Formula One

1985 retro games ZX Spectrum games

sport games

One of the first Formula One management games that set the standards that are still in use in modern games of the genre.

Published for Spectrum in 1985 Formula One was second known Formula One management game that, despite the age, is surprisingly good production. Of course it can hardly compete with modern games, but if you take under consideration that the whole game had to be smaller than 48kB (which is at least 1000 times smaller than today games) this puts the game in completely different light.

We have here simulation of Formula One season for 1 to 6 players, each of them taking one of the real F1 teams of 1980s (Brabham, Lotus, Ferrari, Renault, Williams and McLaren) and choosing from the set of real drivers (f.e. Nigel Mansell or Ayrton Senna). The management options are limited to buying or improving the chassis, engine, pit crew and the driver, while for race we only choose the set of tires (using the weather forecast). After each lap that something actually happened we see the cars crossing the finish line in order and with time differences applied, which was nice touch. We also see the cars that were forced to retire or make a pit stop. If our car enters the pit lane we also have to take care of changing the tires and (if necessary) make a quick fix to the engine. The time it is taking us to make those changes is the time of whole pit stop, but the speed of the mechanic we are controlling is depending on the amount of money we have invested in the pit crew.

Season takes 16 races and for each of them we have to prepare the best car we can in the budget limitations that we have, which is not easy. To make thing even harder to crack the game has 5 different skill levels, but even the lowest (novice) could be quite challenging. A well developed game that is simple, but keeps the spirit of original sport. Even after 30 years it is still decent little game.

add comment

Comment below

Your nick:


Comment:


add a comment

Formula One screenshots

---

Games like Formula One

Santa Monica Football Club

1998
Minimalistic soccer manager inspired by classic games of the genre from the 8-bit computers times - guide your team from 3rd division to the Premier in one of few countries.

Eishockey Manager

1993
German ice hockey manager from creators of Bundesliga Manager, one of the more inventive of early football manager games.

Basketball

1979
Would you believe a game called Basketball is about basketball and nothing else? Yes, 1970s were a different times.

Bundesliga Manager

1991
German classic soccer manager game that despite its simplicity was one of the icons of the genre in 1990s.

Mystify Soccer

Online soccer management game - take control of a club in one of the top European football divisions and guide it to the... visit