How to play Enduro online
- Steer left and right: left and right arrow keys
- Accelerate: hold the Space bar (the longer you hold it, the faster you go)
- Brake: release Space and press the down arrow
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
When you let go of the Space bar, the car keeps the speed it had, so you do not need to hold the key all the time. Enduro is a one-player game with no variations: the Select and difficulty switches are not used.
Gameplay
You see your car from behind on a winding road that stretches towards the mountains. The counter in the bottom right of the instrument panel shows how many cars you still have to pass that day: 200 on the first day, 300 on every day after that. Each car you overtake counts it down by one, and when you reach zero, green flags appear. Keep driving, though. Every extra mile still goes on your total. If you have not passed enough cars when the next day dawns, the race is over.
The sky and scenery show the time of day, so they also tell you how much time you have left. At night you see only the tail lights of the other cars. The weather changes as well: a white, icy road makes your steering sluggish, and thick fog means you see cars much later. Each new day the other drivers go faster and spread out across more of the road. Your result is the distance on the odometer and the number of days you lasted.
Tips
- Don’t drive flat out. This is designer Larry Miller’s first tip in the manual: at top speed you will keep running into other cars. Go just fast enough to reach the day’s target.
- Hit the roadside, not a car. If you have to choose, steering into the edge of the road costs you much less time than a crash.
- Go around pairs of cars. When two cars are side by side at an angle, pass them on the outside. If you must go between them, keep your speed only a little above theirs.
- Let a blocking group go. If a cluster of cars fills the road, slow down until they fade into the distance, then speed up again. They will usually have changed position when you catch them.
- Slow down in ice and fog. Both give you less time to react, and the other cars will not move out of your way.
The story behind Enduro
Larry Miller, who had a PhD in physics and had made Spider Fighter for Activision, wrote Enduro in about three months, working very long weeks. He developed it on an Apple computer, in assembly language, and fitted it into 4 KB. Driving through California in all kinds of weather gave him the idea for the changing conditions.
Released in May 1983, Enduro was the top-selling console game that June, and it won the Best Sports Videogame award at the 1984 Arkie Awards. Players who lasted five days or more saw a trophy on screen, and could send Activision a photo of it to receive a “Roadbusters” patch. Activision later built The Great American Cross-Country Road Race (1985) on Enduro’s engine. The game was also ported to the ZX Spectrum, and it has been re-released in collections such as Activision Anthology.
Similar games to play next
- Grand Prix – Activision’s earlier side-scrolling race against the clock
- Pole Position – the Namco arcade racer, also seen from behind the car
- Night Driver – Atari’s early first-person race in the dark
- Dragster – Activision’s short, sharp drag race about perfect gear changes
- Spider Fighter – Larry Miller’s previous Activision game, a fast shooter