Vroom is a French racing game that caught attention on the Atari ST primarily for its technical execution of a pseudo-three-dimensional track, which at the time of release was among the smoothest and fastest on the platform. The development studio Lankhor had built its name precisely on elaborate engines for rendering cockpit-view driving, and Vroom further confirmed that reputation. The player races formula cars around circuits and must master cornering approaches, traction control, and battling both the clock and opponents, with the game emphasizing a feel for speed and smooth controls rather than a complex simulation of car mechanics. The player progressed through a series of championships made up of several circuits, with placements in individual races adding up to an overall ranking, giving the game longer-term motivation for repeated play.
On the Atari ST, the game was especially praised for the speed at which the track was rendered, which, thanks to an optimized engine, felt much smoother than many competing titles of similar focus. The sound accompaniment and a simple, clear menu rounded out the overall impression of a polished, if not especially extensive, package – the game relied on immediate playability and replayable runs rather than on depth of content. A data disk with additional tracks was later released, expanding the offering for players who had grown fond of the base game.
Vroom was praised in its time precisely for its technical side and smoothness, thanks to which it ranked among the best demonstrations of what the Atari ST could achieve in the pseudo-3D racing genre. It is still remembered today as a remarkable technical achievement by a European development studio, one that managed to wring a surprisingly convincing sense of speed out of limited hardware, rivaling even more powerful platforms of the time, and even years later it remains a pleasant reminder of just how far period technology could be pushed with a bit of skill.
Why play: For admirers of European studios' technical prowess — it wrung a surprisingly convincing sense of speed, comparable to more powerful platforms, out of the Atari ST's limited hardware.
Game 60 of 72 for Atari ST
