Speed Freak

Arcade Video game published 46 years ago:

Speed Freak (c) 1979 Vectorbeam.

In Speed Freak you drove an extremely fast car along a lonesome road. The idea was simply to drive as fast as you can without crashing. The game was time based, you could crash as much as you wanted, but points were scored for driving as fast and as far as you could without crashing. Your view of the action was from behind the hood of the car, but slightly above what an actual driver would see, kind of like you were sitting on the roof instead of inside the car. Obstacles were mainly oncoming cars (which was always the same one), and police roadblocks. The off-road scenery was limited to stick figure cows, hitchhikers, and the occasional cactus.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : CCPU (@ 5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Samples

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 224 x 256 pixels
Screen refresh : 38.00 Hz
Palette colors : 32768

Players : 2
Control : Analog steering wheel, four-position shifter

- TRIVIA -

Released in March 1979.

Speed Freak was Larry's first game for Vectorbeam. Only 700 units were produced. The machine was available only as an upright dedicated cabinet. The cabinet was white with sticker sideart on each side that displayed the game name, and a picture of a red car. The control panel is simply black with a red and yellow stripe around it. The monitor bezel had no decoration at all, and the marquee was made of metal, and was not illuminated in any way. The game used a 19'' monochrome vector monitor.

A Speed Freak unit appears in the 1980 movie 'Midnight Madness'.

- STAFF -

Designed & programmed by : Larry Rosenthal, Dan Sunday

- CONTRIBUTE -

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