THE EVOLUTION OF Micro Machines

In some ways it’s ironic that Micro Machines was such an original game, as its gameplay largely refined concepts established by the top-down racing titles Codemasters had published in the mid to late-Eighties. In fact, much of its novelty came out of a tie-in with toy manufacturer Galoob, which the game started off without, as its artist Paul Perrott explains. “There were a number of titles being thought of for Galoob, and one of them was Andrew Graham’s game,” Paul says of his former co-designer’s NES racer. “It was top-down, with these dune buggies bouncing around a course. This was my first graphics job, and when someone said, ‘Do you want to do this?’ I thought, ‘Sure.’”

The two-man team got set up in a less than ideal workspace, which led to some early head-to-head play-testing with consequences for the loser. “We were working in a portakabin at the back of a farmhouse in the freezing winter,” Paul grimaces. “We used to play the game, and whoever lost had to brace the weather, go to the farmhouse and bring back coffees! Andrew was tweaking the game engine, and I was coming up with graphics. Then the Micro Machines licence was pretty much just slotted into the gameplay he already had.” Following a suggestion to depict the now licensed project’s vehicles at toy-size, its developers sought inspiration for where to race them. “The level designs were just whatever we thought of down the pub – I literally suggested the pool-table level as we were playing pool there,” Paul laughs. “The first level we came up with was the one with the school tables, and that was so much fun. It brought us back to when we were in school, and the design carried on from there.”

“ THE LEVEL DESIGNS WERE JUST WHATEVER WE THOUGHT OF DOWN THE PUB – I LITERALLY SUGGESTED THE POOL-TABLE LEVEL AS WE WERE PLAYING POOL THERE!^”
PAUL PERROTT

As well as suitable racetrack locations, needed more vehicles than just dune buggies in order to reflect the wide range of toys that it had to be based on. “The dune buggies made it through to the sandpit level, but we also wanted race cars, which were more linear and had tighter cornering,” Paul