Sprint 2 is a two player overhead-view arcaderacing video game released in 1976 by Kee Games,[3] a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari, and distributed by Namco in Japan.[2] While earlier driving games had computer-controlled cars that moved along a "canned predetermined" course, Sprint 2 "introduced the concept of a computer car that had the intelligence to drive itself around the track" in "a semi-intelligent" manner.[4]
The team that developed Sprint 2 consisted of Dennis Koble, Howard Delman, and Dan Van Elderen and Lyle Rains. Both Koble and Rains do not recall who came up with the idea for the game. Rains would recall in an interview with Retro Gamer that the game was likely from Atari who wanted to release a new and improved driving game, as Gran Trak 10, Gran Trak 20, Indy 800 and LeMans games were moneymakers for Atari and its customers.[5]
The game was one of Atari's first mass-produced microprocessor based games. Rains recalled that this allowed them to make the game faster and more exciting than earlier racing games. Koble said that he had to immerse himself in 6502 programming for the game.[5]Sprint 2 was designed to be an update of the previous games, leading the team to remove unwanted features, such as driving in reverse from Gran Trak 20 as well as removing a brake pedal as stepping off the accelerator pedal was the equivalent of a brake. Other features remained such as the timer, with Rains stating that it had not occurred to the team to base the game around laps over a timer.[5]
Sprint 2 is a first racing game that introduced the concept of a computer-controlled car that had the intelligence to drive itself around the track without a canned predetermined course based on how well the player was doing.[6] Rains stated that this was his idea. To do so, he created a map of vectors to tell the computer-controlled cars which way they should drive. They would align themselves to the current vector and drive themselves around the track in a non-repeating path.[7] Koble created the graphics for the game, stating that the artists employed by Atari at the time were only making side panel and control panel artwork and were not involved with the game's creation.[7]
The game was a commercial success for Namco in Japan, where Sprint 2 was the seventh highest-earning arcade video game of 1977. It was also among the year's top four highest-earning racing video games, below Taito's Speed Race DX and Road Champion, and tied with Taito's Super High-Way.[12]
