How to play Racer online
- Player 1 – steer the car: arrow keys
- Player 2 – steer the car: T, F, G and H (up, left, down, right)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose a game variation: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
The screen scrolls downwards, so your car is always moving forward. There is no accelerator and no brake: your only job is to steer around the walls coming towards you. At first the walls move slowly and are easy to avoid. Once you have scored ten points the game speeds up, and it keeps getting faster until the walls are almost impossible to dodge. Each player starts with three lives and earns an extra life every 30 points.
There are ten variations, which change the number of players and the starting speed. The last two are a gentle mode for young children: the game starts at the slowest speed and never gets faster. In the two-player games both cars are on the screen at the same time, which was unusual on the 2600. You can simply race for the higher score, or bump into the other car and push it into the oncoming walls. Your opponent can do the same to you.
Tips
- Use the slow start. The first speed levels are forgiving, so collect points and extra lives while you can.
- Pick your moment to ram. A push is only worth it when a wall is right in front of your opponent. Otherwise you risk steering yourself into trouble.
The story behind Racer
Roklan was a contract developer that made games for bigger publishers on several systems, usually without its own name on the box. Its 2600 work included the published games Crazy Climber and Gorf. Racer was never meant to be a product: Joe Gaucher wrote it as a demo to learn how to program the 2600. When Roklan’s president Ron Borta saw it, he had an Atari logo added and offered the game to Atari, which declined because the gameplay and graphics were so simple.
Similar games to play next
- Street Racer – Atari’s early two-player dodging and racing game
- Dodge ‘Em – another simple driving game about avoiding a crash
- Crazy Climber – an arcade conversion developed by Roklan
- Gorf – another Roklan-developed 2600 game