Drive Into A New Dimension

Grand Prix Construction Set is a motor-racing game with a difference: it allows you to design your own race circuits - using straights, fast bends, sharp bends, chicanes and hump back bridges. Or you can select one of the many pre-defined race tracks, which include most of the world's famous Grand Prix venues. Then race against another player, or against the computer - there are five skill levels to choose from.

Features Of The Game

• Easy-to-use, icon-driven circuit designer
• Save and load your own track designs
• 18 pre-defined Grand Prix race circuits
• One player and two player
• Dramatic skids and crashes

The Race

Before commencing the race, you will be asked the number of laps that you want to race. Type a number from 1 to 9.

You will then be asked "Human (H) or Computer (1-5) Opponent?". Type H to race against another player, or type a number from 1 to 5 to race against the computer as your opponent. 1 is the least skilled opponent, whilst 5 is the most skilful.

The miniature plan views of the race circuit will now be drawn and the cars will be positioned on the track.

Player 1 controls the red car with the track shown in 3-D in the centre of the screen and uses the left-hand plan view. Similarly, player 2 controls the yellow car with track shown at the top of the screen and uses the right-hand plan view.

If the cars are close enough, they may appear in both of the screens. The position of each car on the race circuit is shown on the appropriate plan view by a small black square.

When the race-starter lowers his flag, press the accelerator key to start your car moving. If you hold the accelerator down before the flag is lowered, your car will stall.

Kerbs

If you hit the red-and-white kerb at a fast speed you will spin off the track and your car will burst into flames. Needless to say, your opponent then wins the race.

The maximum speed permissible when running over the kerb varies dependent upon the section of the track in question. You will crash off the track if you are travelling at the following speeds:

On a straight ... 210 mph or faster On a chicane straight ... 210 mph or faster On a fast bend ... 210 mph or faster On a banked bend ... 210 mph or faster On any other type of bend ... 180 mph or faster

If you run over the kerb at lower speeds, your car will start to slow down until you drive away from the kerb.

Bends And Skidding

The sharper the bend the greater the centrifugal force that will be exerted on your car, and the lower the maximum speed at which you can travel without skidding. The banked bend may be taken at a higher speed than the other bends.

Once you start to hear the car skidding, the car will begin to drift outwards towards the edge of the bend. You can get out of the skid if you slow down sufficiently.

Bumping The Opposing Car

The two cars may bump into each other during the course of a race - particularly on the chicanes. Normally, this is quite safe although the following car will be forced to slow down. If, however, the car in front slows down drastically whilst the following car is travelling at a fast speed, the two cars will crash and both cars will be out of the race. This will occur if the following car is travelling faster than 40mph and at more than twice the speed of the car in front.

Chicanes

You must enter the chicanes with your car approximately centred on the white lines or you will skid on the kerbs - or crash if you are travelling too fast.

Hump Back Bridges

Hump back bridges are perfectly safe at speeds up to 180mph. If, however, you are travelling any faster your car will take off and crash on landing.

Lap Times

After completion of each lap, the lap-times are held on screen for a short while before resetting. It is useful to check the other player's times as well as your own.

Game Controls

Player One: Z - Steer Left, X - Steer Right, F - Accelerate, C - Brake

Player Two: < - Steer Left, > - Steer right, * - Accelerate, ? - Brake

f0/f1 - Volume Decrease/Increase ESCAPE - Abort Game

The Circuit Designer

When the game is first loaded, you will enter the Circuit Designer section of the program.

Input the names of the two players, and select whether you want to use joysticks or not.

When the prompt "Design circuit?" appears, type Y to design your own race circuit.

Designing New Circuits

First, position the start/finish straight by moving the cross-hair cursor to a suitable position using the cursor keys and then typing "H" to position the straight horizontally or "V" to position it vertically.

Now select a track section from those shown at the top-right of the screen by moving the cursor to the appropriate section using the cursor keys and then pressing the RETURN key. If you select a bend section, you should then choose whether it is to be placed on the circuit in a clockwise or anticlockwise manner. Press RETURN and the track section will be positioned at the end of the circuit.

If you make a mistake, press L to lift the section of track that you've just positioned.

When the circuit is close to being completed by joining up with the start/finish straight, you can request the Circuit Designer to close-up the race circuit for you - to do so press the C key.

You can then name your circuit and save it if you wish. But remember to save the circuit onto a new disc. Do *not* save the circuit onto the game disc itself.

Choosing A Circuit

If, in reply to the prompt "Design Circuit?", you type N, you will then receive the prompt "Load Circuit?". Type Y to load a circuit that you have saved previously or N to choose a pre-defined circuit.

There are 18 race circuits to choose from:

Name Of Circuit Country Brands Hatch U.K. Silverstone U.K. Mallory Park U.K. Oulton Park U.K. Castlecombe U.K. Snetterton U.K. Thruxton U.K. Donnington U.K. Monza Italy Monaco Monaco Kyalami South Africa Zandvoort The Netherlands Nurburgring West Germany Paul Ricard France Imola San Marino Long Beach U.S.A. Zolder Belgium Estoril Portugal

Loading

Press SHIFT-BREAK and wait for the program to load