Road Blasters
1987 · Racing / Shooter · Arcade
Overview
Road Blasters (1987) is Atari's armed driving game: blast enemy cars along 50 rallies, collecting fuel globes and special weapons to keep going.
Deep Dive
Road Blasters puts a weapon-equipped car on a road stretching to the horizon, shooting enemy vehicles and mines while fuel runs down. Collecting fuel globes keeps the run alive, and power-ups dropped from above add attachments such as the UZ Cannon and Nitro Injector. Fifty rallies of increasing difficulty gave players a long campaign by arcade standards. It was one of Atari Games' last big driving hits.
Developer Story
Road Blasters was developed by Atari Games in 1987. Players drove an armed car through 50 levels of increasingly difficult traffic and enemies, collecting fuel to continue. The game used a combination of sprite-scaled graphics and a fixed horizon to create a convincing sense of speed. It was one of the last major games developed at Atari before the company's decline.
Did You Know?
- Road Blasters offered 50 levels — an unusually large amount for an arcade game, designed to give location operators weeks of sustained play.
- Fuel management was central — missiles and bombs from enemy aircraft reduced fuel, while refuelling cars provided it back.
- The weapon attachment system — collecting UZ Cannons and Nitro Injectors that attached to the car — gave the game a customisation element.
- The game's forced perspective road was a technical achievement using Atari's hardware to maintain frame rate across 50 distinct environments.
Sources & further reading
- RoadBlasters — Wikipedia
