Cruis'n USA was a part of the 3D renaissance in 90s arcades, when more powerful arcade hardware was still able to outperform the growing console and PC market, and featured relatively realistic 3D graphics along with a sit-down driving experience. Developed initially outside of Midway by Eugene Jarvis's team before moving inside the company, the game was part of an ill-fated deal with Nintendo that had the game claiming to run on Nintendo hardware, but the subsequent Nintendo 64 port failed to capture the arcade thrills. As recounted in the 2020 documentary Insert Coin, the game was seen as a more casual (and thus derided) experience, but it became popular with women gamers and outperformed competitor Sega racer Daytona USA in sales.

Mystic Marathon is one of Williams' more obscure titles, released only as a conversion kit during the mid-80s downturn in arcade popularity, but that's all the more reason to give it try. The game pits you against other gnome-like creatures in a footrace across a series of islands, dodging both obstacles and various woodland creatures determined to slow you down (despite the game's title, it's actually more of a sprint). Unfortunately the MAME emulation of Mystic Marathon is inaccurate, causing the sky and water to look purple and the rocks to look pinkish (it still plays well despite this). We painstakingly restored the original bezel art and 3D rendered a control panel, to reproduce the original cabinet experience as faithfully as possible.

One of the earliest arcade racing games, Night Driver uses simple graphics to create a challenging racing experience. Though its visuals consist only of white rectangles moving around on the screen, it effectively creates the feeling of careening around the tight turns of a race track (the idea of setting the race at night, so the track is visible only by roadside reflectors, was a clever way around technical limitations). The Night Driver cabinet used fully-functional driving controls, with a realistic wheel and four-speed shifter, which we reproduced faithfully to bring you back to those mid-70s arcades you used to haunt (or your older brother did).

Developed by Namco and manufactured by Atari in North America, Pole Position brought arcade driving realism to new heights when it appeared in arcades in 1982. Simulating a Formula 1 race on Japan's Fuji Speedway, the game featured numerous innovations, including lifelike sprite-scaling graphics and a realistic, shifting perspective, in addition to being the first game to focus its race on a well-known real-life track. Appearing in both upright and seated formats, Pole Position's flashy visuals and iconic (if somewhat muffled) "Prepare to Qualify" speech synthesis were an unmistakable part of the sights and sounds of early 80s arcades, and remain popular to emulate today.

Following the success of Pole Position, Namco and Atari returned with its successor Pole Position II, which added three new tracks in addition to Fuji Speedway: Japan's Suzuka Circuit, a "Test" track similar to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and "Seaside," which is similar to the 1982 Grand Prix West circuit in Long Beach, CA. Released as an upgrade kit for Pole Position cabinets, the sequel didn't change a lot else, though it does include new music, a different color scheme, new billboards and the addition of flying debris when you crash. That didn't stop Pole Position II from being a huge hit, and it is still considered one of the most important racing games of the 80s.

The first Looney Tunes arcade game, Road Runner gives players control of everyone's favorite speedy bird as he tries to outrun disaster-prone Wile E. Coyote, grabbing birdseed as he races through a series of increasingly twisty desert roads. The game travelled a rocky road of its own on the way to release, starting out as a much cooler laserdisc-based game with animated cutscenes and superior graphics, only to initially blow up like so much ACME brand dynamite before finding its way to the System 1 with a somewhat downsized vision. The original cabinet used a "hall effect" joystick that controlled both speed and direction, which is best emulated on MAME with an analog joystick, though it can be played with a standard 8-way stick as well, with less control.

Check out the rest of the Atari System 1 games on the theme pack page.

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The last of the Atari System 1 games to be released, RoadBlasters puts players in a surprisingly colorful dystopian future death race, blasting other cars and picking up fuel orbs while grabbing air-dropped weapon upgrades. The original steering wheel controller was essentially a one-axis Star Wars yoke, and its limited turning radius makes it somewhat challenging to emulate on MAME. A yoke-style controller is ideal and a 270-degree steering wheel may offer similar control, though without the buttons. You may also get acceptable results with a dial, trackball, or analog joystick, and you can even play it with a standard 8-way joystick with the right settings. Even if you don't have the optimal setup, it's worth a try!

Check out the rest of the Atari System 1 games on the theme pack page.

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