Original Release: Sega, 1981, Arcade
A simple 2D racer that pre-dates Sega’s Super Scaler games
Turbo (Arcade, Sega, 1981)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Sega eventually became a big name in racing games when Yu Suzuki pioneered the “Super Scaler” graphics system with Hang-On, but they had a few more modest efforts before that. Most of these came in a string that spanned the late 70s into the early 80s, and I think Turbo was the last of them before they essentially put the genre on pause for a few years until Yu came along.
It’s a “slot racer” in the vein of Night Driver and most of the other arcade racing games in this period, where the challenge isn’t so much in free driving and keeping on the course as it is in shifting around to dodge oncoming cars. Turbo adds the twist of the 30 other cars on the track with you remaining constant in memory, however, meaning they can also come back from behind you … some random ambulance also occasionally comes up the center of the screen and tries to run you over.
The racing action is mid, typical of the period, but those weren’t its big selling points. The first was that it was released in a full sit-down cabinet in the style of Sega’s later racing games (as an option, stand-up was also available). The second is the wide variety of shifting terrain, the visual hook to keep you playing. You’ve got an early approximation of rolling hills, bridges, tunnels, night sequences, snow sequences where your handling becomes appropriately more sludgy, you name it. The shifts between these segments are very abrupt, suddenly you’re just in them, but to the game’s credit it maintains all the positions of the other cars as you go.
Is it still any fun to play? Eh … it’s OK given period-appropriate expectations, but emulation on MAME gives you overly touchy steering out of the box and would probably require a little fiddling to make the control tolerable. MAME also seems to get the sound a little tinny, and older versions don’t have it at all.
Links
Videos
Actual stand-up cabinet in action