is a

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sport ...

racing In sports, 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 g ...

arcade video game An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-oper ...

released by

Jaleco was a corporate brand name that was used by two previously connected video game developers and publishers based in Japan. The original Jaleco company was founded in 1974 as Japan Leisure Company, founded by Yoshiaki Kanazawa, before being renamed ...

in 1989. Rendered in pseudo-3D, the game is the first to be set in the

Paris-Dakar The Dakar Rally () or simply "The Dakar" (), formerly known as the Paris–Dakar Rally (), is an annual rally raid organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). It is an off-road endurance event traversing terrain much tougher than conventi ...

rally raid Rally raid is a type of off-road motorsport event competed with different types of vehicles. Along with shorter Baja (cross-country rally), baja rallies, rally raid constitutes cross-country rallying. Both the Fédération Internationale de l'Aut ...

which the player drives a

Porsche 959 The Porsche 959 is a sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1986 to 1993, first as a Group B rally car and later as a road legal production car designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring at least ...

, resembling that of the

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

winner. Opponents in the game resemble Peugeot 205 T16s, which went on to win in the 1987 Paris-Dakar rally, with

Mitsubishi Pajero The Further information on the Mitsubishi P ...

s also appearing occasionally. There are two games in the series: ''Big Run – The Supreme 4WD Challenge – 11e Rallye'' (1989) and ''Big Run – The Supreme 4WD Challenge – 13e Rallye'' (1991,

Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

) ''Big Run'' was also ported to the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

and

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

The Sales Curve SCi Games Limited (formerly The Sales Curve Limited and SCi (Sales Curve Interactive) Limited) was a British video game publisher based in London. The company was founded in 1988 by Jane Cavanagh and floated on the stock exchange in 1996. In Ma ...

Super Famicom version

The race proceeds in a straight line without any 360° effects to simulate the road turning around in a different direction. Most of the turns are on a 30° angle, forcing the player to turn sharply to the left or right. At the end of the game, there is a message that says "Those who have tasted the waters of Africa will always long to be here" along with some synthesized beats. This message will play right after the "game over" screen no matter if the player wins or loses the game. The object of the game is to travel from the cosmopolitan landscape of

Tripoli, Libya Tripoli, historically known as Tripoli-of-the-West, is the capital city, capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.317 million people in 2021. It is located in the northwest of Libya on the edge of the desert, on a point ...

to the

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

regions of

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

(including the target of

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The Departments of Senegal, department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 mill ...

) in a rally race. Hitting various environmental obstacles or other vehicles will damage the player's vehicle. Taking too much damage will result in trouble for the vehicle's components. There are many

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...

s (one female, five male) that know all the roads in Africa (the signals are given by nudges to turn either left or right). In addition, there are many corporate sponsors (with names sounding similar to real life corporations),

auto mechanic An auto mechanic is a mechanic who services and repairs automobiles, sometimes specializing in one or more List of car brands, automobile brands or sometimes working with any brand. In fixing cars, their main role is to Diagnosis, diagnose and ...

s, and automobile parts to choose from as the player goes for more than through tricky terrain. Deserts, jungles, and even darkness pose challenges to the player. The object is to finish each leg of the rally before time runs out (failing to achieve this goal will result in a disqualification and an immediate

game over "Game over" is a message in video games which informs the player that their play session has ended, usually because the player has reached a loss condition. It also sometimes appears at the successful completion of a session, especially in ga ...

, like in the real life rally circuit). Navigators help by directing players safely past areas of darkness in the race. Engine parts must be replaced by mechanics approximately every . Racing equipment (tires, engine, brakes) must be packed up in the vehicle, creating extra weight that slows down the vehicle's top speed rating. The goal is to have as many replacement parts as possible while keeping the vehicle as light as possible. Emergencies do not cost money but will cause the player to lose time on the clock while waiting for the repair truck to appear. Having no parts will eventually cause the vehicle to stall on the rally, eating up the player's limited time.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Big Run'' on their November 15, 1989, issue as being the second most-successful upright arcade game of the month. It went on to become Japan's fourth highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1990, below '' Super Monaco GP'', '' Winning Run Suzuka GP'' and ''

Special Criminal Investigation ''Special Criminal Investigation'', also known as ''S.C.I.'' for short or as ''Chase HQ II: Special Criminal Investigation'' in some home versions, is vehicular combat racing game published by Taito for arcades in 1989. It is the sequel to the ...

''. In North America, it was the top-grossing new video game on the ''RePlay'' arcade charts in January 1990. ''

Commodore User ''Commodore User'', (also referred to as ''CU'') later renamed to ''CU Amiga'', is a British magazine initially published by Paradox Group before being acquired by EMAP. Timeline ''Commodore User'' was launched in October 1983 with an initial pr ...

'' reviewed the arcade game, giving it an 85% score.

Notes

References

External links

* *
''Big Run'' (Commodore Amiga)
at

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a video gaming website that hosts guides and other resources, as well as an active Internet forum, message board forum. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and has been owned by Fandom (website), Fandom, Inc. since October ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Run (Arcade Game) 1989 video games 1991 video games Amiga games Arcade video games Atari ST games City Connection franchises Dakar Rally video games Jaleco games Off-road racing video games Racing video games Rally racing video games SCi Games games Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Video games developed in Japan Video games set in Africa Video games set in Libya Video games set in swamps Nintendo Classics games