I was recently transported to the year 1976. First, I told my 9-year-old self to get with it. Then I looked at what video games I could play. I’m shallow. Deal with it.
Arcades: Speed Race Twin A game by Taito that was one of the first, or maybe the first, to use scrolling graphics. You race vertically and steer to avoid other cars. You have a steering wheel, pedal and a gear shift [no shifter I noticed in the video. The original Speed Race had one. I guess two-player made it impossible to put two shifters on it]. I’m interested in it because it’s the original influence for Spy Hunter, one of my favorite games. Plus, I love Taito games.
Breakout I could play the arcade machine that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created for Atari. That’s a thing. Good game too.
Night Driver I guess I’m obliged to try this out. It’s the first game to use first person real-time graphics. I’d rather mod it into a fully armor clad warhorse galloper in the Elder Scrolls world.
PC: Adventure (originally called Colossal Cave Adventure) Written by Will Crowther, it's the first text-based "adventure" game (others were strategy or role-playing before this). He based a lot of the game’s locations on a real cave, and, just like Tolkien’s Hobbit, made it to entertain his children. I’d have to travel to Massachusetts, infiltrate either BBN Technologies or MIT, and use their PDP-10 mainframe to play it. That’d make a good nerdy crime story. I think I would do it. I’m going to disappear back to my own time shortly anyway.
Consoles: Desert Fox It might be cool to play this game, which is exactly Atari's Combat a year early, on the newly released Video Entertainment System (later the Fairchild Channel F), the first system with cartridges. It’s a first – gotta try it.
Pong Pong was still big and Coleco released their Telstar home Pong machine this year. I’d get the Classic model with the real wood case. Just look at that thing!
Says 70s all over it. Pack it up in your woody wagon and go surfing.
That wasn't one of the best years in video games, but it was full of a lot of firsts. Too bad I can't bring any of them back with me. It's the way of the Time Warp. Nothing you can do about it.
Comments
Cary Woodham
10/14/2017 at 12:43 AM
Taito is one of my favorite retro game companies. They has as much history behind them as Nintendo and Namco do! And they still make aswesome arcade and mobile games to this day! (Groove Coaster, Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders, Bust-A-Move Journey, etc.). I just wish Square-Enix would do more with them.
And what are you talking about 1976 not being a great year for gaming? 1976 was an AMAZING year for gaming. Did you know a realy cool and awesome game reviewer was born that year? You MIGHT have heard of him...maybe... :)
KnightDriver
10/15/2017 at 12:30 AM
Yea, I don't know what it is about Taito, but I've liked almost everything I've played by them.
Well, there just wasn't much available that year. I mean, unless you want Pong in ten variations. Who even knew Colossal Cave Adventure even existed? Arcades were cool though - Breakout, Speed Race. I'd probably spend all my short time travel time there. And I understand it was your birth year. I hold a fondness for my birth year, but really, I didn't do anything, or know about anything except mother's milk and pooping.
Matt Snee
Staff Writer
10/14/2017 at 06:46 PM
Time travel is a bitch.
That Speed Race game looks so pretty.
I had a copy of Night Driver with my atari back in San Francisco when me and my bud collected systems and stuff. Not a great game. But it WAS cool. You know, I actually wrote a song about it, called Night Driver. Wish I still had a copy of that, it was lost through the years.
KnightDriver
10/14/2017 at 11:59 PM
Multidimensional troubles. No one understands my pain.
The game was ok on Atari. I liked the time trials for points they added to the console edition. It's better in short bursts.
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Comments