Horse Racing Game

[cj]

Found this doing my clicking duty on PA's ads, anyone tried it?

http://www.cyanide-studio.com/?rub=games&gid=154

[PaceAdvantage]

Do a little digging and you might find a review online. I believe I did, and that may be the reason why I don't own the game. It doesn't take much for me to run out and buy any and all horse-racing related games that come down the pike. Hell, I bought a PlayStation just to get Gallop Racer and G1 Jockey!

[cj]

Yes, I'm sure I can find one, but was hoping for a review from a hard core racing guy like we have here, not a gamer that doesn't know too much. But maybe a racing guy reviewed it, usually not too hard to tell.

[Storm Cadet]

Play against my kids all the time! We should bring it to Saratoga for night time fun!

[headhawg]

cj,

Here is a link to sites that have the demo (perhaps you already have it). I tried maybe a year ago, but couldn't get it to work properly so I can't give you an opinion.

http://www.pcgameworld.com/details.php/id/3612/

I haven't played a good horse racing game since Omni-Play Horse Racing on my Commodore Amiga. Perhaps I'l try the ones for the PS. Are they PS1 or PS2 games? I can get a PC emulator for the PS1.

HH

[Observer]

The original Gallop Racer was on PS1 .. all other editions of Gallop Racer, as well as Grade I Jockey III, are for PS2.

Warning!!! .. these racing games for Play Station can be very addictive!!! So be prepared if you start .. to spend lots of time in front of the screen .. it can take a long time to get through a year .. and (from my experience) .. I always want to get to the next race to see what either my horse or I will accomplish.

Regarding Gallop Racer .. I still love the game .. but I was disappointed when they did the major over-haul .. making it more cartoon-like .. and making American tracks run the "wrong" way (just to name a couple of my dislikes) .. I liked it better before .. but I love playing any of them - when I have the time!
;)

I highly recommend getting all of the games .. sounds crazy .. but they're all unique .. but then again, it's tough enough trying to keep up with just one!

[midnight]

Gary Darveaux's Horse Race Fantasy is a good simulation of the game. You can find it on this site:

http://www.horseracegame.com (www.horseracegame.com)

[jorgie]

I believe Gallop Racer 2004 (or Gallop Racer III) - something like that - is coming out for Microsoft XBox, which is the system I have. I haven't been able to find too much online about the game. I did read something that said there was a new feature on the game where you could place "mock" wagers. Is this true of the latest version? I was "thinking" of getting the game when I heard about it, but when I heard that you could bet, I really became more interested. If anyone knows, how good is this portion of the game? Is pretty intelligent and realistic or is the simulated betting one of the weaker parts of the game? I've always thought a simulated betting game would be fun - I'm not sure how well it would sell with non-racing fans - but, I personally would be interested. Not sure how realistic they'd be able to get with it (as far as horses running to form, an accurate amount of longshot winners, etc.). Any info on the betting aspect of Gallop Racer would be appreciated! Thanks.

[Bubbles]

My personal Gallop Racer favorite is the 2001 edition, which I still play. It isn't one bit cartoonish, no gimmicks, just racing. G1 Jockey 3 is also good, just haven't played it in a while.

[csperberg]

Stirring up an old post.

Thought I would throw out a couple of new Horse Racing video game developments.

I had mentioned on another thread about a game soon to be released called Melbourne Cup Challenge. They now have a release date of Oct 26 on their website. There is also a playable demo 131mb zip file in size. It will permit you to do one race as a jockey and one race as a bettor. The betting is not typical US style, but close. Game pads work with the demo, I used my logitech cordless rumble pack 2 paddles and worked fine. Though every horse I did chose in the demo seemed to always pull to the right.

Being that it is only a demo and of only one race, hard to make a final judgment on it. I will say that I think the graphics are pretty decent, went into the options right away and turned everything up and played it in 1920x1080 resolution, it played really smooth for my system. I think all in all I will probably purchase this game. Heck I bet on the Australian races from time to time, so I know a few of the courses and they have a few foreign courses. Dont recall which ones off hand though.

Anyway here is a link to the website incase anyone wants to check it out more and wants to download the demo. http://www.melbournecupchallenge.com/

[csperberg]

There was also another game I wanted to touch base on. This post was originaly started by cj asking about the Horse Racing Manager game.

Well the same company is in the works for Horse Racing Manager 2 or HRM2. The website for the game has gone live and they have posted a few screen shots. Here is a link their site as well.

http://www.hrm2.net/


Now since no one really answered on how the original Horse Racing Manager was I will throw my 2 cents in.

Not the best game, not the worst game might be the best on the PC all in all. Saying that does not say much but since there really is not alot of action racing games for the PC it is hard to really make a fair judgement.

I will say that I played the heck out of the game and still do. I dont like that there is no game pad control only keyboard and mouse. The track names and what they race there are off, but there is no licensing for tracks so you have to accept that. Graphically not stunning, not horible either. I turn mine up all the way and crank my video cards up max and it is smooth looking, but you can tell outdated game graphics. I do run dual ATI Radeon x1800 512mb video cards, it smooths out almost all jagged lines in any video game. I also like the fact that HRM has online and LAN play, though there is never anyone really in the gamespy arcade rooms to play, and I cant seem to connect to anyone when they are, I could be using a differnt version of the game. LAN connection plays fine. You can have up to 20 boxes to have your horses or rent out spaces. You develop your own stable from buildings to staff. I dont like that you dont get to see your horses training etc. You just schedule what ever each week and they go about what ever they do, you will see increases or decreases in rating of your horse after training and races. Race schedule is pretty good, lots of races to typically chose from varying courses and distances. They have both T-bred and Harness and even mounted trot. The betting stinks. There is a goof in the game were grass races are run on dirt and vice versa, I heard the patch was suppose to fix it I dont know never patched my version. You can do you own breeding, there are auctions and claming races ever so often. You can buy privately and sell privately. You can name your own horse but dont know the sex untill after you name it.

The game seemed hard at first to me, would run out of money, horses would do good and what ever else could go wrong. I figured out a way to get my horses to win. I started to figure out optimum speed to maintain over distances to the class level. I would just send my horses to the front set my speed and then just start to whip the horse through the entire race. I would whip them let the speed shoot up and come back to level and then whip again, doing this till the finish. I would rarely lose by doing this method. I would also throw a couple of big bets on my horses to have enough money to operate a good stable. That worked fine for awhile and that was on the hard level. I thought why not start over and this time try to run the horses to the way they are suppose to, and just use better judgment during the races. I was able to then also run a successful stable on HRM on the hard level. I guess I would probably be considered a HRM expert from all the man hours spent playing that game.

I am sure you can pick this game up dirt cheap now since HRM2 is comming out.

[cj]

Thanks for the input. I've seen some hype about a Frankie Dettori racing as well. Have you seen this one? http://www.frankiedettoriracing.com/

I still play Gallop Racer on my computer with a PS1 Emulator.

There is now a GR2006, though I haven't tried it yet. http://www.tecmoinc.com/

I love that HRM2 has harness option. I've often dreamed of being the most crooked harness driver in history. My nickname would be "Boxed In".

[Cesario!]

Gallop Racer on the PSX is how I fell in love with horse racing. One afternoon, a friend and I were watching TV and came to the Florida Derby. Not knowing much, we picked horses -- I took Vicar, he took Wondertross. As I remember, the two of them came down to the wire with Vicar prevailing.

I was hooked by the excitment, and doing what I always did back then, I bought a PS game to simulate it. And, wow, was that game fun -- I remember my first two year old that was dominant -- he won every race by 6-7 lengths. When they turned for home and exploded, it was awesome. It also helped me understand the mechanics of pace -- something that I never was aware of from casually watching the sport on TV. I haven't played in years, but I'll always remember how it turned me on to this sport/game.

[Red Knave]

I've often dreamed of being the most crooked harness driver in history. My nickname would be "Boxed In".cj, I'd go a bit more exotic and call yourself Don LeBuatte (sound it out) :)

[csperberg]

cj, Frankie Dettori Racing is the same game as the Melbourne Cup Challenge. I do not know why there are 2 names, or if they are going to settle for one over the other. I gues though that Horse Racing Manager came under three different names.

It's funny that you talked about still playing Gallop Racer on a PSx emulator. I never really ever owned a PSx or PS2. I only rented a PS2 a few times and rented Gallop Racer 2004, it is the only racing sim they had to rent here in Green Bay. Anyway one day I was running through one of my download sites and someone had Gallop Racer 2006 and G1 Jockey 4 PS2 disc images online. I thought too bad there was not a decent enough PS2 emulator on the market to play these on my PC. I then thought well there is really good PSx emulators out there and wondered if there was any horse racing games for the PSx. I searched and searched and managed to find the original Gallop Racer for download.

So now I too play Gallop Racer from the PSx on my PC via an emulator. I dont know which emulator or plugins you use. Here is what I am using for mine. I am using the ePSXe v1.6.0 with Pete's OpenGL2 Driver 2.8 video plugin, Pete's DSound Audio Driver 1.14, Pete's CDR ASPI/IOCTL Driver 1.9, and have my logitech wireless rumble pack 2 controllers configured.

All I know is that I tweaked out the video settings and now have the Gallop Racer looking better than ever. I run it in HD resolution, with all graphical tweaks set to max. So in reality the game actually does look pretty decent all things considered being the game was made back in '99. That and the dual video cards I am running does a fantastic job at smoothing out graphics in even the oldest games out there.

I also use to play the original Gallop Racer Arcade game on my M.A.M.E. emulator. Basically the same game as the PSx one but no career mode, only single player beat each track and distance to get new ones, and 2 player vs mode. The only problem was that inbetween races took seriously like 5-10 mins to load. I dont know why it took so long, but then again not every game on the M.A.M.E. has been known to play perfect.

Anyway I am just glad to see at least a few more options for PC based horse racing games. The PSx and PS2 have always had the pleasure of having a grasp on the horse racing market. I could never understand why the PC was always neglected when it came to a good horse racing game. You can just do so much more with a PC than a console. With all the data and information that comes along with horse racing one would think the PC would be the best suited platform to produce a top notch high end horse racing game.

I would still love to set up some form of online horse racing league. Something that has fees and dues, but you get to run your horses for purse money. I think it could be fun and exciting. I know there are leagues out there but they all seem to be based on simulation games. I have heard of HRM racing leagues but I have never found any myself.

[hbeck]

Can anyone point me on where to get the gallop racer 2 (1999) CD image? I have looked all over.

Thanks

[Cesario!]

Can anyone point me on where to get the gallop racer 2 (1999) CD image? I have looked all over.

Thanks

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/575109.asp?q=gallop%20racer

Seth

[hbeck]

Thanks. I should have been clearer- I do not have a PS1 or 2. Am looking for a file I can emulate on the computer that has the game. If I buy the game is it easy to rip into a file so I can play it on the computer (the older PS1 version, not the PS2's)?

[hbeck]

Wow! I downloaded and played the melbourne cup/dettori game- it is awesome. I hope that someone can mod it with US tracks .