I took a trip down digital memory lane this week and installed some software on my Mac that would enable me to play an old racing game from 1985 called Revs. I hadn’t played this game for something like 17 years, but just hearing those old familiar sounds transported me right back to my friend Olly’s room, with his life-size pin-up of Samantha Fox on the back of his door, and his impressive collection of ‘Now That’s What I Call Music‘ vinyl records.

In the days when Genesis wasn’t just a book in the Bible and a Foreigner was asking what love is, Olly and I became masters at Revs. None of our friends could get anywhere near our lap times due to the fact we devoted a quite unhealthy number of hours to the game. If I had read any of my school textbooks with the same diligence that I studied the Revs manual, I might well have earned better (if less amusing) end-of-term reports.

The game featured just one track, Silvertone, with a later edition offering 4 more. The graphics were simple, but what the computer lacked in visuals we filled in with our vivid imaginations. It was Olly’s BBC model B computer so he enjoyed an edge on me for a while. I recall how mad he used to get when he crashed for whatever reason. He would often hit the TV monitor in frustration, it was all very teenage.

It’s fair to say that in the 17 years since I played the game I’ve lost some of my spark. In the video below you’ll see me drive straight into the back of another car at the start of the race, then tangle twice with Gary Clipper in accidents that could easily have been avoided had I applied just a modicum of caution. It truly is an awful display of race-craft and a shoddy showing of computer-gaming ability.

Somehow though, regardless of how limited the game is in modern terms, it’s still as much fun for me to play today as it was back in the mid-1980’s. I doubt it’ll hold my interest for even a fraction of the time it once did, but it’s an enjoyable trip down memory lane.

I played Revs for about two years until I began playing with pretty girls instead. They turned out to be no less exciting, though the lack of a decent manual has at times proved to be a little problematic.

Play Revs yourself online
BBC model B computer
Revs / Revs 5 Track
Now that’s what I call music
Watch old Grand Prix races from 1985
Playing Revs