Shareware Games Galore!/Shareware Games Galore!.iso/arcade/gprix/gp.hlp

Text File | 1991-07-10 | 23KB | 466 lines

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GRAND PRIX (VERSION 2)                                   A HOLE IN THE WALL GAME
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This is THE game of Formula 1 Grand Prix team management. Version 2 incorporates
many suggestions sent in by devotees of its predecessor.

In GRAND PRIX you manage any one of twenty racing teams. You are responsible for
hiring drivers, hiring and firing staff, designing, constructing and testing
cars, and making critical financial and race-day decisions. Will you win the
championship or go bankrupt?  Play the game and find out.

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IMPROVEMENTS FROM VERSION 1
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- Displays, and in particular the race displays, have all been improved.
- Race circuit diagrams have been added, and every race is now different,
 depending on the characteristics of the circuit as regards speed, the
 relative importance of handling and engine power, and the ease or difficulty
 of overtaking.
- You now get involved in the detailed design and construction of your cars,
 in particular the selection of car components and specialist staff, the
 timing of development, and the amount of testing done.
- You can now have spare cars, and a third driver.
- You can now hire/fire staff, sign drivers, and develop your cars during
 the season - so there is much more to do all the time.
- Driver recklessness is now a major factor in their performance.
- Selection of tyre compound for each race is now incorporated, and tyre wear
 is an important factor.
- Breakdowns now relate directly to specific weaknesses in your car components
 and/or staff.
- You now have control over pit stops during each race.
- More detailed statistics are provided.
- Team and driver names have been updated.
- 1001 other minor amendments and improvements!

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STARTING THE GAME
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Throughout the game, the options available to you are displayed on the screen:
most selection is done using the arrow () keys to find the desired option,
then enter (┘) or the spacebar to select it. Most facilities are provided by
using the function keys (F1 to F10).

Before you can begin you must select the team you want to play the game as.
You can choose any of the 20 teams. You inherit their cars,staff,fincances, etc.
The best teams provide the easiest game, with the worst teams offering a severe
challenge to your management abilities. The hardest game of all is being in
charge of WIZARD; you haven't cracked the game until you've taken Wizard to
number 1.

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MONEY
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You will be allowed up to twenty million of an overdraft (on which interest is
charged) - exceed this and you run the risk of being declared bankrupt.

Money will come in on a race by race basis from sponsors and race winnings.

Expenditure is also on a race by race basis, and should be self explanatory.

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CARS
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Your team can have up to six cars: a main car and spare car for each of your two
main drivers, and two cars under development/testing.

DEVELOPMENT
-----------

The rating of a car deteriorates over time as new technical developments are
made: to remain competitive, you should aim to build yourself a new car at least
every year. Development of a new car will take a while (the more mechanics you
have the less time it will take) - so you must plan in advance. Development
involves hiring the mechanics you will need and selecting the components for
your new car/cars (you can make one or two at a time), and finally, when
construction is finished, testing them. You will be informed of progress.

There are five components:
    body
    chassis
    transmission
    electronics
    engine

There are nine outside manufacturers of each component, each of whom produce
four models. Prices vary from component to component, from manufacturer to
manufacturer and from model to model. Price is not a foolproof guide to the
quality of a manufacturer - as in reality the most expensive is not necessarily
the best. However, it is safe to assume that, for any one manufacturer, model 4
will be better than model 3, which in turn will be beter than model 2, and model
1 will be their worst model. In the component menus, an expert's opinion of the
quality of each component is given (bottom right of the screen), which is a
reliable, though not precise, guide, to help you in your selection. You should
also examine other teams selections, compared with their performances, as a
guide to what is good.

Alternatively, you may choose to design and build your own components (hit F5
from any of the components menus). This is always an expensive exercise, and the
quality of the part produced will reflect the skill of the member of staff who
specialises in that component. It is assumed that outside help is purchased
where necessary, so designing your own parts will not take any longer than
using bought-in parts in a new car: extra time spent on design and assembly is
countered by time saved in becoming familiar with the part.

If you have good staff, then you should be capable of designing and building
your own car components to a higher standard than any you can buy in from
outside suppliers.

The relative merits of the various outside suppliers of car components will vary
from season to season as they update their products, so for example if you
discover that Renault engines are the best in a given year, you cannot assume
that they will continue to be the best the following year (though they may be).

A few top-quality models may not be available to you. This is because, in the
judgement of the manufacturer, you are not good enough to do justice to his
wonderful component. Prove him wrong and he'll happily admit his mistake.

TESTING
-------

A new car will be useless if you do not test it - up to a point (where the car
is as good as it is going to get). You must choose which circuit to use for
testing - choice of circuit is not crucially important, but for example a
circuit where handling is of prime importance would be the most suitable for
testing a new car where the major improvements made over the old car is in the
chassis: the lap times achieved will indicate how good your new car is.

Testing is expensive, and involves risk of injury to your driver, and damage
to the car - so do not overdo it. It hardly need be said that reckless drivers
do not make good test drivers.

The testing meter on the "cars" screen indicates merely how frequently a car
has been tested and is not supposed to indicate how much or little a car will
improve by further testing.

If you have made only one car and you decide you want another you will have to
go through the whole testing process again. So, plan ahead - if you require two
cars, make them both at the same time, then they can be tested simultaneously.

REBUILDING
----------

The rebuild option enables you to reconstruct a car that has been written off
very quickly, so that you need only be without that car for one race. This is
achieved by hiring additional mechanics temporarily to bring your total of
mechanics up to 60, and by suspending any development work currently underway.
This will all be taken care of automatically for you by selecting this option.
You can only rebuild a car that is "in pieces".

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DRIVERS
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You can have up to 3 drivers, but only 2 can be entered for any single race. A
third (i.e test driver) is useful as a backup (he will enter races if either of
the other 2 are injured); he will also do all your testing for you, thus
preventing the likelihood of your main drivers crashing during testing and being
in hospital for several months.

There are two key factors to observe when studying drivers.

  Skill: this indicates their technical ability, and

  Temperament: this ranges from reckless to cool.

A reckless driver is liable to thrash the car to pieces, wear out his tyres
quickly, spin off and the like, but he will also overtake in the tightest
situations, and generally will get round the circuit faster.

A cool driver will look after the car, preserve his tyres, is unlikely to spin
off or crash and he won't overtake in dangerous situations. With a reliable car,
you can be quietly confident of him finishing the race.

A reckless driver is more likely to provide good qualifaction times than a cool
one with the same skill. The cool driver is more likely to finish the race than
the reckless one, but if the reckless driver does finish he should obtain a
better placing.

It is advisable to have a cool driver for testing purposes.

SIGNING DRIVERS
---------------

There are 100 drivers to choose from, listed in order of skill. Your choice of
driver may agree to join you, or he may think he's too good (in which case
you'll have to try another - during the racing season their responses will
fluctuate in accordance with your racing performances).

You can sign a driver at any point in the season. Signing a driver for this
season means he joins you immediately. Signing one for next season means he will
join you at the end of the racing season.

You must have at least one driver at all times, but there is nothing to prevent
you from signing a second, or third, at any time (in which case they will stay
with you until the end of the current season).

Signing a driver already under contract to another team is strictly forbidden
(how could we possibly encourage such flamboyant disregard of the law?)

CONTRACTS
---------

All contracts terminate at the end of the season. If you have a good driver whom
you wish to keep, make sure you hire him for next season as well as the current
one, otherwise he may well leave.

Drivers are offered contracts by other teams throughout the racing season, so
there is quite a lot of movement from one team to another. Don't forget you can
"poach" a driver by signing him mid-season before his existing team gets his
signature for the forthcoming season.

Contracts must be honoured. You cannot sack any of your drivers; equally, they
can't leave you until the end of the season.

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STAFF
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You must at all times have the following staff: an aerodynamics expert (to deal
with the body), a chassis expert (chassis), an electronics expert (electronics),
a transmission expert (transmission), an engine expert (engine tuning), a
head mechanic (supervision of the general mechanics) and at least 8 general
mechanics (pit stops/repairs/maintenance/construction).

All staff affect the car in some way.

The words used to describe the skills of the staff (dodgy,so-so,reliable,good)
are approximations. Don't be misled into thinking that, for instance,  all
"reliable" chassis experts are the same: they're not. There are various clues
in the game to show who's better than who, but we wouldn't want to spoil your
fun by telling you what they are..........

AERODYNAMICS/CHASSIS/ELECTRONICS/TRANSMISSION/ENGINE
----------------------------------------------------

The game assumes that the staff are continually occupied by tinkering about
with their favourite part (!) - so, for example, an expert chassis engineer will
get the best possible out of a bought-in chassis (and will be able to design a
top rate chassis himself - should that option be taken), whereas an incompetent
chassis engineer will seriously degrade any chassis he gets his hands on. So to
get good cars, you must have good staff as well as good components.

HEAD MECHANIC/ELECTRONICS EXPERT
--------------------------------

These two individuals are responsible for reliability. Any mechanical or
electrical breakdown can usually be attributed to them. For example, a very bad
head mechanic combined with a very bad chassis will probably result in chassis
problems at most circuits, whereas a very good head mechanic in charge of the
same chassis, will see you through all the circuits where handling is not a
crucial factor. The same applies to the electronics expert. Count yourself
extremely unlucky if a very good chassis, combined with a very good head
mechanic and a very good electronics expert EVER results in chassis problems.

GENERAL MECHANICS
-----------------

This rowdy bunch reflect the qualities of their boss, that important personage
the head mechanic. If he's good, they will be too.

In construction of cars they simply affect the speed at which the cars are
built (numbers more important than skill).

Pit-stops is where their skill is reflected: the better they are, the quicker
your pit-stops will be.

HIRING STAFF
------------

For general mechanics, you simply choose how many you want.

For all other staff you are presented with a menu of suitable candidates. Your
choice will decide whether or not he wishes to join you, depending on how good
he thinks you are in relation to his own skill. If he doesn't want to join you,
try some one else. If he does, then press 'Y' to accept him (if you have some
one currently employed in the same category, you will be asked if you want to
sack him first). As with the drivers, responses will vary during the season.
Unlike the drivers, however, the staff do not require contracts: they will stay
until you sack them, or until they decide to leave (see below); also, unlike
the drivers, you may directly poach staff from another team.

Each staff member will take time to become accustomed to your team. If you hire
some one very good to replace some one very bad, you will still be worse off for
a while. Consequently, the best time to hire new staff is during the close
season when you have plenty time for them to familiarise themselves with your
car(s). The same applies to all teams, so, if you do hire some one from another
team during the season, you will jeapordise the performance of his old team.

STAFF TEMPERAMENT
-----------------

Normally this ranges from Fickle to Loyal. However, staff temperaments can
change according to how they are treated. They don't like being sacked or
replaced and can take a long time to forgive you for the way you've mistreated
them. Watch out for the sadists.

Loyal staff will never leave during the season; fickle staff are quite capable
of leaving at critical times. Consequently, loyal staff are harder to lure away
from their existing teams than their fickle colleagues and loyalty is a factor
in their asking price.


FIRING STAFF
------------

Press Del to fire a member of staff. Excepting general mechanics you will be
asked for confirmation. Press 'Y' and he's gone. You will then have to find a
replacement (every post must be occupied).

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QUALIFYING
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For qualifying the drivers are split into 4 groups. Each group has a set period
of time in which to register a fast lap. The 26 drivers with the fastest laps
qualify for the race.

Your own driver(s) times are always displayed, along with their current grid
position (their best lap in relation to all drivers either on the track or
already finished qualifying). Any driver whose time is not updated is either
injured or has no car.

The coloured bars indicate how much time each group has left.

Use the function keys (F1 - F4) at any time to see any group.

Use the left/right arrow keys to slow down/speed up the qualifying.

Press F9 to turn that horrible noise on or off.

When the qualifying is over, press enter (or the spacebar). The grid positions
for the race is shown. Next comes the main event.....

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THE RACE
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There are 16 races per season. Each race is held at a different circuit and each
circuit has its own unique aspects. For a general guide on the different
circuits press F8.

Each circuit has different characteristics - some will favour a powerful engine,
others a good chassis and transmission, in varying degrees. Also overtaking is
more difficult on some circuits than others (making qualifying grid positions
more important). So if you consistently fare badly on a given circuit,that gives
a clue to the weaknesses in your cars.

Breakdowns will generally result from a weakness in a certain component of your
car, or the inadequacies of the member of staff involved (though there is a
chance element). For example, if you consistently have brake failure, then look
to your chassis or chassis engineer for the cause.

Points are awared as follows:
   1st - 10 pts
   2nd -  6 pts
   3rd -  4 pts
   4th -  3 pts
   5th -  2 pts
   6th -  1 pt

At the top left of the race screen, the top 6 cars are shown. If your driver
isn't there you can use the up/down arrow keys to show any adjacent 6 cars in
the display panel. Times are shown either as distance behind the leader / lap
averages or totals (press ins to change).

The big number in the top right indicates how many laps of the race remain.

The order of the race (all 26 entrants) is displayed in the race order panel in
terms of team symbols. The 1st car is leftmost, 26th rightmost. A symbol shown
in yellow indicates a competitor making a pit-stop, red indicates a retirement.

Your own driver(s) are shown as grey and purple.

Each of your drivers has various useful items of information displayed:

 - a tyre meter: when there is no yellow left, he's in trouble
 - a malfunction box: any severe problems flash in this panel
 - his distance behind the leader, average lap and last lap times

Your drivers will come into the pits of their own accord if they have a severe
problem that needs fixed. They won't come in for tyres, however: you must
instruct them to make a pit-stop. To bring in your 1st driver, press F1. F2
brings in your second. You can ask them to come in to the pits at any time (and
they will always do so if they are asked - assuming they don't retire on their
way to the pits). A pit-stop, for whatever reason, will result in fresh tyres
being put on. You will only be asked which tyres you want to use (wet or dry) if
the weather conditions are uncertain. Times given for pit-stops do not include
time taken to get into and out of the pits.

Use the left/right arrow keys to slow down/speed up the race.

Press F3 to see who has retired, and why.

Press F4 to see what prize money is on offer (the same for all races), and what
position you must achieve to receive a bonus from your sponsors.

Press F5 to see a lap-by-lap race commentary. It is advisable to check this
display often: it can explain that your driver's previous slow lap was due to
his spinning off (maybe he's using dry tyres in the wet or maybe he's just
being his reckless old self). Use the arrow keys to scroll through the
commentary (to get to the current lap quickly, just press End).

Press F6 to see the current times for all 26 cars.

Press F7 to review the grid positions.

Press F8 for circuit information (race lap records are updated in real time
during the race).

Press F9 to turn that horrible noise on or off.

Once the race is over you can review any of the available options as if the race
were still in progress. Press the spacebar to continue.

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SCORE
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The score seen on the main screen is intended as a guide for your own use. For
those who are interested points are awarded as follows (points are given for
the performances of both your drivers, not just the best):

GRID POSITION: 1 - 260 pts: 2 - 250 : 3 - 240 : 4 - 230 :                       a
                  5 - 220 : 6 - 210 : 7 - 200 : 8 - 190 :                       a
                  9 - 180 :10 - 170 :11 - 160 :12 - 150 :                       a
                 13 - 140 :14 - 130 :15 - 120 :16 - 110 :                       a
                 17 - 100 :18 -  90 :19 -  80 :20 -  70 :                       a
                 21 -  60 :22 -  50 :23 -  40 :24 -  30 :                       a
                 25 -  20 :26 -  10                                             a

RACE FINISHING POSITIONS: points are awarded as for grid positions and
multiplied by 10.

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THAT'S ALL FOLKS....
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We hope you enjoy playing this game. A lot of time and effort has gone into the
development of GRAND PRIX but there is always room for improvement. There will
be a version 3 if people show sufficient interest, so send us any ideas you have
for improvements.

And of course, in the unlikely event that you should find a bug in the game,
please let us know, and (if you have registered) we will do our best to sort it
out for you.

All correspondence should be sent to:

          WIZARD GAMES,
          4 HOSELAW,
          KELSO,
          TD5 8BP,
          SCOTLAND

Thank you to everybody who has sent us letters of encouragement and constructive
criticism. Thanks also to all of you who have registered any Wizard games and to
everyone working to promote shareware all around the world.

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GRAND PRIX (VERSION 2)                                   A HOLE IN THE WALL GAME
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