fall inside a hole

Tomy F1 Racing/Motocross Pocket Game

First written October 2024

In 1980 Tomy released a racing-themed game for their series of Pocket Games that involved a wind-up mechanism that spins a disc containing opponent racers that must be navigated around.

The Japanese release of this game was called F1 Racing and was orientated in a portrait fashion. This car-racing version was released for the U.K. market as Pile Up. Some of these variations can be seen on this webpage.

Motocross

The American release of F1 Racing was reformatted to be about motorcycle racing and reoriented to be landscape. The mechanism is the same, with a central windup dial that wind sup the plastic disc with opponent racers. The red lever slides your racer back and forth, and a switch at the bottom left corner keeps the windup motor stopped while winding or not playing.

The counter in the top corner increases automatically as the game runs - if you can last long enough for the crown to appear, you win. A dial on the top resets the counter. This America release was manufactured in Hong Kong.

As the windup runs, the sound of the gearbox sounds vaguely like the bike's motors are running. Small overhangs on the rear edges of the opponent racers catch on pegs sticking out of the front of your racer, preventing you from just sliding away if you hit the rear of another motorcycle. There have been plenty of games that follow this basic change-lanes-to-avoid-other-racers format, electronic, digital, and otherwise, and this one is... about as fun as most of the other basic ones. The novelty of taking it with you is neat.