Explore the History of INDY Games

I grew up within the sound of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Every May extended family and friends would come over and stay and celebrate and it just seemed like such a special thing to grow up around.

At the same time, my dad ran a local BBS from our Atari computer, and so from an early age my life was filled with nerdy stuff. As a result of a friendship with a local arcade operator from this BBS, my childhood garage was filled with arcade games being routed out, giving me the notion that owning a bunch of arcade games was a totally reasonable thing.

Video gaming was probably my single biggest hobby growing up (at least until I discovered sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll) and I was a bit of a pack rat, keeping almost all the games and systems I ever owned growing up, and even then I was a bit of a completist, always wanting every system.

As an adult with kids of my own, I started sharing games with them and pulling my stuff out of storage. Then I began hanging out with other like-minded middle-aged dudes as well as buying stuff that struck me as cool from thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace.

Soon I was collecting TOO much. 1/6 scale arcade games from New Wave Toys, Tracking down an old Steel Battalion controller and game (and an Xbox to play it on), just buying stuff because it was cool. It was getting out of hand.

My local vintage computer club was having a big public expo. I had been casually picking up Indycar games, and since I already had modded my Playstation and imported the Japan-only Indy 500 way back in 1995, I figured I already had a leg up on what to display and decided to go with all the versions of “Indy 500” I had at that point. I dug up information and made displays for everything and it was a good time.

Like Hunter S. Thompson said, once you start a collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. So I started researching exactly what were all the games you could call “Indy” games. Once I started finding ones that weren’t cataloged on Wikipedia (a good starting point) I decided that *I* would develop the most comprehensive resource for Indy 500 gaming in the world. (And that since few others seemed to care it would totally do-able).

Eventually I decided I needed a web page to display all that I had collected more broadly than the folders and excel workbooks I had come up with during my research, and that website needed a name, and so the Speedway Gaming Museum was born.

We use a 5-point scale to determine if an item warrants inclusion in the collection.

• 5 – Explicitly says “Indy 500”, “Indycar” and is about Indycar racing.
  • Examples: Indy 500 (Atari), Indycar Series 2000.
• 4 – Features cars that are Indycars without explicitly saying “Indy”.
  • Examples: CART Fury, Driven
• 3 – Features open wheeled race cars in a oval speedway circuit.
  • Examples: Speedway, Spin-Out
• 2 – Has an element explicitly associated with Indy, like being called “Indy 500” but actually are just reskinned F-1 games, but were commercially released.
  • Examples: Micheal Andretti World GP, Indy 500 (MSX)
• 1 – Has an element implicitly associated with Indy (i.e. the pagoda or the borg-warner trophy)
  • Examples:
• .5 – Something that originally didn’t have to do with Indy, but has been altered or modified to.
  • Example: the collection’s Sega Turbo with custom Indy 500 bezel.
• 0 – Explicitly NASCAR or Formula 1
  • Example: Daytona USA, Pole Position.

That isn’t to say we won’t ever have anything that ranks a “0” in the collection. If someone gives us a Formula 1 game we won’t throw it in the trash, but it probably won’t be displayed in the main collection.

You can explore our racing game collection by visiting our website, where we provide detailed descriptions and links to each game type, ensuring easy access for enthusiasts and collectors alike. Currently the collection is privately held, but selections from the collection do make appearances at public events such as the Indianapolis Vintage Computer Show.

As a person who appreciates Indycar more culturally then technically, I tend to enjoy the less simulation-type games. 1977’s Indy 500 for the Atari VCS is probably my favorite, and has an enjoyable pick-up-and-play quality even today. I’m also a big fan of 1991’s Danny Sullivan’s Indy Heat, a fun third-person isometric that features multiplayer gameplay across multiple tracks from the 1990 INDYCAR series.

Our racing game collection is suitable for all ages, appealing to a wide range of interests in racing, video games, motorsport, and Indianapolis culture, making it perfect for both casual and dedicated fans.

Yes, we welcome contributions from fellow racing game enthusiasts! If you have games or memorabilia to share, please contact us at [email protected].