Hey Arcaders!
Konami’s next game is Konami’s first racing game- It’s influence on the genre was felt for years to come and has had a few sequels. Let’s check out Road Fighter !
is a racing game developed by Konami and released on arcade in December 1984. It also was the first racing game from Konami. The goal is to reach the finish line within the stages driving a 972 Chevrolet Corvette without running out of time, hitting other cars or running out of fuel (fuel is refilled by hitting a special type of car). The game also spawned two sequels in its time, Midnight Run: Road Fighter 2 in 1995 and Winding Heat in 1996, respectively. A Japan-only rebooted sequel was also released in 2010, 14 years after Winding Heat.
The first and second levels contain 4 courses, ranging from grassy plains to an over water bridge to a seashore, mountains and finally a forest area. In the arcade version, 6 stages were contained. Pressing the ‘B’ button raises the player’s speed to around 196 km/h while pressing the ‘A’ button skyrockets the speed to 400. The player has a limited amount of fuel and can earn more by touching special multi-colored cars. If the player crashes into any other car or slips on occasionally appearing patches of oil, the car will begin to spin out and if not corrected may crash into the side barriers, causing a loss of 5-6 fuel units.
The NES and Famicom version have a total of 6 types of cars, 1 yellow and red, three blue and one truck. Yellow cars will travel along a straight line and occur in large numbers. Red cars are a little less likely to appear, but they will change the lane they are traveling in once to get in the way of the player. Blue cars vary in the way they change their lane. Trucks go on a straight way, but colliding with them will blow up the player’s car. Konami Man will make a cameo appearance, flying by the side of the road if the player progresses to a certain point in the level without crashing (not included on course 2 in NES and Famicom versions).
It was a strange racer- utilizing a joystick and two buttons for low and high gear.
Let’s get into position and start the race!
A sequel came out in 1985- Konami GT. It had a steering wheel!
This game had a few ports- the first was on the MSX computers.
Next was a port on the Famicom/NES.
We move ahead almost 30 years for a 3D port exclusive in Japanese arcades!
It was also converted for the 3DNES Project- check it out!
It was also released on modern consoles under the Arcade Archives line. No relation.
This was an interesting take on an early racing game – such as Turbo. But the joystick and buttons take a bit to get used to. Did you ever play Road Fighter? Did you Ever see Konamiman and finish the race?
Let me know in the comments!
Keep Playin’ Like it’s 1981!
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