Microprose Grand Prix (Atari ST) - A great CPU overtaking !

[nasoszeppos]

I can't believe that I used to play FULL races on this. TWO whole hours using a one-button joystick ffs. My thumb was so numb after the race, I can still remember it.

And I also wanted SO BAD the original manual of the game that I was willing to spend LOTS of money to buy the PC or Atari version, only for the manual (although I was playing on a Commodore Amiga500).

Best racing sim for years!

[Sisound]

I had this game's sequel!

It was amazing. Took about 10 minutes to load each time, but amazing.

[MrSelectrix]

I loved this game and still play it sometimes on Steem, the atari ST emulator! Nice nostalgic feeling about it!

[CoolDudeClem]

Now it just seems crazy how back in those days we all thought it was so cool and hi-teck to have 3D polygon graphics moving at just a few frames per second!

[rugga]

Is this the one where you could have multiple players playing, taking turns and the CPU took over when it wasnt your go?

[MickeyKnox]

@rugga exactly

[jakubkrcma]

@rugga Yep, it was in the sequels as well.

[r8qt7]

should run quite fine on a falcon machine ;)

[charlieflint]

I always preferred the Atari ST version to the Amiga version, it moved faster and IMO, the engine sound was far more realistic compared to the stepped loop digitised effort on the Amiga.

Good days! Thanks for the upload :-)

[meowmmmmm]

@charlieflint I agree. The Amiga was generally better at Platform games and music (not Midi), but the ST annihilated the Amiga when it came to 3D, especially when all the Amiga fans claim the Amiga Blitter was much more powerful at rendering polygons compared to the 68000. Now I want to see this remade for the STE so it can get more oomph out of its Blitter Chip.

[AmstradExin]

@meowmmmmm The Blitter is not used for drawing polygons, but maybe for blanking the screen. Also, using the blitter gives not a huge advantage. Memory block transfer done by the cpu is already faster on a 16Mhz 68030...

[cant1rac]

@meowmmmmm was a shame for the ste, atari was pumping out cut price stfm package for £149 underscutting any possible reasonable games development for the new blitter and sound capablities, these packages got cut to £99.

meaning a games developer would have been commercially suicidal to ignore the huge selling number of stfm's and make incompatiable games.

the majority of what we got was ste enhanced that offered limited improvements in sound and scrolling over the standard st version

[cant1rac]

@meowmmmmm its likely the 1989 ste could have equaled the quality of the scrolling & in game sound off the 1987 amiga 500 if atari had created the right conditions for developers. they'd have released the falcon in 92 gaining the performance crown back over the amiga 1200.

the amiga 1000 although technically superior didnt have any over flow protection in its os & far too little ram, at twice the price & needing costly upgrades, the st was more practical & sucessful until the 500