History of the Monaco GP

History of the Monaco GP, vol 1. Menoshire, £44.95.

This is a historic moment -MOTOR SPORT’s first ever CD-ROM review. This first disc covers the famous race from its 1929 beginning up to 1980, and also gives a history of the ACM. (At last I know who invented the chequered flag — Anthony Noghes. Monaco’s instigator.) You can look up cars, drivers, and individual races, watch short movie clips, and hear some famous figures talking. All mildly interesting the first time, but I can’t see it getting much repeat use; the car and driver details are very potted, and the movie is condensed and grainy. The weakness of so many CD-ROMs is that they disguise a skimpy book as a glossy beermat which needs a £2000 viewer.

There are two saving graces: first, the statistics. It is easy to call up collective records of drivers or makes, and sort them by year, or pole-positions, or whatever you want. Second, there’s a fun trivia game in which correct answers send you round the circuit scoring points. But for the same price you could buy a good book plus an action race game . G C