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Hard Drivin'

Hard Drivin'
Flyer
Developer(s)

Atari Games Applied Research Group

Ports
Tengen, Sterling Silver Software, Domark
Publisher(s) Atari Games
Designer(s) Atari Games
Platform(s) Arcade, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari Lynx, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Mega Drive/Genesis, ZX Spectrum
Release Arcade
  • NA: February 1989
  • EU: February 1989
  • JP: September 1989
Amiga, CPC, AST , C64
1989
MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum
1990
Mega Drive/Genesis
  • JP: December 21, 1990
  • NA: 1991
  • EU: 1991
Atari Lynx
  • NA: 1991
Genre(s) Driving simulation
Mode(s) 2 players (alternating)
Cabinet Sit-down
Arcade system Atari Hard Drivin'
Display Horizontal Raster, 504×384 resolution
Review scores
Publication Score
Crash 92%
Sinclair User 78%
Your Sinclair 90%
MegaTech 89%
ACE 937
Awards
Publication Award
Crash Crash Smash
The Games Machine Star Player

Atari Games Applied Research Group

Hard Drivin' is a 1989 driving arcade game that invites players to test drive a high-powered sports car on stunt and speed courses. The game featured one of the first 3D polygon driving environments via a simulator cabinet, rendered with a custom architecture. The force feedback, car physics simulator, game design and most game programming were done by Max Behensky. According to the in-game credit screen, Hard Drivin' was designed by two teams working concurrently in the United States and Ireland.

Development began in 1988. Atari also originally intended to release the game in 1988. However, according to one of Atari's Engineer and designer, it was delayed due to the dispute from its Vice President claiming that no one would buy an arcade cabinet for $10,000 after The Last Starfighter arcade game was canceled for the same reason a few years earlier. After weeks of research, it was decided that $10,000 was an acceptable price point.

Hard Drivin' was released in February 1989, when arcade driving games were largely implemented with scaled 2D sprites, such as Pole Position and OutRun, and when filled-polygon 3D graphics of any kind were rare in games. Hard Drivin' is the second commercially released arcade racing game to use 3D polygons, after Winning Run.


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