Conversion Capers

How did the coin-op fare on the 8-bit computers of the day?

Commodore 64

Even the most rabid C64 fan couldn’t defend this subpar effort. The wonky track animation effect looks like something you’d see on the Atari 2600, but what really sinks it are the loose controls that make cornering a nightmare. The crash sequence is pretty cool, which is good as you get to see it a lot. Jon Dunn’s music and sound effects, however, are noteworthy.

Amstrad CPC

If you can overlook the four-colour Mode 1 graphics then you’ll enjoy this solid conversion for the CPC. The palette may be limited, but the graphics are detailed and the speed of the game is very good. It includes the full flip-over crash sequence, unlike the Spectrum version, but for us it can’t quite top the Speccy game. Once again Jon Dunn provides superb sonics. WEG Le Mons

ZX spectrum

Converting Wec to the Spectrum with any degree of accuracy probably seemed like an impossible task, but the team at Sentient Software (building on Mike Lamb’s groundwork) defied the odds with this classy conversion. The speed and the rolling road effect are excellent and this is arguably the best checkpoint racing game on the Speccy.

msx

As you can see from the screenshot, this is a straight-up port of the Spectrum version with nothing added. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, given the quality of the source, but it does run a bit slower which takes some of the edge off the playability. It’s certainly preferable to the two existing Le Mans game that were released for the MSX by Electric Software.