Legends of the Track

'Legends' is our third simulation of the classic track event. First came 'The Metric Mile', much played both solo and as a multi-play and postal game but in my opinion rather bland. A recent re-working of the game has improved it I believe but whilst it requires user input in terms of deciding what Mode to use for each athlete each Turn it lacks the detail of 'Three-and-three Quarter Laps', which remains my preferred choice for that type of simulation. 'Legends' is what I term an 'eye-in-the-sky' game, the user is 'looking down' on the track with no more involvement than rolling the dice, consulting the Charts and keeping the Race Control Sheet up-dated. A few years ago 'Legends' could not have been published, the demand was all for 'involvement' games, where the user's input had a definite effect on the outcome. 'The Sport of Kings', with its many small decisions all affecting the final outcome, is typical of that genre.

But recently we have noticed a trend towards the complete solo game, with no opportunity to influence the outcome, maybe for fear of spoiling the purity of sporting history by allowing personal bias to creep in, maybe just because gamers are going through a phase where they prefer to sit back and watch it all happen in front of them, in control but not controlling the replay.

Whatever, the brief for 'Legends' was for a non-involvement ATG simulation with races playable in 10-12 minutes, accurate (of course) as far as any mixed-era simulation can be, providing enough detail and stats. (split and final times) to keep the hard-core replay gamer happy and with a system that needed a minimum of book-keeping. Hopefully that is what you have got with 'Legends', playing time around 10 minutes, a simple but effective Track Display, one hundred ATG athletes who will run their races in the way they usually ran them in real life (but with ability to change race 'plans' if you wish) with times geared to 2007 standards, pace-makers, 'fast' and normal tracks, weather effects, race 'quality' effects and fitness levels.

We think 'Legends' will be an ideal vehicle for solo campaigns, enough 'going on' to keep the interest at a high level, fun to run races, and the chance to run a full season incorporating Grand Prix meetings, Olympics (or World Championships), world-record attempts and with a few minor meetings flung in to keep the mix flexible.