Rad Racer

About Rad Racer

Rad Racer (1987), known in Japan as Highway Star, is Square's NES racer from coast to coast across America, programmed by Nasir Gebelli and playable in anaglyph 3D.

Rad Racer in Depth

The player drives a "Transamerica" race from the West Coast to the East Coast, seen from behind the car. Two cars are on offer, a 328 Twin Turbo or an F1 Machine, though both perform exactly the same. Eight stages run through varied skylines and settings, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Athens, and rival cars, from Volkswagen Beetles to Ferrari Testarossas, get faster as the race goes on. The car reaches 100 km/h before a turbo pushes it to a maximum of 255 km/h, and the player can brake, steer and even change the music while driving. Hitting obstacles or other cars can send the car flipping into a crash.

Each checkpoint, marked by a chequered flag, must be reached within a time limit, adding more time or ending the course. The dashboard shows a progress bar, speedometer, tachometer, score and remaining time. Unlike Out Run, when time runs out the car coasts down to a stop before the game ends, giving five to ten extra seconds to reach the next checkpoint. Pressing Select switches on a 3D mode for players wearing anaglyph glasses, and the game also works with the Power Glove and, in Japan, the Famicom 3D System's LCD shutter glasses. Reviewers widely compared it with Out Run but praised its sense of speed.

Making Rad Racer

Square president Masafumi Miyamoto wanted to put the 3D skills of newly hired Nasir Gebelli, known for his Apple II games, to use; two programmers had just left, so Gebelli began programming it alone. Takashi Tokita, Hiromichi Tanaka and artist Kazuko Shibuya worked with him, and it was Akitoshi Kawazu's first Square game. It sold 1.96 million copies and placed eighth in Nintendo Power's player poll. Famitsu praised its speed but found it slightly monotonous, and Computer and Video Games called it "an extremely playable racing game". GameSpot's Skyler Miller later said it bore "more than a passing resemblance to Out Run" but was "more than just a clone", though its 3D effect suffered from flicker. It is considered one of the best racing games on the NES.