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A2 Racer Europe Tour for PlayStation 1
A2 Racer Europe Tour for PlayStation 1 takes Davilex's street races onto European city roads and motorways. You drive among ordinary traffic, look for gaps beside other cars and try to keep the police behind you. The journey visits places including London, Berlin, Frankfurt and Vienna. Recognisable place names and roads give the race a different setting from a closed circuit. Traffic rules will not bring you victory here: you decide where you can find an opening to get through.
Along the way you collect items that provide money, fuel or extra time. This means watching not only the next corner but also whatever lies beside the ideal racing line. Police roadblocks and pursuing cars can suddenly turn a straight road into a slalom. Night driving, jumps and collisions are part of the arcade approach. A short detour can create room, while a misjudgement in heavy traffic can cost you valuable seconds.
You play this PlayStation release alone with a standard controller or a supported analogue controller. Accelerating, braking and using the handbrake form the basics; nitro provides a temporary speed increase. Saving progress requires a PlayStation memory card. This Dutch release uses Dutch in its menus and during play. It is the original console version of Europa Tour, not a later A2 Racer game with more elaborate pursuit systems.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 1 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
This is the Dutch-language release of A2 Racer Europe Tour for PlayStation 1. The menus and game text are in Dutch; do not expect an English-language game version with this edition.
Manual
A2 Racer Europe Tour for PlayStation 1 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of A2 Racer Europe Tour
Davilex developed and published A2 Racer Europe Tour as part of its Dutch racing series. The first A2 Racer appeared in 1997, making recognisable Dutch roads the starting point for a computer game. This suited a company previously known mainly for administrative software and educational games. A2 Racer's success gave the games division room to grow and take the idea of familiar locations into other countries.
In an original interview from 2002, marketing manager Ellen van Meerendonk explained why this approach worked: people enjoyed driving through their own city and recognising familiar buildings and streets. Davilex released Autobahn Raser for Germany and London Racer for Great Britain. Europa Tour fits this expansion of the area covered. Its cities do not provide precise driving instruction, but a recognisable setting for dangerously fast driving, police pursuits and encounters with other traffic.
The original PlayStation release bears the Dutch name Europa Tour and uses Dutch game text. It therefore retains a clear connection with its home market, even as the routes travel further into Europe. At the same time, this console version shows how Davilex expanded its original PC audience to PlayStation owners. The series later received other instalments and different technical treatments. Europe Tour remains this separate early console outing, centred on city roads, motorways and evading the police.
Similar games for PlayStation 1
Driver also lets you drive through city traffic and escape the police. You play an undercover officer completing jobs in American cities, guided by an ongoing crime story. A2 Racer Europe Tour focuses on street races on European roads and collecting time, fuel and money along the way. Both require you to spot gaps between cars; Driver also puts more emphasis on missions, escape routes and the movement of a heavy getaway car.
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit shares police pursuits and high-speed driving with A2 Racer Europe Tour. You choose famous sports cars and race on carefully designed courses threatened by roadblocks and spike strips. A2 Racer uses European city names and motorways as reference points and lets you collect fuel and extra time on the road. Escaping and overtaking connect the two; how you sustain a run and read the setting differs.
Like A2 Racer Europe Tour, Test Drive 4 combines ordinary roads, other traffic and races across different countries. It places modern sports cars alongside older American muscle cars, making their different handling characteristics part of your choice. A2 Racer places greater emphasis on familiar Dutch and European settings, police roadblocks and items collected on the road. In both games it helps to look beyond the traffic, but Test Drive builds its races more specifically around the selected cars.
Gran Turismo 2 also offers plenty of driving on PlayStation, but organises its main career around buying cars, earning licences and entering increasingly demanding events. You learn braking points and car setup on racing circuits. A2 Racer Europe Tour instead sends you through ordinary traffic, with police and collectible items influencing the run. Both reward a well-chosen racing line, but A2 Racer makes avoiding unexpected road users more important than carefully building a racing garage.
Re-Volt shares short, direct races and collectible power-ups with A2 Racer Europe Tour. Its vehicles are radio-controlled toy cars, turning a shop or museum into a large course. A2 Racer keeps cars at their normal scale and uses city roads and motorways populated by other traffic. In Re-Volt you read small obstacles and weapons; in A2 Racer, traffic density, police and the search for fuel or time change your decisions during a run.
