Monaco GP is an arcade racing game released by Sega in November 1979 in Japan, and January 1980 worldwide. An upgraded version, Pro Monaco GP, was released later in 1980. One of the last Sega games to use TTL chips instead of a microprocessor CPU, the game has players race against a clock and pass rival racers while attempting to earn points driving through five areas.
Monaco GP (SG-1000)
The game was commercially successful in arcades. In Japan, it was among the top three highest-grossing games of 1979 and top five in 1980, while in the United States it was the top-grossing driving game of 1981. It continued to regularly appear on Japanese arcade charts through 1983, and made a record number of appearances on US arcade charts from 1980 through 1987. Monaco GP was ported to the SG-1000 in 1983. The series also had later releases Super Monaco GP and Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II.
Monaco GP is a racing game played from an overhead perspective, where the main objective is to finish a course before time runs out. Points are awarded as the player races through five areas. As the game progresses, rival cars controlled by the game's artificial intelligence get faster, the road narrows, and the road surface changes to ice and gravel. Various hazards in the road include puddles, narrow bridges, and tunnels where the driver's view is limited by the range of the car's headlights on screen. The timer continues counting down until 2000 points are scored; then, the system changes to a limited number of lives. At 6000 points and again at 8000, rival cars increase in speed. According to Sega Arcade History, the concept for this timer system came from Sega Enterprises president Hayao Nakayama. Pro Monaco GP, an upgraded version of the game released later, features a higher difficulty level than the original game.
In 2003, Sega made a remake of Monaco GP for the PlayStation 2, as a part of the Sega Ages 2500 collection. The remake features a number of additions including more cars and game modes. Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 applauded the 2500 remake in particular for its improvements to the gameplay of the original, believing it would have been worthy of a separate release outside Japan.
More details about this game can be found on
Wikipedia.org.
Find digital download of this game on
GOG
or
Steam.
Videogame Console:
This version of Monaco GP was designed for the Sega SG-1000, which was first 8-bit Sega video game console manufactured
in the years 1983 - 1985. It was launched on the same day as much more successful NES console and with exceptions, it was sold only in Japan.
The unit price of SG-1000 was 15,000 yen, the same price as for NES. Console was not very successful and after 2 years was withdrawn from the market.
More information about Sega SG-1000 can be found
here.
Recommended Game Controllers:
You can control this game easily by using the keyboard of your PC (see the table next to the game). However, for maximum gaming enjoyment, we strongly recommend using a USB gamepad that you simply plug into the USB port of your computer. If you do not have a gamepad, buy a suitable USB controller on Amazon or AliExpress or in some in some of your favorite online stores.
Available online emulators:
2 different online emulators are available for Monaco GP. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For
maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic
features of each emulator available for this game Monaco GP are summarized in the following table:
If you like Monaco GP you'll probably like also some of the similar games in the overview below. The games you see here
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This version of Monaco GP was designed for the Sega SG-1000, which was first 8-bit Sega video game console manufactured
in the years 1983 - 1985. It was launched on the same day as much more successful NES console and with exceptions, it was sold only in Japan.
The unit price of SG-1000 was 15,000 yen, the same price as for NES. Console was not very successful and after 2 years was withdrawn from the market.
More information about Sega SG-1000 can be found
