Racing is passion for lots of people in the world. You can race with anything that moves: horses, bikes, motorbikes, cars, trucks, ships,...
Unfourtunately, racing against each other can be complicated and expensive. That's why since the beginning of the videogames there has been racing games. Now in Tergaxon, we're going to find the history of these games.
Most of the games we're reviewing are about car racing, which seems to be the most popular one, although there are games for every kind of race, we promise!
The first racing game was simply called "Wheels" or "Speed Race" in Japan. It was created by Taito and it was an arcade machine with a steering wheel. It was very popular despite its bad graphics.
At the same time, Atari presented "Gran Trak 10". It was barely enjoyable and Atari lost lots of money with this arcade machine.
At this point of the history, most racing games had a top camera. Pole Position, changed that in 1982, with a horizont-view perspective. This game has been so influential that almost any car racing game today uses that perspective.
In 1986 Sega published "Out Run". Very popular and influential arcade game that puts you in a Ferrari Testarrosa, driving in the United States. The cabinet was like a car and as of today is still remembered as one of the greatest racing games.
In 1988, it appeared "Hard Drivin", which was the first one to use real 3D graphics. At that time, Nintendo showed us the mythical Mario Kart, which remains as one the biggest selling franchise of Nintendo.
The 2D racing games started to disappear, trying to be as realistic as possible. Titles from this era are: "Ridge Racer", "Sega Rally" and "Need for Speed". This last game, became very popular in the PlayStation 2 era.
In 2000s, different styles of games related to car racing appeared. Burnout where destroying the car becames a core mechanich of the game. Grand Theft Auto, where you can steal cars in the street. Pure racing simulators, very realistic like "Gran Turismo" and "Forza Motorsport". Nowadays, there are even more racing games out there like Dirt 4 or The Crew 2.