atari released Super Bug , a racing game historically significant as "the first game to feature a scrolling playfield" in multiple directions. Sega's Monaco GP (1979)

1545-447: 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

1648-412: 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

1751-561: A lamp, which produced colorful graphics projected using mirrors to give a pseudo-3D first-person perspective on a screen, resembling a windscreen view. The gameplay involved players driving down a circular road while dodging cars to avoid crashing, 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. Indy 500 sold over 2,000 arcade cabinets in Japan, while Speedway sold over 10,000 cabinets in North America, becoming one of

1854-481: A motion-controlled arcade cabinet , where the player's body movement on a large motorbike-shaped cabinet corresponds with the player character's movements on screen. Yu Suzuki began development of Hang-On after deciding to design a motorcycle racing game as a way to use a torsion bar in an arcade game. With market research suggesting GP 500 racing was popular, Suzuki took inspiration from world champion Freddie Spencer and his style of racing. The game's soundtrack

1957-418: 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

2060-484: A rave review. She called it the most realistic arcade game to be released, citing the need to tilt the bike and the placement of the throttle and brake controls being where they are on a real motorcycle. She said it "combines the superb graphics of a Pole Position style race with the physical act of riding a bike". Sinclair User praised Hang-On for its simple-yet-fun gameplay, responsive controls and unique tilt-based arcade cabinet. Computer Gamer magazine's Game of

2163-486: A semi-realistic driving experience with more detail than most other racing games at the time. Since the mid-1980s, it became a trend for arcade racing games to use hydraulic motion simulator arcade cabinets . The trend was sparked by Sega 's "taikan" games, with "taikan" meaning "body sensation" in Japanese. The "taikan" trend began when Yu Suzuki 's team at Sega (later known as Sega AM2 ) developed Hang-On (1985),

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2266-709: A similar fashion, later 68000-family members, starting with the Motorola 68020 , had 32-bit ALUs. One may also see references to systems being, or not being, 16-bit based on some other measure. One common one is when the address space is not the same size of bits as the internal registers. Most 8-bit CPUs of the 1970s fall into this category; the MOS 6502 , Intel 8080 , Zilog Z80 and most others had 16-bit address space which provided 64 KB of address space. This also meant address manipulation required two instruction cycles. For this reason, most processors had special 8-bit addressing modes,

2369-433: 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,

2472-446: 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. 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

2575-417: A well-remembered and influential arcade game. Several sequels were later made for arcades, as well as video game consoles. Using a behind the motorcycle perspective , the player races a linear race track divided into several stages within a limited time. Players have to lean the motorcycle to turn, with tighter corners requiring a further lean. A throttle similar to a motorcycle has to be twisted to accelerate

2678-562: Is a competitive two-player game with black and white graphics and controlled with a two-way joystick. 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. It inspired the Kee Games clone Formula K , which sold 5,000 arcade cabinets . In late 1974, Taito released Speed Race designed by Tomohiro Nishikado (of Space Invaders fame), in which

2781-703: 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

2884-416: Is sometimes called 16-bit because of the way it handles basic arithmetic. The instruction set was based on 32-bit numbers and the internal registers were 32 bits wide, so by common definitions, the 68000 is a 32-bit design. Internally, 32-bit arithmetic is performed using two 16-bit operations, and this leads to some descriptions of the system as 16-bit, or "16/32". Such solutions have a long history in

2987-467: 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

3090-578: 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 . 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

3193-451: The 386SX , which is a 32-bit processor with 32-bit ALU and internal 32-bit data paths with a 16-bit external bus and 24-bit addressing of the processor it replaced. In the context of IBM PC compatible and Wintel platforms, a 16-bit application is any software written for MS-DOS , OS/2 1.x or early versions of Microsoft Windows which originally ran on the 16-bit Intel 8088 and Intel 80286 microprocessors . Such applications used

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3296-571: 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

3399-678: The Hang-On deluxe cabinet. Sega Enterprises USA introduced Hang-On to Sega's American and Canadian distributors at the Red Lion Inn in San Jose, California in October 1985. Orders were placed immediately for several hundred units. The success of Hang-On 's arcade cabinets, both upright and deluxe, were so great that the company struggled to keep up with demand. In Europe, the game was released in September, and

3502-673: The Intel 80286 , the WDC 65C816 , and the Zilog Z8000 . The Intel 8088 was binary compatible with the Intel 8086, and was 16-bit in that its registers were 16 bits wide, and arithmetic instructions could operate on 16-bit quantities, even though its external bus was 8 bits wide. 16-bit processors have been almost entirely supplanted in the personal computer industry, and are used less than 32-bit (or 8-bit) CPUs in embedded applications. The Motorola 68000

3605-517: The London -based Automatic Sports Company manufactured a mechanical yacht racing game, Yacht Racer . Mechanical car driving games later originated from British amusement arcades in the 1930s. 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. A steering wheel

3708-462: The MSX in 1985. Sega had shipped approximately 7,000 arcade units worldwide by October 1985, costing about £5,200 or $ 6,700 (equivalent to $ 19,000 in 2023) each. In Japan, Game Machine listed Hang-On on their 1 August issue as being the most-successful upright/cockpit arcade cabinet of the month, and it remained at the top of the charts for about six months through January 1986. Internationally,

3811-464: The Master System was produced in the same year in Japan, and then was released year later in 1986 for North America, as the system's pack-in game along with Astro Warrior or Safari Hunt depending on the package purchased. An additional arcade version based on the Master System port, titled Hang-On Jr. , was released in 1986 for Sega's System E arcade system board. The game was also released on

3914-438: The arcade video game industry out of its slump during the mid-1980s, and Play Meter also credit Hang-On and other Japanese video games with helping the US arcade market recover from 1985. According to video game journalist Ken Horowitz, Hang-On is remembered more for its gameplay than its sales, in part because it was unique in arcades at the time, and that it was an example that "when it came to arcade innovation, Sega

4017-513: The integer representation used. With the two most common representations, the range is 0 through 65,535 (2 − 1) for representation as an ( unsigned ) binary number , and −32,768 (−1 × 2 ) through 32,767 (2 − 1) for representation as two's complement . Since 2 is 65,536, a processor with 16-bit memory addresses can directly access 64 KB (65,536 bytes) of byte-addressable memory. If a system uses segmentation with 16-bit segment offsets, more can be accessed. The MIT Whirlwind ( c. 1951)

4120-568: The motorcycle handlebars to vibrate during a collision with another vehicle. In Spring 1976, the arcade game Nürburgring 1 presented a first-person view. Considered the first "scandalous" arcade game, Exidy 's Death Race (1976) was widely criticized in the media for its violent content, which only served to substantially increase its popularity. Sega released a two-player version of Man T.T. called Twin Course T.T. in January 1977. 1979 saw

4223-517: The zero page , improving speed. This sort of difference between internal register size and external address size remained in the 1980s, although often reversed, as memory costs of the era made a machine with 32-bit addressing, 2 or 4 GB, a practical impossibility. For example, the 68000 exposed only 24 bits of addressing on the DIP , limiting it to a still huge (for the era) 16 MB. A similar analysis applies to Intel's 80286 CPU replacement, called

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4326-607: The 1960s, especially on minicomputer systems. Early 16-bit computers ( c. 1965–70) include the IBM 1130 , the HP 2100 , the Data General Nova , and the DEC PDP-11 . Early 16-bit microprocessors , often modeled on one of the mini platforms, began to appear in the 1970s. Examples ( c. 1973–76) include the five-chip National Semiconductor IMP-16 (1973), the two-chip NEC μCOM-16 (1974),

4429-425: The 1980s, with over 30,000 arcade cabinets sold worldwide. 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. 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

4532-520: The 2010s. Former Sega arcade director Akira Nagai has credited Hang-On as one of the titles that helped to bring arcade games out of the 1982 downturn in Japan and created new genres of arcade games. Sega Enterprises USA’s Tom Petit credited Hang-On with helping the North American arcade market recover during the late 1980s with its "high level simulation" technology. Hang-On and Out Run have both been credited by Famitsu with helping to lift

4635-520: 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. 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

4738-788: The US Play Meter arcade charts in December and April 1986. Hang-On went on to become the highest-grossing arcade video game of 1985 in the United States, and then the highest-grossing arcade game of 1986 in both Japan and the United States. In the United Kingdom, it was the second highest-grossing arcade game of 1986 in London, just below Gradius . The ride-on cabinet was later Japan's ninth highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade game of 1987. Sega sold 20,000 arcade machines worldwide, making it Sega's best-selling arcade simulator up until then. However,

4841-414: The United States, and one of the year's highest-grossing arcade games in Japan and London. Suzuki's team at Sega followed it with hydraulic motion simulator cockpit cabinets for later racing games, notably Out Run (1986). 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

4944-456: The Year Awards nominated it for best coin-op game of the year , which it lost to Capcom 's Commando . Computer and Video Games and Mean Machines reviewed the Master System port and scored it positively. ACE praised the quality of the Master System conversion, though noted there were some minor graphics jerks compared to the original as well as the loss of the crashing graphics of

5047-452: The arcade version. British magazine Sega Pro called the Master System port "a damn fine racing game". An arcade sequel, Super Hang-On , was released in 1987, was famously ported to a range of platforms. A polygon-based sequel developed by Genki was released for the Sega Saturn , named Hang-On GP . In a 1995 interview, Suzuki said he felt Hang-On was his most impressive game at

5150-466: The backgrounds. Alpha Denshi 's Splendor Blast (1985) combined Pole Position style racing with Zaxxon style sci-fi vehicles, space settings and shoot 'em up elements. STUN Runner (1989) by Atari Games featured 3D polygon graphics and allowed players to blast other vehicles. On home consoles, futuristic racing games were defined by Nintendo 's F-Zero (1990) for the SNES, which spawned

5253-438: The biggest arcade hits of the 1960s. 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 . 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

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5356-423: The bike. The game has one track, pieced together in segments. Reaching a checkpoint at the end of each segment extends the time limit, and remaining time is carried over into the next stage. Running off the track results in the motorcycle crashing and the rider is launched into the air. The game ends if the time runs out or all five stages are completed. Hang-On was the second game to be developed by Yu Suzuki ,

5459-438: The body, which was a departure from conventional controls that only required using the fingers, as well as its real-time graphics which displayed greater speed and detail than other video games. Hang-On had a mass-market release in Japan several days later on 5 July. At its debut in Japan, Hang-On 's deluxe cabinet was criticized as being inappropriate for Japanese culture . Suzuki recalled in an interview about criticisms of how

5562-530: 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. 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

5665-732: 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

5768-495: The computer field, with various designs performing math even one bit at a time, known as "serial arithmetic", while most designs by the 1970s processed at least a few bits at a time. A common example is the Data General Nova, which was a 16-bit design that performed 16-bit math as a series of four 4-bit operations. 4-bits was the word size of a widely available single-chip ALU and thus allowed for inexpensive implementation. Using

5871-516: The definition being applied to the 68000, the Nova would be a 4-bit computer, or 4/16. Not long after the introduction of the Nova, a second version was introduced, the SuperNova, which included four of the 4-bit ALUs running in parallel to perform math 16 bits at a time and therefore offer higher performance. This was invisible to the user and the programs, which always used 16-bit instructions and data. In

5974-466: The drivers of "wacky" vehicles. 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 . Typically, in such games, vehicles move more alike go-karts , lacking anything along the lines of a gear stick and clutch pedal . While car combat elements date back to earlier titles such as Taito 's Crashing Race in 1976,

6077-573: 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. 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

6180-422: The first being 1984's Champion Boxing . Development of Hang-On began with a project brought to him by a colleague who asked him to implement a torsion bar into an arcade game design—although the bar proved too difficult to implement in the final game design and springs were used instead. Suzuki was given the freedom to decide what kind of game to design, and as a fan of cars and motorcycles, he chose to design

6283-407: 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. 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

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6386-411: 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. EM driving games later evolved in Japan, with Kasco's 1968 racing game Indy 500 , which was licensed by Chicago Coin for release in North America as Speedway in 1969. It had a circular racetrack with rival cars painted on individual rotating discs illuminated by

6489-613: The game became a major global arcade hit upon release in Summer 1985. In North America, it was so successful that the coin mechanism had to be modified for higher-value coins due to the high number of coins being inserted into the machines, while in the United Kingdom each machine was estimated to be earning up to £200 or $ 257 (equivalent to $ 728 in 2023) per day. It topped the US RePlay arcade chart for new upright cabinets in November, and topped

6592-445: 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

6695-422: The game was impacted by piracy, with Sega estimating 20,000 to 30,000 counterfeit arcade machines sold illegally. The arcade game received positive reviews from critics upon release. Mike Roberts and Steve Phipps of Computer Gamer magazine called it "one of the best arcade games ever" with particular praise for the bike cabinet and physical controls. Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games magazine gave it

6798-401: The game, including "Theme of Love", the game's theme song. Kawaguchi made use of the hardware's PCM sampling and added drum samples to use Hang-On 's Yamaha YM2203 sound chip to its maximum potential and create a more realistic soundtrack featuring rock music, which was uncommon in arcade games at the time. He also created the game's sound effects. Kawaguchi did not program his own music into

6901-467: The game; he instead wrote out his soundtrack by hand, made a demo, and gave that to the sound programmer. He has said this was because he did not own a sequencer , and that this method was faster for him. Sega debuted Hang-On at the Hotel New Otani Tokyo on 2 July 1985. It drew attention for its innovative ride-on cabinet that realistically simulates a motorcycle and requires the player to use

7004-415: The genre. 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 . In 1996, Nintendo created

7107-558: 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 . Futuristic racing games are

7210-515: 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. However, this can typically only be found in arcade racing games for amusement arcades, rather than arcade-style racing games for home systems. During

7313-591: 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

7416-469: The most important racing game ever made." It was an evolution of Namco's earlier racing electro-mechanical games , notably F-1 (1976), whose designer Sho Osugi worked on Pole Position . 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

7519-948: 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

7622-543: The new champion of sim racing, until the release of Papyrus' IndyCar Racing the following year. 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

7725-422: The player drives down a straight track dodging other cars. The game used vertical scrolling , inspired by two older electro-mechanical games : Kasco's Mini Drive and Taito's Super Road 7 . Speed Race was re-branded as Wheels by Midway Games for release in North America and was influential on later racing games. Midway also released another version, Racer , with a sit-down cabinet. Speed Race became

7828-819: The player know the limit of grip. The best sounding games effectively integrate the sound model with the vehicle and tire simulation models. 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. Kart racing games have simplified driving mechanics while adding obstacles, unusual track designs and various action elements. Kart racers are also known to cast characters known from various platform games or cartoon television series as

7931-416: The public by the company's American arcade subsidiary, Sega Enterprises USA, headed by Tom Petit. Previously, Sega Enterprises USA had focused on selling refurbished arcade cabinets, and before the release of Hang-On , Petit was concerned that his division would be shut down due to competition when he was summoned to Japan to meet with Sega president Hayao Nakayama in 1985. Instead, he was brought to be shown

8034-421: 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". Turbo , released by Sega in 1981, was the first racing game to use sprite scaling with full-color graphics. Pole Position , developed by Namco and released by Atari in North America, was released in 1982. It is considered "arguably

8137-572: 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. 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

8240-407: The riding style of Freddie Spencer , who had just become the youngest person to win a motorcycling world championship at 21 years old. According to Suzuki: "Freddie Spencer's riding style, it was so nice. And my game was like a homage. That's the reason I wanted to make it – Freddie Spencer, he rode a Honda bike, and I loved the way he hung on!" Two cabinet designs were made: a basic version with

8343-473: The road". 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". It sold over 21,000 arcade cabinets in the US by 1983, and again became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1984 in the US. Taito's Laser Grand Prix , introduced in July 1983,

8446-466: The rules and rescue racers from falling down. In 1988, Namco released Winning Run , which used 3D polygon graphics . It became the second highest-grossing arcade game of 1989 in Japan. 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

8549-408: The same year. The gameplay is viewed from the perspective of the driver's viewpoint, which is displayed on the screen using a projector system. It was Japan's highest-grossing arcade game for two years in a row, in 1976 and 1977. F-1 is believed to have been influenced by Indy 500 , and would in turn be influential on Namco's racing video games in the 1980s. Another notable EM game from the 1970s

8652-485: The second-most successful racing game franchise of all time, selling over 80 million units worldwide as of April 2018. 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

8755-448: The shyness of the Japanese people would mean no one would want to straddle a motorcycle in front of others, or how the motorcycle would be especially unsuitable for female players wearing miniskirts . These criticisms would eventually subside when players lined up to play the game. In North America, the game debuted on 22 July, followed by a mass-market release in August. It was introduced to

8858-438: The third most influential racing game of all time. In 1993, Namco released Ridge Racer . Its 3D polygon graphics stood out for the use of Gouraud shading and texture mapping . And thus began the polygon war of driving games. Sega later released Daytona USA , which featured 3D polygon graphics with texture filtering . The following year, Electronic Arts produced The Need for Speed , which would later spawn one of

8961-507: The three-chip Western Digital MCP-1600 (1975), and the five-chip Toshiba T-3412 (1976). Early single-chip 16-bit microprocessors ( c. 1975–76) include the Panafacom MN1610 (1975), National Semiconductor PACE (1975), General Instrument CP1600 (1975), Texas Instruments TMS9900 (1976), Ferranti F100-L , and the HP BPC . Other notable 16-bit processors include the Intel 8086 ,

9064-709: The time of release. Retro Gamer cited Hang-On as the first example of a full-body experience game because of the deluxe cabinet's ride-on controls, and noted the game as being popular, though less impressive than Out Run . Hang-On started the trend of "taikan" motion simulator games in arcades during the mid-to-late 1980s, with "taikan" meaning "body sensation" in Japanese. Sega followed it with hydraulic motion simulator cabinets for rail shooters such as Space Harrier (1985), racing games such as Out Run (1986), and arcade combat flight simulators such as After Burner (1987). Sega have since continued to manufacture motion simulator cabinets for arcade games through to

9167-434: 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 . 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

9270-422: 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 . The BBC television program Tomorrow's World broadcast

9373-474: Was Sega's Super Monaco GP (1989), a simulation of the Monaco Grand Prix . It was the third highest-grossing arcade game of 1989 in Japan, and again the third highest-grossing arcade game of 1990 in Japan. 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

9476-420: 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, 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. It became Sega's best-selling arcade cabinet of

9579-520: Was at the top of the industry". Suzuki also considered Hang-On to be a major milestone in video game music . He said "there had been games with short tunes and beeps, but I think Hang On was the first game to have a solid composition with a bass and drums". Arcade racing game 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

9682-421: Was considered the most realistic racing simulation game in its time, 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. The Gran Turismo series has since become

9785-466: 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 ,

9888-477: Was manufactured by Atari Ireland, a subsidiary of Atari Games (which in turn was a subsidiary of Namco at the time), while Sega Europe of London handled distribution in the region. A version of the game for the SG-1000 released in 1985 was marketed as a sequel, Hang-On II , though it was essentially a port of the original game simplified to work within the limitations of the console hardware. An upgraded port for

9991-520: 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, while making a record number of appearances on the RePlay arcade charts through 1987. In 1980, Namco 's overhead-view driving game Rally-X was one of the first games to have background music , and allowed scrolling in multiple directions, both vertical and horizontal . It also uses

10094-443: Was quite possibly the first-ever 16-bit computer. It was an unusual word size for the era; most systems used six-bit character code and used a word length of some multiple of 6-bits. This changed with the effort to introduce ASCII , which used a 7-bit code and naturally led to the use of an 8-bit multiple which could store a single ASCII character or two binary coded decimal digits. The 16-bit word length thus became more common in

10197-409: Was some initial controversy in Japan over modesty concerns involving female players with the bike cabinet. The game started the trend of "taiken" motion simulator games in the late 1980s, which Sega followed with hits such as Space Harrier (1985), Out Run (1986) and After Burner (1987); this helped the arcade video game market recover during the late 1980s. Hang-On has been recognized as

10300-429: Was the first racing laserdisc game , using pre-recorded live-action footage. In 1984, several other racing laserdisc games followed, including Sega's GP World with live-action footage and Universal 's Top Gear featuring 3D animated race car driving. The same year, Irem 's The Battle-Road was a vehicle combat racing game with branching paths and up to 32 possible routes. Geoff Crammond , who later developed

10403-1140: 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 , Assetto Corsa , GT Legends , GTR2 , rFactor , X Motor Racing , CarX Street , and iPad 3D racer Exhilarace . 16-bit computing In computer architecture , 16-bit integers , memory addresses , or other data units are those that are 16 bits (2 octets ) wide. Also, 16-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers , address buses , or data buses of that size. 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors . A 16-bit register can store 2 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on

10506-439: 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. 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

10609-447: Was written by Hiroshi Kawaguchi , who used rock music that was uncommon in arcade games at the time. Hang-On was very popular at launch and sold well for Sega, becoming the highest-grossing arcade video game of 1985 in the United States and then the highest-grossing arcade game of 1986 in both Japan and the United States. It received a positive critical reception for its realism, graphics, bike cabinet and physical controls, though there

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