Grand Champion

Grand Champion is a racing arcade game, that was released by Taito Corporation in 1981; it utilizes three Zilog Z80 microprocessors, two at 6 MHz and the third at 3 MHz, with three General Instrument AY-3-8910s running at 1.6 MHz for sound. The gameplay is similar to that of Taito's own Speed Race series in that the player must use a steering wheel (and gear shifter) to take up control of a car with a single pedal to make it accelerate - however, it is all more "stage-based" than the Speed Race series. The player's red car starts each stage with twenty-two CPU-controlled cars (of various other colours); once that traffic light in the top-left corner of the screen has changed to green, and the text "GO!" has appeared on the screen, you must stand on the pedal to accelerate your car as the 99-second (1:39) timer at the bottom of the screen starts counting down. You will receive 10 points for every metre you travel, and 100 points for every CPU-controlled car you pass - and your car will have to drive through dark tunnels, rain, thunder and snow, as well as watching out for when the track splits into two paths like in the Speed Race series. The game also has a radar, that shows the position of the player's car relative to the CPU-controlled ones, and a rank indicator up at the top of the screen, that displays his current racing position; if the player comes in first, he will receive a 2000-point bonus. However, if he comes in second, he will receive a 1000-point bonus - and if he comes in third, he will receive a 500-point bonus. He will then proceed to the next stage; however, if he came in fourth or below or ran out of time before he reached the finish line, the game will end regardless of how many stages he'd won.