''GTI Club'' is a

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

originally released for the arcades in 1996 by

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

, on their new Cobra arcade board, which uses

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

-based hardware. In the original, the player raced around the

Côte d'Azur The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...

and could choose from 5 rally cars including a Mini Cooper and

Renault 5 Alpine Turbo The Renault 5 is a four-passenger, three or five-door, front-engine, front-wheel drive hatchback supermini manufactured and marketed by the French automaker Renault over two generations: 1972–1985 (also called R5) and 1984–1996 (also called Su ...

. The game allowed free-roaming of the environment, which was revolutionary for the time, and contained several semi-hidden shortcuts that could be used to reduce lap times. A handbrake is provided which the player is encouraged to use to perform handbrake turns round sharp corners.

Series

''GTI Club: Rally Côte d'Azur'' (Arcade, September 1996)

''GTI Club: Corso Italiano'' (Arcade, July 2000)

The first sequel (ＧＴＩクラブ・コルソイタリアーノ) released in 2000, it was published overseas in 2001 as ''GTI Club 2'' and ''Driving Party''. The action moves from France to Italy with Town (Easy), Coast (Medium) and Mountain (Hard) courses, hence the title. It features eight unlicensed cars resembling the likes of

Morris Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

and Bugatti EB110 plus a selection of new cars including the Fiat 500, Lotus Seven, AC Cobra,

Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...

, Nissan Fairlady Z (S30) and Alfa Romeo Giulia.

''GTI Club: Supermini Festa!'' (Arcade, December 2008)

In December 2008, Konami released the third episode in Japan with the original "France Course" and "Italy Course" plus two additional circuits (England and U.S.A.) and twelve cars. , which adds a "Japan Course", was later released for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

on 25 February 2010 in Japan, and under the original name on 16 March in North America and 25 March in Europe. The

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

version was released simultaneously in Japan but was delayed to 22 April 2010 in North America, and was not released physically in Europe. European supply of the Wii game was reportedly affected by the Icelandic volcano eruption.

''GTI Club+: Rally Côte d'Azur'' (PlayStation 3, December 2008)

'' GTI Club+: Rally Côte d'Azur'', an HD port of original ''GTI Club'', has been released for the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

(2008 in Europe, 2009 in United States). The port was developed by British studio Sumo Digital and published by

. The game features a number of improvements over the original game, including enhanced graphics and sound, eight player online multiplayer, new modes and compatibility with the PlayStation Eye. As of 2012, it is no longer available for purchase due to license expiration.

Arcade hardware description

* 3D DSP: ADSP-21062 ( SHARC) @ 36 MHz * Sound CPU: 68EC000 @ 16 MHz * Sound chips: Ricoh RF5C400 PCM 32Ch, 44.4 kHz Stereo, 3D Effect Spatializer. * Graphics (Custom 3D): 2 x KS10071 (Possibly graphics as well: KS10081, K001604) * Unknown Chips (possibly sound related): K056800, K056230

External links

*
Hardware description of ''GTI Club''Partial emulation images''GTI Club''
at Caesar.logiqx.com
Latest news on July 31, 2008

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gti Club 1996 video games Arcade video games PlayStation Network games Racing video games Konami franchises Konami games Konami arcade games Video games developed in Japan