Star Wars Episode 1 Racer
Developer - LucasArts
Publisher - LucasArts
Directors - Jon Knoles, Eric Johnston
Designers - Jon Knoles, Eric Johnston, Brett Tosti
Programmers - Christopher Barnhouse, Mark Blattel, Justin Graham
Composers - Music taken from John Williams’ Star Wars score
Genre - Racing
Dreamcast Release Dates - April 4, 2000 (North America); August 4, 2000 (Europe)
Additional Releases - Windows (1999); Nintendo 64 (1999); GameBoy Color (1999); Macintosh (1999); Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One (2020)
Current Average Price - $25
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer is a racing game first released in 1999, and ported to the Dreamcast in 2000. In Racer, the player pilots a podracer, the hovering, twin-engined speed machines famously featured in the podracing sequence in the film Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace.
Game development was led by Jon Knoles, with a team comprised of many well-respected people at LucasArts who had previously worked on Shadows of the Empire and other much-loved Star Wars games.
The team strove to create an unprecedented sense of speed. About this, Jon Knoles said that he wanted to give players an “eyeball-peeling racing game, where you’re going so fast [that] you’re just nervous.”
Racer became one of the best-selling racing games of its era, selling over 3.12 million copies. It was well-loved by critics and continues to be happily recalled by Star Wars gamers today.