"Micro Machines", the first game in the series, laid the foundation of the gameplay: a top-down racing game with miniature vehicles. The race tracks are unconventionally themed. For example, some races take place on a billiard table while others occur in a garden. The cartridge itself was sold in several versions. There was a gold (black in PAL regions) cartridge with a switch at the bottom in order to be compatible with the American and European hardware. In Europe there also was a version where the cartridge was in the form of a plug through cartridge, a cartridge you plugged on another, normal NES cartridge and then inserted it in the machine. It was also released as an add-on to the Aladdin Deck Enhancer created by Codemasters.