is a series of

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s, created by

Tecmo , was a Japanese video game corporation founded in 1967. It had its headquarters in Kudankita, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its subsidiary, Tecmo Inc, was located in Torrance, California. Tecmo was formerly known as Tehkan. Tecmo is known for ...

Overview

''Gallop Racer'' is an open-ended racing game in which the player purchases horses to train, race and breed. Most games in the series involve management of horses, with the exception of ''Gallop Racer 2004'', which focuses more on the jockeying riders. Horses are divided into four leg types: frontrunner, preceder, midrunner and closer, and the player must carefully choose the best leg type suited for each race to have the best stamina and strength available. Race course terrain can either be dirt or turf, with horses excelling in either or both terrain types. Due to licensing issues, the series does not use the names of real-life horse breeds, jockey contests or famous race courses, a trait that also carries over to the crossover game '' Champion Jockey: G1 Jockey & Gallop Racer''. Races are divided into four classes based on horse quality and type of race: open, grade III, grade II and grade I. Higher-graded and more difficult races are unavailable from the start and must be unlocked by accomplishing certain achievements and winning certain races. Race course lengths range from 5

furlong A furlong is a measure of distance in imperial units and United States customary units equal to one eighth of a mile, equivalent to 660 feet, 220 yards, 40 rods, 10 chains or approximately 201 metres. It is now mostly confined to use in hors ...

s (5/8 mile) to 20 furlongs (2.5 miles) and are designed to closely resemble real-life courses in distance and shape in spite of an inability to secure licensing rights to use their official names.

Games

Most games in the series are available on early

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

consoles, with early installments available on arcade machines. All games in the series are available in Japan, with sequels utilizing standard sequel numeration. The first ''Gallop Racer'' home video game available in North America is a port of the third game of the series and is plainly titled ''Gallop Racer''. When most of that game's subsequent sequels were localized for North America, they would be numerated on the basis of their year of release there in a convention not dissimilar to annually released sports games in various

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

franchises and later titles in Konami's ''

Pro Evolution Soccer ''eFootball'', formerly known as ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' (''PES'') internationally and in Japan and North America, is a series of association football simulation video games developed and published by Konami since 1995. The series consists ...

'' series. Only the sixth and seventh installments of the series would be localized for a European release, with the former being endorsed by the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

attheraces Sky Sports Racing (formerly At The Races) is a British pay television channel devoted to horse racing. A joint venture between Sky Group and Arena Racing Company, it broadcasts coverage of domestic, European and international horse racing ev ...

horse racing sports network. After Tecmo

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

with Koei, the creator of rival horse racing series ''

G1 Jockey G1 Jockey (called GI Jockey in Japan) is a video game franchise developed and published by Koei that simulates horse racing from a jockey's perspective. The games most dominant participant Tom Bartholomew retired after going unbeaten for 13 year ...

'', a

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

video game that incorporates mechanics from both ''G1 Jockey'' and ''Gallop Racer'', ''Champion Jockey: G1 Jockey & Gallop Racer'' was released internationally in 2011 as the first and only game in this series to be available on non-Sony consoles and support the use of commercial

motion controller In video games and entertainment systems, a motion controller is a type of game controller that uses accelerometers or other sensors to track motion and provide input. History Motion controllers using accelerometers are used as controllers for ...

Notes

Reception

The games are bestsellers in Japan.

Dengeki PlayStation is a Japanese video gaming publication by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks). It primarily features information pertaining to the PlayStation brand. Dengeki was originally founded as a magazine in 1994 and ran until 2020, when it ceased p ...

sales chart, April 2000, published in

Official UK PlayStation Magazine An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...

issue 57

References

{{Reflist

External links

Gallop Racer 2006
at the Tecmo web site.

The Online Racing League World is the largest Gallop Racer series support group. 1996 video games Horse racing video games Arcade video games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation 2 games Koei Tecmo franchises Tecmo games Video game franchises introduced in 1996 Video games developed in Japan