List of Two Player 8-16 bit Versus Racing Games

[treismac]

I'm trying to compile a list of two player versus racing games for 8-16 bit systems. Any and all help is appreciated!!

Super Mario Kart- Super Nintendo
Top Gear- Super Nintendo
Stunt Race FX- Super Nintendo

Virtua Racing- Genesis
Outrunners- Genesis

R.C. Pro.Am 2- NES
Super Off Road- NES
Micro Machines- NES
Super Sprint- NES

Final Lap- Famicom

[Superman]

Super Sprint - NES
Super Offroad - NES
RC Pro Am 2 - Nes

[SparTonberry]

Final Lap - Famicom (maybe the only 2-player behind-the-car racing game on the FC/NES?)

[Leo_A]

I'm lazy but maybe I'll work a bit harder later on (Racers must compromise about 1/3 of my collection). But before someone beats me in mentioning the best one of them all, Top Gear for the Super Nintendo obviously supports two players.

You'd be much better off making a list of what 8/16 bit console racers don't have multiplayer support. A complete list for this category like you're after is going to comprise ~95% of the titles released in that genre for these consoles. The list for single player only titles on the other hand will be much shorter since multiplayer was near universal for this genre at that time unlike today where local multiplayer is a 50/50 proposition at best.

For titles lacking multiplayer, just a few arcade conversions immediately come to mind like a few 1st party Sega titles, Hard Drivin'/Race Drivin', etc. Even many releases with fancier presentations like Stunt Race FX, Virtua Racing, and the Domark titles supported multiplayer.

Edit: Add F-Zero (SNES) and Power Drive (Genesis) to that group of titles that lack a multiplayer component.

[Atarileaf]

Outrunners on the Genesis

[SparTonberry]

I'm lazy but maybe I'll work a bit harder later on (Racers must compromise about 1/3 of my collection). But before someone beats me in mentioning the best one of them all, Top Gear for the Super Nintendo obviously supports two players.

You'd be much better off making a list of what 8/16 bit console racers don't have multiplayer support. A complete list for this category like you're after is going to comprise ~95% of the titles released in that genre for these consoles. The list for single player only titles on the other hand will be much shorter since multiplayer was near universal for this genre at that time unlike today where local multiplayer is a 50/50 proposition at best.

For titles lacking multiplayer, just a few arcade conversions immediately come to mind like a few 1st party Sega titles, Hard Drivin'/Race Drivin', etc. Even many releases with fancier presentations like Stunt Race FX, Virtua Racing, and the Domark titles supported multiplayer.

Edit: Add F-Zero (SNES) and Power Drive (Genesis) to that group of titles that lack a multiplayer component.

I'd say by 16-bit multiplayer was pretty standard but I think with 8-bit single-player was common.

[Leo_A]

I'd say by 16-bit multiplayer was pretty standard but I think with 8-bit single-player was common.

It definitely was more common then than later on with the 16 bit era so I agree.

Going through the US library of racing games for the NES shows a breakdown like this. Quite a few more single player games compared to what I expected.

Single Player
Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing
Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge
Days of Thunder
Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge
Formula One: Built to Win
Mach Rider
Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing (I thought this was multiplayer like Gremlin's 16 bit racers but it's not)
Rad Racer (I could've swore that the Rad Racer series had multiplayer but they don't)
Rad Racer II
Supercars (Odd for a top down racer)

Multiplayer
Bigfoot
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat
Eliminator Boat Duel
Excitebike
Galaxy 5000: Racing in the 51st Century
Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road
Knight Rider
Micro Machines
Michael Andretti's World Grand Prix
Monster Truck Rally
Race America
Rally Bike
RC Pro Am
RC Pro Am 2
Stunt Kids
Super Sprint

Not including the two Spy Hunters, Roadblasters, and Bump 'n' Jump since while driving games, they're not really racing games (Although to be above board, I do believe that they're all single player only although I didn't fire up either Spy Hunter to confirm those two). I don't think I missed any others that might be considered racers.

Either way, hopefully that helps a bit, Treismac. I'll try to cover a few other 8/16 bit console libraries later on (And I see you added Top Gear... you can also add Top Gear 2 for the SNES/Genesis and Top Gear 3000 (Which even supports 3 and 4 person split screen multiplayer) for the SNES to your list to take care of Kemco/Gremlin's Top Gear franchise as well as Lotus Turbo Challenge and Lotus 2 R.E.C.S. for the Genesis that were direct predecessors).

[BricatSegaFan]

Moto Roader 1 and 2 on Pce.

Micro machines genesis.

Pro am racing genesis

Super skidmarks Euro Megadrive

That's all I got for now that hasn't been mentioned.

[Leo_A]

Here are the North American racers for the SuperNes. Closer than I was figuring on so I retract my earlier statement.

Single
Cyberspin
Exertainment Mountain Bike Rally/Speed Racer
ESPN Speed World
F-Zero
F1 Race of Champions
F1 Race of Champions II
Freeway Flyboys
Kawasaki Caribbean Challenge
Kyle Petty's No Fear Racing
Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing
Race Drivin'
Speed Racer in My Most Dangerous Adventures
Super Chase H.Q.
Super Off Road: The Baja
Test Drive II: The Duel


Multi
Battle Grand Prix
Biker Mice From Mars
Dirt Trax FX
F1 Pole Position
Full Throttle All-America Racing
GP-1
GP-1 Part 2
Kawasaki Superbike Challenge
Lamborghini: American Challenge
Micro Machines
Michael Andretti's Indy Car Challenge
Newman/Haas Indy Car featuring Nigel Mansell
Redline F-1 Racer
Rock 'N Roll Racing
RPM: Radical Psycho Machine Racing
Saban's Power Rangers Zeo: Battle Racers
Street Racer
Stunt Race FX
Super Mario Kart
Super Off Road
Suzuka 8 Hours
Top Gear
Top Gear 2
Top Gear 3000
Uniracers

[Leo_A]

Here's an overview of 8 bit Sega console racers across all regions.

SG-1000
-GP World (Single)
-Hang-On II (Single)
-Monaco GP (Single)
-Safari Race (Single)
-Zippy Race (Single)

Master System
-Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II (Single)
-Battle Outrun (Single)
-Buggy Run (Multi)
-Chase H.Q. (Single)
-Enduro Racer (Single)
-F1 (Multi)
-F1 Spirit (Multi)
-Fire & Forget II (Single)
-GP Rider (Multi)
-Hang On (Single)
-Micro Machines (Multi)
-Outrun (Single)
-Outrun 3D (Single)
-Outrun Europa (Single)
-R.C. Grand Prix (Multi)
-Road Rash (Multi)
-Special Criminal Investigation (Single)
-Super Monaco GP (Multi)
-Super Offroad (Multi)
-Super Racing (Single)
-World Grand Prix (Single)

I don't have a Game Gear and multicart (Are you even planning to cover handhelds?). But thanks to this resource here, I have a list of multiplayer Game Gear racers. I can't attest to its accuracy or level of completion, but it looks pretty thorough.

http://segaretro.org/Gear-to-Gear_Cable

Game Gear (Multiplayer titles only)
-F1: World Championship Edition
-GP Rider
-Micro Machines
-Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
-Sonic Drift
-Sonic Drift 2
-Super Monaco GP
-Super Monaco GP II
-Super Off Road

And here's the lineup for the Atari 7800 (If you give some more details, I can cover pre-crash systems as well if you want to cover those 8 bit platforms unless you're just using the term to reference the generation associated with the rise of Nintendo).

Atari 7800
-Fatal Run (Single)
-Motor Psycho (Single)
-Pole Position II (Single)
-Water Ski (Single)

I'll probably do Genesis/Megadrive next, TG16/PC Engine, and then Nintendo console imports to wrap up my earlier look at domestic releases. Since I lack a Game Boy multicart, I'll probably defer to someone else there although I can add F1 Race which originally was packaged with the 4 player adapter for the original Game Boy to the multiplayer list.

I have several other Game Boy racers that I can add after checking them out to confirm the presence of multiplayer, but I'm not in a position to provide a definitive look at that genre on the system.

[treismac]

Wow... You rock, Leo!! Thanks for your work, sir.

[Leo_A]

Glad to help.

Just typed up my notes from yesterday on the Genesis/Megadrive lineup. Do you want 32X and Sega CD?

Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II (Single)
Championship Pro-Am (Multi)
Chase H.Q. II (Single)
Combat Cars (Multi)
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat (Multi; Finished Prototype)
Double Clutch (Multi)
ESPN Speed World (Multi)
F1 Circus (Single)
F1 Grand Prix (Single)
F1 Super License (Single)
F1 World Championship (Multi)
Fastest 1 (Multi)
Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge (Multi)
Formula One (Multi)
Hard Drivin (Single)
Kawasaki Superbike Challenge (Multi)
Lotus II (Multi)
Lotus Turbo Challenge (Multi)
Mario Andretti Racing (Multi)
Metal Fangs (Multi)
Micro Machines (Multi)
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament (Multi)
Micro Machines Military (Multi)
Micro Machines Turbo Tournament 96 (Multi)
Newman Haas IndyCar Featuring Nigel Mansell (Multi)
Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing (Single)
OutRun (Single)
OutRun 2019 (Single)
OutRunners (Multi)
Power Drive (Single)
Quad Challenge (Multi)
Race Drivin' (Single)
Road Rash (Multi)
Road Rash II (Multi)
Road Rash III (Multi)
RoadBlasters (Single)
Rock 'N' Roll Racing (Multi)
Street Racer (Multi)
Super Hang-On (Single)
Super Monaco GP (Single)
Super Off Road (Multi)
Super Skidmarks (Multi)
Test Drive II: The Duel (Single)
Top Gear 2 (Multi)
Turbo OutRun (Single)
Virtua Racing (Multi)

[Leo_A]

Wikipedia has a list of link cable supported original Game Boy games. Here's the racers that they have listed.

Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge
Doraemon Kart (JP)
F1 Race
F1 Pole Position
Fastest Lap
Jeep Jamboree: Off Road Adventure
Micro Machines
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
Motocross Maniacs
Power Racer
Race Days
Super Chase H.Q.
Super R.C. Pro-Am
Wave Race
World Circuit Series

Can't vouch for how complete it is and it doesn't include Game Boy Color games like Top Gear Pocket which as I recall had link support. Since that provides a good starting point, l'll see if I can take care of that after all. Game Boy games should have a link icon on the front of the box so hopefully I can find a good source of boxart to quickly confirm everything.

Edit: There's at least 1 hole there. F1 Boy/Sunsoft Grand Prix clearly has a simultaneous multiplayer mode. So consider that incomplete.