************************************
* Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge FAQ *
* Version: 1.0 *
* Created: 2005/06/01 by xyzman *
* xyzman [at] lue402.net.ru *
************************************
Contents:
0. Legal Notes
1. Introduction
2. Basic Info
- 2.1 Story/short overview
- 2.2 Controls
- 2.3 Racing screen
3. Practice Mode
4. Qualify Mode
5. Tips & Tricks
- 5.1 Gaining The Speed
- 5.2 Keeping The Speed
- 5.3 Fighting Your Rivals
- 5.4 Keeping Your Car Fit
- 5.5 Radio: Stay Updated
6. Final word / Credits
/===================/
/ 0. Legal Notes /
/===================/
This document is Copyright 2005 Anatoly Ivanov and is intended for private use
only. You may reproduce and/or publish it (this including web-sites) as long as
i)the format and content of this guide stays unchanged; ii)you do not get any
profit from this action.
Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge was created by System 3 Software group, licensed
to Acclaim Entertainment Inc. The author of this guide is no way affiliated
with aforementioned companies.
All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.
/===================/
/ 1. Introduction /
/===================/
Back in 1991, when NES boomed worldwide, one Chinese company decided to make
its clone. Strangely, their project succeed - they've got a console called
Dendy, with a smiling elephant on its logo.
In 1992, the representatives of the company launched an unique marketing
campaign in Russia: the sales of pirated (though officially licensed by Russian
authorities) product were fantastic, so in 1993 80% of Russian kids were able
to play NES games. Needless to say, I'm one of them ;)
Though in our days, with 64-bit 3.5 GHz processor PCs available, everyone
forgot about Golden Ages of their gaming. Almost no one plays Mortal Combat,
Contra, Bomberman, Pac-Man on their old NES consoles. Someone makes a USB
gamepad from NES 'joystick', someone gives a console to their 3 y.o. children,
who just smash poor NES with something hard...
This FAQ is about one of my favorite games back in NES age. Sure, there are and
were better racing games than Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge, but everything fits
its own niche. If after 10 years, in 2005 I play this game, doesn't that mean
it's not that bad?
/===================/
/ 2. Basic Info /
/===================/
2.1 Story/short overview
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ferrari Grand Prix Challenge (from now, I'll call it Ferrari GPC) is one-player
driving/racing game where you play the role of Ferrari team driver. The main
objective of the game is (obviously) to become F1 Champion - during standard 16
rounds season. Your rivals are 25 computer opponents representing different F1
teams (though, maybe of the low budget of game, no real teams, 'cept Ferrari,
and driver names are used - all they seem to be made up). Every round consists
of qualification(1-lap) and main(5-laps) races. If you phail to qualify, no
other chance is given. After every round you're given a password to continue
your game with previous results achieved.
Instead of racing for prizes, you could enter the practice mode, where you can
choose the track and number of practice laps. Comes in nifty, when you're
aiming
for 160/160 season points.
2.2 Controls
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
* Left: turns your car left
* Right: turns your car right
* Up: switches gear to lower one: 3->2, 2->1 (In 3-Way Gear mode)
* Down: switches gear to higher one: 1->2, 2->3 (In 3-Way Gear mode)
* Start: pauses game in 'Qualify' mode, exits race in practice mode,
confirms choices off-race
* Select: does nothing during race, switches courses in practice mode, selects
between choices off-race
* A: accelerates your car during race, selects a letter on text input
screens
* B: used as brake during race, deletes a letter on text input screens
2.3 Racing screen
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+-----------------------------------------------+
| ## ## |
| ## ## %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ## %%%%%%%%%%% |
| ##### %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ## %%%%%%%%%%%%% |
| ##### %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%### %%%%%%%%%%%% |
| / \ |
| / \ |
| track-->/ \ |
| / \ |
| / o/---\o \ |
| / |*0*|<-car \ |
| / |---| \ |
| / O --- O \ |
| / \ |
+------------------------------------+----------+
| SPEED REVS ###### LAP LAP TIME| |
| 100 .iI|||||| #REAR# 1 0.03.1 | TRACK |
| GEAR RADIO POS | MAP |
| 1 #####OIL ON TRACK ##### 01 | |
+------------------------------------+----------+
As you can see from this lame ASCII image, Racing screen consists of 3 main
parts: track, dashboard and track map. Graphics here is quite acceptable for
NES
games but like almost every NES racing game, all you can see is the road, your
car from 3rd person, unlimited green grass field and a background image.
However, clear graphical detailisation gives this game advantage even over some
modern PC games.
Dashboard, most important part of the screen in racing games, is laid out
typically: speed/gear, lap/time/position. Nevertheless, Acclaim found place for
some new ideas here. First one is rear view "window" - it doesn't help much, as
no cars will outrun you when you're riding at maximum speed - and you WILL ride
at maximum speed most time. Second one is radio. With no wave sound in NES, the
messages broadcasted appear as text on special dashpoard panel. Among useless
messages like "Good move", some warn you about dangers like oil on track or car
crashes.
Track map is also here. Showing your and 3 leaders positions, it helps planing
pit-stops and outrun maneouvres. Little flags colors match ones of the cars, so
your car is always a red flag far behind another three ;)
/===================/
/ 3. Practice Mode /
/===================/
As its name says, this mode helps you to get used to some complicated tracks,
like Monaco or Japanese Grand Prix. If you new to this game, you should try
this mode first.
To enter practice mode, choose it by pressing Select button on the very first
screen after the main logo one. Unlike Qualify mode, you won't be asked about
whether to turn music on or off. Instead, it uses the default value - music is
OFF. If you want to turn it on, here comes an interesting glitch - if you
finish a season (game will automatically redirect you to logo screen) and enter
practice mode, game won't reset music on/off byte! So firstly, you should do
one little preparation - get a password after Japanese Grand Prix. Whenever you
want to get music on, restore your game in qualify mode, fail into Australian
GP qualification, then when you'll get redirected to initial logo screen, go
and enter practice mode. Sounds complicated, but listening to music during the
game is much better then just hear a random sound produced by 'engine'.
As you enter practice mode, you'll immediately presented by transmission type
select screen. Choose one by pressing Select button (see section 5.1 for more
detailed info on transmission types) and confirm your choice with Start button.
Then select the number of laps: 3-4 is enough IMO.
Now you should be on track information screen. Here you can select a practice
course as the game tells you (though it doesn't say HOW. Try to solve the
problem by yourself *coughselectbuttoncough*). When you've made a choice, press
A, B or Start button to begin the race.
Unlike Qualify mode, Practice mode won't show your position on track to you, as
well as positions of three race leaders - it seems that only 22 cars take part
in practice races... Also, Start button instead of pausing will throw you right
directly to main logo screen.
If you manage to finish the race without being kicked by Start button
'feature', upon finishing, you'll get a screen(lasting exactly 8 seconds) with
the times you spent on every lap.
/===================/
/ 4. Qualify Mode /
/===================/
This is the main mode of this game featuring old(anno 1992) good Formula 1
season. The rules are simple - 16 rounds, 26 pilots, you are to become a
Champion. Are you ready? Then let's begin.
Once you've entered qualify mode, you'll be prompted to select if you want to
play with music/restore previously 'saved' game. After that, if you decided not
to restore your game, you'll have to select the transmission type(see section
5.1 for more info).
Now, independent of which have you chosen before, you'll be brought to the name
input screen. Once again, even if you saved your game with a password, you'll
have to do this, as storing 13 letters of name and country would be too tough
for a 21-symbol password. The rules are simple: arrows to select button, A - to
put it into the input line, B acts like backspace button on your PC keyboard.
After you finish, press Start.
At this point, if you chose to restore your game, you'll be prompted to enter
your password.
Passwords are one of the most useful, as well as most hated feature of this
game. Since built-in flash cards were very unpopular in NES age, just about
every game used gibberish passwords to save and restore your in-game progress.
But unlike some games, Ferrari GPC passwords store not only the information
about what level have you reached, but also all the points your opponents have
gained. In fact, what they did is amazing: they've managed to store all this
info in 21 symbols with 26 possible values, or trunc(ln(26)/ln(2)*21)= 98
bits!!!
Anyway, the layout of password screen is almost the same as the name input one,
with two major exceptions: there are only 26 symbols now and if your password
is incorrect, you'll get the "Invalid Code" message so if you ran out of right
password versions, RESET is your only option... Though, if you succeed with
entering the password, you'll be brought to pilot standings screen just after
the race you saved on. So press A button twice and Start button once to be
redirected right to the next race quailifications.
Now, you're should be at qualification info screen. Here you can see the layout
of the track, as well as two times: the best one (race leader will have it) and
one you need to beat in order to qualify (and to enter the main race). As
gaining first place in qualification is virtually impossible here, just
remember the second one and press A button. Here you would be given a notice of
the best time reached before and after some pause, you'll be on track. Try to
do your best here - you've got only ONE lap: if you fail, you'll lose even
before the main fight.
If you qualify, you'll get a nice scrooooolllllllllling screen representing the
track with cars awaiting for start. And, finally, you'll be brought to the
place of fight. You have FIVE(5) laps. You have a lot of cars before you. And
you have to leave them all behind you. Winner gets 10 points. Losers who
finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th, get 6,4,3,2,1 points respectively. Now
good luck! It's not Big Rigs - so you could lose once or twice, but finally,
you'll start winning race by race.
At the end of race, you'll see either the message showing that you failed or,
if you're lucky - your standing in this race. Then you'll see the individual
season standings followed by teams standings. Then you'll be prompted to save.
And here the circle completes: next qualification is waiting for you...
P.S. As for ending, explore it for yourself. I'm just not wanting to disappoint
you from the start ;)
/===================/
/ 5. Tips & Tricks /
/===================/
Here's possibly the main section of this guide. And though first four sections
are pretty ENOUGH for anyone to start to play, this info will help you to play
more successfully. So let's start...
5.1 Gaining The Speed
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Speed is the key point of the win this game. With the decent speed, you'll be
able to start the race from better position (if you perform well during the
qualifications) and to finish the race with better position. And there is no
problem how to GET the speed, the problem is how to SAVE it...
Though now let's talk about how to GET the speed. One of the first choices in
the game for you is the choice of transmission type. Manual(aka 3-speed) or
Automatic? Let's see:
+-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| 3-speed transmission | Automatic transmission |
+-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| - requires pressing Up/Down to | - automatically swithes between |
| switch between gears | gears |
| | |
| - at road, with accereration | - at road, with acceleration |
| button(A) pressed, always | button(A) pressed, allows to |
| allows to reach the maximum | reach the speed of 325 km/h, |
| of 335 km/h | randomly jumping to 335 km/h |
| | during STRAIGHT ride in the |
| | main race (qualify max=325) |
| | |
| - with maximum speed of 335 | - at 325 km/h manoeuvring is |
| kilometers per hour, turning | easier, and if you're moving |
| left/right during steep turns | with 335 km/h maximum, speed |
| will make you to go off-track | will be lowered automatically |
| so you have to lower the | |
| speed manually | |
| | |
| - higher maximum speed will | - lower speed will help you to |
| make you qualify better, so | avoid clashes slightly better, |
| you'll get to fight with | so your tires will indeed last |
| leader more faster | longer: time you've spent will |
| | be compensated by lack of pit- |
| | stops |
+-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
So let me summarize: if you want 160/160, get automatic transmission. If you
want to win the season with some challenge - get 3-speed transmission.
In both cases, you gain speed by pressing and then holding down A button. If
your fingers are tired of it, press Start to pause the game, massage your them
and continue the race.
The last, but not the least thing to add here is starting the race. If the
lights are red, it doesn't mean that you should sit there and wait! First of
all, if you've selected 3-speed transmission, switch to the top gear by
pressing down twice. Then hold down the accelerator button(A) - you don't want
to lose milliseconds on start, do you?
5.2 Keeping The Speed
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Easy controls is the one of the reasons of me liking racing NES games. You've
got an accelerator button, left/right arrows - you're ready to win. So in order
to "save" the speed, once again, hold down A button ;) But as it is a race,
nothing should be much easy. That's why there is a list of things you shouldn't
do...
-++- Things that will get your speed lower -++-
* Riding off-track
* Colliding with other cars
* Bumping into other cars back
* Running over oil patches
* Pressing brake button(B)
If you've got 3-way transmission, sometimes, when your speed decreases, gear is
being automatically switched to lower one. So keep your eye on speed/gear
indicators.
5.3 Fighting Your Rivals
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Unlike qualification race, main 5-lap race features you competing with other
cars. So unless you're starting from pole position, you'll have to overtake
your opponents. Why? First of all, you would probably want to win the race, so
the more cars you leave behind, the more closer you're to leading position.
Another reason is one of the key features of Ferrari GPC - position limit.
What is position limit? All is very simple. Every third of lap distance, the
last position acceptable, starting with 26th and ending with 11th, is
announced.
As soon as position limit changes, outsiders get kicked from the fight. That
means that if you're 26th(position you'll most likely get after qualification
if you're using Automatic transmission), you will only be able to ride 1/3 of
lap without overtaking any cars. Here's a small table showing position limits
for the end of every lap:
+----------------+----+----+----+----+----+
| Lap | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
+----------------+----+----+----+----+----+
| Position limit | 23 | 20 | 17 | 14 | 11 |
+----------------+----+----+----+----+----+
But I'm just scaring you. Basically, with opponents AI, you'll always be at
least 3 positions below the limit.
The main strtegy for you is to wait, while your opponent gives you enough free
space for manoeuvre, and then to pass him as soon as possible. Starting from
15th position, the cars will start to provocate you into collision, so you will
have to time every your movement.
There are three types of 'good' places on track - where you can easily pass
your opponent:
* Zigzag turnings (/\/ or \/\) - series of two/more turnings with different
directions. Just follow your opponent when he turns right/left by long curve,
and when you'll see the first < or > sign, turn to the opposite border line
and overtake him by short curve
* Steep lengthy turnings - your opponent will keep himself on the shortest
curve possible, so pass him using long curve. Some opponents will use longest
curve strategy, so if you are on automatic transmission, try to use free
space near the short border at your advantage
* Long pit-lanes - your opponent will never cross the separation line between
the track and pit-lane, so use it as an advantage
So, if you're taking a glance at map and seeing that pit-stop or steep turn is
near, slow down a bit (release the acceleration button for a second) and follow
the tough opponent right until the beginning of the turning/pit-lane, then
start the manoeuvres. But sill, don't forget about the time. If you're sixth at
the end of 3rd lap, go and risk - you haven't got time to wait for a good
opportunity.
Talking about winning the race, you should remember one important thing. The
leader always rides at 325 km/h while on the straight sections of track,
slowing down to 315 km/h on curved ones. So if you're using automatic
transmission, about the only possibility to pass the leader is during the
turnings.
5.4 Keeping Your Car Fit
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Every car needs care, doesn't it? Racing car is a car too, so it needs care as
well. However, game developers didn't go too far in developing this. The only
part of car which is affected by race, are its tires.
In fact, tires you get on start will serve ok until the finish, if... Only if
you won't ride off-track, collide with other cars, bumping into other cars
back, run over oil patches (sounds familiar, ain't it????).
When you've disturbed your tires much, a radio/pager message "Tire wear" will
inform you about it. Since this moment, driving your car becomes a bit
uncomfortable, as your car will go off-track every steep turn. If you continue
killing the tires further, you'll get another nice notice - "Change tires" -
meaning that the ride will now turn to the living hell.
Of course, Acclaim didn't want to be evil and implemented the pit-stop system.
Every time you turn to the pit-lane before pit-lane separator begins, you'll
get automatically brought to the pit stop. Once your car stopped, start to
press A-B-A-B repeatedly as fast as possible. You will notice your crew doing
all the work - all process is animated quite well. Once all is finished (my
personal record is 2.12 seconds), you'll be returned to the track. Though time
have passed and it's quite possible that you will lose some positions.
5.5 Radio: Stay Updated
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It should be called pager(as all it does is showing text messages) but radio
sounds better. It keeps you informed about various events on road, as well as
spams you with useless comments('Oops' or 'Good Move'). There are several types
of messages you have to keep an eye on:
* Position Limit XX - cars with position worse than XX will be kicked from race
* Oil on track - in a couple of seconds, you'll be passing 3 oil patches.
Running over one will make your car spin for some time.
* Danger ahead - next car you face will be on fire. If you touch it, you'll get
on fire too and get kicked from the race.
* Tire wear - you tires are wearing off. Changing them isn't critical, but
suggested
* Change tires - your tires are worn off. You'll have to change them ASAP.
/==========================/
/ 6. Final word / Credits /
/==========================/
Thanks for reading this guide. Nostalgia is very great feeling when it comes
to video games. And please, don't ever throw your NES into garbage can ;)
If you want to add something to the guide, express an opinion about it or
simply thank me *coughsubliminalhintcough*, then e-mail me:
xyzman [at] lue402.net.ru
And now the time for credits:
* CJayC - for creating this website back in 1995
* Acclaim - for releasing this game
* Steepler - for creating NES clone, available for casual Russian gamer
* Patamon - for creating LUEshi ;)
* you - once again for reading this.
====06.01.2005 11:50 GMT====
========END OF FILE=========
