Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race

Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race (ファミコングランプリ　F1レース) is a Japan-exclusive racing game released for the Family Computer Disk System on October 30, 1987. It is a racing game starring Mario in Formula One cars. A tournament was held for this game from October 30 to December 15, 1987. The top 100 players of each of the four difficulty levels received a trophy with their name and rank along with a poster that had the names of all 400 trophy holders. They, along with thousands of runners-up and raffle winners got a Super Mario Bros. Game & Watch sealed in a case shaped like Diskun, the mascot of the Disk System who appeared on all Disk System game covers (and also made an appearance as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee). They also received mock driver's licenses. A sequel was released months later, known as Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally, and it was very different from F1 Race and also subject of a tournament.

This game, along with its sequel, was possibly an ancestor to the Mario Kart series, most likely due to the fact that it features Mario and possesses similar 2D racing mechanics, which was later carried on to Super Mario Kart.

Gameplay
In the game, players can choose to play alone or with other cars. Cars have a certain amount of body quality, tire quality, and fuel; body decreases whenever the player crashes into a wall or another car, as well as whenever they drive off of the road, while tire and fuel decrease with time. The player can go to a pit-stop to regenerate the body, tire, and fuel; however, doing this takes away race time. Running out of body or fuel is an immediate disqualification, while running out of tire causes the treads to wear out and makes the steering erratic.

Winning the Grand Prix rewards players with money (measured in millions of dollars), which can be used to buy more expensive cars. There are a total of 24 different cars, each having a different level of power, body, tire, and fuel capacity, though they also cost varying amounts. The player's garage can hold up to three cars at a time, so to buy a fourth, one must first be sold. The player cars come in red, yellow, green, and blue, while opponent cars additionally come in different colors (which due to palette limitations, are rendered through combinations of the four main colors rapidly flashing between each other to blend them together, with the fastest one flashing between all four). In the game, Mario is the player's driver, wearing the same color as the vehicle he drives; his likeness is also used for his pit crew, with all but the crew chief also wearing the car's color.

There are a total of ten circuits spread across four race levels (analogous to cups) with four circuits each - as such, some circuits appear in multiple race levels. An additional circuit is used for the time trial mode. The majority of the circuits are classified as Dry, meaning traction is good on them, but a small amount are instead Wet, where traction is poor. Usually, other cars, walls, and off-road areas are the only obstacles, but occasionally oil slicks appear on the road as well.

Cars
The shop always carries twelve cars across four tiers; higher tiers are unlocked by completing race levels and replace the respective lower tier in the shop's availability. The player starts with $50 million.

Sprites

 * Racing