Grand Prix (thing)

This Atari 2600 game is a very fun car racing game. You have an overhead view of the action. You race your car from left to right on a completely straight course. There is no turning. But there are lots of cars and oil slicks to dodge, (you can move up and down). This game can get going very fast, so fast that you have to dodge the other cars before they even come into view, (but that’s when it is the most fun). It will take a lot of practice to get really good at this game.

Most Atari 2600 games are pure garbage, nothing but spam in the form of little square plastic boxes. This is one of the few exceptions. This game is simple, but it is super fun. You can enjoy it for however long you wish, and then just put it away. There is nothing to learn, and no complicated controls to master. This game is essentially a clone of many different early arcade driving games, dating back to pre-video electromechanical games.

HOW TO BECOME A WORLD CLASS RACING DRIVER IN GRAND PRIX BY ACTIVISION
Tips from David Crane, designer of Grand Prix.

David Crane is an award-winning Senior Designer at Activision. His games
include Dragster, Fishing Derby, Laser Blast, and Freeway.

"Just as in a real Grand Prix race, feel and control are very important in
Grand Prix by Activision. The better you know your car and its responses,
the better you'll do.

"The more you play the game, the more keenly you'll anticipate the appearance
of other cars. To some extent, you'll be able to memorize the traffic
patterns and plan moves in advance. If you don't, the slowdown will happen
for you in the form of a crash, and you'll pay for it with a loss of valuable
time.

"The cars ahead of you have left a lot of oil on the track near the bridges,
so, when you see a lot of oil slicks, watch for bridges ahead.

"And drop me a line between races. Good Luck!"

David Crane was the programmer on this title. David's Atari 2600 titles were pure gold. He was responsible for some of the most playable games on the platform, including Kaboom! and Pitfall. Atari game collecting would actually be worthwhile if all Atari titles were as good as Crane's.

This game is valued at around $2 USD. Games with boxes and manuals are worth more. The Atari 2600 is a machine whose time has come and gone. It was an awesome machine in its day. I even had one myself. I had an Atari 5200 and an Atari 7800 as well. But technology moved on, time moved on, and as it did it surpassed the console and the games. Today there are only a handful of Atari games worth playing in a world of modern games, and thankfully this is one of them. If you are still playing Atari games then you should probably have this one. It won't bring back your childhood, it won't give you a second run at getting a spot on the 1984 Olympic team, but it is sort of fun, which makes it better than 90 percent of the Atari 2600 games out there.