Game Review: Sport of Kings (ZX Spectrum, MAD)

Setting up the Game

After choosing whether to use the joystick or keyboard, you get to choose whether you want to read the instructions.  After that, come in a few options which will affect the game.

You can load a saved game, choose many horses are in the season (25, 50 or 75), whether weights affect the results, is the going to affect the results and are the jockeys to affect the results.  Finally do you want a kitty and then how much.

Unfortunately, because the game is fully icon driven, you can’t type in the player’s names on the keyboard.  Instead, you have move around and click on each letter individually and press fire on each one.  Make a mistake, and you need to press the error button and re-do it (if you can be bothered!).  Clicking on error also deleted the whole of name (rather than just the last letter you’d clicked on).  If you multiply that by 5 players names, it all adds up before you even really start.

Icon Driven

Apart from pressing a number selecting the type of control at the beginning, the rest of the game is all fully icon driven.

From the main icon screen, you can save or load a game, place a bet with The Bookie, look at the Form Book, look at your winnings or lost bets, read the Race Information, allow players to join or leave the game (good if you had a mate who had to go home!), print out the form card or exit to the next race.

The Beginning of The Season

As there have been no races ran, all the horses therefore have no form and are equal on paper.  The game therefore gives you the option to choose to auto run between either 0 to 9 races).  This obviously creates the form and makes the odds more genuine.  It takes a while (as you must go through each race individually) but I felt it was worth it to get the form and balance right before getting into it.

Graphics and Animation

It must be said that the loading screen is rather impressive showing of a horse racing and a side-on view of the jockey.

When a race is being run, there is plenty of colour.  Most of the jockeys are in different colours and to the right-hand side, the horses’ names and a coloured block are shown.  Presumably this is to aid where some may be the same colour in a few rows.

What impressed me the most was the sidewards scrolling of the race course.  Not only do you see the horses galloping and moving along, but the backgrounds are imaginative, well drawn and in places, animated too.  You’ll see banners, people waving, a grandstand, horseboxes and coaches as well as buildings.

At the bottom of the screen, there is an ambulance that gradually accelerates and decelerates.  At the end of the race, it drives of the screen and out of sight.

Sound Effects Only

When the horses are racing you will hear very short racing noises.  I’d describe the sound effects as “ta-dar-ta-dar-boomph!”, simulating the hooves racing across the turf.  Although extremely simple, it is effective and gets the job done.

The menu options have clicks and pitched notes when you select an icon.

Playability

The players get involved when choosing to look at the Form Book, Race Guide, Go to The Bookie or decide whether to place a bet or not.  Remember, nothing is random in this game, and it is all based on the factors put in at the start of setting up the game and performances.

All horses run in a straight line only with no hurdles or any bend along the racecourse.  Once the race is in progress you can’t interact by pressing anything, so just sit back and enjoy the outcome.  Most of the races do take a few moments before you start to see any real acceleration of the horses, but it does obviously happen.

Going to The Bookie

The Bookie always has a wobbly lip and is always puffing on his cigar with smoke is constantly rising from it.  When the Bookie must pay out though, he is not smiling!

The bets that can be placed with the bookie are for Each Way, Win, Place, Forecast, Reverse Forecast, or a Show.

A maximum of nine horses can run in any given race (some being human or computer-based players).

Horse and Jockey Names

Although you can’t re-name the horses, there are 75 of them named.

It is quite clear looking at the jockey’s names that some of them are based on real jockeys of that era.  Namely, Lester Piggott, Willie Carson, Brian Rouse, Walter Swinburn, Greville Starkey Steve Cauthen and Tony Ives.

Running Commentary

Should you have a Currah Speech unit attached to your Spectrum, you’ll have the added luxury of a running commentary.  At the start of each race, you’ll also hear “Off we go.”

During the race, you’ll see the commentator move back-and-forth towards the microphone.  He reads out the names of the three horses in the lead.  Once the race has concluded, there is a short pause followed announcing by the winner, runner up and third place positions being spoken.  It does make the game more entertaining to watch and listen to.  As each race lasts a couple minutes (depending of course on the number of furlongs being raced), it gives it that little bit more engagement to the player(s).

Back in the 1980’s this would have been very futuristic ground breaking stuff!  Listening to it now, you really do struggle to understand it what is being said as it sounds so robotic and monotone but still, an added extra to the game.

Pause for Thought

Before and after each race, there is a “Please Wait I Am Calculating!” message that appears on a blue screen.  Each of these take around 10 seconds before the game moves onto the race stage.  Also, if the Currah Speech is on, you’ll hear “Please wait”.

The game is mainly written in Basic.  This is evident as if you read the in-game instructions on the screen, you’ll see it say if it goes wrong, type in the command GOTO 999

Deliberately Mis-Spelt Advertising

There are a few indirect references to a couple of well-known betting companies.  So, you’ll see “William Hill’s” and “Ladbrokes” appear on banners during the races.  Small details like this also add to the realism too.

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