Computer Gamer


Grand Prix Construction Set

Publisher: Superior/Acornsoft
Machine: BBC B/B+/Master 128

 
Published in Computer Gamer #26

Grand Prix Construction Set

There is a lot of welcome movement in the BBC games world wth games that allow the player to redesign games to suit. Repton 3, The Big KO and so on have led the way, and now Superior has released another designing game. These have been common on other machines for quite a while but not on the BBC.

The game offers you two choices - you can either race a choice of 18 Grand Prix circuits against either a friend or the computer on one of five skill levels or you can design your own circuit the way Scalextric allows you to.

The actual racing is quite simple with controls only for left/right and speed/brake - not another Revs, I'm afraid! The display shows your opponent in the top half of the screen, yourself underneath and, at the bottom, two maps of the race course showing your positions on the circuit. It plays quite well but the computer is tough to beat, even on the easy level.

However, the design element is another matter. A simple grab and place approach allows you to build up circuits from a series of track sections, including chicanes and humpback bridges. It is easy to operate and the resultant tracks can either be raced on straight away or saved for future use - certainly after five minutes or so the whole design process becomes easy and obvious. As a whole, the package is excellent, although neither the racing game nor the designer are what we might choose to call state of the art. Together they make up a very appealing software release that is going to give a great many of you a great deal of pleasure.

I'm just amazed that it has taken so long for Beeb owners to be supplied with such a standard type of game.