Sprintmaster

Name:	Sprintmaster
Company:	Atari
Model #:	CX-26155
Programmer:	Bob Polaro
Year:	1988
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Port of the 1986 Atari Coin-Op Super Sprint

Port of the 1986 Atari coin-op Super Sprint, Sprintmaster is a simple, but fun racing game that was the blueprint for later more action oriented racing titles such as Super Off Road and Badlands Racing.  In some ways, Sprintmaster is really the spiritual successor to early racing games like Indy 500.

The concept behind Sprintmaster is pretty simple.  Pick a track, choose a computer or human opponent, press the accelerator and be the first to complete all your laps.  However the beauty of Sprintmaster lies in the multitude of options that the player can choose from.  Players can choose from nine different tracks, the number of laps (1-50), crash or bounce obstacles, type of traction, and track surface type.  All these options keep a relatively simple game from quickly becoming boring.

As you race across the track, you'll run across power ups which just happen to look like colored blocks.  These power ups have different affects depending on the color of the box.  For example ice tracks you'll want to make for the blue boxes which give extra traction, while on blacktop you'll want to pick up red boxes for extra speed.  Also keep an eye out for barriers which can appear and disappear at random on certain tracks.

Sprintmaster may not be much graphically (in fact for a late 80's release it's sort of disappointing), but it's fun and addicting gameplay more than make up for its graphical limitations.  About the only thing that could make Sprintmaster better is if it made use of the driving controllers, and thanks to a hack by Thomas Jentzsch now you can!  Sprintmaster ranks among the best racing games for the 2600.

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