The Cycles: International Grand Prix Racing

The Good
It's hard to get bored playing the game, since there are many different tracks to choose from located in many different countries. You also have a choice in the class of cycle you race: 120cc, 250cc, and 500cc.

The interface is very clean--you don't need to read the manual at all; it's very easy to just fire up the game and go. Joystick calibration and support is similarly clean.

Realism is good, with only one exception listed in the 'Bad' section below. Locale scenery changes with each country, there are bridges to go under at track crossovers, and you can even pop a wheelie if you floor it at the starting line.

The Bad
For some reason, there is a lack of a sense of speed. I'm not sure if it's the sparsity of the scenery or something, but you just don't get the feeling that you're really going 120kph in the heat of the race.

The game is very unforgiving when it comes to collisions with other opponents. If you're playing on any level other than the easiest setting, you usually crash your bike, ending the race. I'm sure this is how it is in real life <tt>:-)</tt> but it would've been nice to include an option to relax the behavior a bit.

While the game supports Tandy and Adlib sound boards, they're only utilized in (good) music sequences. All sound effects are still through the PC speaker. Also, joystick support is 'digital', which means that you can either turn hard left or hard right only. Analog support is crucial in any good racing simulation to prevent oversteering, and it's missing here.

The Bottom Line
An okay game if a sense of speed isn't important to you. Because of the varing feature set and little annoyances, this sim falls somewhere between arcade and simulation racing.