I love these videos. My Wife and I would watch them together before she passed in 2021. I was on vacation in a hotel room with her when this premiered. I was thinking about those days and wanted to revisit this fine production. Thank you Sir.
Nicely done. You've highlighted my history with this game, as I remember it, perfectly. I remember having trouble describing adequately to Rob how the program worked. I gave him the sources to the arcade version but I have no idea if he used any of it. The 2600 hardware was wildly different and much less constrained than was the arcade hardware even though they both had a 6502 at their core. The "math" I dreamed up to show this illusion in the hardware was trivial and I'm thinking the 1MHZ 6502 could do all the calculations for the 16 reflectors in less than 2MS. As it happens the 2600 only had a couple milliseconds per frame of CPU time to do anything not display related so I wouldn't be surprised if he had to cook up a completely different scheme to make it work.
Always fascinated by gaming console interpretations of arcade titles as well as hand-held game interpretations of both arcade & mainstream gaming consoles.
Beautiful. I remember playing Enduro soo much back in the day. I started playing videogames at 2yo with Atari and Pacman, River Raid, Enduro and Pitfall. That love still lives today. Thank you for these nostalgia trips.
I came back looking for the term which describe games like Night Driver, Enduro, Pole Position, and Turbo: "first-person perspective" or "behind the wheel." Those are car games, but they're really not race games because you are passing new cars and not the same 1-7 cars which would pass you back. I guess Street Racer, Dodge 'Em, Grand Prix and Spy Hunter are "overhead perspective" games, but again, not really race games, but dealing with traffic or enemies. Indy 500 is overhead too, but it's the only one that's really a race because the other car is trying to beat you and can pass you back. Sadly, because the steering controllers didn't come with the system, we didn't see more games like Indy 500 (or anything else that could use that controller, like Tempest).
ND and Circus Atari are linked in my memory as two of the best concepts visually, but gameplay never fulfilled my expectation. The most obvious reason is the stupid paddles which always felt way too inaccurate, and while they may have responded the same in every game that used them, I most remember the frustration from these two games because I really wanted to enjoy them. Nice job identifying Foerst, what a great idea. And Fulop as well, probably no other console game looked as good at the time.
Night Driver was one I played a lot on the VCS and my local arcade had the cockpit arcade version into the early 80s were it would almost always get at least one of my quarters. Simple but really fun game. It was one of my first on my wish list when I started collecting arcade games
Good ear - all the other pronunciation attempts came out terrible and that seemed like a preferable action to rerecording whole sections of the script!
I only recall seeing two or three Night Driver cabinets in the last 40 years, which seems odd considering how popular it was in the late 70's and how many arcades I visited in the early 80's. The version I played the most was the C=64 port.
The background with the original Nürburgring is incredibly sad. I kind of wish that original game could be simulated (or whether the later games had moved to microprocessor logic instead of discrete logic), just for that point in history. As for Night Driver itself, it's still a charming racer for sure. I love how in both its 2600 and arcade incarnations it plays to the strength of the hardware. Though I'll admit, it ain't my favourite on the 2600, it still is a charming one for sure.
I kind of wonder if Foerst’s kids (who run his company now that he’s passed away) would be interested in making Nurburgring 1’s design documents available for an FPGA recreation. From a historical perspective the game does certainly earn that level of interest.
With all its sales that he didn't get a part of, it's a wonder it didn't break him. Instead, he created a couple more driving games. I think the first leaning game I played was that motorcycle one (Super Hang-On), but I did see linked-up consoles for a driving game around 1990, (Final Lap). Somehow they give first link-up credit to that instead of Foerst's "Nürburgring Competiion" he mentioned.
Excellent video. I wasn't aware that Night Driver wasn't an original Atari creation in that it was a copy of other similar games made prior. Pong withstanding I thought Bushnell had a policy where games had to be original in nature to be considered for coin-op.
Awesome! This was, hands-down, my favorite Atari 2600 title. Also, I know that some German words can be extremely difficult for English-speakers & I loved that you just reused "Nurburgring 1", rather than try to nail perfect pronunciation every time!
Blue Atari Logbook challenge. Pro (Daring Driver): 60, Master (Road Hugger): 68, Wizard (Phantom on Wheels): 76 I only remember playing a couple arcade games from the 1970s: Space Invaders (in a club, not an arcade) and Night Driver (at the Baltimore Science Museum, though I don't think it was an exhibit, but an arcade). It felt weird asking for quarters for what I thought were Atari VCS games. I finally got the cart as an adult. I was able to make Master in 2006 with 69, but went back to it to make Wizard on Christmas Day, 2017, scoring 77. Interesting to hear it fell shy of 2 million sales, as the top 10 or 12 carts sold for the Atari VCS/2600 likely sold 2 million. When I try to look up the order in sales numbers, several are tied at "2 million" or "1 million" on a site, because their source is iffy. Why should they be secret 40 years later?
Considering the industry was quite ready to steal early video games, it's a wonder (or ironic) that Atari was able to win court cases against Odyssey² for "KC Munchkin" and Imagic for "Demon Attack".
I can no longer remember which, but I borrowed either this, or its VIC-20 clone Road Race, from a friend. 40 years can do a lot to dim the memory (or did I say that already?).
I realize the Atari 2600’s hardware has many limitations , but you’d think the developers would have drawn the player car to resemble more of a car. Lol The cars you pass look more like cars, for crying out loud!
In a previous video, he says one reason some things look big and blocky is that they use the background graphics (wagon in Outlaw) rather than sprites like in Superman. No doubt when we get to later videos about Activision, he'll explain how they worked around it to make better-looking screens.
I'm loving this series SO MUCH - keep up the great work. That said, I find it odd that you obviously found the germanic name Nürburgring so difficult to pronounce (nurr burr gring). I don't mean to knit-pick, but the repeated and thus un-natural sounding voice sample, was really weird to listen to (indeed. it sounded like google robot speech - not good!). Anyway, let me repeat - I LOVE THIS SERIES Regardless.
To paraphrase the Simpsons, I did 20 takes and that was the only one that turned out remotely close, so I tried splicing it in to see how it would turn out. Turns out not very well!
I was one that hated this game. The fast night driving concept was cool but the car/hood/whatever looked ugly, the oncoming cars looked like spaceships and the flash whenever you crashed (a lot) was blinding. Great documentary though.
controls suck, the button accelerates the car too fast and you can't hold it or take your finger off to maintain a consistent speed, feels like you have to tap the button to get ahead paddle controls are still paddle controls, its the only acceptable way to play but the horrible acceleration means you'll crash into the guardrail, stop, press accelerate while turning straight into the other guardrail. play enduro and poleposition or the arcade night driver version, those are great. haven't tried turbo tho.
I love these videos. My Wife and I would watch them together before she passed in 2021. I was on vacation in a hotel room with her when this premiered. I was thinking about those days and wanted to revisit this fine production. Thank you Sir.
Terribly sorry for your loss. God bless.
@@rclark777 thank you brother
Nicely done. You've highlighted my history with this game, as I remember it, perfectly. I remember having trouble describing adequately to Rob how the program worked. I gave him the sources to the arcade version but I have no idea if he used any of it. The 2600 hardware was wildly different and much less constrained than was the arcade hardware even though they both had a 6502 at their core. The "math" I dreamed up to show this illusion in the hardware was trivial and I'm thinking the 1MHZ 6502 could do all the calculations for the 16 reflectors in less than 2MS. As it happens the 2600 only had a couple milliseconds per frame of CPU time to do anything not display related so I wouldn't be surprised if he had to cook up a completely different scheme to make it work.
I love your series! Well done! 🕹️👍
Always fascinated by gaming console interpretations of arcade titles as well as hand-held game interpretations of both arcade & mainstream gaming consoles.
Really interesting, nice job!
This was great, thank you!
Beautiful. I remember playing Enduro soo much back in the day. I started playing videogames at 2yo with Atari and Pacman, River Raid, Enduro and Pitfall. That love still lives today. Thank you for these nostalgia trips.
I came back looking for the term which describe games like Night Driver, Enduro, Pole Position, and Turbo: "first-person perspective" or "behind the wheel." Those are car games, but they're really not race games because you are passing new cars and not the same 1-7 cars which would pass you back.
I guess Street Racer, Dodge 'Em, Grand Prix and Spy Hunter are "overhead perspective" games, but again, not really race games, but dealing with traffic or enemies. Indy 500 is overhead too, but it's the only one that's really a race because the other car is trying to beat you and can pass you back. Sadly, because the steering controllers didn't come with the system, we didn't see more games like Indy 500 (or anything else that could use that controller, like Tempest).
Incredible bit of history and research here mate, glad to be a subscriber
ND and Circus Atari are linked in my memory as two of the best concepts visually, but gameplay never fulfilled my expectation. The most obvious reason is the stupid paddles which always felt way too inaccurate, and while they may have responded the same in every game that used them, I most remember the frustration from these two games because I really wanted to enjoy them.
Nice job identifying Foerst, what a great idea. And Fulop as well, probably no other console game looked as good at the time.
Night Driver was one I played a lot on the VCS and my local arcade had the cockpit arcade version into the early 80s were it would almost always get at least one of my quarters. Simple but really fun game. It was one of my first on my wish list when I started collecting arcade games
outstanding work once again.
It sounds like you successfully pronounced the German word once and just copy/pasted it :-D
Good ear - all the other pronunciation attempts came out terrible and that seemed like a preferable action to rerecording whole sections of the script!
@@AtariArchive That explains why it is so very irritating! 😁
I only recall seeing two or three Night Driver cabinets in the last 40 years, which seems odd considering how popular it was in the late 70's and how many arcades I visited in the early 80's. The version I played the most was the C=64 port.
The background with the original Nürburgring is incredibly sad. I kind of wish that original game could be simulated (or whether the later games had moved to microprocessor logic instead of discrete logic), just for that point in history.
As for Night Driver itself, it's still a charming racer for sure. I love how in both its 2600 and arcade incarnations it plays to the strength of the hardware. Though I'll admit, it ain't my favourite on the 2600, it still is a charming one for sure.
I kind of wonder if Foerst’s kids (who run his company now that he’s passed away) would be interested in making Nurburgring 1’s design documents available for an FPGA recreation. From a historical perspective the game does certainly earn that level of interest.
@@AtariArchive I fully agree, it would be amazing to see those released for a MiSTer core or the likes.
With all its sales that he didn't get a part of, it's a wonder it didn't break him. Instead, he created a couple more driving games. I think the first leaning game I played was that motorcycle one (Super Hang-On), but I did see linked-up consoles for a driving game around 1990, (Final Lap). Somehow they give first link-up credit to that instead of Foerst's "Nürburgring Competiion" he mentioned.
a learning "curve" on taking turns.......I see...I see..haha
Excellent video. I wasn't aware that Night Driver wasn't an original Atari creation in that it was a copy of other similar games made prior. Pong withstanding I thought Bushnell had a policy where games had to be original in nature to be considered for coin-op.
I love the research into marketing and reviews and sales figures! I love the context. That's the kind of stuff I don't see often in other places.
Agreed. Instead, UA-cam is swarmed with videos of loud-mouth individuals who spread & enjoy gossip.
Awesome!
This was, hands-down, my favorite Atari 2600 title.
Also, I know that some German words can be extremely difficult for English-speakers & I loved that you just reused "Nurburgring 1", rather than try to nail perfect pronunciation every time!
Blue Atari Logbook challenge.
Pro (Daring Driver): 60,
Master (Road Hugger): 68,
Wizard (Phantom on Wheels): 76
I only remember playing a couple arcade games from the 1970s: Space Invaders (in a club, not an arcade) and Night Driver (at the Baltimore Science Museum, though I don't think it was an exhibit, but an arcade). It felt weird asking for quarters for what I thought were Atari VCS games. I finally got the cart as an adult. I was able to make Master in 2006 with 69, but went back to it to make Wizard on Christmas Day, 2017, scoring 77.
Interesting to hear it fell shy of 2 million sales, as the top 10 or 12 carts sold for the Atari VCS/2600 likely sold 2 million. When I try to look up the order in sales numbers, several are tied at "2 million" or "1 million" on a site, because their source is iffy. Why should they be secret 40 years later?
I always loved Night Driver but I can't believe the game came out of such sinister thievery, how horrible.
I had no idea this was ripped off from a German arcade game.
Considering the industry was quite ready to steal early video games, it's a wonder (or ironic) that Atari was able to win court cases against Odyssey² for "KC Munchkin" and Imagic for "Demon Attack".
Why does your accent change to japanese when you pronounce nurburgring😂😂
I can no longer remember which, but I borrowed either this, or its VIC-20 clone Road Race, from a friend. 40 years can do a lot to dim the memory (or did I say that already?).
the german arcade game is named after a real racing circuit.
It's harder to control the car with a joystick vs paddle I'm guessing?
I realize the Atari 2600’s hardware has many limitations , but you’d think the developers would have drawn the player car to resemble more of a car. Lol The cars you pass look more like cars, for crying out loud!
In a previous video, he says one reason some things look big and blocky is that they use the background graphics (wagon in Outlaw) rather than sprites like in Superman. No doubt when we get to later videos about Activision, he'll explain how they worked around it to make better-looking screens.
I never saw the arcade game but I enjoy this paddle game on my 2600 a lot
I'm loving this series SO MUCH - keep up the great work. That said, I find it odd that you obviously found the germanic name Nürburgring so difficult to pronounce (nurr burr gring).
I don't mean to knit-pick, but the repeated and thus un-natural sounding voice sample, was really weird to listen to (indeed. it sounded like google robot speech - not good!).
Anyway, let me repeat - I LOVE THIS SERIES Regardless.
To paraphrase the Simpsons, I did 20 takes and that was the only one that turned out remotely close, so I tried splicing it in to see how it would turn out. Turns out not very well!
I always tried to purposely hit the houses, Honey I'm home!!
The way you say Nurburgring is funny
I like Night Driver but I've always wished someone would hack it to make the car better.
The german sampling wasn't even noticed.
ryan gosling before ryan gosling
I was one that hated this game. The fast night driving concept was cool but the car/hood/whatever looked ugly, the oncoming cars looked like spaceships and the flash whenever you crashed (a lot) was blinding. Great documentary though.
controls suck, the button accelerates the car too fast and you can't hold it or take your finger off to maintain a consistent speed, feels like you have to tap the button to get ahead paddle controls are still paddle controls, its the only acceptable way to play but the horrible acceleration means you'll crash into the guardrail, stop, press accelerate while turning straight into the other guardrail. play enduro and poleposition or the arcade night driver version, those are great. haven't tried turbo tho.
nurbrurbrm?
“Nerr-berr-gring” It’s a famous racetrack. Hearing the copy/paste butchering of the word over and over is irritating.
I played Night Driver for the first time last night and was impressed.