Driving games put you behind the wheel of a car or a motorbike, and on the Atari 2600 they show how much designers could do with very little. The console cannot scale or rotate graphics, so a road has to be built from coloured lines and a few moving shapes, drawn from above, from the side or as a simple road narrowing into the distance.
Controls varied too. Some early Atari games used paddle controllers, whose dial works well as a steering wheel. Street Racer was one of the nine games available when the console launched in 1977, and Rob Fulop’s Night Driver (1980) turned the paddle into a first-person drive through the dark. Most later games switched to the joystick, with the fire button often working as the accelerator.
Activision raised the bar. David Crane’s Dragster (1980) was one of the company’s first four games, and his Grand Prix (1982) showed large, shaded, multicoloured cars. Larry Miller’s Enduro (1983) fitted day, night, snow and fog into a 4 KB cartridge. Atari’s Pole Position (1983) brought Namco’s arcade racer home, qualifying lap included, and Sega’s Spy Hunter (1984) needed two joysticks held side by side in a plastic holder: one for steering, the second for its extra fire button.
Choose a car from the list below and take it for a spin right here in your browser.
Night Driver is a 1980 driving game for the Atari 2600, programmed by Rob Fulop and based on Atari’s 1976 arcade game. You race down a dark, winding road with only the roadside markers to show you where it goes, dodging the headlights of oncoming cars. It is simple, fast and still a good test of reflexes, and it was one of the best-selling cartridges of its time. You can play it here in your browser.
Motocross is a little-known motorbike racing game for the Atari 2600. The German mail-order company Quelle sold it in Europe around 1983, and the same title also appeared on cartridges made in Taiwan and sold under other labels. Who wrote the game is not known. It is a simple, one-player race seen from above, with a fuel gauge to watch. You can play it here in your browser.
Motocross Racer is an off-road motorcycle racing game from Xonox, the cartridge label of K-tel. It packs three short races into one cartridge, each seen from a different angle: behind the bike in the desert, from above on a mountain road, and from the side on a beach. Your aim is the lowest total time, and every crash leaves the bike a little slower. You can play it here in your browser.
MotoRodeo is a monster-truck stunt race for the Atari 2600, released by Atari Corporation in 1990, very late in the console’s life. It was developed by Axlon and programmed by Steve DeFrisco. Instead of simply racing to the line, you score points by jumping, crushing cars, smashing walls and bouncing across an obstacle course, against a friend or a computer driver. You can play it here in your browser.
Grand Prix is a 1982 racing game for the Atari 2600, designed and programmed by David Crane and published by Activision. You drive a Formula One car along a track seen from above, weaving through slower traffic and racing the clock rather than other drivers. The large, shaded cars looked unusually detailed for the console at the time. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Fatal Run is a post-apocalyptic driving and shooting game made by Sculptured Software, programmed by Steve Aguirre and published by Atari. This page runs the European PAL cartridge from 1990, the only version that was ever sold in shops, and one of the last official Atari 2600 releases. You can play it here in your browser.
Dragster is a 1980 drag racing game for the Atari 2600, designed and programmed by David Crane and published by Activision. It was among the new company’s very first cartridges. A race lasts only seconds, but a perfect launch and four clean gear changes take real timing. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Enduro is a 1983 racing game by Activision, designed by Larry Miller. You drive in the “National Enduro”, a long-distance race where you have to overtake a set number of cars every day to stay in the competition. The race runs through day and night, snow, ice and fog, and the changing light and weather on a 4 KB cartridge are what still make it stand out among 2600 racing games. You can play it here in your browser, with nothing to install.
Bump ‘n’ Jump is the Atari 2600 version of Data East’s 1982 arcade driving game, released in 1983 by Mattel Electronics under its M Network label. You drive up a winding road, knocking other cars off the track and leaping over water. The other cars are targets rather than rivals, which makes it more aggressive than an ordinary racer. You can play it here in your browser.
Armor Ambush is a two-player tank battle released by Mattel Electronics under its M Network label in 1982. It was developed by APh Technological Consulting and programmed by Hal Finney, and it is the Atari 2600 version of the Intellivision game Armor Battle. Compared with Atari’s own Combat, it adds a new battlefield every round, terrain that changes how fast you move, and a second tank you can switch to. You can play it here in your browser.