US Gold
£11.23

That's an odd price, isn't it viewers? £11.23? Eurgh! Y'see. Super Monaco was supposed to be £10.99 but then the Budget happened and stuck the VAT up, so it's ended up at that price. Phrtrt! Anyway, are you going to get your £11.23's worth? Let's have a look, shall we?

Super Monaco GP is taken from the Sega coin-op of the same name and it's a racing game, set in French Riviera. In one of the most important races of the year you start by choosing your transmission: Beginner has a completely automatic gearbox, Amateur has four gears and Professional has seven. As common sense dictates, it's best to start in Beginner mode (but what the hell, I thought, started in Pro mode and soon ended up buried in a stack of hay on the side of the track!).

The game starts in France where you have to complete a qualifying lap to determine your grid placing for the race itself, there are 19 computer controlled drivers to compete against.

The starting lights flash red, then green and the game begins. Weather conditions can make all the difference. The car is easier to handle in the dry than the wet, so keep an eye on the forecast at the start. Also watch out for the checkpoints throughout the three laps that make up each race: at each one you need to achieve a certain position - fail to do so and it's Game Over.

You also have to complete each track in a dictated position to quality for the next. In France, it's seventh place or higher, but as you go through Brazil, Spain and finally Monaco the limit closes to third or higher.

Finally, watch out for the obstacles at the side of the road - and other cars, of course. Your car's fairly robust but if you hit too many obstacles you're disqualified.

Racing games are gelling like footy sims. If you've see one you've see a hundred. Super Monaco GPs advantage is that it's based on a hugely successful coin-op and if you're a fan of that, you'll be chuffed with the Speccy rendition - it's very playable.

The players view is from the driver's seat rather than from the rear of the car, and the graphical detail is very impressive, especially on the driver's hands as he throws the steering wheel left and right, battling to keep the car on the track. Background graphics are very colourful, and there's even a bit of colour on the roadside objects to brighten things up. Control of the car is difficult to master, but practice makes perfect.

The thing that prevents Super Monaco GP being a real corker is it doesn't quite capture the sensation of speed but, overall, it's a very playable racing game that does US Gold proud.

MARK [80%]

Yet another racing game to thrill to. I'm getting a bit tired of them all now, one doesn't really improve over another. Continental Circus set the standard and its all been a bit downhill (excuse the pun) since then. Super Monaco GP is a coin-op conversion and a good one but, because it does come from an arcade machine, the gameplay isn't particularly innovative. The usual shaded track graphics and semi-colourful backgrounds are here again and the car always looks like it's going around 5mph when it's really doing over a hundred! I just about managed to get all the way around the track once, but you have be so careful as the slightest prang will bring up a 'fatal crash' sign and it's back to the beginning for you. And that's about it. Fine piece of coding, but unless you adored the coin-op, the action isn't gripping.
NICK [69%]

US Gold
£10.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: James Leach

Oh no. It's happened again. I've started to feel the need, the need for speed. And there's only one thing that can satisfy this desire. A spiffingly good 3D motor racing game. And what a strange coincidence! Super Monaco GP happens to have just appeared in the trusty shed. Better get on and review it, hadn't I? (If you would. Ed)

Super Monaco, a bit like Impulze's Championship Run, reviewed on page 59, sees you strapped into the uncomfortable seat of a Formula One car. (Those of you who go back more than a year should remember it in the arcades where its nifty scrolling scenery and rear-view mirror made it a bit of a popular ride). You are then invited to race a whole season around various tracks in Europe (of which Monaco is one of course). What you have to do is zip around a lap of each of the empty circuits against the clock to get a qualifying time. You then (automatically) enter the 3-lap race with a grid position dependent upon your level of crapness on the qualifying lap. Luckily if you do really badly, you will still qualify. You'll just be at the back, that's all.

PESKY SUNDAY DRIVERS!

In the proper races there are about 20 other drivers. Some you can zip past on the straights, but others need to be carved up on the corners. It's graded so that the further towards the front of the pack you get the harder it gets to overtake the cars in front. Reaching (and staying at) first place is therefore a wicked achievement worthy of a pretty stonking slap on the back. But those you've just burned off are waiting to get their revenge.

What makes things a fair bit easier though is the spooky ability you have to drive right through the other cars. It takes all the skill out of the overtaking process (and I only wish I could do it on real roads!). Just when you think you're about to ram someone the cars slide through each other. (So you can't wobble dangerously and block the rest of the pack behind you.)

This weird 'ghost car' effect means that the only way you can die is by crashing off the road. But again there's some spooky strangeness at work here, because although you can drive off the circuit at any point, you only die at one or 2 corners. Of course, you forget which these are, and, thinking you can't die, you belt around them at 398 kmh only to find that the game has suddenly finished (as has your life).

BUT IT'S NOT ALL MOANS, IS IT?

Certainly not. There's plenty in Super Monaco to jump up and down waving your hands above your head about. The graphics are almost as fast as a weasel with diarrhoea (You're fired. Ed) and they don't slow down at all when you see other cars. The track itself is pretty simple, but does look just like a, um, racing track really (it could be a very bendy runway as well, I suppose). There are bumps, dips, crash barriers and corner wanting signs, and also rather pretty hills, a town and the sea in the background (not that you'll too much time to see all this).

Right, now to the car itself. You can choose an automatic, which goes 313 kmh or a manual 4-speed which goes just as fast. Or if you're particularly brave/mad you can go for the 7 (count 'em!) gear, 398 kmh turbo looney complete death machine (hem hem).

You can also choose how you want to change gears (using the fire buttons or back and forwards and so on). Very useful. And, amazingly for a driving game, the effects aren't so irritating that they you want to rip your speaker out and use it as a small vase.

Despite my gripes Super Monaco GP is also quite fun to play. There isn't anything particularly innovative about it (its success as a coin-op had a lot to do with the whizzo graphics which you could obviously never reproduce here), but what it does on the Spec, it does well. Speed, smoothness, control and excitement. I've got all these (and you'll find them in Super Monaco, too).

REPLAY

It's a hard life stuck here on the top right of the page. No one appreciates me. They just want to read Replay. (Sigh.)

Kixx
£3.99
021 625 3388
Reviewer: Jon Pillar

The famous Bill and Ben - The Flowerpot Men licence under a different name, SMGP is a platform game with undercurrents of soul-searching and a journey to find the ultimate point of existence. (Ladies and gentlemen, observe closely. I have nothing up my sleeves. At no time do my hands leave my wrists. Yet! What is this I pluck I from behind Jon's ear? Why, 'tis a P45. Get the idea? Ed) Erm. Super Monaco Grand Prix, that famous racing game, has popped up in YS no less than quite a few times before. You just can't keep a good racer down. And luckily for that last sentence, this is indeed a good racer.

The plot isn't up to much. The mad vizier has kidnapped your baby sister and threatens to take over the world unless you bring him the magic diamonds. (Ladies and gentlemen! Observe closely. This is an ordinary collapsible top hat. Yet! With a flick of my wrist I produce... a P45! Ed) Ha ha! just joshing readers. In fact, the aim of the game is simply to race around a big track as fast as possible. Much like any other driving game, really. The 3D graphics are quite nippy, and there's a ooh-looks-nice-but- erm-what-use-is-it-then rear-view mirror thing at the top of the screen. You also get a choice of three playing modes (auto gearbox, four gears or seven gears) which get increasingly joystick-cracking, and a rather dangerous feeling of invincibility. It's an incredible test of skill to actually crash in this game - the other cars don't harm you and only a select few hairpin bends cause anything more than a dramatic speed reduction. But remember folks - it's just a game. Not dying stupidly in SMGP doesn't mean you can jump into your dad's Austin Allegro and drive at top speed into Nige Mansell's lead-sled expecting to walk away. So don't do it. Your dad may get slightly peeved and ban you from watching The Prisoner. Far better to stay indoors and play Super Monaco Grand Prix. It's fast and it's pretty playable. Just dont expect another WEC LE Mans and you'll be all right.

SUPER GAME GUIDE

Look, over there, through that swirling cloud of strange mist... No, it can't be, but it is! SU's guide to the game-greats of yester-year. Yes indeedy there have been some good 'uns on the market in the last few years so now's the time to start polishing up on your collection if you've missed out on any of these fabbo titles. Mark Patterson, who's been in the business since before he was born and who has written not just for SU but also for Amiga, ST, PC and Console mages gives us an extra critical run down of the best...

SUPER MONACO GP
Label: Kixx
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Mark Patterson

This re-release originally started life as a Sega coin-op ages ago. Its astounding realism made it one of the most popular driving games ever, and while the Spectrum version loses out technically, all of the playability is intact. Fast, furious and addictive, Monaco as close is as you can get to formula one racing without leaving your bedroom. Unless you get Nigel Mansell.

Label: Kixx
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £3.99 Tape
Reviewer: Steve Keen

"And... Here... Is... The... New... Racing... Title... From... US Gold." So spake the famous Murray Walker when his complimentary advance copy of USG conversion of the Sega hit coin-op Super Monaco GP plopped through his letterbox.

Once again it's time to don your helmet and leather guard your loins for a speed-packed fun-filled romp across the major race circuits of the world. Take control of a really big, stupidly powerful Formula 1 car and thrash it about to your hearts content without fear of serious injury (unless you sprain your wrist with a particularly enthusiastic joystick movement).

Not only does Super Monaco allow you to compete against some top drivers, but it also gives you the choice of three cars in which to do it! Four-gear automatic is the best bet for beginners, allowing you to get the hang of the controls and courses without having to bother with remembering to change gear.

Four-speed manual is the next step up, with manual gear changes being necessary, but still only four gears so things don't get too complicated. Manual gears also provide greater speed than their automatic counterparts The final choice of gearbox is the ultimate seven-speed manual. This provides enormous speed and acceleration (providing you get all your gear changes right - otherwise you're in the soup).

Super Monaco GP is easily one of the most famous arcade games ever, breaking ground as it did in the fields of realism and graphical excellence. The arcade machine was also about twenty billion times more powerful than the Spectrum, which you might think would be the downfall of this conversion.

However, Spectrum Monaco GP is surprisingly good. Alright, quite predictably it runs slower than the coin-op and it isn't as colourful (it's monochrome in fact), but the handling is responsive and all the action of its ancestor is included, which is all that really matters.

Super Monaco is a busy game with a lot going on and there's plenty here for race maniacs. Fans of the coin-op and go-faster stripe freaks should seek this out.

TINA: I get a bit lost behind the wheel of a car 'cos I've only got an Austin Allegro. But I still manage to almost break the speed limit on the M25 (Tina's mother's car space is 25 feet long). On the subject of Super Monaco GP I rather liked it. It gave me a feeling of power which a 20 year old Austin engine could never provide.