Rally Speedway

With an aerial view of the track, an option to create your own courses and the greatest two player version of a racing game ever on an Atari computer, Rally Speedway has plenty of horsepower under the hood. You can zip around either of the two built-in courses in a solitaire game, too, after setting factors such as top speed, rate of acceleration and road conditions (dry, wet or icy).

The car accelerates automatically, so you only have to concentrate on staying on the road. That sounds easy enough until you come across the numerous number of hairpin curves, which can make things difficult unless you use the fire buttons to put on the brakes. One of the neat extras happens when you crash. If you smash into the trees or houses alongside the track, your car explodes. Then the driver tumbles out for about twenty feet, extinguishing his suit, and waves to signal that's he's OK. It's definitely unique, and reminiscent of the hilarious crash sequence found in Sega's arcade Out Run game.

As far as I know, Rally Speedway is the only racer that puts both cars on the track simultaneously in two-player mode. If one car outruns the other to the point of leaving the screen, the second driver sustains a five-second penalty and the race takes off again from that point. Sound effects are exceptional, and the animation is lively. The only thing that prevents this game from getting a perfect score is the absence of a paddle or driving controller option, which would have provided more realistic steering. Overall, it plays like a classic-era version of Micro Machines. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Codemasters were inspired by this one.. it's that good.