Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic racing simulations and more fantastical arcade-style racing games. Kart racing games emerged in the 1990s as a popular sub-genre of the latter. Racing games may also fall under the category of sports video games.
Melon Dezign was an Amiga demoscene group founded in Denmark on October 21, 1991, by Seen and Paleface. Originally, they were a subgroup of Crystal, where they at first exclusively created intros for cracked games. Shortly after the formation, they were joined by Bannasoft, and after helping organise The Party, a demo event with more than 1200 attendees, several other members joined, including Walt, Mack, Performer, Audiomonster in France, Mikael and Benjamin in Norway and Mark Knight otherwise known as TDK in the UK.
Another World is a cinematic platform action-adventure game designed by Éric Chahi and published by Delphine Software in November 1991. In North America it was published as Out of This World. The game tells the story of Lester, a young scientist who, as a result of an experiment gone wrong, finds himself on a dangerous alien world where he is forced to fight for his survival.
Rad Racer, known as Highway Star in Japan, is a racing video game developed and published by Square for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1987. In this game, players drive a Ferrari 328 or a generic Formula One racing machine through a racecourse. The game was released in North America and Europe months after its debut. The title became well known for being one of two titles from Square that made use of stereoscopic 3D, which was made possible by wearing a pair of anaglyph glasses. Square president Masafumi Miyamoto initially conceived the game as an opportunity for developer Nasir Gebelli to demonstrate his 3D programming skills. Gebelli developed, and often drew by hand, the graphics for the game's 3D mode.
Flashback, released as Flashback: The Quest for Identity in the United States, is a 1992 science fiction cinematic platform game developed by Delphine Software of France and published by U.S. Gold in the United States and Europe, and Sunsoft in Japan.
Delphine Software International was a French video game developer. They were famous for publishing Another World and creating the cinematic platform game Flashback, which bore a similarity to Prince of Persia, both in gameplay and in its use of rotoscoped animation. They were also known for their Moto Racer series.
Mark Evan Cerny is an American video game designer, programmer, producer and media proprietor.
Adeline Software International was a video game developer founded in February 1993 as a subsidiary company of Delphine Software International, and based in Lyon, France. The team mostly came from Infogrames, another French video game company, after a disagreement about sequels of the Alone in the Dark bestseller.
Stunt Car Racer is a racing video game developed by Geoff Crammond. It was published in 1989 by MicroProse, under their MicroStyle and MicroPlay labels in the United Kingdom and in the United States, respectively. The game pits two racers on an elevated track on which they race in a head-to-head competition, with ramps they must correctly drive off as the main obstacle.
Éric Chahi is a French computer game designer and programmer, best known as the creator of Another World and Heart of Darkness.
Microids is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in 1985 by Elliot Grassiano, it attained early success with games published through Loriciel in France and other partners in international markets. Through expanding its staff and development teams, Microïds generated funds to expand from just development to publishing and distribution and opening international offices. The company merged with MC2 in 2003 to create MC2-Microïds, whereafter it acquired publishers Wanadoo Edition and Cryo Interactive. Grassiano left MC2-Microïds in 2005; under new management, MC2-Microïds was briefly renamed MC2 before returning to the old Microïds name. It was then acquired by Anuman Interactive in 2010, which itself was renamed Microïds in 2019.
Jet Moto is a series of futuristic racing games for the PlayStation video game console. Jet Moto (1996) and Jet Moto 2 (1997) were developed by SingleTrac, known for Twisted Metal and Twisted Metal 2. SingleTrac then left Sony, the publisher of the series, and Jet Moto 3 (1999) was developed by Pacific Coast Power & Light in their absence. They would also go on to develop Jet Moto 2124, which was cancelled two years into development. A fifth title known as Jet Moto: SOLAR was being developed by RedZone Interactive for the PlayStation 2, but no screenshots or video of gameplay were ever officially released, and the game was cancelled in 2003. in December 2022 gameplay footage of Jet Moto: SOLAR was uploaded to YouTube.
The Fourth Dimension (4D) was a major video game publisher for the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Acorn Archimedes and RiscPC between 1989 and 1998. Previously, The Fourth Dimension had been known as Impact Software, which specialised mainly in BBC Micro games. Some of 4D's staff had worked for Superior Software. Notable release included Cyber Chess, Stunt Racer 2000, Galactic Dan and Chocks Away.
Fumito Ueda is a Japanese video game designer. Ueda is best known as the director and lead designer of Ico (2001) and Shadow of the Colossus (2005) while leading Team Ico at Japan Studio, and The Last Guardian (2016) through his own development company GenDesign. His games have achieved cult status and are distinguished by their usage of minimal plot and scenario using fictional languages, and use of overexposed, desaturated light. He has been described by some as an auteur of video games.
VectorCell was a French video game developer founded in 2005. The company was owned by Paul Cuisset and Lexis Numérique. The company developed Amy for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The company also planned to release Jesus Christ Super-Star on the iOS and Zeebo.
Jet Moto is a 1996 racing video game developed by SingleTrac and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation video game console and PC. The PlayStation version was released in North America on October 31, 1996; in 1997 for Europe in February and Japan on August 7. The PC version was released on November 13, 1997. Jet Moto was made available for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Network in February 2007. Developers chose fictional hovering bikes instead of wheeled motorcycles initially to resolve performance concerns. Other performance concerns led the team to develop two different physics systems—one for the player, and one for the 19 computer racers.
Kimberly Swift is an American video game designer best known for her work at Valve with games such as Portal and Left 4 Dead. Swift was featured by Fortune as one of "30 Under 30" influential figures in the video game industry. She was described in Mental Floss as one of the most recognized women in the industry.
Raphaël Gesqua is a French composer, arranger and sound designer.
Flashback is a science fiction platform video game remake of the original 1992 Flashback. The game was developed by the original game designer, Paul Cuisset, with his studio, VectorCell, and published by Ubisoft. The game was released on 21 August 2013 on Xbox Live Arcade.
Atari Vault is a collection of one hundred video games that Atari had produced for arcade cabinets and its Atari 2600 home console system, dating from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The collection was developed by Code Mystics, who had helmed similar collections of Atari games to other platforms, to work on Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux via the Steam client. The games, where possible, have been updated to include modern-day features such as local and online multiplayer and online leaderboards.
