What is a correct term to name Lotus , Outrun type of games?
 

I mean it is racing game, but how to name genre? Based on sprite scaling and mathematical drawing road like in Jaguar, Crazy Cars, Lotus or Road Rash. Is it pseudo 3d? Or 2.5 dimensions? What is the name of procedure used to drawing road?

3rd person racing games….not much else to take apart.

Just calling them 3rd person racing games will normally do, but Super Sprint type games are also third person. 2.5D feels right, although someone more technical than me will have to explain exactly what the final 0.5D is, and what the missing 0.5D is. Maybe it should be "road moving backwards" games, as once you look really closely that's actually what's happening (although the good ones disguise it pretty well).

Super Sprint should fall into the overhead racing games genre. 2.5D could be anything and not clear enough description imo.

Sprite-scaling racing games, I'd say. Since that is the primary differentiation point from true 3D racers

Pseudo 3D racers will net you a lot of relevant search results, that's for sure.

it should be "Racing" and subgenre "Car".

Kind of depends how you want to classify it...
I generally just call what I think of those type of games, "Pole Position style" as that's the game that I think defines them to me.

I mean, I could go back as far as Night Driver, but I think that's a bit too far back and there's no scenery in the distance... The big difference being that in Night Driver (at least the arcade version), the perspective is supposed to be from inside the car... First person. It's tougher to tell with the 2600 version, but I think that is still the case... ;-)

Pole Position, it was obvious the camera position was behind the car...

If I am looking for a differentiator between Pole Position and the Outrun/Hang on type games, other than just more advanced graphics, I suppose I'd go to the checkpoint system for continued gameplay...
I think that might be what I would clarify as an Outrun-style game. ;-)

I've always gone with pseudo 3d for these sorts of racing games (I think sprite scalers is a red herring on the Amiga as most of the games done scale the sprites like they do in the arcade but use pre-rendered scaled sprites). This page is my bible:

http://www.extentofthejam.com/pseudo/

Those are "Driving" games, not "Racing Games" :D

The classic Form; (Pole Position, Outrun, Lotus, ect) , would be called something like "Horizon Chasers".

You are always drive towards the Horizon; chasing it ... ; but never reach it ...
Thats why this is the perfect name for this game :spin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNL3RhmXPh4

It even has music from Barry Leitch, and Music tracks from the Lotus / Top Gear Serie :)

Its great :agree

Real 3D games use 3D vertex matrice data to generate 3D mesh and apply texture transformations on them and lighting, etc. 2.5d games like doom does not have vertex mesh but do have textures and sprites. These car games cannnot be either 2.5d or 3D. These are purely 2D games with perspective speite scaling

By that same point then, no game ever made is true 3D, as it doesn’t protrude from my TV/monitor! :laughing

We could also argue the reverse, then: every game is 3D because there's always a front, a back, an up, a down, a behind, a forefront, etc... ;)

I happen to agree with oscar_ates: these games are 2D racing games. That's it.

The 2.5D description is a little off, given that 2.5D games in general are 2D games in a 3D world. That type of racing game are more pseudo-3D. They're not fully 3D because you can't rotate the view in any way - the engine has no concept of facing directly across the track for example, which differentiates it from 3D racers like F1GP. But calling them 2D racers doesn't work either because they're trying to simulate 3D instead of just presenting a 2D view. For example, Super Cars, Micro Machines and Roadkill are all 2D racing games.

Well, this is a fun thread. I never thought there would be so much diversity in how people classify this genre of game.

For my part I like driving games or racing games as an overall category. Where it gets complicated is the sub genres, but it does not have to.

If we think of the sub genres as tags, a game could belong to multiple genres at the same time. If we think of how many games approach driving, it kinda sets us free to get really specific.

@megalomaniac you asked what 2.5D is. Well in the animation industry in which I work, 2.5D refers to working in 3D space with only flat 2D objects. Think of it as moving flat cards around. They can rotate like any 3D object could, but at some point it becomes obvious that it is flat. Sometimes that is a look one is going for, but most often not.

@fxgogo

For me, your definition of 2.5D would be defined as Pseudo-3D. As I understand 2.5D is a complete 3D environment with 3D objects but movement is restricted only to 2 dimensions.

Top-down 2D racing video games .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_game

Hi @mailman, I have also heard of that definition, but only from video game fans. That is called fixed perspective 3D or fixed camera 3D in the animation industry. Language is a living thing. Neil from RMC remarked on the TWIR podcast this weekend how the young kids who come to his museum call the old games we all love ‘pixel games’.

I wonder what they will call them in 200 years?

Doesn’t really help a blind person when trying to describe it!

Matters not if its 2D or 3D, 3rd person (from behind the car), 1st person (inside the car) and overhead (above the car) covers all the modes without going into technical abilities.

Top-down would refer to a literal overhead view, like Supercars. Even that article has Outrun in the Pseudo-3D category.