| Road Runner | |
|---|---|
 Arcade flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Atari Games Beam Software (NES) |
| Publisher(s) | Atari Games Atari Corporation (2600) Tengen (NES) US Gold (ST) |
| Director(s) | Mike Hally |
| Producer(s) | Norm Avellar Greg Rivera |
| Programmer(s) | Norm Avellar Greg Rivera |
| Artist(s) | Susan McBride Sam Comstock Mark West |
| Composer(s) | Arcade Hal Canon Earl Vickers NES Gavan Anderson Tania Smith |
| Platform(s) | Arcade,Amstrad CPC,Atari 2600,Atari ST,Commodore 64,MS-DOS,ZX Spectrum,NES |
| Release | 1985: Arcade 1989: 2600,[1] NES |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 Players |
| Arcade system | Atari System 1 |
Road Runner is a racing video game based on theWile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts. It was released in arcades byAtari Games in 1985.
The player controls Road Runner, who is chased by Wile E. Coyote. In order to escape, Road Runner runs endlessly to the left. While avoiding Wile E. Coyote, the player must pick up bird seeds on the street, avoid obstacles like cars, and get through mazes. Most of the time Wile E. Coyote will just run after the Road Runner, but he occasionally uses tools like rockets, roller skates, andpogo sticks.
Originally, the game was set to be released as aLaserDisc game, with the game's graphics being overlaid over video footage showing the road and background scenery. Whenever the player managed to outwit the Coyote - such as tricking him into running off a cliff - a sequence from one of the originalRoad Runner shorts showing that exact situation would be played.
The game was going to be released in 1984, but Atari decided to cancel the game. In 1985, the game was released byAtari Games as a traditional video game. In the released game, all of the original LaserDisc-based elements were either removed or replaced with computer-generated graphics.
One prototype cabinet of this original LaserDisc version is known to still exist, and occasionally appears at arcade collector's conventions such as California Extreme.
The background music during attract mode and 4th level is "Sabre Dance" fromGayane byAram Khachaturian, the 1st level music is "William Tell Overture" byGioachino Rossini, 2nd level music is "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and 3rd level is "Trepak" fromThe Nutcracker byPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Road Runner was ported to theAmstrad CPC,Atari 2600,Atari ST,Commodore 64,MS-DOS,ZX Spectrum, andNintendo Entertainment System. The Atari 2600 port was one ofAtari Corporation's last games for the system, being released in 1989.[1]
Like other NES games released byTengen,Road Runner was unlicensed byNintendo itself, released as an unlicensed cartridgeavoiding Nintendo's protections.
While stating that its challenging gameplay "should keep you entertained for hours on end", Gregg Pearlman ofAntic in 1988 stated that the player should control Wile E. Coyote, not Road Runner: "In the cartoons, the coyote never wins; in the game, he never loses". Pearlman stated that he had destroyed two joysticks and "acquired unbelievable cramps in my hands and arms".[2] The game was reviewed in 1988 inDragon #140 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.[3]The game went to number 2 in the UK sales charts, behindExolon.[4]
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