// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did the slot racers say? We're in a fast track.
| Slot Racers | |
|---|---|
 Box art by John Enright[1] | |
| Developer | Atari, Inc.[2] |
| Publishers | Atari, Inc.[2] |
| Designer | Warren Robinett |
| Platform | Atari 2600 |
| Release | October 1978 |
| Genre | Maze |
| Mode | Multiplayer |
Slot Racers is a maze game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS).[a] The game involves the players controlling cars equipped with missiles with the goal of firing their missiles at their opponents for points. Each player earns one point for each time they hit their opponent with a missile. The first player to earn 25 points wins.
Slot Racers was designed by Warren Robinett and was the first game he designed for Atari. The game was developed under the name Traffic and was influenced by Atari's earlier game Combat (1977). He initially wanted to include roving police cars in the maze but was unable to add this to the game at the time. The game was released in October 1977. A review in Video of the game in 1981 declared it "the most important of the classic labyrinth games."[4] Howard J. Blumenthal of The Complete Guide to Electronic Games (1981) found its gameplay inferior to Combat.
Writing for Allgame, Brett Weiss echoed Blumenthal's comments saying that Slot Racers was the inferior game and critiqued its lack of a single-player mode and simplistic graphics. Kevin Bunch found it to be a decent, if not classic early Atari game, noting that it was an ambitious game from a first time developer that expanded on the gameplay of earlier maze games such as The Amazing Maze Game (1976). Robinett felt the game was merely okay and on its compeltion began developing his next game which would become be Adventure (1980).
Game play
[edit]
Slot Racers is a two-player maze game.[5][2] Unlike other early games for the Atari 2600, like Indy 500 (1977) or Blackjack (1977), the title of the game imply the theme of the game as it is not about slot car racing.[6] The game's setting has each player controlling a Super Chasemobile, a car that is equipped with powerful technology .[7] Each player steers their vehicle through a maze where they fire missiles at each other from the front of their car.[7] The goal is to chase your opponent and attempt to hit them with one of the missiles the player can fire from the front of their own car. Each hit on an enemies car gives the player one point. The first player to get 25 points first wins.[7]
There are nine variations of games that adjust the layout of the maze, the speed of the cars, the missiles, and the direction of the missile path.[7] Depending on the difficulty modes set, the player can either fire consecutive missiles where one missile will vanish if another is fired, or another mode where the only one missile can be fired at a time.[7] Missiles must either hit the opponents car or otherwise be re-collected by driving their car over it.[7]
Development
[edit]Slot Racers was the first game Warren Robinett who joined Atari, Inc. in November 1977.[6] At this time at Atari, each game was made by one person who wrote the code, tested and debugged the games.[8] He developed a game he initially called Traffic which he envisioned as a game where two cars would drive around a city maze firing rockets at each other.[6]
Robinett looked to the video game Combat (1977) for inspiration. He liked the idea of a player having to orient themselves to the direction of a vehicle but did not enjoy how a tank moved when too close to a wall and wanted to ensure that the cars could move around corners smoothly.[6] He then continued working on the game developing different mazes layouts and adjusting the speed and momentum of the vehicles.[9] He was unable to include one feature he wanted in the game, which would include police cars with blinking lights that would cruise around the maze to chase players. Robinbett said he turned in the final code for the game in April 1978 after five months of development.[10]
Release
[edit]Atari announced the game shortly before the June 1978 Consumer Electronics Show trade show under the title The Maze.[9] Slot Racers was released for the Atari VCS in October 1978.[6] Robinett commented that "the only reason that it got published is that Atari published everything we created in 1978; they needed product."[6][9] The Telegrams branded version of the game was released as Maze.[6] The game would later be re-released in 1982, where it was bundled with Indy 500 (1977).[11]
Slot Racers was re-released in various video game compilations formats, such as the Atari 80 in One for Windows in 2003 and the Atari Anthology for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2004, Atari Greatest Hits: Volume 1 (2011) for the Nintendo DS, and dedicated consoles such as the Atari Flashback 4 in 2012.[12][13][14]
Receception
[edit]| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame | 1.5/5[15][5] |
| The Complete Guide to Electronic Games | 2/5[16] |
| Electronic Games 1983 Software Encyclopedia | 7/10[17] |
In 1981, Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz (under the name Franke Laney, Jr.) reviewed Slot Racers, Take the Money and Run! (1978), and Maze Craze (1980) in their article in Video magazine on the rise of maze games.[4][18] They described the game as requiring quick-thinking and fast reactions and concluded that it is "the most important of the classic labyrinth games".[4] The writers would re-iterate similar comments in Electronic Games magazine's 1983 Software Encyclopedia.[17] Howard J. Blumenthal wrote in his book The Complete Guide to Electronic Games that the game to be an odd combination of a tank-themed game with race cars and suggested players play the Tank-themed games instead which had more variety and action.[16]
Writing for Allgame, Brett Weiss echoed Blumenthal's comments saying that Slot Racers was "little more than a maze variation on the ''Combat theme, and a not very good one."[5] He found also founding the game lacking in terms in the variety that Combat offered and that it had poor controls and graphics "so simplistic it's almost an embarrassment."[5] Kevin Bunch in his book Atari Archive: Vol.1 1977-1978 said that Slot Racers was a remarkable feat for a first time developer and while it was not a classic, he summarized it as was better on the more complicated mazes and the game being set to faster speeds.[10] as it expanded on the gameplay of just exploring a maze that was established by earlier maze games like The Amazing Maze Game (1976).[19]
Robinett later described the development of the game as being "a learning exercise" and that it was "pretty average game. It was not great; I think it was not terrible, either."[9] Around the time Robinett completed Slot Racers, he visited a Stanford AI lab and played the text adventure game Colossal Cave Adventure. which led him to develop his next game for Atari which would become Adventure (1980).[8]
See also
[edit]
Notes
[edit]- ↑ The Atari VCS became known as the Atari 2600 only after the release of the Atari 5200 in 1982.[3]
References
[edit]- ↑ Lapetino 2016, p. 88.
- 1 2 3 Weiss 2007, p. 105.
- ↑ Montfort 2006.
- 1 2 3 Kunkel & Laney, Jr. 1981, p. 18.
- 1 2 3 4 Weiss 2014a.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bunch 2023, p. 214.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Atari, Inc. 1978.
- 1 2 Wawro 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 Bunch 2023, p. 216.
- 1 2 Bunch 2023, p. 217.
- ↑ Bunch 2023, pp. 217–218.
- ↑ Harris 2004.
- ↑ Humphries 2010.
- ↑ Tach 2012.
- ↑ Weiss.
- 1 2 Blumenthal 1981, p. 250.
- 1 2 Katz, p. 30.
- ↑ Willaert 2020.
- ↑ Bunch 2023, pp. 216–217.
Sources
[edit]- Slot Racers Game Program Instructions. Atari. 1978. Co11402-06 Rev. 3.
- Blumenthal, Howard J. (June 1981). The Complete Guide to Electronic Games. Plume. ISBN 0-452-25268-7.
- Bunch, Kevin (2023). Atari Archive: Vol.1 1977-1978. Press Run Books. ISBN 978-1-955183-21-5.
- Harris, Craig (November 30, 2004). "Atari Anthology". IGN. Imagine Publishing. Archived from the original on January 26, 2023. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
- Humphries, Matthew (November 10, 2010). "Review: Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 for Nintendo DS". Geek.com. Archived from the original on April 28, 2014. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- Katz, Arnie (ed.). "Atari 2600 (VCS)". Electronic Games 1983 Software Encyclopedia. Vol. 1, no. 1. New York, NY: Reese Communication Inc. ISSN 0736-8488.
- Kunkel, Bill; Laney, Jr., Frank (June 1981). "Arcade Alley: Lure of the Labyrinth - Exploring Maze Games". Video. Vol. 5, no. 3. Reese Communications. ISSN 0147-8907.
- Lapetino, Tim (2016). Art of Atari. Dynamite Entertainment. ISBN 978-1-5241-0103-9.
- Montfort, Nick (December 2006). "Combat in Context". Game Studies. 6 (1). ISSN 1604-7982. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
- Tach, Dave (November 12, 2012). "Atari Flashback 4 Channels 2600 Nostalgia with A 75 Game Bundle". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on October 26, 2013. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- Wawro, Alex (March 4, 2015). "Warren Robinett Reflects on His 'Signature' Game: Adventure". Game Developer. Informa TechTarget. Archived from the original on August 27, 2021. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- Weiss, Brett Alan. "Slot Racers - Overview". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- Weiss, Brett Alan. "Slot Racers - Review". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved June 25, 2026.
- Weiss, Brett (2007). Classic Home Video Games 1972-1984. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-3226-4.
- Willaert, Kate (December 8, 2020). "Who Won in the First Game Awards?". Video Game History Foundation. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2026.