Micro Machines

About Micro Machines

Micro Machines (1991) is Codemasters' unlicensed NES racer of Galoob's toy cars, raced top-down across breakfast tables, desks and pool tables, whose single-screen two-player duels made it a British classic.

Micro Machines in Depth

Seen from above, toy powerboats, helicopters, Formula One cars and tanks that can shoot their rivals race around household settings: breakfast tables with cereal boxes in the way, desks with pencil sharpeners, pool tables and treehouses. Each course follows a set path, and a racer who strays from it for too long is put back on the track.

In the Micro Machines Challenge the player races three computer opponents and must finish first or second to go on, with three chances before the game ends; every three races a time trial offers an extra chance. Head-to-head pits two vehicles against each other on a single shared screen instead of a split screen. Getting a full screen ahead of the other player, so that the trailing car drops out of view, turns one of eight lights to the leader's colour. The race ends when all eight lights are one colour, or after three laps, when the player with most lights wins; ties go to sudden death. Some characters carry a handicap in two-player games to even things out.

Making Micro Machines

At the 1990 Consumer Electronics Show, Codemasters founders David and Richard Darling were struck by the NES's popularity in America and wanted to make games for it without a Nintendo licence. Galoob wanted a game of its Micro Machines toys, so Graham's buggy-racing prototype became the base and Galoob sent Codemasters a selection of toys. Artist Paul Perrot converted the graphics, the team kept the tracks short because they were more fun, and Graham said the multiplayer was the best part of the game and made single-player "boring" by comparison. The game was finished in September 1990.

Camerica released it in 1991, but Nintendo, which had sued Galoob over the Game Genie, wanted it stopped, and the legal dispute hurt NES sales. Ports followed for the Mega Drive in 1993, after Sega's own licensing objections delayed it, and for the Game Gear, Amiga, Master System, SNES, CD-i, PC and Game Boy. Critics praised its originality and two-player mode, Next Generation ranked it 18th on its 1996 list of the greatest games, and The Guardian named it one of the 30 best British video games in 2014. Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament followed in 1994.