This classic Atari/N64 roadtrip game disappeared without a trace

Borrowing the successful formula of Cruis'n USA, but abandoning the questionable apostrophe placement, California Speed made the Golden State your playground and tossed you the keys to a selection of cars that would almost certainly no longer pass Californian emissions laws.

Developed by Atari Games, this take on the digital roadtrip was far less well known than Midway's Cruis'n series, but it absolutely stands up to the comparison. For a start, each of California Speed's 14 lengthy, point-to-point stages is absolutely crammed with characterful details and real world West Coast landmarks.

Sure, the obvious locations like the Hollywood sign and the Golden Gate Bridge are present and correct, but you'll also find yourself racing along the rollercoaster in Santa Cruz, through the Monterey Aquarium and past that nuclear power station outside San Diego that looks like a pair of boobs. Given the bikini-clad women who celebrate when you cross the finish line, perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised that last one made the cut.

That's not to say California Speed lets geographical authenticity get in the way of a good time. The Silicon Valley stage, for example, would be deathly dull were it not for the fact that it ends with you haring through a gigantic computer. It's unclear exactly what Atari thought Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were cooking up there in the late 1990s, but we're pretty sure it wasn't a microprocessor the size of a football pitch.

Unlike the Cruis'n series, which persists even today, California Speed disappeared without a trace after this first game and its N64 port, as Atari focused on its more popular Rush series of arcade racers.

Which is a shame, because we'd love to have seen this level of imagination applied to some of the more boring US states. Delaware Speed, anyone?