Pro Power Boat Simulator

Pro Powerboat Simulator was published by Codemasters in 1989 and is one of dozens of titles from their famous budget line. Code and game design were by Jason Falcus, graphics by Adrian Ludley and music by Paul Hiley — the crew who between them produced a large share of the Codemasters catalogue.

Codemasters was founded by the Darling brothers on a simple principle: games at one pound ninety-nine, released fast and in enormous quantity. The word simulator appeared in their titles so often that it became a joke that has outlived the era — alongside the powerboat there were Pro Golf Simulator, BMX Simulator, Grand Prix Simulator, Advanced Pilot Simulator and many more. Most came nowhere near simulation; they were quick arcade games with an ambitious name.

This one belongs to the better half of the line. You race a powerboat, the game supports two players, and besides the Spectrum it appeared on the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Amiga and Atari ST, which was not a given for budget fare. Its ZXDB user score sits at around 6.2 out of ten — above average for a one-pound game.

The weaknesses come from the budget. There is not much content, courses repeat, and the game has nothing left after a couple of runs. The handling is sensitive and takes longer to learn than a game this short really warrants.

It is worth loading mainly as a sample of what the late-eighties British 8-bit scene actually ran on. Codemasters shifted enormous numbers of units precisely because its games cost about the same as two chocolate bars — and that model outlived the label by decades.