Remembering classic games: Super Sprint (1986)

Hugely influential in the driving genre, Atari’s Super Sprint set the bar for top-down perspective racing games in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Its now iconic arcade cabinet was a monster too, allowing three players to compete in F1-style open wheel racers.

Unlike modern force feedback controllers, the machine’s three steering wheels spun with little resistance, making it feel less like you were piloting a formula car at the limit and more like you were opening a bulkhead door on a submarine. Regardless, it was accurate enough that with a deft touch you could weave your miniature racer around even the trickiest of tracks.

And they got pretty tricky. Not content with mere combinations of corners and straights, Super Sprint introduced crossovers, jumps, shortcuts and timed gates into the mix. Then there were the environmental hazards, which included more conventional motorsport obstacles, like puddles of oil, and slightly more far fetched ones, like a tornado tearing across the circuit. Given that the current F1 drivers aren’t allowed to come out to play if there’s a modest rain shower, we can’t picture Lewis, Max and co dodging force five twisters on a Sunday afternoon. 

We never managed it, but allegedly completing Super Sprint, and unlocking the final, mysterious Super Speedway circuit, required you to finish 85 of these races. It certainly makes grumbling about having to tune in for this year's record 24 round F1 calendar seem a bit pathetic by comparison.

Final bit of trivia? We reckon the Sprint series has the most bizarre cadence of releases of any game franchise. Super Sprint received a sequel called Championship Sprint, in the very same year, 1986. Then fans would have to wait 38 years for 2024’s NeoSprint. Was there not some middle ground?