Game Review: Speed King (MSX, Mastertronic)

The original Commodore 64 version of Speed King had been a re-release of the Digital Integration game, and the game had proved to be a success due to the fact that you had to think about the speed and gear for corners, not necessarily going flat out all the time. Conversions were programmed for other systems, and Ed Hickman once again had the job of creating the MSX version after his previous work on Chiller and Finders Keepers. There is unfortunately no loading screen to speak of, and you just have to wait for the game to load. Once it does, the small title theme plays, faithful to the original, although more a simpler AY composition without any of the filters of the SID original.

Hell Bent for Leather

You can select one of ten tracks, with a nicely rendered high resolution circuit map of each course as you select them.  For Great Britain, you have Donington Park, Brands Hatch and Silverstone, along with Daytona (USA) and Paul Ricard (France) – which had the long back straight at the time of the game’s release. The other five courses are depicted by their nations but easy to work out what the courses were – so you have Sweden (Anderstorp), Italy (Misano), San Marino (Mugello), Germany (Nürburgring, the 80s layout and not the Nordschleife) and Spain (Jarama.) A good selection, and one that will be quite testing in places due to the number of corners.

The options at the bottom are selectable with joystick and fire or cursor keys and space. This includes difficulty level with novice being the easiest, a practice mode without any other riders so you can get used to the track, the number of laps you wish to race (2, 4 or 6), and also a preview mode, where you can see the circuit without any rider and get an idea of how this looks. The game will also go to preview mode if you do not select an option to practice or race. It is undocumented in the instructions, but the STOP key will take you back to the main menu at any time, which is handy if you want to abort the game or go back once a preview of the track has launched for some time.

Motorbikin’

The grid is all set and you are up against nineteen other riders.  The controls do take some getting used to, and a redefine controls option may have been a good idea to switch them around. Pressing down goes up a gear, and up goes down a gear, as if it was a handlebar shift. Left and right will steer the bike and pressing fire will speed up, and let it go to slow down. You can also use the MSX’s cursor keys and space bar as well to control the bike, and they also work relatively well. Your key here will be to slow down and go down gears before handling certain sharp corners, and certainly in practice, you may have spotted some of them.

When the bike does head around the corner, it can sometimes appear to be a little skittish if your bike is skidding off the road, but once you realise you are going too fast, slowing down helps. The other riders come at you, and like your bike, are hardware sprites. They get bigger as they get closer and although sometimes it looks like you can ride through them, if you do collide with them or go too fast and skid off the corner, you will crash and have to start by going down to the lowest gear and slowly accelerating to get back on track. The overtaking does work well and you can at least get past the opposing bikes without too much difficulty – and whizzing by many of them on a straight can be immensely satisfying.

Think Once, Think Twice, Think Bike

The screen display at the top mirrors the Commodore 64 version, so you have your current lap and the lap record top left, your race position in the top middle, current lap time and overall race time on the right. Below this shows your lap number, speed and gear. It is all sensibly laid out and is easy to refer to. Below that is the track, with a reasonable 3D perspective of the corners with alternating red and white stripes marking the edge of the track. When you do go round some of the corners, the track changes quickly, albeit not fully smoothly all the time, but does at least give you that feeling of taking either a shallower corner, where the speed can be fast, or a sharper corner where you will really need to go slow to make it round, with the right gear proving to be handy.

The end of each lap is indicated by a yellow line across the screen to mark the start and finish, with the chequered flag appearing at the end of your race distance. On more advanced levels, you will need to take some more chances and learn when to go at full pelt at top gear along a straight, and when to brake and change down gears to make sure that you make the corner. That in itself can be challenging, more so as you can skid violently across the track if going too fast into a corner, and crashing off. Practice does make perfect and the sense of speed is there.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Speed King are reasonable, with the bikes defined as sprites of increasing size as you approach them, with animation of your own bike as you lean into the corners. Sometimes with a few other bikers on screen it can feel a little slowed down, but not hugely noticeable. The turning corners can mean a shift in the track graphics maybe a little to quickly, and can feel skitty with its response to the controls on occasion, but that will often be because you are going too fast. This does at least also resemble the Commodore 64 version, so there is that. The crash is a mess of sprites though and did need better animation to be worthwhile. There is a reasonable version of the original title tune that plays, with standard engine drone noise and overtaking during play, and a white noise that sounds explosive enough when you crash.

Final Thoughts

Speed King is a very good conversion to the MSX from the Commodore 64 original, with all ten tracks, the same controls and feel with the gameplay, and plenty of options to customise your race experience. Whilst it can be a little skitty on cornering, this will often be because you are going too fast, and once you have mastered the controls and which gear to go in which corner, you will be whizzing around and setting a lap record without any problems. The sense of speed is there and the playability is definitely present, with responsive controls once you get used to them, and a sensible keyboard option if you do not have a joystick. All in all, even without having a two-player option, it is still one of the better racing games for the MSX, and well worthy of your attention.

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