San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing

About San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing

San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (1996) is Atari Games' arcade racer through an exaggerated San Francisco, full of hidden shortcuts and huge jumps, which helped restore Atari's fortunes in arcades.

San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing in Depth

Races run through neighbourhoods modelled on real San Francisco locations, against a time limit extended at checkpoint gates. Each course has a fixed difficulty set by its obstacles and turns, and each car its own difficulty, speed and handling, the "Extreme" cars warning of a "full simulation" effect; transmission can be automatic or manual. Shortcuts hidden on each track, into sewers, off broken freeways and across rooftops, can gain time and places on the computer racers, or, if botched, send the player to the back. Hitting an obstacle hard enough or landing upside down makes the car explode, after which it reappears on the track, and an Abort button respawns it at will.

The original arcade game had three tracks and eight cars. San Francisco Rush: The Rock, a 1997 ROM update, added four tracks, including Alcatraz, four cars and a mirror option, and a later Wave Net version allowed online races between arcades. The Nintendo 64 port of 1997 added more tracks, hidden keys that unlock cars, a circuit mode and a Death Race in which wrecks stay on the track.

Making San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing

Atari Games unveiled Rush at the AMOA show in 1996. It was a major arcade hit and was credited as a comeback title for the company. Next Generation gave the arcade version four stars, saying its shortcuts add "a thrill of discovery not usually found in driving games". Midway ported it to the Nintendo 64 in 1997 and to the PlayStation and Windows in 1998; the PlayStation version had fewer tracks, no original music and heavier gravity. Reviews of the N64 port ranged from mixed to laudatory: critics enjoyed its shortcuts, outrageous jumps and smooth multiplayer, and GamePro joked that "the death-defying leaps will make you leave your stomach in San Francisco", but some found the brakes and analogue control weak and the soundtrack poor, while IGN said its extra modes made it feel like "a much better game designed for the home". Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA followed in 1998 and San Francisco Rush 2049 in 1999.