![[The Great Space Race screenshot]](http://www.lauppert.ws/screen1/zx/tgsr.png "click for more Sinclair ZX Spectrum screenshots")
With Valhalla, Legend hat landed quite
a hit as a debut. The Spectrum version alone grossed some two million
pounds in the first year. So naturally, everybody was looking forward
to their next production. And Legend decided to spare no expense to
make it worthwhile. At a time when successful games might still be
created by a single programmer, they spent an
unheard-of quarter million pounds on the development of The Great
Space Race.
They were not stingy with announcements either. Long before the game was actually released the public learned that it was based on an improved version of Movisoft, Movisoft 2, and that it would use FRIG (Facial Region Interpreted Graphics) to animate characters right down to facial details. Along with repeated release delays this created such an expectation that in the end the distributor, Lightning Records & Video, ordered copies without seeing the game first.
But unfortunately, The Great Space Race did not live up to all the hype, though both package and character animations were impressive, and the basic concept, described at length in a Crash review, wasn't bad either:
The basic story is that in the galaxy and at a time past, a marvellous alcoholic beverage had been developed called Natof (it seems the first ever consignment of the yet un-named drink was filled in on the form with
Name To Follow, and as it never did and Name To Follow was a bit of a mouthful, it became abbreviated to Natof). This beverage is in enormous demand since it never leaves a hangover and contains all the right constituents for a healthy and happily inebriated life. The galaxy is divided into four arms of its spiral, Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. In each arm there are 24 space stations in desperate need of Natof. Your task is to supply them all. To do this you must hire four racers, one for each sector and arm their ships ready to cope with the race using stocks of your starting supply of Natof.The first section of the game consists in hiring and arming. Each of the main characters appears in the viewscreen and his or her details appear below in the information panel plus the hiring price. In the top information panel you are told to press for yes or no, and a graphic representation of a clock ticks the seconds away for you to make your choice. On selecting a crew member, you must select the weapons from a choice of lasers, missiles and smart bombs and a shield per craft. There is a time limit on making all these choices before the race commences, and racers' fees tend to drop as the starting time approaches. Understanding the character and abilities of the racers is important in choosing them and apart from the comic strips, much intelligence is gained through playing the game. Choice of weapons is also dictated by the arm of the galaxy in which the racer will be operating—some are more violent and lawless than others. The better policed ones will also bring problems with the often corrupt police chasing you for taxes.
Once the race starts in earnest, the bottom information panel becomes more important, for it is here that your racers and enemies will report to you. The viewscreen shows the animated face of the communicant, while their message appears below. This may take the form of your racer saying another racer's ship is in sight, should they attack? (any racers you have not hired are automatically working for the computer). It may be the other way round, with your racer being attacked by another. It may be one of the four computer controlled characters, the incredible Ghengis, the pirates Zanik and Krone or the police threatening to attack one of your racers unless you pay so much Natof over. The outcome of any combat, which is graphically represented, will depend on the shield strength, weaponry and character of the racer and ship in question, as well as that of the attacker.
Reports come in constantly about the Natof deliveries being made by your hired racers, and decisions may be required at this point to send the racer in a different direction. More money may have to be paid out for ship repairs, otherwise the racerr will simply drop out, or for sobering up time (they drink Natof constantly). The game ends when either all 96 space stations have been supplied, or when your four racers have been knocked out of the race. The game operates in real time, so time spent making up your mind is time wasted. Scoring is done by the number of space stations supplied, the total time taken and the average time that each delivery took. In this sense there is no real winner, only an improving of times and numbers of deliveries.—Crash February 1985
The main problem with The Great Space Race was that it
basically played itself. If you did not supply the input in time,
the characters would act on their own. The game took over an hour
to finish—considered long at the time—, so it was easy
to lose concentration. There were other, minor complaints, the
animations for the space combat were in no way on par with the
face animations (one reviewer said the ships looked like mis-shaped
fried eggs sliding around in a pan
) and despite its high price tag
(£14.95) the game was programmed 75% in BASIC.
In the end, Legend lost £200,000 and most of the goodwill they had acquired with Valhalla; but they regained some when they offered their next game, Komplex, at a 50% rebate to those TGSR owners that were willing to send in the poster that had been included in the box.
