Producer: Spirit Software
Memory Required: 16K or 48K
Retail Price: £8.95
Language: Machine code

Well, after months of speculation and rumours the road racing game with the famous steering wheel has arrived. Quite how, we don't know, since last heard of, the police were investigating the company because of customers' mail order money going missing and the game's non-arrival.

The cassette includes two versions, a 16K and a 48K version, to suit either type of machine. The inlay claims that the game is based on current formula one levels of braking and road holding. The 48K version gives you a choice of ten tracks; Hockenheim, Osterreichring, Kyalami, Zolder, Paul Richard, Monza, Zandvoort, Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Monaco. These are selected from the front end menu, each track with its name appearing on a key press one after the other.

The screen display is not unlike that of Psion's Chequered Flag. You are seated in your car, your hands seen on the steering wheel. The road is white, seen in perspective against the green grass and blue skyline. Movement is indicated by the small signs on the side of the road, but there is no moving background as in other versions.

What makes Formula One different to all other road racer games is the much vaunted steering wheel which comes with the game. This is a yellow plastic device, shaped rather like the top of a big pickle jar, and was promptly nicknamed the Yellow Ashtray in the CRASH offices. It is designed to fit neatly on the Spectrum in such a way that it can be rolled left or right along the top row of keys. These are designed to proportionately increase left or right turn. There is an option for automatic or manual gear change.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Accelerate = Z, Brake = CAPS SHIFT, change up = S, change down = A, to steer use all top row
Joystick: the yellow ashtray
Keyboard play: steering keys are highly unresponsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: 3D effect works quite well, overall less than standard graphics
Sound: below average
Skill levels: 1
Screens: 10 tracks (48K version)
Originality: well the road racer is hardly original, but the steering wheel is, on the other hand, it doesn't work very well and is a laugh

I'd understood both from the ad and from the publicity since, that the 'delay' in this game was due to faulty mouldings for the steering wheel. So one might have expected something special, perhaps (is it possible) an add-on at a price of nearly £9. But perhaps that's asking too much. In the event, the flimsy plastic lid you actually get is a gimmick hardly worth having and certainly not worth paying for. In addition, the left/right keys (all the top row) are designed to proportionately increase the turning movement, so they are less effective for simple keyboard use. The 3D works quite well, but the car graphics are not a patch on Chequered Flag, which they resemble, as nothing in the car is animated at all. Not such a bad program, hardly a good game.

You may have felt ripped off by not receiving this game had you ordered it, but you may still be ripped off by getting it. With the game came a free ashtray for hours of frustration. With ten tracks you can have a choice of disastrous driving. 3D graphics are very effective with the signposts whizzing past either side of the track, although I haven't found out yet what their usefulness is, apart from indicating that the 3D is actually working. The idea of having proportional keys is a very good one, but doesn't work well with this game. The actual key response is appalling and would seem to have been faster if written in BASIC, with a delay or two to three seconds after pressing a key. Response time totally spoils the playability of the game and that, of course, makes it completely unaddictive.

The game looks good but does not play the same way - in fact you might say NO WAY. It's not possible to guide this vehicle around the tracks provided. The actual car looks unprofessionally drawn and I would have thought it would have been possible to make the wheels look as though they were going round as there is no other way of seeing movement at first until you gain enough speed to see the marker posts sliding by. The track also seems to go on forever, at least it does at the average speed of 30mph, which is about all you can safely do when the wheels apparently don't take you where you think you're steering. I've yet to find out whether there are other cars in this game, as the inlay suggests, because I've never been able to qualify yet, and I'm not sure I can be bothered to try again.

Mastertronic
£1.99

Hmm. A driving game for under two quid? Okay, I'll play it. It can't be that good. (Brrrmmmmmm Screeeeee brrrr clank brrrrrr screeeee brrrmm!!!) Hey, that wasn't too bad. Let's take a closer look.

I was a bit worried by the bit in the instructions which suggested that in order to "help you get the feel of the car" you have to "use a sellotape tin or similar object" and "position it on the top row of keys". Whaat! Well, ignoring the obvious charm of fixing stationery leftovers on my keyboard, let's press on to the game itself. You have a choice of ten world famous tracks to choose from, automatic or manual gearbox, and wet or dry conditions. You also have the option to merely practice or qualify/race. This means you can either pootle around the track if you're not very sure, or belt round in record time like a real pro. The graphics are not all that brilliant, using the crushingly awful green, white and cyan combination to truly terrible effect for the grass, track and sky. That being said, they don't clash that much, and I s'pose they do the job. The gameplay is the usual stunt of making it round the track as fast as possible without driving into the obituary columns. 'Cos the track is white against green, it's a bit hard to tell that you're actually moving at all, until you hit a curve at 140 mph, but once you get the hang of that it's quite exciting. Having more than one life would be a benefit, but I guess that steps up the pressure to make you be more careful. My only other criticism is that although you can see your arms on the steering wheel and the front of your car, they don't move when you steer, and this would have been very easy to do.

All in all, this is a cheap and cheerful alternative to some of the more expensive driving games. Squealing good fun.