Virtua Racing

Virtua Racing is the game that introduced the world to 3D polygon arcade racing - and to the Model 1 board that made it possible. Yu Suzuki's AM2 built a Formula 1-style racer out of flat-shaded triangles at a time when every other driving game was sprite-scaled, and the first time you crested the banked curve of the Big Apricot track and saw the city unfold in real 3D, the future was simply there.

It began life as a tech demo and outgrew it: three views (F1 cockpit-ish, Indy rear,stock rear) switched by button press, three courses of increasing difficulty, and pit-stop strategy in the Grand Prix course - details that made it a game, not a showcase. It was expensive to run (the hardware cost was real) but it reset every competitor's roadmap, directly leading to Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA and the polygon era at large. The Genesis couldn't hold it (its SVP cartridge version remains a curiosity), but the Saturn and Model 2-era ports preserved it. Racing games before Virtua Racing and after it are effectively different genres.

• ▸The first polygon 3D arcade racer, on Sega's Model 1 hardware
• ▸Three switchable camera views per car, live mid-race
• ▸Three courses with a genuine pit-stop strategy layer
• ▸Up to 8 linked cabinets for full-grid multiplayer