1988 - D&H Games (UK)
by P.K. McManus, Shaun McClure, Tony Huggard and John de Salis.
Like all D&H and Cult games this is a management game. A horse racing management game.
Many other houses have presented their pick, some funny and simple, some a bit more complex, but all had a unique characteristic in common: the same animated race, several horses with their jockeys on their backs all looking exactly the same running towards the finishing line.
I reckon I still find it funny to watch the 'Derby Day' or 'Grand National (1983)' horse race screen, the spectators cheering, the horses galloping, etc, but let's be honest, Clive... it never looks real.
Well 'The National' doesnt use any sort of graphics and the race screen is simple, but it manages to deliver the feel of a real race from beggining to end in a steady pace. And for the first time in management games, the races have obstacules influencing who stays in the race.
My favourite part is when the horses (represented by coloured numbers) start to gather around the track.
The game as lots of options and sub-menus, with trainers league, auctions, scouting, betting, horse training, etc, all with their share part in the racing results without so much of random luck.
The only letdown I see are the calculating parts, which indicates part of the game is written in BASIC, except for the racing itself, but with todays emulator technology thats not a problem.
In my view the best horse racing game ever.
Review by YOR on 11 Mar 2022 (Rating: 2)
It's horse racing from D&H Games and you know exactly what that means. Boring gameplay and loads of loading and boy I mean lots of loading, the waiting in this runs on forever, even WITH the emulator sped up! Like in the beginning you had to wait almost an eternity, then start the tape again for yet MORE loading! There are a number of options in this game such as training, auction and the bookies, and in the bookies we have a tipster who advised me that for the Prince Charles Novice Stakes I should tip on Petroc, then it changed to Cumrew, then it changed again and settled on Notus, which like Petroc sits at 56/1 odds while Cumrew is at 22/1...I cannot help but feel conned by this “tipster”. Anyway I betted £100 on Cumrew. And for the race itself the horses are represented by numbers which reminded me of that Four Minutes from Glory game I reviewed a while back as the runners there were represented by numbers. But at least here the horses, sorry the numbers, move by themselves and you're not spending half of your day working out their different commands like you did in FMFG. And well you know what? My bet came up and Cumrew actually won! And the cherry on top was that Notus finished second. I take back everything I said about the tipster, he clearly knows his stuff, I say the the tipster could easily be a she can it? Oh Yorick you misogynist bastard. Anyway you can also enter your own horses into the races, I did that next and it came last, go figure. I mean I can see why this would appeal to people but for me it's just another boring management game with hideously long waiting times, the football ones don't do much for me so what chance does this have? To be honest, I would find it much more appealing to just stick to the betting and do away with the whole manage your horses guff.
