''Night Driver'' is an
arcade game developed by
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 Su ...
for release in the United States in
October 1976. ''Night Driver'' is one of the earliest first-person
racing video games
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 rac ...
and is commonly believed to be one of the first published video games to display real-time
first-person graphics.
There were two
arcade cabinet versions manufactured, an upright type and a sit-down type. The upright version had a blacklight installed inside the cabinet which illuminated the
bezel.
Gameplay
The player controls a car which must be driven along a road at nighttime without crashing into the sides of the road as indicated by road side reflectors. The game is controlled with a single pedal for the accelerator, a wheel for steering and a four-selection lever for gear shifting. The coin-operated game had a choice of three difficulties (novice, pro and expert), which the player could select at game start. The turns were sharper and more frequent on the more difficult tracks. As play progresses, the road gets narrower and more winding.
The game length could be set by the owner to 50, 75, 100 or 125 seconds.
After 300 points, a player is awarded bonus time equal to game time, but the score wraps around back to zero at 1000 points, so it is possible to reach 300 points more than once.
Due to the additional points received for more difficult play, playing on the expert setting is actually the easiest to achieve extra time once a player has mastered the game.
The car the player is driving is not actually drawn on-screen. Instead, the car is a printed plastic insert that is laid under the screen. Also, the fact that the car is driving at night made it easier for the programmers to draw the environment with limited graphics at the time, as most features (street, buildings...) didn't need to be drawn because they were supposedly completely dark.
Development
When he began working on video games, Atari founder
Nolan Bushnell
Nolan Kay Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consu ...
had originally planned to develop a driving video game inspired by ''Speedway'' (1969),
a first-person driving
electro-mechanical
In engineering, electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focuses on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two systems ...
game manufactured by
Chicago Coin
Chicago Coin was one of the early major manufacturers of pinball tables founded in Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in 1932 by Samuel H. Gensburg to operate in the coin-operated amusement industry. In 1977, Gary Stern and Sam Stern purc ...
, in turn a licensed version of Kasco's ''Indy 500'' (1968).
However, Bushnell had concerns that a driving video game might be too complicated for
Al Alcorn
Allan Alcorn (born January 1, 1948) is an American pioneering engineer and computer scientist best known for creating ''Pong'', one of the first video games.
Atari and ''Pong''
Alcorn grew up in San Francisco, California, and attended the U ...
's first game, so they instead decided to develop a simpler game, ''
Pong
''Pong'' is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcor ...
'' (1972).
''Night Driver'' has similarities to arcade driving
electro-mechanical games
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 ...
, which had a
scrolling
In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...
road rather than a fixed view.
The development of ''Night Driver'' was led by Dave Shepperd, who was initially given an assignment from Atari to develop a first-person driving video game. Shepperd stated he "was given a piece of paper with a picture of a game cabinet that had a small portion of the screen visible" which he recalls being possibly "a German game" but "never saw the game play" other than "that there were a few little white squares showing." Shepperd used that concept to develop ''Night Driver''. While he did not know the title of the German game at the time, it was later identified as the coin-op ''
Nürburgring 1
''Nürburgring 1'' is an arcade game developed by Dr. Reiner Foerst and released in 1976. It was first demonstrated at the German IMA show in Spring 1976. It is recognized as the world's earliest first-person racing video game and inspired the d ...
'', a first-person driving video game released earlier in 1976.
Atari used some of the leftover arcade cabinets from ''
Hi-way
''Hi-way'', also known as ''Highway'', is a 1975 single-player arcade racing game by Atari Inc. Marketed with the slogan “Hi Way — All It Needs Is Wheels,” it was Atari's first game to use a sit-down arcade cabinet.
Gameplay
This is a game ...
'' (1975), a top-down
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 ...
racing game, for ''Night Driver''.
Release
The arcade game began production in October 1976.
Atari demonstrated the game at the AMOA show in November 1976, where it was one of several driving games demonstrated by Atari along with ''
Sprint 2
''Sprint 2'' is a two player overhead-view arcade racing video game released in 1976 by Kee Games, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari, and distributed by Namco in Japan. While earlier driving games had computer-controlled cars that moved along a ...
'' and
Namco
was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...
's electro-mechanical ''
F-1''; the most talked-about driving game at the show was . ''Night Driver'' also drew comparisons to
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'' ...
's ''
Midnight Racer'' (later re-branded ''Datsun 280 ZZZAP'') at the same show and an earlier German night driving video game (''Nürburgring 1'') demonstrated at the German IMA show in Spring 1976.
Ports
Atari released a port for the
Atari VCS
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...
(Atari 2600) in 1980. It was programmed by
Rob Fulop
Rob Fulop is an American game programmer who created two of the Atari 2600's biggest hits: the port of arcade game '' Missile Command'' and 1982's ''Demon Attack'', which won '' Electronic Games Game of the Year award. While at Atari, Fulop al ...
, who added color and additional features such as additional vehicles the player must avoid, as well as showing houses and trees along the sides of the road. The player pushes the fire button to accelerate the car forward and uses the paddle to steer the vehicle. It is not possible to shift gears in this version. The game offers eight variations. Some are timed and the player tries to score as much as they can in 90 seconds.
Commodore published a version for the
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
in 1982.
Reception
In Japan, it was the tenth highest-grossing
arcade video game of 1976.
In the United States, according to ''
Play Meter
''Play Meter'' (initially ''Coin Industry Play Meter'') was an American trade magazine focusing on the coin-op amusement arcade industry, including jukebox and arcade game machines. It was founded in December 1974 by publisher and editor Ralph C. ...
'' magazine, ''Night Driver'' was the sixth highest-earning
arcade video game of 1977. According to ''RePlay'' magazine, it was the seventh highest-earning arcade video game of 1977. ''Play Meter'' later listed it as the ninth highest-grossing
arcade game of 1978, and the eleventh highest
arcade video game of 1979.
The Atari VCS version sold 161,352 copies in 1980, becoming one of the top five best-selling Atari VCS
games that year, and went on to sell over copies by 1983.
[ Via ] ''Video Games Player'' magazine reviewed the Atari VCS version, rating the graphics and sound a B, while giving the game an overall A− rating. In 1995,
Flux
Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications to physics. For transport ph ...
magazine ranked the arcade version 59th on their "Top 100 Video Games."
Legacy
![Night driver arcade machine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Night_driver_arcade_machine.JPG)
Two other first-person racing games were released shortly afterwards: Midway's ''
Midnight Racer'' in November 1976 (later branded as ''Datsun 280 ZZZAP'' in March 1977) and Micronetics' ''Night Racer'' in March 1977.
Bill Budge
Bill Budge (born August 11, 1954) is a retired American video game programmer and designer. He is best known for the Apple II games '' Raster Blaster'' (1981) and ''Pinball Construction Set'' (1983).
Early games
Budge says he became interested ...
wrote a ''Night Driver'' clone for the
Apple II
The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
using the same name as the original.
References
External links
*
''Night Driver''at Arcade-History.com
at Atari Age
Arcade ''Night Driver'' Manual
{{1970s Atari arcade games
1976 video games
Arcade video games
Atari 2600 games
Atari arcade games
Commodore 64 games
Namco arcade games
North America-exclusive video games
Racing video games
Video games developed in the United States