Game Review: Milk Race (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

The Tour of Britain cycle race was sponsored by the Milk Marketing Board from 1958 all the way to 1993, hence the name Milk Race.  This was open to amateur cyclists only until 1985, when it became a pro-am event.  In addition, it had rivalry from 1987 to 1993 due to the cereal manufacturer Kellogg’s increased cycling sponsorship – they already had staged City Centre Cycling events which were very popular, and the Kellogg’s Tour was the professionals only version of a tour of Britain.  So, it was natural that it made sense to have an official game based on the 1987 version of the Milk Race and get a release first, although Kellogg’s also went the same way a year later and got CRL to create a game based on their 1988 event.

Fresh Milk’s Gotta Lotta Bottle

During loading, the loading screen shows along with the main theme, composed by David Whittaker.  It is not the longest piece, at around a minute and a half, and therefore can get quite repetitive.  It does however at least sound fast paced to match the hopeful speed of you cycling within the game itself, so that at least does show some promise.   Once loaded, you are presented with the most basic title screen with options for keyboard, joystick or to redefine the keys to something more suitable.  Once you have selected you control method, a course map of the Milk Race shows on screen (which is also on the rear of the cassette inlay with the instructions) which charts your progress in the race.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle, I Want to Ride It Where I Like

The first stage commences with the road scrolling left to right.  There are some reasonable parallax scrolling effects with the houses and buildings at the top, with people watching by the side of the road and turning their heads to watch the action as the cyclists go by.  Your cyclist has a white jersey on, and you will progress through the stages to try and elevate your position.  If you do end a stage in position 1, your cyclist will have the yellow jersey on for the next stage (and any other stage you finish in 1 on.)   Not that you quest for the maillot jaune might be so easy, mind you.

Getting in Gear

The instructions are a misnomer here as to how you change gear, talking of a selector function which is totally non-existent on this version.  Instead, fire and up goes up a gear, fire and down goes down a gear.  However, you cannot move your cyclist up and down the road, so select carefully.  Being in the right gear for the uphill and downhill sections can make a difference – too high a gear uses energy too quickly.  Right speeds up, left slows down and up and down moves across the road.  The top right of the screen shows the indicator of the slope, as well as score, an energy bar, time remaining (for the time trial sections) as well as speed, position, and gear.

Nice Cold Ice-Cold Milk

Your energy bar drains as you cycle, particularly in a higher gear and going fast, so you need to keep an eye on the milk bottles on the road.  Run into those, and you get a top up to your energy which is needed.  You also need to look out for the potholes, as running into those crashes you and costs time and effort, as does the occasional team car which might plough into you if you are not careful.  The other cyclists can take you off if you collide, and it is worth noting that at the start of each stage, or when you respawn after a crash, they appear at random and can take you out again straight away.  A second or two of invulnerability to get you going may have been helpful here to be honest.

Time Trial Troubles

Some of the stages have a time trial built in, and this is depicted by a man at the side of the road dropping a flag.  Suddenly, that 10 second clock starts counting down and you need to cycle as far as you can.  There is no indicator as to how far you need to go, so either a sound effect plays to say you managed far enough, or a Game Over message appearing on screen. Sometimes it starts at the worst time if you have crashed into another bike, meaning the frustration factor can be increased.  Once you know where they are, you can prepare a little bit and keep some energy back for those sections – and to get any milk you can at the same time. It can take some perseverance to get further.

Lovely.  Milky Milky

There are supposed to be thirteen stages in all.  However, once you complete the twelfth stage, there a stage completed message, followed by just a game over message – so what happened to the thirteenth and final stage around Westminster, I wondered?  Whilst there is a high score challenge and the prospect of finishing first in the yellow jersey, the stages can get very tedious and repetitive due to the fact they all look very similar.  Different backdrops for parts of the country may have worked well, or indeed turns in the course so you cycle in any direction with the road turning and scrolling smoothly.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Milk Race are very chunky for the cyclists and indeed the team car that goes past, certainly using expanded sprites.  There are a fair number of cyclists on screen at once, and the hazards such as the potholes are easy to spot.  The scrolling is smooth with the layers of parallax scrolling for the heads turning to watch the action as well as the towns and countryside is all reasonable but you do feel more effort could have been made.  The David Whittaker music is fine and matches the pace of the game, but the sound effects when you crash, respawn, or collect the milk are all not very good.

Final Thoughts

Milk Race tries its hardest to be a cycling tie-in that you would want to go and better your score and position on repeat plays.  However, the respawning other cyclists and cars crashing into you at random when you start the stage does not help, neither does the same when you respawn after a crash.  The controls work fine, but just do not refer to the instructions as they are inaccurate.  In addition, the fact you only get twelve stages with one missing shows that not enough care was taken in this version, and feels somewhat rushed to meet a deadline.  As it is, it becomes twelve stages of tedium and not one you would go back to.

Ten Speed – the US Version

A year later, Milk Race was renamed and released in the US as Ten Speed.  There are several differences made to this game, which may be because the Milk Race may not have been as well-known further than Europe.  The game play itself is the same, but the main changes in summary are as follows:

• The loading screen has been altered to show Ten Speed at the top, with the bottom right corner logo removed and Icon Design moved more towards the bottom right
• The map now shows a map of the USA, showing the route from East to West and ending in New York on stage thirteen
• The Milk Race advertising boards have been replaced with Ten Speed – if you think about it, same number of characters in both names so easy to do
• There are only ten gears to change up or down to instead of twelve of the original, thus reinforcing the Ten Speed name.
• The milk bottles have been replaced by bottles of what looks like cola, and only appear at the bottom of the screen layout.

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