Chequered Flag

Chequered Flag was released by Atari Games in 1988 as a cockpit-view take on car racing that was, at the time, one of the most technically ambitious arcade titles in the halls. The player sits behind the wheel of a formula car and, using scaled sprites, watches oncoming and overtaken cars on a winding track weaving through mountain scenery, tunnels, and stands full of spectators.

The sprite-scaling technology that Atari had already refined on earlier racing machines gave a sense of smooth speed and depth without the real 3D graphics that wouldn't spread through arcades until a few years later. The player chose between automatic and manual transmission, which set the game apart from simpler competing racers and added a layer of strategy when entering corners and shifting on straights, where lost seconds against rival cars on the track could be made up.

Although Chequered Flag never reached the fame of earlier Atari racers like Pole Position or Hard Drivin', it remains a showcase of how late-eighties arcade machines simulated the speed and tension of formula racing before the arrival of true polygonal 3D graphics transformed the genre beyond recognition a few years later. The cabinet also offered a seat resembling a race car cockpit and a steering wheel with force feedback, which further heightened the sense of immersion in the drive and set it apart from the simpler tabletop variants of the same machine intended for smaller arcades.

Why play it: Chequered Flag is an interesting probe into scaled-sprite technology and manual transmission from the era before the rise of 3D racers.