Derby Owners Club
Derby Owners Club (DOC) is a horse racing simulation arcade game made by Sega-AM3. The format of the game is a player uses one of several consoles (called satellites) at the arcade to train horses, and then races them against 11 other computer AI horses or any number of other players (up to between 3 and 11 others, depending on location and format used) on tracks and G-1 races.
| Derby Owners Club | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Sega-AM3 |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Producer(s) | Hisao Oguchi Mie Kumagai |
| Composer(s) | Mitsuharu Fukuyama Hiroshi Kawaguchi (2008) |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PC, iOS, Android |
| Genre(s) | Horse racing |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Arcade system | Sega NAOMI, Sega Lindbergh |
Gameplay
Each player acts as owner, trainer, and jockey at each console. Players then can train their horses to improve in the horses abilities (Start, Corner, Competing, Out of Box, Tenacious, and Spurt) through the use of pre-purchased memory cards, breeding via the console, or retired dam and sire cards, in order for you to breed your own retired horses you will have to race them twenty times, then you will have the option of retiring them or to continue their career. These improvements can be augmented by foods rewarded by how the person plays the training segment. The horse is then matched up with other horses in the races and the player can now race the horse, with the use of either whipping or hold buttons. Depending on where the horses finish, they are awarded a purse. Back at the stables, the owner must now gauge the horse's personality after the race. The horse either gains or suffers hearts through the owner's actions.
Given the nature of the game, many websites and players have developed large amounts of media dedicated to the breeding, training, and racing of horses. Much of it focuses on the Whip Points, where if players whip at the right times according to their horses ability and personality, they can take advantage of the race and win. If a horse is a front-runner the player must whip fiercely at the beginning of the race to ensure a good lead, a spurt horse is good for the end of the race so the player must save most of the whipping power for the end. Successful racers have also spent a large portion of time looking into the different breeding lines.
There are rare times in the game where you will get a special horse, this does not mean they will necessarily run faster or have better stamina or necessarily be glitches, they will just have special markings, okapi, zebra, panda, and more.
Game list
Derby Owners Club 2000
Derby Owners Club 2000 (DOC2000) was released into Asian markets in 2000. The game used Japanese and Hong Kong racetracks (e.g. SEGA racetrack in DOC is loosely based on the Sha Tin racetrack in Hong Kong) plus Grade 1 (G-1) races at both countries (with Japan gaining most of them). Initially, the game proved so popular that players sometimes ended up sitting at the satellites for up to 8 hours and businesses had to create a reservation system and lounges for players to wait in. The success of the game ended up allowing Sega to release the DOC World Edition (DOCWE), using the DOC2000 hardware and software.
Derby Owners Club World Edition
The English port of the DOC2000 game released in 2001. Most of the software was rewritten in English and certain races were also Americanized (the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) and the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) were renamed American Oaks and American Derby respectively). However, many of the races still hark back to the Japanese G-1 races (the Japan Cup Dirt, the Japan Cup, the Mile Championship and the Sprinters Stakes are notable examples).
Many of these systems were installed in restaurants and other sports bar style settings (like Dave & Busters, GameWorks and Jillian's) and truck stops (TA, Petro, and Flying J).
Derby Owners Club World Edition-EX
The English version of DOCWE with new horses and horse handicapping in every race. The EX upgrade is designed for newer players to be more competitive with each other after breeding horses. In EX there are new sires and dams in the breed list. To determine if EX is installed, look for EX in the lower right while the satellite is in DEMO mode.
Derby Owners Club 2
Released in Japan in 2002, the game added new features (such as washing horses) but the ability to breed horses with retired Dam and Sire cards was eliminated, reportedly due to the enormous amount of processing power used by the system.
Derby Owners Club Online
PC version of the game released in 2004.
Derby Owners Club 2008: Feel the Rush
Completely new version with new high-definition graphics and gameplay elements, released on the Lindbergh in 2008.
Derby Owners Club 2009: Ride the Wind
An update to the 2008 version.