Dragster, released in 1980 for the Atari 2600, is the first video game developed by Activision. It was programmed by David Crane, who later wrote Pitfall! The object of the game is to either beat the player's opponent across the screen, or to race against the clock for best time, depending on the settings used. Dragster is an unauthorized adaptation of the 1977 Kee Games coin-op Drag Race.
Select game with game select switch. Game 1: Straight-ahead Dragster, one or two players. Game 2: Steerable Dragster, one or two players. The player's Joystick Controller is both the clutch and gear shift for his Dragster the red button is his gas pedal. Use left Joystick for the top car right one for bottom car. Hold Joystick with button in upper left. To shift gears, CLUTCH by pushing Joystick to the left and SHIFT by letting the Joystick spring back to the center. The player gives his Dragster gas by pressing the Joystick button. His car then starts each race in neutral (N). There are four gear positions - 1,2,3,4 - and the player must clutch and shift between each gear. He cannot downshift. Press game reset or push Joystick to the right to start each race. The race starts with a new countdown and both cars in neutral. When the countdown reaches 0, the player is allowed to start. If the player drops into gear too soon, before the end of the countdown, EARLY will appear on the screen and the player have to wait for the next race. The player can clutch during the countdown, but he cannot drop into 1st until 0.
The tachometer (tach) shows how fast that the player's engine is turning over. A dark green line that starts at the left side of his television screen for each can and turns red at about the middle is his tach. When it turns red, the player are in the high power - but danger!- area. The player will find that he get his best speed in each gear by red-lining his tach close to the maximum . But watch out! If the player revs his engine too much, it will blow. So be careful. Once the player blows his engine, the race is over for him . The way to build maximum speed is to quickly clutch shift and accelerate through all four gears with maximum power at each gear level.
Once the player starts shifting gears, he can't downshift. But if the player shifts too soon, his engine will lug (work heavily); he will accelerate slowly and lose some time. It's tricky and takes practice, but the player's patience and perseverance will be rewarded with good times.
More details about this game can be found on
Wikipedia.org.
Find digital download of this game on
GOG
or
Steam.
Videogame Console:
This version of Dragster was designed for Atari 2600, which was commercially very successful video game console of second generation produced by Atari from 1977 to 1992. It was the first console that used removable memory modules with games. At the time of its greatest fame, more than 30 million units of this console were sold for about $ 200 a piece. To date, the game library for this console contains nearly 1,000 original games. More information about the
Atari 2600 can be found here.
Recommended Game Controllers:
You can control this game easily by using the keyboard of your PC (see the table next to the game). However, for maximum gaming enjoyment, we strongly recommend using a USB joystick that you simply plug into the USB port of your computer. If you do not have a joystick, buy a suitable USB controller on Amazon or AliExpress or in some of your favorite online stores.
Available online emulators:
5 different online emulators are available for Dragster. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For
maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic
features of each emulator available for this game Dragster are summarized in the following table:
If you like Dragster you'll probably like also some of the similar games in the overview below. The games you see here
are selected based on title similarity, game genre, and keywords. However, the list is generated automatically and can therefore be very 'subjective'
especially for some specific games. To find a particular game, please use our search form.
This website is NOT sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Atari, Sega or by any other video games company.
RetroGames.cz makes no claim to the intellectual property contained in the individual games.
Text content of RetroGames.cz
is available under the
Creative Commons 3.0 License. You can copy it freely, but indicate the origin and keep the license.
This version of Dragster was designed for Atari 2600, which was commercially very successful video game console of second generation produced by Atari from 1977 to 1992. It was the first console that used removable memory modules with games. At the time of its greatest fame, more than 30 million units of this console were sold for about $ 200 a piece. To date, the game library for this console contains nearly 1,000 original games. More information about the
Atari 2600 can be found 
