''Richard Petty's Talladega'' (later reissued as ''Talladega'') is a

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a motor racing, racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more re ...

featuring

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "the King", is an American former stock car racing driver who competed from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most nota ...

and

Talladega Superspeedway Talladega Superspeedway (Alabama International Motor Speedway from 1969 to 1989) is a tri-oval superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama. Built in 1969, the track has hosted a variety of racing events, primarily races sanctioned by NASCAR. The track is ...

. It was published by Cosmi in 1984 for

Atari 8-bit computers The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 650 ...

. A

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 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 ...

port followed in 1985. It is the first home video game to feature

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

racers.

Gameplay

The player races against "The King" and eighteen other professional drivers. The player must maintain the automobile through strategic pit stops after qualifying. Vehicles in the game have the capability of going 250 miles per hour (402 km/h) without turbo boost and 294 miles per hour (473 km/h) with turbo boost. Players that do not qualify are not entitled to participate in that particular race, but they can still receive the results, and have a chance to qualify for the next race. The race ends when the player crashes, runs out of gasoline, blows a tire or finishes.

Reception

Commodore User said the game was similar to ''

Pole Position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

'' and ''Pitstop''. They felt the strategic elements of the game made it worth playing, but the slow start was a weakness. They also criticised the game for being too long and said they had no idea who Richard Petty was. The game was rated 4/5. Zzap!64 thought the graphics were "tacky" and the sound "irritating" but found the gameplay to have an "addictive" quality. They found the presentation inferior to '' Pitstop II''. The game was given a 69% rating. Zzap reviewed the game again a few months later in a feature on racing games. Julian Rignall was unimpressed by the "flickery graphics and pretty feeble sound", but said the game was "pretty addictive and challenging", although not as good as ''Speed King'' or '' Pitstop II''. This time a 64% overall rating was given.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petty, Richard Talladega 1984 video games Ariolasoft games Atari 8-bit computer games Commodore 64 games Electronic Arts games Cosmi Corporation games NASCAR video games Richard Petty's Talladega Video games based on real people Video games developed in the United States Single-player video games