Grand Prix Manager

1993 computer games Amiga games

One of the Amiga games inspired by classic 8-bit Formula One manager games that offered basic management options, but very little more.

Grand Prix Manager was a AMOS Basic game that simulated a Formula One season and allowed us to take control over one of the teams taking part. As most of the similar games from 1990s this one also was inspired by classic Formula One from 1985 Spectrum, a game that set up the standards for race presentation and for management options, but unfortunately Grand Prix Manager offered very little above what was available in Formula One.

Yes, the graphic side was slightly improved, yes there were few options to set up the car (although they are not exactly explained, but there was a vital piece of information missing. You could setup the car, you can qualify for the race, you can take part in the race, but still you won’t get any feedback, so you have no idea if your setup was the right one or how did it affect the performance in the race. You get the results, but see no explanation why you car is not performing well. Maybe if you could make some test runs, experiment with the setup it would be a different story, but there are no such options, each time you race on different track, so there is no way to determine why your car is performing the way it does or how much of the result is affected by the driver.

A small game that had potential to improve the classic game, but failed on more than one element of the game - while the ingredients were right they were put together in rather incoherent manner.

Our rating
★☆☆☆☆

Video
★☆☆☆☆

Audio
★☆☆☆☆

Playability
★☆☆☆☆