A Day at the Races | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Team Software |
Publisher(s) | Team Software |
Platform(s) | Atari ST |
Release | 1989 |
Genre(s) | Racing |
A Day at the Races is a 1989 video game published by Team Software.
A Day at the Races is a game in which the database has room for 500 horses and 50 jockeys, both named and customized by the player. [1] The game is a horse racing simulation that allows wagers and payoffs, and for each racing session players can select the number of races, the track conditions, how many horses are in each race and other aspects of the racing card for the day, or allow the computer to select them randomly. [2] The game is multi-player and allows up to 15 players to compete, although each race has a minimum of 4 horses with the computer controlling any not played by humans. [1] Each player has a $1000 bankroll at the beginning of a meet that can be used for betting, or obtaining new horses at auction or by purchasing horses. [2]
Brian Walker reviewed Omni-Play Horse Racing and A Day at the Races for Games International magazine, and gave it a rating of 9 out of 10, and stated that "If anything, there is almost too much information to digest in ADAR. In the betting version of the game, ADAR probably wins by a length." [1]
Ken Warner for STart appreciated the game's attention to details, and called it "an absorbing simulation with its faithful and detailed recreation of horse-racing handicapping information". [2]
Joystick Hebdo found the game boring and felt that naming all the horses and jockeys took too much time. [3]
Parimutuel betting is a betting system in which all bets of a particular type are placed together in a pool; taxes and the "house-take" or "vigorish" are deducted, and payoff odds are calculated by sharing the pool among all winning bets. In some countries it is known as the Tote after the totalisator, which calculates and displays bets already made.
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys over a set distance, for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic premise – to identify which of two or more horses is the fastest over a set course or distance – has been unchanged since at least classical antiquity.
Horse racing is the second largest spectator sport in Great Britain, and one of the longest established, with a history dating back many centuries. According to a report by the British Horseracing Authority it generates £3.39 billion total direct and indirect expenditure in the British economy, of which £1.05 Billion is from core racing industry expenditure and the major horse racing events such as Royal Ascot and Cheltenham Festival are important dates in the British and international sporting and society calendar.
Parx Casino and Racing is a Thoroughbred horse racing venue and the largest casino gaming complex in Pennsylvania. Parx is located in Bensalem Township in Bucks County, northeast of the city of Philadelphia. Owned and operated by Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, Inc., Parx features 24-hour gaming with over 3,200 slot machines, 188 live table games, a poker room with 48 poker tables, live racing and simulcast action, sports betting, several dining options and bars, and the Xcite Center. Parx also offers online gambling and online sports betting along with off-track betting at two locations.
Sim (simulated) racing or racing simulation are the collective terms for racing game software that attempts to accurately simulate auto racing, complete with real-world variables such as fuel usage, damage, tire wear and grip, and suspension settings. To be competitive in sim racing, a driver must understand all aspects of car handling that make real-world racing so difficult, such as threshold braking, how to maintain control of a car as the tires lose traction, and how properly to enter and exit a turn without sacrificing speed. It is this level of difficulty that distinguishes sim racing from "arcade" style driving games where real-world variables are taken out of the equation and the principal objective is to create a sense of speed as opposed to a sense of realism.
Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning. The word also applies to the various methods by which the advantage is calculated. In principle, a more experienced participant is disadvantaged, or a less experienced or capable participant is advantaged, in order to make it possible for the less experienced participant to win whilst maintaining fairness. Handicapping is used in scoring many games and competitive sports, including go, shogi, chess, croquet, golf, bowling, polo, basketball, and track and field events. Handicap races are common in clubs which encourage all levels of participants, such as swimming or in cycling clubs and sailing clubs, or which allow participants with a variety of standards of equipment. Often races, contests or tournaments where this practice is competitively employed are known as Handicaps.
The Australian and New Zealand punting glossary explains some of the terms, jargon and slang which are commonly used and heard on Australian and New Zealand racecourses, in TABs, on radio, and in the horse racing media. Some terms are peculiar to Australia, such as references to bookmakers, but most are used in both countries.
Grand Prix 2, released in North America as "Grand Prix II", is a racing simulator released by MicroProse in 1996. It is a sequel to Formula One Grand Prix. It was made under an official FIA license that featured the Formula One 1994 season, with all of the circuits, teams, drivers and cars. The cars were painted with liveries reflecting the races that did not allow tobacco and alcohol sponsors.
Hillsfar is a role-playing video game released for DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 in 1989. It was developed by Westwood Associates and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). It features a combination of real-time action and randomly generated quests. It also includes standard gameplay elements of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, upon which the game is based. Hillsfar was later released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1993.
Indianapolis 500: The Simulation is a 1989 computer game for MS-DOS. It was hailed as the first step of differentiating racing games from the arcade realm and into racing simulation. It was developed by the Papyrus Design Group, and distributed by Electronic Arts. An Amiga port was released in 1990.
IndyCar Racing is a racing video game by Papyrus Design Group released in 1993. Papyrus, consisting of David Kaemmer and Omar Khudari, previously developed Indianapolis 500: The Simulation, released in 1989.
Satoru Nakajima F-1 Hero is a video game developed by Human Entertainment released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. It starred American IndyCar driver Michael Andretti, and featured the full sixteen-race schedule of the FIA Formula One World Championship circuit.
Jockey Challenge is a betting option in horse racing in Hong Kong.
Derby Stallion—also known in Japan by the portmanteau abbreviation DerbyStal—is a series of genre-merging horse-racing and business simulation games originally created by ASCII. The series comprises 21 games, spans more than 10 console platforms, and is the best-selling horse racing series of all time with total sales topping more than 5 million in Japan.
The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game is a board game combining luck and tactics. It was designed by Simon Knock in 1987.
Horse racing in the United States dates back to 1665, which saw the establishment of the Newmarket course in Salisbury, New York, a section of what is now known as the Hempstead Plains of Long Island, New York. This first racing meet in North America was supervised by New York's colonial governor, Richard Nicolls. The area is now occupied by the present Nassau County, New York, region of Greater Westbury and East Garden City.
F1 Manager is a sports video game developed by Intelligent Games and published by EA Sports exclusively for Microsoft Windows.
Betting on horse racing or horse betting commonly occurs at many horse races. It started in the UK in the early 1600s during the reign of King James I. Gamblers can stake money on the final placement of the horses taking part in a race. Gambling on horses is, however, prohibited at some racetracks. For example, because of a law passed in 1951, betting is illegal in Springdale Race Course, home of the nationally renowned Toronto-Dominion Bank Carolina Cup and Colonial Cup Steeplechase in Camden, South Carolina.
Omni-Play Horse Racing is a 1989 video game published by SportTime.
Omni-Play Basketball is a 1989 video game published by SportTime.