90's Child - Racing through the Decade

Atari Gran Trak 10 (1974)

Racing games have been one of the oldest genres of games as far as I can remember. The oldest racing game that I could find was Atari’s Gran Trak 10 in 1974. An arcade racer that was very expensive, as it was the first arcade game to use mask ROM chips. Nothing more than some dotted lines to mark out the track, and a steering wheel to take tight turns this game was the great granddaddy of racing games. It didn't really offer anything to the genre, as games took each next step in new and different directions, their evolution was as determined as driving a car could get.

The 90s saw a rise in popularity for the racing genre. Although the development of games was slow, we still saw many good games get released during this decade. Ridge Racer (1993) and Daytona (1993) were slugging each other for popularity. The first Need for Speed saw the light of day in 1994 and several other lesser titles following in the next few years. 1997 saw the five-year production of Gran Turismo come to fruition, one of the most realistic racing series to this day.


One of the first racing games I ever played, being a 90's child myself, was Destruction Derby (1995), a terribly rendered closed track racing game with three cars to choose from. It was also one of the first games to feature car damage that negatively affected car performance.

Destruction Derby (1995)

In the following years, I played but a handful of games, and racing games were not all that big at this time. Monster Truck Madness (1996) by Microsoft was one of my more memorable favourites; crushing cars never gets old, but the release of Need for Speed 2 (1997) peaked my interest in racing games again, with lengthy tracks, exotic cars (nine cars to choose) and decent physics, we were playing this for quite a while.

The next big release to hit the shelves for me was Micro Machines V3 (1998). Around this age, I loved my toy cars, and driving them in a game was one of the most enjoyable things I can remember from my younger years. The crazy tracks, jumping over bowls of cereal, shrinking down to race under a microscope, it was all so amazing. I was playing this game for many, many years.

At the end of the decade, racing games were trying different hats, and we saw the first Free Roaming world with Midtown Madness (1999), produced by Angel Studios, who we now know as Rockstar San Diego. Players were free to explore Chicago and races were open, allowing you to take whatever route you pleased. Oh, and you weren't allowed to hit pedestrians as they were the most amazing acrobats that could jump out of the way of any car.

Micro Machines V3 (1998)

The 2000s was where racing games really hit their groove and many titles flooded the market during this decade. I missed many releases early this decade as our computer wasn't good enough and I found myself playing more and more FPS. However, the cream of the crop are still here to this day. Need for Speed has seen its ups and downs, but continues to survive today's standards. Off-road racers found their ground in the mid noughties, and realistic racing sim Gran Turismo withstood the test of time. Since then, racing games have been to space and back, but the simplistic nature of the genre means we will always enjoy the unrivalled thrill of driving at such excessive speeds.