Reviews

A glittering game about horse-gambling purely written in BASIC . it appeared as a b-side of a spanish compilation .

I enjoy this sort of videogames a lot . it brings too many fond memories to my mind . its simplicity keeps me hanged and I cannot stop placing bets .

It is fun to play with friends and make predictions , to bet real money ,,, to delve into bankruptcy , etc.

Few programs offer more for less . the horses´ names are also very funny and illustrative : American Dream , Future Track , Danny Boy , etc.

A Day at the Races is a game with a character and full of charm -like the Marx Bros film in which its title is inspired- , as I like to say , there is glamour in it : the horses´ design is as cute as it could be ,,,

The program is also very user-friendly . :)

A 5 stars qualification would be too much for an arcaic proto-game written in BASIC , but I give this 4 stars any day of the week . ;D

ps - if I had to write programs for the Spectrum I would make games like this one .

1984 Sinclair User (UK)
by Andrew Bird

This is the sort of game that makes you wanna smile. And not only for the right reasons. The horses look like giant dogs and there is no jockey! A bug I discovered soon after my first play was the repeated horse names in the same race. No big deal, it doesn't spoil anything.
I really like this type of games. They are simple, colourful, humorous. I remember writing a 'Derby Day/Grand National' clone which I eventually transformed completely into a strategy game similar to 'Football Manager'.
Anyway if you like horse betting games you would be better of with 'First Past the Post' or the absolutely brilliant 'The National' both from 1988. But if you wanna have a fun, relaxed time with your kids why not try this.

Type-in games can be hit or miss and indeed horse racing betting games can also be hit or miss, I personally like them when they are good and this one isn't all that bad. There are only three horses to bet on but everything works as well as you'd expect in a game of this nature. However, it doesn't appear to be very random, for instance the first five races I did had horse 1 as the winner, and in eleven races horse two only won once. But I suppose that's the downside of having only three horses in a race after all. But still, I do enjoy these games and this one I did enjoy to a degree, these type of games have been done worse however they have also been done better, so this one falls directly in the middle.