Games of the 8-, 16- & 32-bit era

Rad Racer

Title	Rad Racer
First release	1987
Developer	Square
Publisher	Square
Platforms	NES / Famicom, Arcade ADB
Genre	racing video game
Also known as	Highway Star · ハイウェイスター · Haiwei Sutā
Players	1–2 players
Co-op	No
ESRB rating	E Everyone
Releases	NES / Famicom: 1987-01-01, 1987-01-01 (NTSC), 1987-08-07 (NTSC-J), 1987-10-01 (NTSC-U)
Wikidata ID	Q2212127

The Grand Canyon and Los Angeles Nightway serve as backdrops for high-speed rally racing across 8 treacherous courses. Players must navigate changing weather conditions and opponents while hitting checkpoints to extend their time limit. Using the included red-blue glasses enables a 3-D visual effect to enhance the depth of the racing environments.

Description: REG-Vault, CC BY-SA 4.0

View on Wikidata Read on Wikipedia

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), gaps filled from REG-Vault and TheGamesDB and Arcade Database (ADB). Only retro platforms tracked by this site are listed; the year is the earliest release date recorded on Wikidata.

Sources

Wikidata (Q2212127) · last updated 2026-09-27 · CC0

REG-Vault (nes/rad-racer) · last updated 2026-10-26 · descriptions CC BY-SA 4.0

TheGamesDB (211,82541,100522,110432) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

Arcade Database (ADB) (pc_radrc) · last updated 2026-10-02 · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · internal use only

Arcade Database ADB

MAME romset	`pc_radrc`
Title at ADB	Rad Racer (PlayChoice-10)
Manufacturer	Square
Year	1987
Genre	Driving / Race (chase view)
Players	2
MAME driver status	IMPERFECT

Artwork: ADB (Arcade Database); artwork © original manufacturer (Square); snaps by ProgettoSnaps via ADB. Non-free, internal use only (hotlinked, not downloaded).

Scraping using Arcade Database by motoschifo · CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · romset via Wikidata P2451 (wikidata-qid) · fetched 2026-10-02 16:24 UTC · filled here: platform

Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © Square · internal use only

1 / 10 Box art Box art (front) 1

Image credits

Box art, Screenshots, Logos, Artwork (6): Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © Square · internal use only. REG-Vault page

Box art (1): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded, NTSC-U release) · © Square · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Box art, Screenshots, Logos (3): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded) · © Square · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Sprites

No sprite sheets yet. Find sprites on The Spriters Resource ↗ /

Videos

NES Longplay [331] Highway Star (3D) (JP)

World-of-Longplays · NES / Famicom version · longplay · 27:47auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:41 UTC

Rad Racer (NES) Playthrough

NintendoComplete · NES / Famicom version · longplay · 27:19auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:41 UTC

"Auto-matched" videos were found automatically (title + platform match via the YouTube Data API) and may occasionally be wrong. Videos are hosted by YouTube (embedded via youtube-nocookie.com; nothing loads from YouTube until you press play) and belong to their channels.