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Way back in the day, when bitmaps and sprites ruled the video game landscape, Sega dared to try a different tack. Although Atari's I, Robot, circa 1984, was the first arcade coin-op to utilize polygons and their Hard Drivin' (1991) followed up with a technically competent polygon racer, the technology did not catch fire until Sega's efforts in the early 90s. Polygons were the future and the company injected fresh blood into the racing genre with a game titled Virtua Racing (1992). Fast, sleek, and shiny, VR wowed arcade dwellers with its smooth visuals, refined gameplay and force-feedback racing wheel. Yu Suzuki had struck again. The premise in Virtua Racing is simple - slide behind the wheel of a formula racing vehicle, peer around at the competition and burn rubber at the color of green. The beauty of a polygon-based world lies the precision and sharpness of everything in a perfectly modeled environment. Crash into a rival vehicle or obstacle and watch as razor-like shards burst from the impact point. Screech into a turn and spot the perfectly rendered sparks ejecting from the rear of the stubby fat wheels. Even the skidmarks on the road are modeled to correspond to the tread width of each wheel. When it's time to visit the pit crew, the workers move like clockwork automatons, changing wheels and tuning the vehicle with meticulous flourishes and fine tuned fidelity. View the back cover.
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