Hey Arcaders! What you are looking at is another piece of history… the very first driving game. This game started the diving genera that is still popular to this day.. it also started Atari’s other driving games (we’ll talk about them later) This is Gran Track 10!
(from Wikipedia)
Grand Track 10 Is an arcade driving video game developed by Atari through its subsidiary Cyan Engineering, and released by Atari in May 1974. In the game, a single player drives a car along a race track, viewed from above, avoiding walls of pylons and trying to pass as many checkpoints as possible before time runs out. The game is controlled with a steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedals, and a gear stick, and the car crashes and spins if it hits a pylon.
Atari founder Nolan Bushnell had originally planned to develop a driving video game inspired by Chicago Coin’s arcade electro-mechanical game Speedway (1969) when he founded the company, but cancelled it in favor of a simpler game, Pong (1972). Atari eventually began development on a driving video game, Gran Trak 10, in late 1973. It was initially designed by Larry Emmons of Cyan, with the mechanical design handled by Eigen Systems, though after several design and production problems were uncovered during an initial small production run in March 1974 the design was overhauled by Allan Alcorn, the designer of Pong, with wider distribution beginning in May. The game’s circuits include possibly the first instance of integrated circuit-based read-only memory (ROM), which thereafter became the standard for arcade games, replacing diode-stored graphics.
What you are looking at.. is the very beginning of every arcade game ever created… first roms, first racing game. Atari would produce many more variants of this racing game in the years that followed. The Sprint series.. started here. All racing games… owe a tip of the hat to Grand Trak 10.
So- what do you think of Grand Trak 10? did you ever play it? let me know in the comments below.
Keep Playin’ Like It’s 1981!
The Arcade Archives! 
Who knew that this game was the one that helped usher in the racing video game genre that we know today? I knew of another game but it was for the 2600 called Indy 500.
Well, shout out to Atari for once again creating something that helped kickstart a genre within video games that lives on in classics like the Mario Kart games. 🙂 😀 🏁 🏎️
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cool i was glade to see that they have added metamorphic force for the switch I’ve waited so long for that. Now for great arcade games like B rap boys and violent storm should be next since there very great rare titles.
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Wow, what an interesting read! It’s fascinating to learn about the origins of driving games and how Grand Trak 10 played a significant role in the history of arcade gaming. I can only imagine how innovative and exciting it must have been for players back in the day.
I’m curious, do you think Grand Trak 10 paved the way for future advancements in driving games, or do you see it as more of a standalone classic that holds its own unique charm?
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