Reviews

Chequered Flag was the early F1 'simulator' released by Psion for the spectrum.
The graphics for the game stand up very well against anything seen at the time, in 1983. It is very smoothly updated and clear during gameplay, if a little sparse. The odd thing about this 'racing' game, which clearly shows cars racing on the cassette inlay, is that no other cars are present. It does, however, provide most of the other things that you could reasonably expect from an F1 game of the era. There are three cars to choose from, representing three levels of difficulty, and a bunch of real and fictional F1 circuits to choose from.
The controls are quite fiddly, but very involving once you get the hang of them. The game is all about mastering the controls and circuits to beat the clock. Not a game for someone looking for a quick fun arcade race'n'chase.

This was the very first driving game on the ZX Spectrum and one of the very first car simulators to ever exist and they done a really good job with it, it really does put you firmly in the driver's seat. The controls are very awkward which makes it very difficult to manuvere your car around the track in one piece, it is a challenge in itself. Still it's a really good game that still plays well today, just be sure to get to grips with the controls otherwise you'll get nowhere here.

This driver-view racing game was one of the first of its kind to be available on the Spectrum, if not the first ever. It features three different cars and ten racing circuits, plus some touches of realism which make it lean more on the simulation side, rather than on the arcade one.

Certainly for 1983 standards it was very advanced. However, the rather slow pace of the game, plus the absence of any opponent - you can only race against the clock - did not play in its favor, and nowadays it can be pretty much of historical interest only.

This one I am at least familiar with but I haven't played it in ages! But third time lucky I managed to get past Brands Hatch successfully in 5 laps and it reminded of how wonderful it was. It has the thrills of F-1 racing nailed beautifully and it puts at lot of first person driving games to shame, Hard Drivin' for instance. This is classic racing game, it's bloody hard but it's also bloody brilliant.