Formula One

Spectrum game Formula One (sometimes mistakenly called Formula One Manager) was Formula One team management game with the arcade elements. Even though the Spectrum computers had memory limitations the creators managed to make the game more complicated than most of the titles of that times - not only we could play the whole championship season, but also there was arcade element that had influence on the outcome of the race. We had to take care of the pitstop crew while our cars were coming in, which was quite a challenge.

There were six teams simulated from 1980s era (McLaren, Brabham, Ferrari, Renault, Lotus and Williams) that had different colour of chassis and we could take one of them to run. Also we had to sign the drivers from available list (most of them were real drivers of the era) and sponsorship deals. The sponsors were important since through the season we had to deal with rather tight budget and every race without success made it even more difficult to prepare car for another one. And we have to repair the car and engine after each race, so it is not a picnic to run a team in Formula One.

Even thought the game was rather simple, it is still quite impressive achievement taking under consideration the hardware limitations the creators had to deal with. Also game more or less created some standards that are sometimes used in today games (even those online ones), f.e. that time differences between the cars are presented on the final line of the lap. Small game that still can be quite entertaining even though there are better games out there.