Software:Nürburgring 1
| Nürburgring 1 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Dr. Reiner Foerst |
| Publisher(s) | Dr. Reiner Foerst |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Nürburgring 1 is an arcade video game developed by Dr. Reiner Foerst and released 1976.[2] It was first demonstrated at the German IMA show in Spring 1976.[1] It is recognized as the world's earliest first-person racing video game and inspired the development of Atari, Inc.'s Night Driver.[2][3]
Gameplay
The game's arcade cabinet contains a steering wheel, shifter, pedals, and other controls in the form of buttons.[2] The player drives along a twisting roadway bordered by white guardrails.[2] The lower portion of the screen shows the speedometer, mileage, and other indicators.[2] The game counts crashes and punishes them with a time penalty.[4] It ends after 90 seconds or after driving across the finish line.[4]
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.[2] Unable to find a way to cheaply scale down the earliest driving simulators by Volkswagen and BP, he decided to build one based on the technology he found inside a Pong video game machine.[2] The resulting arcade game has no CPU and contains 28 separate circuit boards.[2]
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 Night Driver.[2] Atari was able to miniaturize the game to a single board and ultimately capitalized on Nürburgring 1 while that game remained largely unknown.[2]
Several other versions of Nürburgring 1 were created.[2] The second installment in the series has motorcycle handlebars, while the third is in full color with selectable backgrounds.[2] 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.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Sexton Star of MOA Seminar: Video". Play Meter 2 (14): 20-26 (23-6). December 1976. https://archive.org/details/play-meter-volume-2-number-14-december-1976-600DPI/Play%20Meter%20-%20Volume%202%2C%20Number%2014%20-%20December%201976/page/n20.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Torchinsky, Jason. "Meet The Doctor-Engineer Who Basically Invented The Modern Racing Game" (in en-US). Jalopnik. http://jalopnik.com/5906386/meet-the-doctor-engineer-who-basically-invented-the-modern-racing-game.
- ↑ Stuart, Keith (2017-05-26). "The 10 most influential driving games – in pictures". https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2017/may/26/retro-driving-games-in-pictures-night-driver-pole-position-and-out-run-to-daytona-usa-ridge-racer-and-gran-turismo.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 (c)2000..2007, CYBERYOGI Christian Oliver(=CO=) Windler. "Reiner Foerst's Nürburgring - The world first 3D arcade car race game, made in Germany!". http://weltenschule.de/vgames/Nuerburg/Nuerburgring.html.
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