''Hi-way'', also known as ''Highway'', is a 1975 single-player

arcade racing game 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 ra ...

Atari Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sun ...

Marketed with the slogan “Hi Way — All It Needs Is Wheels,” it was Atari's first game to use a sit-down

arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...

Gameplay

This is a game where the player dodges cars on both sides of a narrow two-lane road. For every car successfully passed, one point is awarded. If the player hit a car on the road, the player loses all momentum and does not gain any points. Contrary to previous driving games where the player stood in front of the steering wheel, the player is seated. The game ends when time runs out.

Technology

The game hardware is a pre-

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

discrete transistor-transistor logic (TTL) design, and used the Durastress process. The cabinet was patented Oct. 20, 1975: (U.S. Patent # D243,626). The game uses

vertical scrolling A vertically scrolling video game or vertical scroller is a video game in which the Player (game), player views the field of play principally from a top-down perspective, while the background Scrolling, scrolls from the top of the screen to the bot ...

, influenced by

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...

's ''

Speed Race is a 1974 arcade racing video game developed and manufactured by Taito and released under the titles ''Racer'' and ''Wheels'' in North America by distributor Midway Manufacturing in 1975. Designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, the gameplay involves th ...

'' (1974), which was released by

Midway Manufacturing Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included '' Mortal Kombat'', '' Rampage'', ''Spy Hunter'' ...

as ''Racer'' in North America. ''Hi-way'' is also the first racing video game to use a sit-down cabinet similar to older

electro-mechanical game Electro-mechanical games (EM games) are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet. Some of these were early light gun g ...

s. The same cabinet design would be used the next year with Atari's popular driving game '' Night Driver'' (1976).

References

External links

Cabinet version at Arcade flyers

French upright version ('highway') at Arcade flyers

Hi-Way at system16.com
1975 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Atari arcade games Discrete video arcade games Racing video games Video games developed in the United States {{arcade-stub