San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (Arcade)

Template:Game San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing is the first game in the Rush series, released in 1996 in arcades by Atari Games. The original arcade release featured 8 cars, 3 tracks, and 6 music tracks. Unlike Atari's previous Hard Drivin' series, S.F. Rush emphasized high flying and improbable stunts and loosened the strict car physics realism of those games. An enhanced edition (marketed as a sequel) released in 1997, San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition. In 1999, a true sequel was released, San Francisco Rush 2049.

Release

The game released in arcades in 1996, shipping as green top down arcade machines.

An enhanced edition (marketed as a sequel) released in 1997, San Francisco Rush The Rock: Alcatraz Edition, increased the amount of content to 12 cars, 7 tracks, and 7 songs. Other changes were made, such as music by default in game.

The game was ported to a few 5th generation consoles, including the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation. The former had six of the seven Rush The Rock tracks available, while the latter only had the original 3 tracks and a custom fourth track. For additional info on the home releases see San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (Console).

Gameplay

San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing can be played Solo or against other drivers in head-to-head races. An emphasis on extreme mid air stunts and shortcuts reached by high jumps is a major part of the Rush gameplay.

Tracks

Players race on three tracks based on several districts of California's San Francisco city, organized by difficulty of the track.

Cars

There are eight selectable cars organized by four difficulties: Beginner, Advanced, Expert, and Extreme. The harder cars have inferior steering control but are faster. The Extreme car shows "WARNING FULL SIMULATION" when highlighted, is in a cage and when selected, the quote "It's Dangerous!" (voiced Spencer Lindsay) plays, which serves as warnings to new players that playing this car is hazardous due to its unforgiving control. However, only four manager selected cars are selectable out of the eight, with a fixed color out of eight selected by the machine manager (linked cabinets are required to have different car colors).