Producer: Mastertronic
Retail Price: £2.99
Author: Icon Design

Summer sees bikers take to the roads in Britain's prestigious Milk Race. 84 entrants, you included, pedal and pant through 13 stages, displayed on a map screen, over the thousand-mile route from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to London.

As the road scrolls along horizontally, you can move from side to side to avoid potholes, other riders and the marshal's cruelty errant car. The bike has 12 gears; the higher the gear the faster you go, but the greater your energy loss in comparison with lower gears, especially when climbing uphill.

Gradients are indicated onscreen, and ascending steeper hills uses more energy. Complete exhaustion drops you out of the tour, but reserves can be restored by picking up milk bottles standing beside the road - pints for points, so to speak.

Hazard collisions cause time loss, with some more serious than others, and you can be eliminated altogether on time-trial stages where a specified distance must be covered in a set time.

Points are awarded for the distance travelled along each stage, with a bonus received for its completion. The winner is the cyclist who takes the lowest total time to complete the course.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, O/P decrease/increase speed, M (plus Q and A) to select gears
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Use of colour: black road, white sprites, simply-coloured background
Graphics: large, and adequate for the job, though jerkily animated
Sound: simple intro screen tune, few spot FX
Skill levels: one
Screens: scrolling play area

I enjoyed my first race, but the game quickly became tedious. The graphics aren't revolutionary, but they're satisfactory. It's the simplicity that's the main problem; I didn't even find it necessary to change gear down hills. If you try and get all the milk bottles you can, and make sure you stay out of the way of the other riders and the marshal's car, then you're in the clear. There's not enough content to justify even a price of £1.99.
MIKE

The graphics are awful, the riders look like hunchbacks as they wobble along the road, the buildings in the background are cardboard cutouts; only the map of Britain on the intro screen is reasonable. Sound isn't too bad - quite a nice little tune plays on the map screen, but there's not much else. It's annoyingly hard to keep out of the many potholes, and out of the way of other riders. Milk Race didn't interest me enough to keep me playing, and though it might appeal to the younger player my advice is to steer well clear.
MARK

There aren't any other cycle race games on the Spectrum, so I loaded Milk Race with anticipation. Sadly, the reality was a disappointment. The inlay says keys can be redefined, but I looked high and low for an option, to no avail. It's very simple to play; it's not long before control of the cycle has been mastered and you can race against the minimal and often jerky graphics. Milk Race was enjoyable to play at first but it lacked challenge and variety, and becomes boring by its repetitiveness. The idea is good.
ROBIN

Mastertronic
£2.99

A sort of poor man's Tour De France, (dig around in your memory circuits, everyone), Milk Race is a thrills and spills arcade simulation of the round Britain cycling race of the same name. You are one of eighty-four riders scrapping it out over a thousand thigh burning miles for the honour of the yellow jersey and victory.

It takes a lot of bottle to complete the thirteen stages, but luckily enough there are plenty of pintas to pick up along the way. These'll boost your energy supplies. But beware - swerving about these bendy roads is a dangerous occupation. Just touching one of your speeding compatriots will send you Adidas over titfer, while perilous potholes will slow you appreciably. You can control speed as well as direction but, more importantly, gauge your energy level to the road's gradient to accurately choose which gear you should be in.

The screens scroll smoothly enough, while the on-screen info of speed, energy, time elapse, score, gradient, gear and position mean you never need take your eyes from the road.

So if true love to you is a double butted 531 Reynolds framed Evans with wall greased campags, you are a) cu-raaaayy-zeee or b) you need a trick cyclist. Milk Race will keep you mega-chipper while you're locked away in the padded cell.

Run it again and again and again - there's nothing like a good race game. You can always beat that world record just once more, as DOMINIC HANDY and MIKE DUNN discover when they go into...

Milk Race
Mastertronic

41% Issue 42

MIKE: Take to the saddle of your trusty Peugeot in this 13-stage simulation of the thousand-mile race from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to London. It's a very simple game; collect bottles of milk to keep your energy up, synchronise your gear with the incline of the road, avoid the other riders and you're home and dry. The graphics are basic and jerky, and the addictivity very low.
33%

DOMINIC: A nice idea, but launched too late for big sales, and lacking many aspects of the 'real' Milk Race. There's a superb little tune, but it's an infuriating game.
36%

Label: Mastertronic
Author: Icon
Price: £1.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Tamara Howard

There's nothing like a refreshing bike ride across the country to leave you feeling really knackered.

So Mastertronic has gone completely over the top and given you one that lasts for a thousand miles and takes you to places of interest such as Lincoln, Peterborough and London.

It's the Milk Race, that internationally famous and exceedingly popular sporting event that takes place across England every May. And you're in it, about halfway down the list of 84 entrants.

It's a left to right scrolly affair in thirteen stages, and you've got to win all of them to end up first at the finish and get to wear the cute little yellow vest.

For a budget game, this is pretty hot stuff. There are lots of twiddly bits to be considered, like speed, energy, gear and the slope of the road. It's certainly not just a question of riding around very fast and dodging the other riders.

One of the most important things to consider (as well as pedalling about like a bat out of hell) is your energy level. This being the Milk Race, your sources of energy are the milk churns lying by the roadside. Once your energy level starts to drop, you're in trouble, so keep those churns coming, folks. Whilst picking up the churns it's important to watch the curves in the road, since some of them come together, and if you catch your wheel, you're down and in trouble.

And a word about coming off yer bike. It's necessary to be picked up by a friendly person who'll give you a bit of a push. And that person is a schizophrenic in an Escort Cabriolet.

Why is he a schizo you ask. Well, it's either that, or he's got serious clutch trouble with the Escort. As well as picking you up, he also knocks you over again, by bouncing all over the road in a frenzied attempt to mash you into the ground. But then he always comes back to send you on your way again.

While the graphics aren't brilliant (what do you want for £1.99 blood? And no, there isn't any in this one), they are quite nice: pedalling, coasting along and falling over are all realistically handled.

My one big gripe is that all the riders are the same colour, which makes identification tricky. It's OK when you're plodding along in second at the back, but when you get into the pack, it's too easy to get knocked over because you can't tell which bike is you. And that means the Cabriolet gets to come back again.

With spot time trials to win, pot holes to dodge, gears to change, milk to drink and many Escort drivers to escape, Milk Race has an awful lot going for it. It'll really shake you up. (I don't know any other milk jokes, you'll be glad to know)