How many copies did it sell though? Probably more than it should’ve done, simply due to the prominence of the ZX Spectrum and C64 in Europe at the time. Or at least no one actually remembers that it exists. In fact, did you know that there was a horse-racing game on the Commodore 64? Or that a ‘rein’ add-on (which straddled the analogue sticks of the PS2 controller) was released with one of the games in Japan? No? Well now’s your chance to further your knowledge of this oft-neglected niche gaming genre.ĭerby Day (Commodore 64 (below), ZX Spectrum, CRL Group, 1984)Īccording to the internet, this game didn’t exist. Of course we all know the G1 Jockey series from Koei and the Gallop Racer series from Tecmo (don’t we?), but virtual horse racing didn’t start there. The barriers to entry are high, and chances are that unless you have someone next to you explaining the intricacies and strategies required while you race, you will never grow to enjoy being a virtual jockey.īut give the games some time, and you may find virtual horse racing is a niche that you wish you’d paid more attention to over the years. The steep, steep learning curve certainly doesn’t help to propel these games from niche masterpieces to mainstream successes. The latter point aside, I think we can safely say that the horse racing genre on consoles is niche. Of course, add to that the Japanese sales of Gallop Racer and we’re talking some serious numbers – but still, that’s only in Japan. A general search on vgchartz shows that every game on the database including the word ‘jockey’ from the SNES onwards has sold a grand total of 460,000 units – roughly 400,000 of which were in Japan. Mainly because only 1 per cent of people probably even know these games exist. While I certainly am not an aficionado of horse racing games, I know more about them than probably 99 per cent of gamers across the world.

At least that’s what I’m lead to believe from playing video games based on the sport. It may look like its just a race down a couple of stretches around an oval but believe me when I say there’s a level of depth there that isn’t rivaled in a lot of other ‘sports’.

Horse racing game online