Commodore User


Turbo Cup
By Loriciel
Amiga 500

 
Published in Commodore User #65

Turbo Cup

It's time for another trip down memory lane. With the Amiga being a relatively new machine, all the companies are cashing in by making new games using old ideas, the latest of which is Turbo Cup, a revamped version of Pole Position.

It's the usual set up. You are placed behind the wheel of a sports car (in this case a Porsche 944 Turbo) and the idea is to get round a chosen track as quickly as possible.

The first stage of the game is a practice lap, the faster you go the better your position on the starting grid at the beginning of the real race. The second stage is the race itself. The race starts and you find yourself jostling for position with the other cars until eventually the pack spreads out.

Turbo Cup Challenge

With Pole Position and the such like you only had two gears. On Turbo Cup, you have five. What's more, it isn't just a case of climbing through to fifth and holding it. You have to select a gear depending on the road. Fifth is alright for the straights but changing down to third and fourth is necessary to get round a corner safely.

The graphics are consistently good but rather limited. The background graphics are the same for all the courses and after a while it gets a bit boring. The car is very good, attention has been paid to details like perspective and reflections from the rear windscreen. One small niggle is that all the other cars are the same as yours (except for colour). It would have been nice to have some variation.

The scenery moves towards the screen a little jerkily but this doesn't detract from the game. Something that could have been improved is the sound. There is a naff piece of music to accompany the title screen and the only sound effects are for engine noise, crashes and wheel spins.

Turbo Cup Challenge

The game is well put together. The gear system is fun to get used to and it's quite satisfying when you do. Unfortunately Turbo Cup suffers the same way as many other racing games do. It's fun to start off with but the repetitious gameplay means that it probably won't hold interest for very long.

I've got two big niggles (and jolly proud of them I am too!!!!). First is that it's too easy to skid, this happens either after a crash or a bad corner. Secondly, you can find yourself trapped in a line of obstacles at the edge of the track. When you accelerate to move out, you hit the obstacle in front and are reduced to a halt again. It can take quite a while to get out of this situation and it's very annoying.

Turbo Cup will probably be very popular with ardent fans of racing games but it didn't hold my interest for long. I'd advise looking at some other games in this genre before splashing out your hard-earned cash.

Mark Mainwood

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