Monaco GP is an arcade game that was released by Sega in 1979. The game was released in three cabinet styles, a vertical upright cabinet, a cocktail table and sit-down 'deluxe' cabinet. A sequel, Pro Monaco GP, was released in 1980, and was later followed by Super Monaco GP and Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II. Monaco GP was ported to the SG-1000 in 1983.
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One one hand I'm not sure what an endless road of random vehicles has to do with the Monaco GP or F1, but on the other hand the graphics, sound and sense of speed were impressive for the time and make for a decent game.
SEGA's last great discrete logic (aka non-microprocessor) game remains the best thing they ever made in the '70s. I first learned about this via the PS2 3D remake bundled with Sega Classics Collection, a real standout amidst that disc's dubious offerings. While the Tamsoft redux adds a lot more to replay, it's very faithful to what was already a rock-solid original game, one which had its own faithful SG-1000 port. In an age before arcade racers switched to a behind-the-shoulder paradigm, this was a hugely influential, polished triumph in birds-eye Formula 1 dodge-ems and racing the clock.
Japan might love baseball most, but Formula 1 racing has been a favorite sport over there since the mid-'70s. The post-occupation rise of novelty games in arcades, once dominated by pinball and jukeboxes, brought with it the first vertical scrolling electromechanical racers. Taito, SEGA, and Namco (among others) competed to create the most challenging, thrilling, and immersive sports racing experiences one could have for 50 yen. But while these cabinets were popular, they exacted a hefty toll on the manufacturers. Taito's own Tomohiko Nishikado (later of Space Invaders fame) solved this problem with 1974's Speed Race, a digital recreation of elements found in the company's practical effects-based racers. Not only did this pioneer vertical scrolling in video games, but it introduced the now common 100-yen-a-play price scheme in video arcade games.
Taito and their overseas distributor Midway took turns producing variations, most notably Super Speed Race which added better sound design & score-based time extensions. SEGA's internal video games developers didn't have a Nishikado in their ranks, nor their rival's level of skill and experience with TTL board or microchip games, but the market for their own AAA racer was apparent. So how did they make Monaco GP stand out from the crowd? In short, this game came with more course variety, attention to detail, and a more challenging extended play system.
Like in Speed Race, you simply need to accelerate and/or decelerate past endless legions of racecars, trying to complete and loop the course for as long as possible. Crashing into guardrails, veering too off-course, and ramming other cars costs you the game—at least until you hit 2000 points. Monaco GP's secret sauce is lifting all time restrictions on your run once you reach this threshold. Instead, the game now increases rival car speed at 4000 and 6000, and you have a lives system to deal with now. Reaching 9999 is possible, but hard thanks to tricky AI patterns and a gauntlet of track types to get through.
There's nothing quite like slamming head first into the rear of an F1 exhaust. You'll be doing this often at first. It's easy to mess up like this as you enter dark tunnels, with only your headlights showing the road and rivals, or cram together onto a comically narrow bridge over the waters. Going fast is nice, but maintaining pace, predicting other cars' movements, and memorizing the simple but tense course loop matters more. I eventually managed to pass one loop on my quick run of the SG-1000 version, and that still took a lot of concentration!
This early home version makes for maybe the best showcase of SEGA's console hardware around release, with scrolling and mechanics all preserved from the original game. Still, it's hard to beat the level of detail in Monaco GP '79's audiovisuals, a combo of lush pixel art and surprisingly effective sound work. Because they weren't building the game with microchips, this gave SEGA more freedom to add special logic just for things like sampled engine noises, or the separate clock dials showing time and score next to the monitor. One cool showpiece is the occasional fire engine, its klaxon blaring out of the blue as you try and get away from this unstoppable machine coming from below. Every distinct set-piece and sound effect feels right, like the developers knew exactly what was missing from Super Speed Race and its brethren.
I've glossed over the simple appeal of this game for too long. It's just so, damn, fast! And this kind of speed doesn't sacrifice depth of play, either. We think of "fast" and "SEGA" today in terms of the Sonic franchise, undoubtedly for good reasons. But here's the primordial origins of that quest to impress, a leap ahead of Taito (let alone Atari's Hi-Way...) and a timely release in the wake of F1 races at Suzuka Circuit. Perhaps there's no real sense of navigating a technical racetrack, or managing your tire wear and pit stops, yet the fun essence of racing some of the world's fastest vehicles is all here.
To make something this strong, balanced, and well-rounded in a time before video game design conventions had crystallized is no small feat. Hell, to effectively bring all this to a rather underpowered, soon commercially ravaged first multi-game home console wasn't easy either. I consider Monaco GP the beginnings of SEGA's golden years, the point where they no longer relied on their American subsidiary Gremlin to make anything as successful as Blockade. The coming decade would see them pioneer 3D racers with Turbo, plus other fast-paced sprite scaling games like Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom. Less and less of their arcade output would derive strictly from innovative competitors, with creators like Yu Suzuki (Space Harrier et al.) and Yoij Ishii (Sappter, Fantasy Zone) join the ranks of Nishikado or Namco's Masanobu Endo. This racer might seem as simple as it gets, but damn does it deliver on its premise and game loop. I recommend either the SG-1000 port or this excellent PC remake of the arcade original for Windows/Linux players. This deserves to be more than a mere footnote in any history of SEGA or the arcade racer as we know it. All the landmarks in Daytona USA or brutal traps in SEGA Rally owe everything to this precursor.
Japan might love baseball most, but Formula 1 racing has been a favorite sport over there since the mid-'70s. The post-occupation rise of novelty games in arcades, once dominated by pinball and jukeboxes, brought with it the first vertical scrolling electromechanical racers. Taito, SEGA, and Namco (among others) competed to create the most challenging, thrilling, and immersive sports racing experiences one could have for 50 yen. But while these cabinets were popular, they exacted a hefty toll on the manufacturers. Taito's own Tomohiko Nishikado (later of Space Invaders fame) solved this problem with 1974's Speed Race, a digital recreation of elements found in the company's practical effects-based racers. Not only did this pioneer vertical scrolling in video games, but it introduced the now common 100-yen-a-play price scheme in video arcade games.
Taito and their overseas distributor Midway took turns producing variations, most notably Super Speed Race which added better sound design & score-based time extensions. SEGA's internal video games developers didn't have a Nishikado in their ranks, nor their rival's level of skill and experience with TTL board or microchip games, but the market for their own AAA racer was apparent. So how did they make Monaco GP stand out from the crowd? In short, this game came with more course variety, attention to detail, and a more challenging extended play system.
Like in Speed Race, you simply need to accelerate and/or decelerate past endless legions of racecars, trying to complete and loop the course for as long as possible. Crashing into guardrails, veering too off-course, and ramming other cars costs you the game—at least until you hit 2000 points. Monaco GP's secret sauce is lifting all time restrictions on your run once you reach this threshold. Instead, the game now increases rival car speed at 4000 and 6000, and you have a lives system to deal with now. Reaching 9999 is possible, but hard thanks to tricky AI patterns and a gauntlet of track types to get through.
There's nothing quite like slamming head first into the rear of an F1 exhaust. You'll be doing this often at first. It's easy to mess up like this as you enter dark tunnels, with only your headlights showing the road and rivals, or cram together onto a comically narrow bridge over the waters. Going fast is nice, but maintaining pace, predicting other cars' movements, and memorizing the simple but tense course loop matters more. I eventually managed to pass one loop on my quick run of the SG-1000 version, and that still took a lot of concentration!
This early home version makes for maybe the best showcase of SEGA's console hardware around release, with scrolling and mechanics all preserved from the original game. Still, it's hard to beat the level of detail in Monaco GP '79's audiovisuals, a combo of lush pixel art and surprisingly effective sound work. Because they weren't building the game with microchips, this gave SEGA more freedom to add special logic just for things like sampled engine noises, or the separate clock dials showing time and score next to the monitor. One cool showpiece is the occasional fire engine, its klaxon blaring out of the blue as you try and get away from this unstoppable machine coming from below. Every distinct set-piece and sound effect feels right, like the developers knew exactly what was missing from Super Speed Race and its brethren.
I've glossed over the simple appeal of this game for too long. It's just so, damn, fast! And this kind of speed doesn't sacrifice depth of play, either. We think of "fast" and "SEGA" today in terms of the Sonic franchise, undoubtedly for good reasons. But here's the primordial origins of that quest to impress, a leap ahead of Taito (let alone Atari's Hi-Way...) and a timely release in the wake of F1 races at Suzuka Circuit. Perhaps there's no real sense of navigating a technical racetrack, or managing your tire wear and pit stops, yet the fun essence of racing some of the world's fastest vehicles is all here.
To make something this strong, balanced, and well-rounded in a time before video game design conventions had crystallized is no small feat. Hell, to effectively bring all this to a rather underpowered, soon commercially ravaged first multi-game home console wasn't easy either. I consider Monaco GP the beginnings of SEGA's golden years, the point where they no longer relied on their American subsidiary Gremlin to make anything as successful as Blockade. The coming decade would see them pioneer 3D racers with Turbo, plus other fast-paced sprite scaling games like Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom. Less and less of their arcade output would derive strictly from innovative competitors, with creators like Yu Suzuki (Space Harrier et al.) and Yoij Ishii (Sappter, Fantasy Zone) join the ranks of Nishikado or Namco's Masanobu Endo. This racer might seem as simple as it gets, but damn does it deliver on its premise and game loop. I recommend either the SG-1000 port or this excellent PC remake of the arcade original for Windows/Linux players. This deserves to be more than a mere footnote in any history of SEGA or the arcade racer as we know it. All the landmarks in Daytona USA or brutal traps in SEGA Rally owe everything to this precursor.
Playing this outside of the arcade cabinet is positively dizzying. Would not recommend unless you're ready for what's to come.
Nowadays, you can get a better hold of what this game tried to do via geecab's remake, which you can find here (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134445.0.html). But other than that, I contend there's something admirable to the fact that this game wanted to focus on the rush on the race rather on the obstacle course itself. I personally think it would take a few years before we'd be able to mix those things into something I'd positively enjoy, though.
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Jugarlo fuera de la recreativa es realmente vertiginoso. No lo recomiendo a menos que estés preparado para lo que viene.
Hoy en día, puedes hacerte una mejor idea de lo que intentó hacer este juego a través del remake de geecab, que puedes encontrar aquí (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134445.0.html). Pero aparte de eso, sostengo que hay algo admirable en el hecho de que este juego quisiera centrarse en la emoción de la carrera más que en la carrera de obstáculos en sí. Sin embargo, tendrían que pasar unos cuantos años antes de que se puedieran mezclar esas cosas en algo que me guste a título personal.
Nowadays, you can get a better hold of what this game tried to do via geecab's remake, which you can find here (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134445.0.html). But other than that, I contend there's something admirable to the fact that this game wanted to focus on the rush on the race rather on the obstacle course itself. I personally think it would take a few years before we'd be able to mix those things into something I'd positively enjoy, though.
-------------------------
Jugarlo fuera de la recreativa es realmente vertiginoso. No lo recomiendo a menos que estés preparado para lo que viene.
Hoy en día, puedes hacerte una mejor idea de lo que intentó hacer este juego a través del remake de geecab, que puedes encontrar aquí (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134445.0.html). Pero aparte de eso, sostengo que hay algo admirable en el hecho de que este juego quisiera centrarse en la emoción de la carrera más que en la carrera de obstáculos en sí. Sin embargo, tendrían que pasar unos cuantos años antes de que se puedieran mezclar esas cosas en algo que me guste a título personal.