Scalextric

Your Sinclair

Drive 51%

Visibility 31%

Road Holding 41%

FOATLF 61%

Overall 51%

Jonathan Davies 51%

THE COMPLETE YS GUIDE TO DRIVING GAMES It's strange but true - normally courteous YS readers tend to turn into homicidal maniacs once they get behind the wheel of a Spectrum. We sent JONATHAN DAVIES, who still hasn't managed to get that wretched helmet off, to find out why. It's an expensive business, driving. Not only do you have to hand out piles of dosh to actually get a car, but there are loads of 'hidden costs' thrown into the bargain' too. For a start, you've got to get it insured (in case you crash), which means serious sponds for your average Spectrum owner Then there's road tax, servicing, MOTs, petrol, all sorts of things. And, if you want to keep up with the latest fashions, you'll want to purchase a few 'extras' as well, ranging from simple '-TURBO-' stickers for the back window to alloys, buckets and twin cams. And they all mean spending lots and lots of money. So wouldn't it be nice if you could get your Spectrum to sort of 'pretend' was a car, allowing you to zoom about to your heart's content for minimal outlay instead? Well, actually you can! Yes, all you need to do is buy a suitable driving game, load it up and you've got yourself a set of wheels. It'll be almost exactly the same as driving a real car except that you can crash as much as you like without having to worry about your no-claims bonus. And you'll be able to choose from all the latest posh sports cars like Porsches, Ferraris and Lotuses and drive them as far and as fast as you like without having to splash out on a drop of petrol! (In fact, because driving games are so much cheaper and more practical than real cars, it is predicted that by the year 2012 the motorcar will have become obsolete, replaced by the driving game.) The only trouble with all this is that it's a bit hard to pick up birds with a 48K Spectrum. JUST WHAT, EXACTLY, IS A DRIVING GAME? Mmm, knew we'd have to get round to this sometime. Well, I've had a think and come up with the following spec... - It's got to have either a car, a motorbike or a lorry in it. - That means no bicycles, boats, jet-skis, tanks or anything like that. - And no skateboards either. They're crap. Seems simple enough. It means we're including Grand Prix-type games (where you just race against other cars) and shooting ones (where you zap them) but not similar-looking ones that don't have cars, bikes or lorries in (like boat ones). Okay? Phew. I never thought it would be quite so easy. SO HOW ABOUT THINGS LIKE ARMY MOVES? Oh cripes. Look, just shurrup. will you, whoever you are. No, Army Moves is out, I'm afraid. It's rubbish anyway. So let's take a look at a few examples, eh? It's worth noting that, where driving games are concerned, the ratio of crap ones to good ones is a lot higher than with other types of game (apart from football games, of course). So you can't be too careful. RATINGS The YS Ratings System? You don't want that old thing. No sir, over here we have the brand-new top-of-the-range 1990 model. It's turbo-charged, fuel-injected, 16-valve, super-cooled and has a full X-pack (with droop snoot). And spots. You'll be doing yourself a favour. DRIVE It's no good having a driving game that seems to be simulating an FSO or something. You want real power, a feeling of being at one with the road and all that sort of thing. Control responses, speed etc are all taken into account here. VISIBILITY Assuming you remember to clean all the dead leaves and bird turds off the windscreen before you set out, what's the view like? A thinly-veiled graphics category, in other words, but jolly important all the same. ROADHOLDING It may seem to have everything, but once you've set off, and you've been on the road for a while, do you relish every second that you're behind the wheel? Or do you want to keep stopping at the services? Or perhaps you'd rather just take the bus instead, eh? FIRST-OFF-AT-THE-LIGHTS FACTOR A competitive edge is most important where driving's concerned, both in real life and on the Speccy. So do the other cars put up a decent fight, or do they just seem to be part of the scenery (if, indeed, there is any)? DRIVING GAMES FOR THE BUDDING LADA-OWNER As with all tried-and-tested formulae, driving games are big news in the world of the cheapie. Let's have a look at a few, and maybe try ad work in the odd drive-a-hard-bargain gag. SCALEXTRIC Virgin Did you have Scalextric when you were a kid? Me, I was lucky to get a clip round the ear. I remember gazing enviously at other peoples lengths of black plastic, hoping that one day I'd be able to get my own back somehow. Unfortunately I haven't yet, as Virgin's attempt at a conversion is yet another driving let-down. To be sure, you can assemble tracks from an unlimited selection of pieces without having to worry about running out of left-hand bends. But once you get down to the racing bit you find that you've wasted your time. It's a two-player looking-at-it-from-behind game, with the screen split between the two players. Clever stuff, but unfortunately the graphical content is minimal and there's not really much to the driving either. One major prob is that once someone's got into the lead he's virtually guaranteed to be the winner as long as both players keep their foot to the floor all the way round. Very boring indeed. So it's not much cop then.

Come on, Virgin, one mountain range per game, okay? (And even that's pushing it.)

AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDY 'STREETHAWK' OUNSTED Few people would have guessed that YS had its own resident driving expert. We certainly didn't until our Design Asst told us so. "So, you've got a motorbike, have you, Andy?" "Yeah, I've got a bike. And call me 'Streethawk'. All my friends do." "Right. So, Andy..." "Streethawk." "Er, Streethawk, what sort is it exactly?" "It's a Yamaha or something, I think. It's well hard. It shifts." "Does it really?" "Yeah. It'll burn off anything." "Terrific. Could we have a look at it, do you think?" "Er, no. I didn't bring it in today." "Oh? Why not?" "It, um, wouldn't start. I had to get the bus instead."

LOOKING-AT-IT-FROM-BEHIND ONES These are the most common by 'miles' (yuk yuk), being those games where you see your car on the screen in front of you from a position behind and slightly above it, and with the road coming towards you in 3D. They all started in the arcades with stuff like Pole Position and moved onto the Speccy via Chequered Flag and later things like OutRun. And, of course, there was the classic Road Racer on the front of the May '87 YS. They're generally good fun, but can be a bit samey and tend to be just a case of pressing Left and Right at suitable moments. And an element of violence tends to creep in - you often get a gun or something mounted on your car to bag other vehicles with. (Roadblasters - um, looking at it from behind. And slightly above. (Simple really))

LOOKING-AT-IT-FROM-ON-TOP ONES Kicking off, these are the ones where you get a bird's-eye view of the course and see your car as a little blob hammering round the track (which may scroll if it doesn't all fit onto the screen at once). The basic idea takes its cue from a vintage coin-op called Super Sprint, and you can sometimes get anything up to 29 players on the screen at one time (giving them the edge where competitiveness is concerned). They do tend to lose out graphically though, as there isn't much scope for scrolling 3D roads etc. (Championship Sprint - yes, but is it ass much fun as a Scalextric set?)

LOOKING-AT-IT-FROM-THE-SIDE ONES We're heading into dicey territory here, as we could start wobbling on about scrolling shoot-'em-ups if we're not careful. They do generally scroll however, but they're a bit weird as you don't actually have to worry about steering. All you really have to do is get the speed right when going over ramps and maybe launch the odd missile now and again. Motorbikes, rather than cars, tend to feature prominently in this sort of game, which seems reasonable enough as they look a bit thin when viewed from the rear. One thing we've got to be careful of here is bicycles - they seem to crop up in these rather a lot and, as we already know, they don't count.

OH NO, IT'S EVERY SINGLE DRIVING GAME EVER 3D Stock Car Championship - Silverbird 4x4 Off-Road Racing - Epyx American Turbo King - Mastertronic APB - Tengen (Domark) Battlecars - Summit Beach Buggy Simulator - Silverbird Buggy Blast - Firebird Buggy Boy - Elite Championship Sprint - Activision Chase HQ - Ocean Continental Circus - Virgin Crazy Cars - Titus Crazy Cars II - Titus Cycles, The - Accolade Deathchase - Micromega Duel - Test Drive II, The - Accolade Dukes Of Hazard - Elite Eddie Kidd Jump Challenge - Martech Enduro - Activision Enduro Racer - Activision Fire And Forget - Titus Formula One Simulator - Mastertronic Full Throttle - Micromega Future Bike Simulator - Hi-Tec Juggernaut - CRL Grand Prix Circuit - Accolade Grand Prix Master - Dinamic Grand Prix Simulator - CodeMasters Hard Drivin' - Tengen (Domark) Hot Rod - Activision International Speedway - Silverbird Italian Super Car- CodeMasters Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart - Virgin Knight Driver - Hewson Knight Rider - Ocean Last Duel - US Gold LED Storm - US Gold Maze Death - PSS Motorbike Madness - Mastertronic Motor Massacre - Gremlin Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix - Martech OutRun - US Gold Overlander - Elite Pass Your Driving Test - Audiogenic Pole Position - Atarisoft Power Drift - Activision Rally Cross Simulator - CodeMasters Rally Driver - Alternative Rally Simulator - Zeppelin Road Blasters - US Gold Road Racer - Ocean/YS Scalextric - Virgin Speed King II - Mastertronic Spy Hunter - US Gold Street Hawk - Ocean Stunt Bike Simulator - Silverbird Stunt Car Racer - Microstyle Super Cycle - US Gold Super Hang-On - Electric Dreams Super Scramble Simulator - Gremlin Super Stock Car - Mastertronic Taxi! - Digital Integration Techno Cop - Gremlin Tranz Am - Ultimate TT Racer - Digital Integration Turbo Bike - Alternative Turbo OutRun - US Gold Twin Turbo V8 - CodeMasters WEC Le Mans - Ocean Wheelie - Microsphere

OTHERS With a theme as wide ranging as 'driving' we're bound to come across one or two miscreants that don't really fit into any of the previous categories (the scamps). Well, I have anyway. First of all there are ones like Hard Drivin' and Stunt Car Racer where you get a 3D view out of the window. Then there are the vertically-scrolling ones such as LED Storm which are really a cross between looking-at-it-from-behind ones and looking-at-it-from-the-top ones. And there are boring 'management' ones like Grand Prix. Best forgotten, those. (Erm... an 'other'.)

TEN SIGNS THAT HE'S A CRAP DRIVER 1. He drives round with his foglamps on all the time. 2. He wheelspins every time he pulls away. 3. He drives 3mm from the car in front, and as far to the right as possible ready to overtake. 4. He's always first off at the lights. 5. He's got an Escort 1600 Sport with all the usual accessories. 6. He always parks on double-yellow lines. 7. His car's heavily battle-damaged. 8. He makes frequent use of his three-tone horn. 9. He keeps revving up the engine at traffic lights for no apparent reason. 10. One of his brake lights doesn't work.

TEN SIGNS THAT SHE'S A CRAP DRIVER 1. She's driving a Mini. 2. She's got a Garfield stuck to her back window. 3. Simon Bates is blaring out and the Our Tune 'theme music' has just started up. 4. There's another girl with exactly the same style haircut sitting next to her in the passenger seat. 5. She's driving a Porsche.

THE FIRST EVER DRIVING GAME Despite a sore knee and a terrible fear of the dark, I crouched down in the murkiest corner of the YS shed to browse through our collection of cardboard-boxed archives. And did I come up with anything? Well, not really. I did find out that the Van Houten Chocolate in the YS drinks machine is actually the remains of a consignment of rations from during the war (no-one wanted to drink it then either) and I also came across some rather compromising photos of Andy when he was four years old, but nothing really very interesting in the driving games department. I was hoping to turn up some really ropey-looking Basic game from about 1982, but the best I could come up with was Chequered Flag, a Sinclair game that came out a year later. It's quite good actually - a bit like Polo Position without any other cars to race against. We'll give it a thorough going-over later, but in the meantime perhaps you'd like to think back and see if you can come up with anything better if you find anything older than Chequered Flag, do write in and tell us as we'd be jolly interested to know.

TOP FIVE GEARS 1. Third 2. First 3. Fourth 4. Second 5. Fifth (where available)

Crash

Overall (Mike Dunn) 49%

Overall (Dominic Handy) 70%

Dominic Handy 70%

Mike Dunn 49%

Run it again and again and again - there's nothing like a good race game. You can always beat that world record just once more, as DOMINIC HANDY and MIKE DUNN discover when they go into... Scalextric Leisure Genius 57% Issue 38 MIKE: The Scalextric toy racing set has almost become a necessary part of growing up, and Leisure Genius brings it right up to the computer ago with their Spectrum version. A two-player Chequered Flag variant with a construction kit for good measure, Scalextric isn't bad, technically, but short on gameplay. 49% DOMINIC: Almost the best racetrack game around. The construction kit ties ion well with the title subject, and also makes the game lots of fun to play. And the two-player option adds to the value. 70%

MORE WHEELS THAN ISIAH! BMX Simulator Endurance Enduro Racer Glider Rider Knight Rider Miami Vice Milk Race Nightmare Rally Paperboy Pole Position Scalextric Speed King II Street Hawk Super Cycle TT Racer Turbo Esprit

ZX ComputingZX Computing Globella

Overall Great

Virgin/Leisure Genius £9.95 Scalextric arrives on the Spectrum as a sophisticated construction set with almost limitless possibilities for designing your own tracks as well as 17 preset simulated Formula 1 circuits. Constructing a circuit is simplicity itself with an icon driven system and there is the option to save the tracks you've built. Racing takes place on a split screen display where you have the option to race in two player mode or against a computer controlled car. There's also a plan view of the whole circuit which plots your position during a lap - a useful aid when trying to anticipate sharp bends. This computer simulation offers plenty of variety as far as tracks are concerned but because every race is just a two car race the racing action can become stale very quickly. It may have been an idea to change the Scalextric formula and include a larger field of cars, weaving your way through back markers can be just as satisfying as winning. One area of racing that has at last got some attention is crashing. In most simulations whatever happens in one player mode its always your fault and you are eliminated, whereas in Scalextric the rule is that the car approaching from behind is always the loser, but if the difference in speed between the two colliding cars is less than 20 miles an hour there's no crash - the front car is just shunted along the track. A good value package only lacking the competitive edge that comes from having a grid full of cars racing round the track.

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 7/10

Sound 6/10

Value 7/10

Playability 7/10

Tim Metcalfe

MACHINE: Spectrum SUPPLIER: Leisure Genius PRICE: £9.95 Another game we've all been waiting ages for. The Spectrum version of the legendary slot car racing game. There was a time when everyone who was anyone had their front room full of bits of track, cars and trailing wires. Now you can forget all the mess and bent bits of track and play the whole thing on your trusty Speccy. Not quite the same as the real thing - but at least you can build your own tracks, complete with chicanes and skid patches. After you've built a track or simply chosen one of the 17 famous Formula One tracks included ready made on the tape. Building the track is done by using a simple object menu - and the program even finishes off your track for you if you've got everything in the right place. Very user friendly. The actual race screen is split into two - as in Pitstop II. In fact this game is the closest you'll get to Pitstop on the Spectrum. The race sequence looks OK but it's a bit slow and it seems pretty easy to beat the computer controlled car. The growling engine sound effects get a bit monotonous as well. It's fun attempting to beat lap records - and controlling the car is tricky at higher speeds. There's simulated G-force when you corner, and yes, you can skid off the track if you go too wild! Not a bad game but not a instant hit either. My guess is that if you are a slot car racing fan you'll have more fun with the real thing. But if you're after a well put together race game for your Spectrum than at least have a look at this offering.

Crash

Presentation 81%

Graphics 70%

Playability 52%

Addictiveness 52%

Value For Money 52%

Overall 57%

Ben Stone

Mike Dunn

Paul Sumner

Producer: Leisure Genius Retail Price: £9.95 Author: Andy Green For many people, the mere mention of the word 'Scalextric' conjures up visions of many happy hours spent piecing together plastic track sections. Now with this computer version of the old sitting-room floor racing game those moments can be relived. There is a choice of 17 ready-made tracks included, or a completely new track may be designed and built using a series of short sections. When building a circuit, there are 15 different track elements to choose from. To begin with, there are four 'straight'components, each of a different length. Next come the 'chicanes,'where the track narrows to a single car width. These come in several forms: curved chicanes, straight chicanes and chicane entrance and exits. There are also skid chicanes where the track quickly narrows then broadens again. There are three different corner radii: 'inner' curves are tightest, followed by 'standard'and 'outer'. There is also a banked curve which has the standard radius. Having positioned the first section, you place your cursor on the next piece of track required -pressing 'fire' then lays this in place, and so on until a circuit is completed. If you are unhappy with the result, you can choose to replace sections of the track, or alternatively scrap the whole design. To finish a circuit design, the two ends of the track must be quite close. Then the 'finish' icon is selected, and the computer informs you whether or not the two ends of the track can be joined. If not, another combination may be tried. There's more to Scalextric than building tracks, however - after the circuit has been chosen the real racing can get underway. Two people can compete, or you can take on the computer which drives the car that appears on the lower window - the screen is split horizontally, with each portion showing the rear view of one of the competing cars (when the two cars are close to one another they appear on both screens). The screen also shows the twists and turns in the track ahead. The car's controls are accelerate, brake, steer left and right - 9ear-changes are dispensed with. If the car exceeds a safe speed in a corner it starts to skid outwards. The maximum safe speed depends on the tightness of the curve, but exceeding the car's handling limits causes a collision with the verge. Hitting the grass causes the car to slow right down to 50 mph before it can be steered back onto the track. If two cars collide, the one at the back explodes - however, barging from the side is harmless to both vehicles. A small map at the bottom of the screen shows the track layout and the position of each car, and the lap time achieved by the two drivers is given after every circuit of the track. COMMENTS Control keys: definable: left, right, accelerate and brake Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2 Use of colour: workmanlike Graphics: good detail on cars Sound: monotonous engine effect Skill levels: one Screens: two

"Portugal looks nice Shane!" "Okay Cameron let's race there this time".

Waiting for the green light, Cameron and Shane share the pole position on the starting grid.

Your Sinclair

Graphics 9/10

Playability 8/10

Value For Money 7/10

Addictiveness 8/10

Overall 8/10

Phil South 8/10

Leisure Genius £9.95 Reviewer: Phil South Cor! I remember this! I sat huddled with my mate in his loft, our two little cars rattling around the black track with a silver rail up the centre... Scalextric. Second fave indoor sport to Subbuteo Football, to blokes of my age anyway! Wow! Many an hour or three has been whiled away, going too fast along the track flipping my little JPS off the banked curve into the fishtank. So now there's a computer game? Surely some mistake, you can't replace the thrill of real little cars and bits of broken plastic track by a video game. Imagine my surprise when, far from being a load of old tut, it's actually a sensible and highly playable race game. Oh sure it's got fifteen different tracks from around the world, like all the others. And yes, I know it's borrowed most of its ideas from the likes of Pole Position. But I'm sentimental about this old corker, and I think it's a great game. The graphics are a cut above the previous games of this ilk, and the inertia and motion of the cars are a smidgin more realistic than its rivals. The thing which really puts it nose and front wheels ahead of the pack is the feature that allows you to design your own track layouts. If the world's racetracks are a bit too tame for your taste, you can bang together your own track from segments, just like the real life game. As a bog standard race game, its reet gradely, but having said all that, there are some things I wish the programmers had incorporated. It would've been very nice to be able to flip your cars on the track at the corners, 'cos for me that was half the fun of playing Scalextric in the first place. I'm sure this wouldn't have been much of a problem, and it would've made it more like the real thing. So, if you can afford it, buy it and enjoy. You too can be Sports Personality of the Year.

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Sinclair User

Overall 4/5

John Gilbert 4/5

Label: Leisure Genius Author: Andrew Bradley Price: £9.95 Joystick: various Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: John Gilbert Scalectric. Remember those toy slot-car racing sets a few years back? The set-up is expensive but Leisure Genius has hit upon an inexpensive alternative. It's a kind of Pole Position construction set! Design a track, then take on a friend or the computer to see who will be first around its straights, curves and chicanes. The circuit design phase is neatly icon-controlled. Set the track-laying arrow to where you want to place the starting gate, then select a horizontal (across the screen) or vertical (up the screen) position. There are 15 types of track section including four types of curve just like the real thing: outer, standard, inner and banked. Once you're happy with a circuit design you can save it to tape. If, however, you don't want all that creative bother you can load in one of the 17 authentic Formula One circuits included in the package. Silverstone and Brands Hatch are available for your personal races but, if you want to go further afield, you can try Rio Brazil, Imola and Monaco among many others. Either way, once the circuit is fixed the race proper begins. Your car has a top speed of 240 mph but on the tightest curves you'll spin off at over 50. Bumping against the grassy edge of the track slows you down and gives your opponent a chance to scrape past especially if you are on the hard option of the three play levels. The chicanes are the trickiest. The track narrows, so only one car can pass at a time. If you're overtaking your rival at the time you'll end up splashed all over a grassy verge. The Pole Position like 3D sequences, in which your car is in the top window and your opponent's at the bottom, are a bit slower than other race games but the track construction option, which is a I whole lot of fun, more than makes up for it.