Speed Freak

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Speed Freak
Developer(s)	Vectorbeam
Publisher(s)	Vectorbeam
Designer(s)	Larry Rosenthal
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release	March 1979[1]
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single-player
Arcade system	Vectorbeam hardware

Speed Freak is a monochrome vector arcade game created by Vectorbeam in 1979. Along with Atari, Inc.'s Night Driver and Bally Midway's Datsun 280 ZZZAP–both from 1976–it is one of the earliest first-person driving games and the first such game known to use vector graphics.^[2]

The game is a behind-the-wheel driving simulation where the driver speeds down a winding computer-generated road past other cars, hitchhikers, trees, cows and cacti. Occasionally a plane will fly overhead towards the screen. One must avoid crashing into these objects and complete the race in the allotted time.^[3] The player can crash as many times as he wants before the time runs out and players were treated to two different crash animations. The first was a simple cracked windshield effect, the second was a crash where the car explodes into car parts that fly through the air.^[4]

Sources

• "Speed Freak: The [Coin-Op] Arcade Video Game". Gaming History. 2009-08-28. Retrieved 2014-12-27.
• Speed Freak: Operation and Maintenance Manual (PDF). Union City, CA: Vectorbeam. 1979.
• Wolf, Mark J. P. (2008). The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to Playstation and Beyond. Westport, CT: Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-33868-7.
• Yu, Andrea (2002-01-24). "Pedal To The Metal: From arcade classics' sparse graphics to today's lifelike games, racing titles have come a long way". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2014-12-27.

• Speed Freak at the Killer List of Videogames
• Speed Freak at the Arcade Flyer Archive