Atari / Namco F-1 1976 arcade game

[btbfilms76]

I remember playing this in the arcades that lined the street at Geneva on the lake, a summer resort we would frequent on our vacations.  

At the beginning of the street the arcades housed all the older pinball and electro magnet type games, I can still remember the smell of melted plastic and burn metal.  The end of the block housed the newest games around Space Harrier, Hang on, the newest of the new. 

 

But check the mechanics of this cabinet - its wild. 

[The Professor]

At first I confused this with TX-1 until I watched the video. Is this your arcade machine BTB?

[btbfilms76]

No not mine. Just a memory. It's my understanding that a lot of these melted or worse yet caught fire. Something about bulbs burning up the plastic components.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

I remember this game.  Now that I seen the mechanics I was like, "Wow."  It's amazing it worked at all.  But it makes sense why they caught fire since the materials used looked closer related to movie projectors.  So the bulbs get hot, the heat gets absorbed by the plastic "film", film gets too hot and ignites.  So good concept and idea but also a fire hazard at the same time.  Still cool to see and it did work...for a while.

[AtariHero]

I've never had the pleasure of seeing an F-1...it's another rarity. I have come across various EM games that pretended to be video games however and I really find the ingenuity to make them work fascinating. Too bad they are generally enormous  and I'm not quite technical enough to figure out how to fix them. Otherwise I wouldn't mind having a couple in my arcade.

[Atari Creep]

OH MAN!!!! I remember playing this one. Fun fact: If memory serves, this game was in the original Dawn of the Dead!!!!!!

[RickR]

OH MAN!  I totally remember this game.  This was a great time when new ideas were being green-lit.  Pushing the envelope. 

 

The thing I remember about this game was how fragile it seemed.  It didn't quite work right...crash detection could get off pretty easily.  So as great as the game looked, the play was a little bit random.  But I totally loved this game just for how cool it looked.  That and 280Zzzapp! really made an eight year old feel like he could really drive. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

OH MAN!  I totally remember this game.  This was a great time when new ideas were being green-lit.  Pushing the envelope. 

 

The thing I remember about this game was how fragile it seemed.  It didn't quite work right...crash detection could get off pretty easily.  So as great as the game looked, the play was a little bit random.  But I totally loved this game just for how cool it looked.  That and 280Zzzapp! really made an eight year old feel like he could really drive. 

 

Well...I remember playing the 280 and wasn't really good at it.  Then Mom bought a Datsun 280Z, later followed by a 280ZX, one of which I would get later in life, and flashbacks of that game came to mind.  I agree, the 280ZZZapp!  game was loads of fun!

[RickR]

That's why Night Driver was one of the first VCS games we got!

[Scott Stilphen]

No not mine. Just a memory. It's my understanding that a lot of these melted or worse yet caught fire. Something about bulbs burning up the plastic components.

 

That's the first I've heard of that.  Several games back then used the same basic components and were nothing more than fancy projectors.  Chicago Coin's Speedway was another.  I have an F-1 and there's nothing to catch fire and burn up inside it.  The projection cabinet is metal and the seat is metal and fiberglass.