''Nürburgring 1'' is an

arcade video game An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-oper ...

developed by Dr. Reiner Foerst and released 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 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 raci ...

and inspired the development of Atari, Inc.'s ''

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''.

Gameplay

The game's

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 ...

contains a steering wheel, shifter, pedals, and other controls in the form of buttons. The player drives along a twisting roadway bordered by white guardrails. The lower portion of the screen shows the speedometer, mileage, and other indicators. The game counts crashes and punishes them with a time penalty. It ends after 90 seconds or after driving across the finish line.

Development

The game was created by Dr. Foerst not out of a desire to develop a video game, but in order to make a working driving simulation. Unable to find a way to cheaply scale down the earliest driving simulators by

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and BP, he decided to build one based on the technology he found inside a ''

Pong ''Pong'' is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. It is one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but B ...

'' video game machine. The resulting arcade game has no CPU and contains 28 separate circuit boards.

Legacy

Dave Shepperd, a programmer at Atari, Inc., saw a picture of the arcade cabinet in a flyer that had a small portion of the screen visible, which inspired him to create ''

''. Atari was able to miniaturize the game to a single board and ultimately capitalized on ''Nürburgring 1'' while that game remained largely unknown. Several other versions of ''Nürburgring 1'' were created. The second installment in the series has motorcycle handlebars, while the third is in full color with selectable backgrounds. Other versions of the third game in the series have cabinets that swivel back and forth on a turntable, as well as bank back and forth.

References

{{Reflist 1976 video games Racing video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Video games developed in Germany Single-player video games