My mother was really into this game when it was released Mark. My mother actually use to tell me she learned how to drive correctly by playing Night Driver to help her pass the physical driving exam from the Department of Motor Vehicles in order to help her receive the State license that was offered during that time period. She always used to say that's one of the reason why she loves Atari and always thanks them for releasing Night Driver.. 8^) Thank you for sharing this weeks video with us Mark. My mother will enjoy this for sure. 8^) Anthony...
The C64 version was absolutely made by the same HAL Laboratory that would go on to work with Nintendo. Their earliest games were ports of arcade games to 8-bit home machines including Commodore PCs. There's even an unused Easter egg in their port of Galaxian for the VIC20 that credits Satoru Iwata.
Was just about to comment this myself, but you beat me to the punch. Their port of Galaxian was called Star Battle, and they also did a version of Pac-Man called Jelly Monsters, which Atarisoft later got the rights to and tweaked into their official port. They also did a port of Rally X that was later rebranded as Radar Rat Race, and even created the PCG chip for the Sharp MZ-700.
@@QuanAnhAnimationMM The same company eventho most likely nobody from the early days still works there. They made a bunch of early Vic 20 and C64 games but it was always Commodore publishing them, and HAL doesn't hold the copyright of them. They belong to Commodore aka whoever owns their properties these days (that's a rabbit hole for sure).
When you think from 1976 we went from state of the art arcade machine games to working on something like a C64 only a few years later, in the home, technically more advanced but available for far less money, innovation back then was crazy exciting! And then of course HAL/Satoru Iwata's went on to work on F1 for the Famicom shortly thereafter, awesome stuff. I find the innovation in gaming from the 70s through to about 2000 the most interesting period of gaming. I still love my Switch of course :)
Yea its absolutely crazy quick how advanced computers got. Even the atari version, a machine that only came out a year after that arcade machine was released- has more things going on such as cars 🚗 houses 🏘️ and trees 🌳 on the road side. I think machines started slowin in advancing in the 2000s or so graphics wise - example i couldn't really see much difference in xbox 360 from the OG xbox. Same when the xbone came out compared to 360... and I certainly can't see anything on the latest ones.
Awesome! Its like looking into the proto-DNA of every racing game we've seen since. The 2600 version, especially, with the addition of other cars and things on the side of the road- add a few years, technology, and development and it leads directly to Outrun or RAD Racer on the NES!
I saw one or two of these cabinets at arcades back in the day but mostly I remember playing it on the 2600 with the paddle controllers. These days I have the original arcade flyer framed on my wall, since I love that artwork.
Ah, Bill Budge. That's a name I recognize. He created the early pinball game/builder for home computers that EA published titled "Pinball Construction Set". Basic, but brilliant little piece of software for Atari 8-bit, Apple 2 (the version I played a lot), C64, MS-DOS (there were separate versions for all CGA DOS machines, and a special version for Tandy 1000 that took advantage of the 16-colour graphics and the same sound generator as the GameGear), monochrome Macs, and apparently as of recent also NEC PC-88.
The original arcade reminds me of those old 1980's toys that were shaped like steering wheels or motorcycle handlebars. You moved some sort of vehicle that's either backlit behind the screen or stickered/printed on the screen, while a background speeds by, giving the illusion of driving. If there's a specific name for these kinds of toys, I forget them.
Back in the golden years of gaming, arcades were often more powerful than what you could get at home, even if many 70s arcade games lacked colour, unlike the Atari 2600.
I never saw one of these machines at an arcade back in the day, but I have played it through...other means (cough). I loved the fluidity of the movement, and really enjoyed the game. I do have a version for the Atari 2600, and while it isn't quite as good, it is a nice little time-waster. Fun fact: Bill Budge (who programmed the Apple II version, also created the Pinball Construction Kit for the Commodore 64 for EA, and Virtual Pinball for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis.
atari 2600 > others adds cars as obstacles and decorates the road with trees and houses that are not included in any version or arcade. The racing game in which cars deform with impacts
I didn't have night driver back in the day did it have different modes it took away the cars maybe? Early Atari 2600 games would have hundreds of different modes that would be advertised as different games on the cover
Gotta love how they call it Night Driver to hide the fact the game's all in monochrome. Even as someone who is not a big fan of Atari, they've got some genuinely good arcade games, and this is one of them. Would I go out of my way to play it nowadays? Obviously not, but without it, we'd likely have never gotten Turbo or even Pole Position.
Fyi in the arcade version you can eventually go outside the road if you keep trying and a message comes up telling you to wait for the tow truck. Also, as another guy said, the C64 version *is* by the same HAL we all know and love. They made a number of games for the C64 and VIC-20, and the VIC-20 game Star Battle has a hidden Satoru Iwata credit easter egg in it.
I still remember buying this cart for the VCS when it came out. Played it fairly often but always found the sharp zigzag pattern on the hard levels to be quite unfair. Even when creeping at the slowest speeds it's not a certainty to make it through unscathed.
@@RetroCore Thanks! Random, question (and no worries if you don't have time / bandwidth to answer). Just arrived in Tokyo for TGS this week. It's been a good 10+ years since I've been and I would normally hit up Akihabara. I know it's not worth it these days, so do you have any other recommendations (Hard Off, etc.) that would be worth the effort to go to? I'm in Roppongi Hills. Thank you @RetroCore!
IIRC Night Driver in the arcade used discrete analog circuits and wasn't really a computer game at all. The "program" was just the analog circuit algorithms that made up the "game" There was no RAM, no CPU, no code. It wasn't really much different than a Pong game and used similar methods to drive the generation of objects on the screen.
That's still very much a computer game (even an abacus counts as a computer, the term just refers to any machine used for computation), just not a digital one. Not so unusual, integrated chip microprocessors were still quite new as a commercial technology in the 1970s.
@@atomicskull6405 I don't think this is correct. It was digital and probably used an early microprocessor or discrete logic but was still a real video game but primitive. It did have memory of scores etc.
I'm not sure this is all correct I think it used digital discrete logic and video games had started to use early microprocessors around then. And it dies have memory of stuff like scores etc.
@@philmason9653 No it wasn't digital at all it was all analog circuits, I guess you could call it an analog computer of a sort but it wasn't digital. Analog games cannot be accurately emulated, because emulation would be a re creation not a true reproduction. To "emulate" analog video games requires a fairly accurate analog circuit simulator and you'd need something like Spice (which is an engineering tool used for prototyping circuit designs) to get a truly identical reproduction.
Always love to see games that are older than me (I'm 43). The plastic/vinyl overlay is interesting, makes me wonder if this was the origin of that particular kids' toy I had in the 80s which operated in a similar way with the steering wheel and scrolling "road" lol
Either the Arcade and A26 versions would be altered if both managed to be re-released on modern platforms, because the amount of *color flashes* in them are insane.
I remember a similar game in the late 80's on dos in my computer class, you didn't have a car only the track but it was very smooth, had great fun with it altho it was so basic. Thanks Mark 👍🏼
One of my first games i ever played. Or definitely first analogue controlled game. I have fond memories of this on my outcasted sisters wooden heavy 6 atari vcs... The atari version actually has kind of more goin on- cars and scenery!
The original is super impressive for 1976. It's simple but it's still doing smoother sprite scaling than most games on Sega's 8 or even 16-bit machines.
To be fair, the arcade game isn’t doing any actual digitally rendered graphics. Most early to mid 70s arcade games actually faced this same limitation too.
i can't see the Apple II road there. i know it's unofficial but it's too dark to play the C64 was the real HAL Lab who make Kirby and Super Smash Bros for Nintendo
Hello mate, hope you're well. Off topic but I used to play a game at a chippy in around 1981, it was a Space Invaders clone which I recently found out was called Omega. Spider type aliens would come down and pick up small blocks from 4 large blocks at the bottom of the screen. These little blocks would be carried up to the top of the screen and gradually spell out FIN. Once that was completed it was game over. Apparently there was a similar game called The End and that spelled End at the top of the screen. Do you know if there were any home ports of this obscure game? Cheers. Gaz.
Looks like the one you played was for the French market. There are so many games called Omega on home platforms that it would be impossible to know if one was this arcade game without some proper research I'm afraid.
That C64 game looks like 280 Zzzap on the Bally Astrocade which was their Night Driver clone. There was a nice Android version of Night Driver that had nice looking graphics but was delisted and unplayable now. Would be nice if Atari brought it back as a console game with widescreen , 80's aesthetics and nice synth wave music.
Come on Mark, I could spend a lot more than 5 minutes playing 2600 Night Driver back in the day, thanks to the box art I really felt like a night driver. By the way, the car/tire noise is really annoying in the Arcade and Apple II versions.
I can see that. It's constantly switching between the car and road. Anyone watching this video in 30fps is going to have a strange experience watching the Atari 2600 footage.
1:33 I mean, the vast majority of the games you cover are "old games"... I wonder, do you have a master list of the games you've covered somewhere? I want to see how this stacks up in terms of the oldest games you've covered, and what the newest games you've covered are.
basically an old arcade game that got away with horrible game design even for the time as 1976 is probably way too early to have a convincing videogame out of this due to obvious tech reasons hence why the game has some fond memories instead of being seen and bad game design as it did probably inspire other aspiring game programmers to make a better challenger that could take the crown...
My mother was really into this game when it was released Mark. My mother actually use to tell me she learned how to drive correctly by playing Night Driver to help her pass the physical driving exam from the Department of Motor Vehicles in order to help her receive the State license that was offered during that time period.
She always used to say that's one of the reason why she loves Atari and always thanks them for releasing Night Driver.. 8^)
Thank you for sharing this weeks video with us Mark. My mother will enjoy this for sure. 8^)
Anthony...
The rare arcade to 2600 port with improvements!
The C64 version was absolutely made by the same HAL Laboratory that would go on to work with Nintendo. Their earliest games were ports of arcade games to 8-bit home machines including Commodore PCs. There's even an unused Easter egg in their port of Galaxian for the VIC20 that credits Satoru Iwata.
Was just about to comment this myself, but you beat me to the punch. Their port of Galaxian was called Star Battle, and they also did a version of Pac-Man called Jelly Monsters, which Atarisoft later got the rights to and tweaked into their official port. They also did a port of Rally X that was later rebranded as Radar Rat Race, and even created the PCG chip for the Sharp MZ-700.
Helps that Iwata grew up with a C64
the same HAL Lab who make Kirby and Nintendo's Super Smash Bros series right?
@@solarflare9078 Not to mention he worked as an intern at Commodore Japan when very young.
@@QuanAnhAnimationMM The same company eventho most likely nobody from the early days still works there. They made a bunch of early Vic 20 and C64 games but it was always Commodore publishing them, and HAL doesn't hold the copyright of them. They belong to Commodore aka whoever owns their properties these days (that's a rabbit hole for sure).
When you think from 1976 we went from state of the art arcade machine games to working on something like a C64 only a few years later, in the home, technically more advanced but available for far less money, innovation back then was crazy exciting! And then of course HAL/Satoru Iwata's went on to work on F1 for the Famicom shortly thereafter, awesome stuff. I find the innovation in gaming from the 70s through to about 2000 the most interesting period of gaming. I still love my Switch of course :)
Yea its absolutely crazy quick how advanced computers got. Even the atari version, a machine that only came out a year after that arcade machine was released- has more things going on such as cars 🚗 houses 🏘️ and trees 🌳 on the road side.
I think machines started slowin in advancing in the 2000s or so graphics wise - example i couldn't really see much difference in xbox 360 from the OG xbox. Same when the xbone came out compared to 360... and I certainly can't see anything on the latest ones.
Awesome! Its like looking into the proto-DNA of every racing game we've seen since. The 2600 version, especially, with the addition of other cars and things on the side of the road- add a few years, technology, and development and it leads directly to Outrun or RAD Racer on the NES!
I had the luck to play with a real cabinet at the time, I'm from Argentina and I remember this circa 82 in a town on the coast during holidays
I was almost 3 years old haha. I only ever got to play the Atari version. It was fun as a kid.
Oddly, the Apple II version looks the most realistic. It could be named "Driving country lanes with headlights off when pissed simulator"
Those were the days 😊
Lol, very true 😂
I saw one or two of these cabinets at arcades back in the day but mostly I remember playing it on the 2600 with the paddle controllers. These days I have the original arcade flyer framed on my wall, since I love that artwork.
Very cool to have a classic flyer framed.
I'm always fascinated by games from the 70's. It's like the primordial ooze from which modern games spawned.
Ah, Bill Budge. That's a name I recognize. He created the early pinball game/builder for home computers that EA published titled "Pinball Construction Set". Basic, but brilliant little piece of software for Atari 8-bit, Apple 2 (the version I played a lot), C64, MS-DOS (there were separate versions for all CGA DOS machines, and a special version for Tandy 1000 that took advantage of the 16-colour graphics and the same sound generator as the GameGear), monochrome Macs, and apparently as of recent also NEC PC-88.
The original arcade reminds me of those old 1980's toys that were shaped like steering wheels or motorcycle handlebars. You moved some sort of vehicle that's either backlit behind the screen or stickered/printed on the screen, while a background speeds by, giving the illusion of driving. If there's a specific name for these kinds of toys, I forget them.
I know exactly what you mean.
Electro-mechanical. Like "Digital Derby" and Tomy Turnin' Turbo
That's pretty much what this is but in digital form instead of a rotating drum.
Back in the golden years of gaming, arcades were often more powerful than what you could get at home, even if many 70s arcade games lacked colour, unlike the Atari 2600.
I never saw one of these machines at an arcade back in the day, but I have played it through...other means (cough). I loved the fluidity of the movement, and really enjoyed the game. I do have a version for the Atari 2600, and while it isn't quite as good, it is a nice little time-waster. Fun fact: Bill Budge (who programmed the Apple II version, also created the Pinball Construction Kit for the Commodore 64 for EA, and Virtual Pinball for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis.
Very cool!
This is quite interesting. I'm amazed by how fluid the arcade is despite being a 70s game!
i like the point cloud style look of the apple 2 version
It is quite attractive dispite being rather simple.
atari 2600 > others
adds cars as obstacles and decorates the road with trees and houses that are not included in any version or arcade. The racing game in which cars deform with impacts
I didn't have night driver back in the day did it have different modes it took away the cars maybe? Early Atari 2600 games would have hundreds of different modes that would be advertised as different games on the cover
Gotta love how they call it Night Driver to hide the fact the game's all in monochrome. Even as someone who is not a big fan of Atari, they've got some genuinely good arcade games, and this is one of them. Would I go out of my way to play it nowadays? Obviously not, but without it, we'd likely have never gotten Turbo or even Pole Position.
Love my Saturday morning BotP! Another excellent video, thank you Mark!
Thanks for watching. Hoping next week's show will be a popular one.
This game is a nice classic from the 70s! It's basically doing driving lessons at midnight.
My oldest brother had this for our 2600, I loved just wrecking into oncoming traffic, otherwise the game was dull as white bread.
Fyi in the arcade version you can eventually go outside the road if you keep trying and a message comes up telling you to wait for the tow truck. Also, as another guy said, the C64 version *is* by the same HAL we all know and love. They made a number of games for the C64 and VIC-20, and the VIC-20 game Star Battle has a hidden Satoru Iwata credit easter egg in it.
I didn't know it was possible to move outside of the road in the Arcade version. That's pretty cool.
Now this what you call old school, the apple2 version has got me trippin, yes that's exactly what a trip home after a few drinks will look like lol.
I had almost completely forgotten about this game. Man the game on all versions is really hard on the ears haha
I still remember buying this cart for the VCS when it came out. Played it fairly often but always found the sharp zigzag pattern on the hard levels to be quite unfair. Even when creeping at the slowest speeds it's not a certainty to make it through unscathed.
Yeah, I found that. Also the enemy car is sometimes unavoidable.
The best part of my Friday night (don't judge)
That's a good thing in my humble opinion 😂
No one will ever judge 👍
@@RetroCore Thanks! Random, question (and no worries if you don't have time / bandwidth to answer). Just arrived in Tokyo for TGS this week. It's been a good 10+ years since I've been and I would normally hit up Akihabara. I know it's not worth it these days, so do you have any other recommendations (Hard Off, etc.) that would be worth the effort to go to? I'm in Roppongi Hills. Thank you @RetroCore!
IIRC Night Driver in the arcade used discrete analog circuits and wasn't really a computer game at all. The "program" was just the analog circuit algorithms that made up the "game" There was no RAM, no CPU, no code. It wasn't really much different than a Pong game and used similar methods to drive the generation of objects on the screen.
That's still very much a computer game (even an abacus counts as a computer, the term just refers to any machine used for computation), just not a digital one. Not so unusual, integrated chip microprocessors were still quite new as a commercial technology in the 1970s.
@@atomicskull6405 I don't think this is correct. It was digital and probably used an early microprocessor or discrete logic but was still a real video game but primitive. It did have memory of scores etc.
I'm not sure this is all correct I think it used digital discrete logic and video games had started to use early microprocessors around then. And it dies have memory of stuff like scores etc.
Yes, that's quite true. It did have some logic in that it can keep score.
@@philmason9653 No it wasn't digital at all it was all analog circuits, I guess you could call it an analog computer of a sort but it wasn't digital. Analog games cannot be accurately emulated, because emulation would be a re creation not a true reproduction. To "emulate" analog video games requires a fairly accurate analog circuit simulator and you'd need something like Spice (which is an engineering tool used for prototyping circuit designs) to get a truly identical reproduction.
Always love to see games that are older than me (I'm 43). The plastic/vinyl overlay is interesting, makes me wonder if this was the origin of that particular kids' toy I had in the 80s which operated in a similar way with the steering wheel and scrolling "road" lol
For sure. This game most definitely inspired the likes of the Tomy Turbo toy.
@@RetroCore ah, that was the name of it! thank you =D
Either the Arcade and A26 versions would be altered if both managed to be re-released on modern platforms, because the amount of *color flashes* in them are insane.
I remember a similar game in the late 80's on dos in my computer class, you didn't have a car only the track but it was very smooth, had great fun with it altho it was so basic. Thanks Mark 👍🏼
Possibly a clone of this game?
@@RetroCore yeah, i think so 😊
Never played the arcade or seen a working unit but I remember seeing in movies like Dawn of the Dead (1978).
Well spotted.
I'd have been almost 2 years old for the original release. This was constantly played on my Atari 2600.
Good to see older members on the channel.
"I was 11 months old when this was released." Just like me! 😂
We're old 😁
Wow this is a blast from the past. Now can we get a PS5 Pro Redux 8k120 with advanced Ray Tracing? ;-)
One of my first games i ever played. Or definitely first analogue controlled game.
I have fond memories of this on my outcasted sisters wooden heavy 6 atari vcs...
The atari version actually has kind of more goin on- cars and scenery!
It's not often when the VCS / 2600 version looks better than the Arcade.
@@RetroCore fer real!
I was always impressed with how the game managed to deliver a sensation of speed better than a lot of the raster effect-based racers that came later.
The 2600 version needs to be expanded to 4K and hacked to improve the car graphic to look more like the arcade. :)
People may poo-poo the original arcade version but it is *buttery* smooth.
Pretty good for a 1976 arcade game.
Fairness to the Atari version for trying to add more variation to the game.
The original is super impressive for 1976. It's simple but it's still doing smoother sprite scaling than most games on Sega's 8 or even 16-bit machines.
To be fair, the arcade game isn’t doing any actual digitally rendered graphics. Most early to mid 70s arcade games actually faced this same limitation too.
It remembers me when I've to renew my driving license 😂
i can't see the Apple II road there. i know it's unofficial but it's too dark to play
the C64 was the real HAL Lab who make Kirby and Super Smash Bros for Nintendo
😅 what about a BoP episode on Wings of Fury? I'm sure Apple II would be in better position.
I'll add it to the list.
Hello mate, hope you're well. Off topic but I used to play a game at a chippy in around 1981, it was a Space Invaders clone which I recently found out was called Omega. Spider type aliens would come down and pick up small blocks from 4 large blocks at the bottom of the screen. These little blocks would be carried up to the top of the screen and gradually spell out FIN. Once that was completed it was game over. Apparently there was a similar game called The End and that spelled End at the top of the screen. Do you know if there were any home ports of this obscure game? Cheers. Gaz.
Looks like the one you played was for the French market.
There are so many games called Omega on home platforms that it would be impossible to know if one was this arcade game without some proper research I'm afraid.
when playing night driver on atari all you can think of is "WOW! i could really be playing enduro right now!"
Enduro wasn’t a thing until 3 years later on release of that port. Back then, this was the best option at the time.
Lol, that's going to upset some Atari fans.
Such a interesting game...Nice:)
Thanks for the visit
There's a port of the game for the Atari 8bit computers from 2008.
Oh good,
the Amiga fan boys won't get mad :)
They have Lotus Esprit 2, they don't need that P.O.S.
That C64 game looks like 280 Zzzap on the Bally Astrocade which was their Night Driver clone.
There was a nice Android version of Night Driver that had nice looking graphics but was delisted and unplayable now. Would be nice if Atari brought it back as a console game with widescreen , 80's aesthetics and nice synth wave music.
Digital games, not the way of the future.
Sad how games get delisted.
A very difficult game.
Bill Budge. Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. A long time.
the commodore version sounds like me farting lol
Maybe you should see a doctor 😂
@@RetroCore hahaha i would get banned for farting!
I always mix up Night Driver and Speed Freak.
Easy to do I guess.
I remember a VIC20 port of this game
It was probably a clone. No official version is on record for the Vic-20.
That "Night Driver" title looks awfully similar to DATSUN logo🤨
Want there a game by Midway that came aite later that was changed in to a Datsun game?
Come on Mark, I could spend a lot more than 5 minutes playing 2600 Night Driver back in the day, thanks to the box art I really felt like a night driver. By the way, the car/tire noise is really annoying in the Arcade and Apple II versions.
You've certainly got will power than me 😅
To be fair, back in the very early 80s, yeah, I'd play it longer.
algorithm stuff.
I had this game for the VIC20, not sure if it was an official port
It was a clone I'm afraid. Wish I had known about it. I then could have added it to this video.
Was the arcade originally a VFD? It certainly has that kind of look to it, and probably looks way better on an original machine.
Nope, it was a good old back & white CRT.
You need to add a warning to watch it with the sound off, that was truly horrific 😁😁
Lol, I didn't realise it was so bad.
Well, that 2600 port is fast, but i think I would end up having a ruddy seizure if I attempted to actually play it.
I can see that. It's constantly switching between the car and road. Anyone watching this video in 30fps is going to have a strange experience watching the Atari 2600 footage.
I played that Atari 2600 version a LOT as a kid.
Sure there was a Vic-20 version.
Possibly there was a clone. No official version though.
i was 6 months old when this came out in the arcades I owned the 2600 version ...only enduro is better on the 2600
1:33 I mean, the vast majority of the games you cover are "old games"... I wonder, do you have a master list of the games you've covered somewhere? I want to see how this stacks up in terms of the oldest games you've covered, and what the newest games you've covered are.
This is probably one of the oldest.
To see what's been covered, check out the play list on the channel.
Night Driver is my classic on the 2600
Night Driver? More like Dark Driving.
and that kids is how the annoying racing car game noise was invented!
Man, the Apple II version is just shitting pixels down the screen
The look kinda reminds me of the Cockpit for PC-98/X68k somehow.
But it's doing it VERY FAST for an Apple II
basically an old arcade game that got away with horrible game design even for the time as 1976 is probably way too early to have a convincing videogame out of this due to obvious tech reasons hence why the game has some fond memories instead of being seen and bad game design as it did probably inspire other aspiring game programmers to make a better challenger that could take the crown...
Rotten Apple version more like.