There are only a handful of household names that continue to linger from the Bronze Age of videogames. While Richard Garriott is rightfully labeled as the grandfather of role-playing games, and Peter Molyneux gets credit for creating the God game, no one immediately comes to mind when faced with the question: who pioneered the racing game? I've always had an answer that is usually met with a quizzical look: Geoff Crammond.

While Crammond wasn't the first designer to create a racing game, he was the first to add a sense of realism by incorporating dynamic physics. It's no wonder, considering Geoff has a degree in physics, something that was more of an influence on his game design than his self-professed ambivalence towards the racing genre.

The Early Years

Geoff's first game was Super Invaders, released for the BBC Micro way back in 1982. As the name suggests, it was a Space Invaders clone that brought nothing in the way of innovation, but it did serve the purpose of cutting his teeth on a young industry.

With a clone of a popular arcade game safely under his belt, Geoff soon released his next product in 1983. Named Aviator, it was a flight-simulator that put players in the cockpit of a Spitfire, allowing virtual pilots to fly over a vector landscape and under bridges, with intermittent alien attacks thrown in for good measure. Aviator may not have looked like much, but for the time it was a major breakthrough. Featuring superb physics and flight modeling, Aviator offered just enough serious gameplay to merit interest from the hardcore crowd, and enough goofy elements to keep casual players involved. When one considers that subLOGIC had already been releasing crude flight simulators (that would later be purchased by Mircosoft) since 1979, it was no wonder Geoff shifted gears into a new genre that had little to no competition: racing.

Revving Up

Geoff's first foray into racing was REVS, released for the BBC Micro in 1984 and later ported to the Commodore 64. REVS, like Aviator, used realistic physics to enable the game to play more authentically than, say, Pole Position, which was an arcade game at heart. REVS was different. It showed sign of the greatness to come, using subtle undulations in the road to heighten realism, as well as pioneering the use of AI drivers with unique personalities. Perhaps more importantly, REVS introduced the concept of a driving aid, allowing casual players to compete by taking note of visual cues that helped one adjust speed for tight corners. This is something we've seen in just about every racing game since.

REVS shipped with only one track, but the following year saw Geoff releasing one of the first expansion packs for an existing game, yet another innovation that would be used for years to come by the entire industry. Unfortunately, the concept of expansion packs has all but disappeared, as now most publishers would rather you pony up the big bucks once a year for minor enhancements.

The Sentinel

In 1986, Firebird Software released Geoff's next game, The Sentinel. The Sentinel is considered one of the greatest games of all time and more often than not appears on Top 100 Games lists, usually in reverence to its original gameplay and atmospheric graphics. Any attempt to accurately describe what The Sentinel is will meet with failure. It's one of those games that finds words next to useless. You just have to experience it. I came across a quote in one of the first reviews of The Sentinel that pretty much sums up the feeling. From Zzap64 Magazine, 1986:

“I can't comprehend how Geoff Crammond conceived this game. It is an immaculate conception. 100% original. It is unique. There has never been a game like it and there never will be. The only valid comparison I can make is that The Sentinel is the computer game equivalent of chess. It's a timeless classic which will spawn many an imitation, none of which will be in the same league. The look of the chess pieces and board can be changed, but the game always remains the same. The nature of the game can be altered, but not improved upon. One word of warning, though: The Sentinel is such an unusual concept it will not be appreciated by everyone who experiences it. It will only appeal to those who truly appreciate its qualities, And then it grabs you so hard it's frightening to think it might never let go. But then, who cares when you get hooked by something as mind blowing as this.”

That's about right.

Fortunately, there are quite a few clones of The Sentinel on the Internet that will give you a pretty good idea as to what the game was all about. A Flash-based version of Sentinel can be found here, while a nifty downloadable version can be had here.

As usually happens with games like The Sentinel, it turns out to be too innovative and different for its own good. Sales were lackluster even though reviews were overwhelmingly positive. Ultimately, it was considered a great experiment in game design that didn't connect with the gaming public.

Start Your Engines

After a three year hiatus, Geoff Crammond returned to the world of physics and racing with one of my personal favorites, Stunt Car Racer, originally released for the Amiga in 1989. Stunt Car racer was just unadulterated fun with zero pretense towards realism. You essentially drove a funny car on a roller coaster track, flying over mammoth jumps while competing against ruthless AI that loved to push you over the edge, both figuratively and literally. There were tons of tracks on offer that just got more wild the further you advanced. Even better was the ability to hook up two Amiga's for some multiplayer action. Stunt Car Racer was one of the first game to allow this ability and my brother and I broke countless Amiga joysticks trying to beat one another.

In 1992, Geoff Crammond brought all his powers to bear on Formula One Grand Prix, known as World Circuit in the USA. Everything he had learned throughout his career converged to create a racing game like none other. Fifteen years later, racing games all parrot the innovations of F1GP.

F1GP delivered the most realistic physics yet seen in a game, accompanied by great graphics and customizable assets that allowed players to edit F1 teams and, more importantly, tweak the settings of your race car. F1GP also boasted expertly rendered tracks that were based on actual locations, further increasing the sense of realism. Borrowing from his earlier work on REVS, Crammond included a much better driver-assist feature, allowing player to employ throttle and brake assist, as well as a novel visual indicator that recommended a gear for the next turn. Add to this impressive list a range of camera angles from which to watch the action, the ability to jump to any car and hot-seat multiplayer, and you have a game that both broke and invented all the rules for every racing game to come.

F1GP was a mammoth hit and ultimately spawned three more sequels, the last of which was released in 2002 with Grand Prix 4. While the later titles were graphically superior, they weren't the innovative games that had come before, just more of the same with a prettier face...and a ton of bugs.

That was the last we heard from Geoff Crammond. There was talk in 2003 that Crammond would return to Stunt Car Racer for a welcome sequel, but this fell through when the game studio involved closed its doors.

We can only hope Crammond return to the world of racing and brings his talents to the latest generation of consoles and high-end PCs. Better yet, I'd love to see Geoff go the route of Sentinel and bring gamers a new experience. Now more than ever, we need something new and innovative. And Crammond is the man to deliver.