#Handheld drag racing game how to#
#Handheld drag racing game manual#
#Handheld drag racing game tv#

He built a proof of concept with a blip moving on an LED display without using a microprocessor to get approval from Mattel for further development. He designed the gameplay for Mattel Auto Race, inspired by auto racing games found in video arcades in the 1970s. Klose, a product development engineer at Mattel, came up with the concept of repurposing standard calculator hardware to create a handheld electronic game using individual display segments as blips that would move on the display.

#Handheld drag racing game manual#

The manual assigns ratings to completion times: Time in seconds The player's car has four gears and the higher the gear, the faster the other cars come at it. The goal is to beat the game with the shortest time possible before the 99 seconds given (as high as the two-digit timer can show) are up. If hit by a car, the player's vehicle keeps moving back towards the bottom of the screen until it gets out of the other car's way. The player must make it to the top of the screen 4 times (4 laps) to win, but, while making it towards the top, the player must swerve past other cars using the switch at the bottom of the system to toggle among three lanes. The player's car is represented by a bright blip (a vertical dash sign) on the bottom of the screen. Auto Race was cloned in the Soviet Union as Elektronika IER-01.

#Handheld drag racing game tv#

The design was tweaked into multiple other handhelds, including Missile Attack (1976), which became Battlestar Galactica Space Alert (1978) as a tie-in with the Battlestar Galactica TV series, and Ski Slalom (1980). A second control shifts gears from 1-4, with the speed increasing for each.Īuto Race was followed by other successful handheld sports games from Mattel, including Football and Baseball which were both programmed by Lesser. Opponent vehicles move toward the player, in an effect similar to vertical scrolling, and the player must avoid them. Klose based the game on 1970s racing arcade video games and designed the hardware, with some hardware features added by Mark Lesser who also wrote the 512 bytes of program code.įrom a top-down perspective, the player controls a car on a three-lane track and moves between them with a switch. Using hardware designed for calculators and powered by a nine-volt battery, the cars are represented by red LEDs on a playfield which covers only a small portion of the case. Mattel Electronics Auto Race was released in 1976 by Mattel Electronics as the first handheld electronic game to use only solid-state electronics it has no mechanical elements except the controls and on/off switch. see picsBattery compartment very clean Minor scuffs and scratches (see pics a little of the chrome scratched off on front)Buttons are all tightAlso comes with a one page Kenner Electronics booklet Stock Funny Car Modified Top Fuel Mode Needs 2 9volt batteries.not included $12.1976 video game Mattel Electronics Auto Race

#Handheld drag racing game how to#

ha ha Go to Youtube to see how to operate.(need to put in gear and press start to start the Christmas tree) Game works great. still bright colors and displays wellGame is in excellent condition.very loud.wife says Too loud. box has tape on bottom Box has a tear on one side but no flaps are missing.

see picsBattery compartment very clean Minor scuffs and scratches (see pics a little of the chrome scratched off on front)Buttons are all tightAlso comes with a one page Kenner Electronics booklet Stock Funny Car Modified Top Fuel Mode Needs 2 9volt batteries.not included $12.00 Shipping1980 Kenner redline electronic drag racing game original.dragster game Comes with box. 1980 Kenner redline electronic drag racing game original.dragster game Comes with box.