Hard Drivin is a driving simulation video game developed by Atari Games in 1989.^[5] It invites players to test drive a sports car on courses that emphasize stunts and speed. The game features one of the first 3D polygon driving environments^[6] via a simulator cabinet with a force feedback steering wheel and a custom rendering architecture.^[7]

Players drive a sports car in a first-person perspective, navigating one to two laps around a stunt track to acquire their best time. This is done while avoiding obstacles and stage hazards such as other vehicles. If the player scores in the top 10 during certain modes, the player races against a computer-controlled car known as Phantom Photon.

There is also a manual transmission mode which includes a clutch pedal and the possibility of stalling the car, along with a force feedback steering wheel, in which the driver would have to operate the car as they would in real life.

While driving, the player’s progress is tracked by invisible waypoints, denoted by flags on the course map showing the player’s progress when the game ends due to time running out. Passing the waypoint half-way through the track grants the player extra time.

After crashing (either into another vehicle or missing an airborne landing), a ten second “Instant Replay” animation plays showing a wide aerial view of the player’s movement and surrounding vehicles leading up to the crash. Following the replay, the player’s car is placed back on the track at the last waypoint passed, which may be a significant distance from the point of collision. If the player’s car goes off-road, they have ten seconds to return to the track, or else they will be stopped and returned, at a standstill, to the last waypoint passed.

Hard Drivin’ was one of the first arcade games to allow for more than three initials on the high-score board, which players could use to construct sentences on the score board.^{[citation needed]}

Development – Hard Drivin

The 3D computer graphics arcade hardware that was eventually used for Hard Drivin’ began development in the mid-1980s, several years before the game was released. At the time, Atari Games was owned by Namco, and the two companies began working on a 3D arcade system.

After Atari and Namco went separate ways, each company developed their own arcade system in the late 1980s, based on the same prototype. Atari used an earlier version of the hardware for Hard Drivin’, while Namco developed a more advanced version of the hardware called the Namco System 21, which they used for Winning Run (1988).^[8]

Intro/Attract Mode

Title Screen

Title Theme

Race Complete