Top Gear

About Top Gear

Top Gear (1992) is Gremlin Graphics' early SNES racer from the makers of the Lotus games, a split-screen world tour with fuel to manage, three nitros per race and a Barry Leitch soundtrack that became a cult favourite in Brazil.

Top Gear in Depth

The aim is to become the world's fastest driver by racing across several countries, finishing in the top five to qualify for each next race. One player or two in split screen can take part, and players register a name and choose manual transmission, shifting with the shoulder buttons, or automatic. Four controller layouts remap acceleration, braking, gears and nitro. There are four cars with different handling, top speed and fuel use: the Cannibal is fast but has poor grip and drinks fuel, while the Sidewinder corners well and is economical.

Races come in regions of four courses, with points for finishing positions and a cumulative ranking deciding whether the player moves on to the next region. Each race allows three nitro boosts for bursts of speed. Running out of fuel ends a race, so players must judge when to make a pit stop to refuel at the cost of time. Races are held by day and night, and obstacles on the road slow the car badly on impact. Speed can be shown in miles or kilometres per hour.

Making Top Gear

Gremlin Graphics, who had made the Lotus series on the Amiga and Mega Drive, developed the game for Kemco, and it was one of the first racing games on the SNES, released in 1992. The music was composed using the SNES ICE development kit with a sound card installed in a PC and custom software called MEDIT, which let the team take advantage of the SNES's eight-channel SPC700 sound chip and its real-time echo, uncommon on consoles of the time. Leitch said the "Vegas" track was one of the first pieces written for the game, built on his favourite chord progressions.

It received a positive reception, and readers of Super Famicom Magazine gave it 20.82 out of 30 in 1993. It became especially popular in Brazil in the early 1990s, helped by rental shops and widespread piracy, where it competed with F-Zero and Super Mario Kart, and its soundtrack, particularly the main theme, has since inspired thousands of fan covers online. It began the Top Gear series.