Hard Drivin’
1989
Atari
Get Behind the Wheel and Feel the Thrill!
Hard Drivin' is a 1989 driving arcade game that invites players to test drive a high-powered sports car on stunt and speed courses. The game featured one of the first 3D polygon driving environments via a simulator cabinet, rendered with a custom architecture.
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2 Player -
Racing
The engine, transmission control, suspension, and tire physics were modeled in conjunction with Doug Milliken, his father William Milliken ed a team at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in Buffalo NY USA that converted aircraft equations of motion to equations of motion for the automobile.
Description
The gameplay resembles a driving game, featuring a car similar in appearance to a Ferrari Testarossa, referred to in the game as an expensive "sports car". The screen shows a first person perspective from inside the car, through the windshield. To separate it from other driving titles of that era, stunt loops and other road hazards were added.
How to Play
The game generally consists of 1 or 2 laps around the stunt track. In certain modes, if the player scored in the top 10, the player races against the computer controlled car, Phantom Photon. In this race, it was possible to race the wrong way around the course and beat the Phantom Photon across the start-finish line. The game challenges the players in a daredevil fashion and broke away from traditional racing games like Pole Position.
