Spotted in the Feb 2017 issue of Automobile Magazine

[RickR]

A kid playing Atari 2600 Pole Position!

 

It's an article about the newest technology in driving simulators. 

[The Professor]

That's an awesome picture! I love how nicely they represented Atari and classic video games! They present it for what it is without a mocking tone. Nice post Rick!

[RickR]

Judging by the kid's shoes, I'm going to guess this is a modern picture, but it's hard to say for sure.  If it is, it's a very impressive picture given the tube TV and the stack of games. 

[Atari Creep]

 They present it for what it is without a mocking tone. 

Amen to that.

 

Great pose Rick, thanks for sharing!!!!

[Atari Adventure Square]

Love seeing this homage to our grand-daddy console!

Makes sense to call back to the early years of driving sims with a visual reminder of where it all started.

Although the true originator of Atari driving was Night Driver, and its ingenious use of basic graphics and the natural feel of the paddle controller for steering made it a Four-Star game in that first landing of the VCS and its carts in the household.

Anybody could pick it up and start driving in an instant (and instantly start crashing with the sensitive steering) and it made for addictive gameplay.

Night Driver was the best example of why one should own an Atari VCS, next to Space Invaders.

Few people recognized the brillance of Adventure or Superman (their loss! my turn!).

 

But it makes sense to pay respect to Pole Position in this case.

Makes the evolution point more clearly by skipping the primal step (and its arcade originator and name are staples of gaming history, in general).

 

Also, I find it cool this pic involuntarily(?) pays homage to that familiar cathode ray tube apparatus which became part of our family, as well.

[Scott Stilphen]

Although the true originator of Atari driving was Night Driver, and its ingenious use of basic graphics and the natural feel of the paddle controller for steering made it a Four-Star game in that first landing of the VCS and its carts in the household.

 

Atari's Night Driver was actually a knockoff of Dr-Ing. Reiner Foerst's Nurburgring 1, as was Ted Michon's Night Racer.  Here's more info about them:

 

http://jalopnik.com/5906386/meet-the-doctor-engineer-who-basically-invented-the-modern-racing-game

 

http://weltenschule.de/vgames/Nuerburg/Nuerburgring.html

 

http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=night-racer-sit-down-model&page=detail&id=1393

[RickR]

Where does 280Zzzap fit in?

[Scott Stilphen]

The 3rd link above has a note about it:

 

"Night Racer was the only game they produced (released just before Midway's "Midnite Driver"/"280 Zzzap")."

[Atari Adventure Square]

Good stuff, Scott!

I did know that about the analog grandaddy.

Although it goes to underline how the initial games made for arcades and home markets were at times 'homages' of each other to nearly litigious extent.

Makes me think that maybe the programmers weren't too upset about keeping their names out of it, before the more creative years at Atari came about.

 

That dark background for night against bright poles for both road and speed was a simply brilliant concept for those early days of bringing kinetic energy to this medium.

Breakout's zippy paddle is another interesting contrast between slow ball (at first) and quick reflex action, which brought the system to life to any skeptic fiddling with the controls to either scoff or approve their first contact with the blessed 2600.

 

Yeah, Night Driver is tops in my book, for first round initiations on the Atari.

I'm glad Michon went ahead with a digital 'homage' for us.