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This column really is turning into patronizing drivel about how youngsters today don't know they're born, and how their elders and betters really have seen it all before. More to the point, it's a column that goes the extra mile to prove this is exactly the case. Otherwise I'd be an ignorant old curmudgeon, but I'm not - and here's yet more evidence why.

One of my favourite franchises that has graced Nintendo systems since way back in the 90s and the SNES is Mario Kart. You can keep the ultra realistic tuning science that titles such as Forza or to some degree PGR offer, sometimes I just want to fly round a completely ridiculous looking environment and fire banana skins at people ok?

But this wouldn't be a retro column without the obligatory 'it's all been done before' angle now would it?

Just like tv shows from the 50s, video games used to be in black and white - or monochrome, and Atari's Sprint was no exception.
Originally released in two flavours - Sprint 1 and Sprint 2 - the number designated the amount of players each unit could entertain, rather than indicating a sequel and prequel.

And this being the 70s, Sprint was certainly not presented in 3D. The cabinet sported one or two giant steering wheels, or at least they
looked huge to this particular pre-teen, and action was very much of the overhead variety. A set of perhaps a dozen tracks, outlined by
white dots, each player steered a car around the track. Where the Mario Kart comparison comes in, admittedly in a very primitive manner, is in the form of oil slicks and wrenches. Colliding with an oil slick obviously sent the player into a spin, and picking up wrenches provided a temporary speed boost.

But the Mario Kart comparisons don't end there. One of the biggest draws of the Nintendo classic was its four player option. Sprint had this beat, offering in one particular iteration a whole 8 player version (Sprint 8, obviously). Of course its enormous unit size meant it needed a whole arcade to itself - but still - 8 players!!!

Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous, even if development had advanced far enough for Sprint 8 to offer actual colour graphics. And so the series wasn't revisited until 1986, where "Championship Sprint" was slimmed down to two players and obviously given it was a almost decade since the original was released, it had vastly improved graphics. But Atari still saw value in multiplayer action and offered a third steering wheel with CS's sequel "Super Sprint". If you ask me, championship sounds a little more important than super, but there you go. This next generation of Sprint titles brought trickier tracks, and the introduction of the temporary short cut, with gates opening up for short moments at a time to provide a skilled driver to gain advantage over the field, though it was perilously easy to miscalculate and be set back even further than if you hadn't taken the risk in the first place.

So sure, no tortoise shells, no banana skins. In fact no weapons at all. But the premise and precedent for console kart racing had most definitely been set. Mario Kart, as polished and evolved as it was, really had been done before. So much so I'm actually considering opening up the floor here and asking whether or not you think I can't actually trace the lineage of any so-called original modern day title back to the golden era of gaming. Go on, challenge me.

About G4 in Canada
G4 Canada (formerly TechTV Canada) launched in September 2001. G4 is the one and only television station that is plugged into every dimension of games, gear, gadgets and gigabytes. Owned Rogers Media Inc., the channel airs more than 24 original series. G4 is available on digital cable and satellite. For more information, see www.g4tv.ca.

Tech News on G4

Before Mario Kart there was Sprint!

January 17, 2008

By Andy Barratt - G4 Canada