back to article The Breakfast (Table) of Champions: Micro Machines

The last couple of months have seen the release of MotoGP and F1 2015. Just round the corner is the new Xbox exclusive Forza 6, so there are plenty of driving games around if you feel the need for speed. Micro Machines Beat the machine or challenge a mate My driving skills were honed in simpler times on the Codemasters …

  1. ukgnome

    This is one of the best games ever on the Mega Drive.

    My fondness for this whilst high as a kite and listening to slayer is only eclipsed by my love of fried bread!

    1. TechnoTechno

      Completely agree, right up there other great MP games like General Chaos and the like!

    2. Blackbird74
      Thumb Up

      +1 - loved this since Mega Drive. Much flatmate banter caused by this.

      The PS version also had a "cheat" where you could change to 3D rear-view mode in single-player instead of top-down. Not for multiplayer as it would mess with the edge-screen tracking.

    3. Tom Servo

      that innovative multi player.....

      fantastic memories on the megadrive of one player at the top of the screen with 2 cm of screen ahead trying to anticipate the turns and obstacles without being able to see them, and the opponent on the edge at the bottom with all the screen ahead but knowing one slip up and he's out.

      good times.

    4. jonathan1

      Agree, hours of fun and frustration was had...I remember arguing with my older brother about who got to be Spyder. He made me be Dwane..Older brothers are cruel at times...Still I beat him at it...

      The Mega Drive was an amazing system...or most likely I'm now old...and just remembering it fondly with rose tinted glasses. :o)

    5. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

      Later cartridges with 2 extra controller ports made it a brilliant game to play with your mates.

      Something I feel the wii could never replicate (As I kept being smacked in the mouth by the person next to me)

      1. Mayhem

        Turbo Tournament

        Turbo Tournament was my go to drug, with the extra two ports built into the cart in case you didn't have a 4 way play adapter. Utter carnage in front of the TV.

        My favourite tracks were the initial desk with the power drills blocking the track occasionally, and the awesome dragsters three laps around a toilet seat.

        Plus you forgot to mention the best part of Head to Head racing ... the carefully timed nudge of the opposition to send them flying into a wall and rebounding backwards off the screen!

        1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

          Re: Turbo Tournament

          "the carefully timed nudge of the opposition"

          How people screamed when you both tried to nudge each other and end up both crashing offscreen

  2. TheFinn

    No innovation? Couldn't you have 16 players, on screen, on the PS version? Definitely 8, but even so, what else offered that level of party play? My compatriots and I still occasionally break it out for a spin

  3. SuperNintendoChalmers
    Thumb Up

    I loved this on the PS2. I'll need to check out this new fangled "ToyBox Turbos".

  4. auburnman

    Also in top-down rally antics, Rock 'N' Roll Racing from around the same era was great fun.

  5. Chewi

    Played this recently

    Funny, I fired this up in an Amiga emulator just a month ago to amuse my 4 year old daughter. She couldn't get her head around the control scheme though, being much more used to the likes of Mario Kart. Though familiar with the control scheme myself, I couldn't believe how hard I was finding it. I swear I was better at it back in the day. Too true about those goddamn rulers!

  6. Major N

    I used to play it at my friend's house on the NES, many hours lost battling it out. Good times.

    It also nicely ties us to an article earlier this week since Codemasters were producing unlicensed NES cartridges (as well as the almighty Game Genie)

  7. Blank-Reg

    Played this endlessly with brother when we were both young. Much fun to be had and I enjoyed racing around the snooker table.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I just got a huge feeling of dread from seeing those rulers, I knew I was blocking something out from my childhood...

  9. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Stuart Castle Silver badge

    I think it is the simple formula that makes MM so enjoyable, and I don't think any update (whether it has the Micro Machines licence or not) should tinker with it. Too many games have tried to add a back story and in the process messed up the simplicity that made the game so enjoyable.. Thinking particularly of Battleships here, although the story wasn't added for a game, more so they could get a movie out of it.

    Don't get me wrong: I like a game with a good story, but I also like a game where you can just go in and do something, like race. I also like games where, if you are in the mood, you can totally ignore the story and just go in and blow shit up. GTA and Saints Row are particularly good for this. Micro Machines had no real story, it was was just about having fun.

    I would like to see it with updated graphics though. I might check out that other top down racer mentioned in the article..

    1. Jedit Silver badge

      "I would like to see it with updated graphics though"

      There was a game called Re-Volt released some time around 1999 that might scratch the itch. It's basically Micro Machines crossed with Stunt Car Racer; the "plot" is that the remote controlled cars in a department store come alive at night and drive around the store. The physics model is interesting in that the cars have been modelled to have very little weight, so the feeling is of driving an RC car. Comes with a track designer, too.

      1. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: "I would like to see it with updated graphics though"

        Logged to comment that it reminded me of Re-Volt. Great little game, sadly I never managed to make it run in post-Win XP machines.

        The tracks were really funny and inventive, they not only raced around the store but in a suburban neighborhood, inside a supermarket, in the science museum... and on the decks of luxury cruiser Toy-tanic. Sod that damn track! I never managed to beat it.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    The golden age of games ended not long after.

    The only reason I am not still playing this is because my son nicked the console when his mum and I split up - and of course the CSA left me penniless, so I could never afford to replace it!!

    Thats my tan coloured jacket, bought in the late 80's THAT I STILL OWN!!!

  12. Craig Chambers

    Classic multiplayer after pub

    I owned this on several consoles and, along with various incarnations of Bomberman, it was the reason for purchasing a multitap for each of those platforms.

    It was always great fun to come back from the pub with mates and play a few games of MM and BM.

    I even have this on the PSP, which I suspect may have been the last version rather than PS2, but it simply wasn't the same without the multiplayer element (I'm sure it had this, but I knew no-one else with a PSP).

  13. Jimboom
    Thumb Up

    ahh, now that brings back memories

    I was but a wee teen when I got this game on the PC. But I vividly remember the 2 player mode of this being played with me and a mate. And then on the schooldesk course, slamming him into the ruler. And on the off chance he didn't fall off I would stop and say "it's ok, I'll let you catch up" only to zoom away at the last second.

    I think the closest I ever got to that same feeling was playing Mashed on the Xbox. But again, it was similar to Micro machines in that if you didn't know the course and what turns were coming up when, you were stuffed.

    1. Stretch

      Re: ahh, now that brings back memories

      Mashed was certainly the spiritual successor to micro machines.

  14. batfastad

    SNES

    SNES + this + 4 player adaptor + 3 other mates = great times!

    See also super off road on the SNES. The game that is impossible to complete because it seemingly never ends.

  15. ScottAS2
    Facepalm

    Or was everyone just squished in the nineties?

    While I can understand the Heath-Robinsonesque setup required to play old games requiring you to play the game in the wrong aspect ratio, could you not at least have re-sized the screenshots for publication so things don't look squashed?

  16. Sgt_Oddball

    Floppies at dawn...

    Ahhh memories of my amiga 1200 playing against friends on this. That and the original worms (with the extra voices for the 1200 natch.)...

    Really should buy one off ebay but then how much the cost of nostalgia? And how gutted when I find out I'm shit at all the games? (That and finding a python joystick would be next to impossible)

  17. drtune

    Ah memories

    I was working at Codemasters during this era; takes me right back. Andrew Graham (softly spoken scottish guy, now at Kwalee ) was the main man behind the Micro Machines games; he did the NES (and later PSX) version; my mate Charlie Skilbeck did it on the Megadrive; I built the dev systems and did some other stuff.. lots of fun. Actually myself and Nick Pavis worked for a while on a Sega Saturn version but that thing never went anywhere...

    ...Oh and we went to quite a lot of raves as well. Ah the 90's :-)

  18. Achilleas

    2 controllers - 4 players

    Not sure if I'm remembering this correctly (perhaps it was Micro Machines 2), but I think the simplicity of this game allowed two players to share a controller, allowing 4 player races with only 2 controllers.

    To simplify the gameplay in this mode, the cars would autoaccelerate, leaving the players to simply turn left, right or brake. One player would use the D-pad and the other would use the three buttons of the Mega Drive controller.

    It sounds stupid describing it now, but I fondly remember it as one of the most fun experiences of my childhood, simply because everything is better when there are 4 people playing a game constantly, on the same sofa, without rotation.

  19. knelmes

    Had some great times playing this in my 20s, emulated on a chipped original Xbox, as a drinking game. Just dug out our complex rules for it, bought back good memories. I even owned micromachinesdrinkinggame.co.uk for a year or 2.

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