''Sprint 2'' is a two player overhead-view

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

racing video 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 rac ...

released in 1976 by

Kee Games Kee Games was an American arcade game manufacturer that released arcade and video games from 1973 to 1978. History Kee was formed by Joe Keenan, a friend and neighbor of Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, in September 1973. In reality, Bushnell h ...

, a wholly owned subsidiary of

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

, and distributed by

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 ...

in Japan. While earlier driving games had computer-controlled cars that moved along a "canned predetermined" course, ''Sprint 2'' "introduced the concept of a computer car that had the

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

to drive itself around the track" in "a semi-intelligent" manner.

Technology

''Sprint 2'' evolved from ''

Gran Trak 10 ''Gran Trak 10'' is an arcade game, arcade driving video game developed by Atari, Inc., Atari through its subsidiary Cyan Engineering, and released by Atari in May 1974. In the game, a single player drives a car along a race track, viewed from a ...

'' and ''Gran Trak 20'', but included a

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 ...

(the

6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...

), a first for racing games. This allowed ''Sprint 2'' to include two computer-controlled cars, better graphics, and more tracks. Unlike Gran Trak, this machine did not have brake pedals, but the players could still make their cars "fishtail" by turning their steering wheels abruptly.

Reception

In the United States, ''Sprint 2'' was the second highest-earning arcade video game of 1977, below '' Sea Wolf''. It was also second highest-earning arcade video game of 1978, below ''

Space Wars ''Space Wars'' is a shooter video game released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1977. Like the PDP-1 program ''Spacewar!'' (1962) it is based on, it uses black and white vector graphics for the visuals. The hardware developed for ''Space Wars' ...

'', along with ''Sprint 1'' in third place. ''Sprint 2'' was later the third highest-earning arcade video game of 1979, below ''

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...

'' and ''

Atari Football ''Football'' (also known as ''Atari Football'') is a 1978 American football video game developed and released by Atari, originally for arcades and then the Atari 2600 console. In this game, the sport of American football is emulated, with pla ...

''. The game was a commercial success for Namco in Japan, where ''Sprint 2'' was the seventh highest-earning arcade video game of 1977. It was also among the year's top four highest-earning racing video games, below

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 DX'' and '' Road Champion'', and tied with Taito's '' Super High-Way''.

Legacy

''Sprint 2'' was the first in a long series of games, some of which bore its name into the 1980s: * ''Sprint 4'' and ''Sprint 8'', a 4 player and 8 player version respectively, were released in 1977. Both were full color raster versions of the game. * ''Sprint 1'' was released in 1978. The "1" and "2" designations reflect the number of players, rather than indicating it was a prequel. * ''

Super Sprint Super may refer to: Computing * SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter / player * Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages * Super key (keyboard butto ...

'', a 3 player version with updated graphics, was released by

Atari Games Atari Games Corporation, known as Midway Games West Inc. after 1999, was an American producer of Arcade game, arcade Video game, games. It was formed in 1985 when the coin-operated Arcade game, arcade game division of Atari, Inc. was transfered ...

in 1986. * ''Championship Sprint'', a 2 player version of ''Super Sprint'', was released by Atari Games in 1986. * ''

Badlands Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...

'', a 2 player post-apocalyptic setting update of ''Championship Sprint'', was released in 1989. ''Sprint 2'' was one of the first Atari products to feature the now well-known "Atari arcade font" (first introduced in the ''Quiz Show''). In 2016 a reverse engineered version to

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...

became available.Forty-Year-Old Arcade Game Reveals Secrets of Robot Path Planning
on hackaday.com by Dan Maloney (April 28, 2016)

References

External links

Commentary from GameSpy

Commentary from Phosphor Dot Fossils
*
Entry
at the Arcade Flyer Archive
Sprint 2
{dead link, date=March 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes at ArcadeStuff

at GameFAQs 1976 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Atari arcade games North America-exclusive video games Top-down racing video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States