Car racing games?
Edmund Hon
Can you guys recommend a car racing game? Type of racing is not important,
be it formula, Indy car, stock, whatever.
--
/// __ / ax...@freenet.carleton.ca
/// /_ dmund /
/// /_/_/ / "He is a genius. I have goosebumps just watching him think."
/// / /on / - Danielle Chase, _My So-Called Life_
Ross Hagglund
|>
|> Can you guys recommend a car racing game? Type of racing is not important,
|> be it formula, Indy car, stock, whatever.
|>
Edmund,
I would recommend the French game "Formule De" without going into great
detail, take a look on the WWW at Ken Tidwell's Game Cabinet
<http://www.gamecabinet.com> (in the "Extra Bits" section) you will find
Tim Trants alternate rules and car record sheet layouts.
The game is simple, fun, yet challenging. The only problem is how to get it
(since it is a French game); in North America, you can contact:
MICHAEL J GARTON of "McGartlin Motorsports"
his e-mail is: AWG...@prodigy.com (I can dig up a phone # if needed, it can
be found in his ad in "Game Fix #9")
If you want the "great detail" drop me a line, and I'll try to answer
your questions.
Ross
(ro...@informix.com)
Tim Trant
Edmund Hon <ax...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA> wrote:
>
>Can you guys recommend a car racing game? Type of racing is not important,
>be it formula, Indy car, stock, whatever.
I couldn't have asked for a better lead. I present:
The Racing Games "faq"
(the "faq" being, in this case, "what are the (good) racing games?")
Revision 0.1 (cars only) January 1996
Corrections, additions, and requests for more information are welcome:
send e-mail to "t...@eecg.utoronto.ca".
Auto Racing Games:
In print:
Ausgebremst (ASS)
Formula Motor Racing (Gibsons)
Formule De (Ludodelire)
Grand Prix Circus (Lambourne)
Grand Prix Re-Run & World of Motor Racing (Lambourne)
Das Motorsportspiel DTM Hockenheimring (pms)
Speed Circuit (Avalon Hill) & Winner's Eye View (SDD)
The Stock Car Championship Racing Card Game (McGartlin)
Out of print:
Daytona 500 (Milton Bradley) & Niki Lauda's Formel 1 (ASS)
Coming soon:
Mayfair's Indycar (Cleveland & Detroit) game
Ausgebremst
This game system was previously used in _Ave Caesar_, a chariot
racing game. Like _Daytona 500_, movement is determined by playing
cards, but this time a player controls only their own car. Players
have a choice as to the type of deck they use: all have the same total
movement, but have different total number of cards and number
distributions (fewer but bigger vs. more but smaller). Each player
sorts their cards before the race into four piles. A played card can
be replaced with a draw from any pile, and only two cards are held in
the hand at the start of each turn. A race is over three laps, and a
set of three races with rotating starting positions is recommended.
Eight different tracks, of varying difficulty, may be constructed from
the three reversible half-track boards. The difficulty comes from the
very small number of "spare" moves available: the total of all the
movement cards is generally only a few greater than that required to
make the three laps by the fastest route, and being forced to use the
outside lane in a corner often enough will result in the car "running
out of gas" before the finish. Also present are chicanes and optional
pit stops (to add a couple of cards back to the draw piles). Passing
can be extremely difficult, and card play must be balanced between
catching the car in front, blocking the one behind, and staying on the
racing line to ensure finishing. So even though the game mechanisms
aren't realistic, the sense of racing is excellent. This is
(unfortunately) a German game, and is therefore expensive and hard to
obtain in North America. Check the Game Cabinet's list of likely
sources via <http://www.GameCabinet.com>.
Formula Motor Racing (Gibsons)
This is a short _Nuclear War_-level game by Reiner Knizia
(designer of _Modern Art_, _Medici_, etc), with plastic cars used to
show only relative positions since there is no track. Colour-coded
cards are played around the table to try to advance your own two cars
or impede the leaders. Slipstreaming, pit stops, etc. all appear, but
in abstract form; eg. red pit stop card forces chosen red car to roll
d12: 1 - 6 means lose that many positions, while 7 - 12 is no effect.
Cute little plastic cars and decent atmosphere for a fun & silly 40
minute (for the full 6 races) game, but the price is steep considering
the components.
Formule De
Formule De is a Formula One game from a French company called
Ludodelire. The original, with rules in French, includes the Monaco
track, but there is now also an English-language edition featuring
Silverstone. Many separate expansion tracks have been released, and
all the tracks are exceptionally detailed in the "Where's Waldo" style,
although usually marred by a large cartoon in one section. Corners are
distingushed by limit lines and a corner rating, which specifies the
number of times (i.e game turns) which a car must end its move within
that corner in order to avoid penalties. A car's speed is determined
by a combination of its current gear setting and a die roll: in 2nd the
car will move between 2 and 4 spaces, but in 5th the range is from 11
to 20 spaces. Of course, there are limits to how quickly a car can
switch from one gear to another. Car point categories include Engine,
Transmission, Suspension, Bodywork, Brakes, and Tires. I've done
extensive "fixing" of the rules to make it less of a die rolling game
and more based on risk management, and these revised rules are
available either direct from me or (preferably) from Ken Tidwell's Game
Cabinet <http://www.GameCabinet.com> in the "Extra Bits" drawer. The game
and expansion tracks are available at a few specialty game stores in
the U.S. and also by mail from Michael Garton (awg...@prodigy.com).
10 car miniatures come with the game, and it's quite possible to even
add two more, but the game is best with five players each controlling a
team of two cars, competing in a two lap race. Under these conditions,
and with experienced players, the game takes 1.5 to 2 hours to play.
Grand Prix Circus (Lambourne)
This is a game of managing a team over a season. Components
are of normal Lambourne quality: lots of pages of charts & cards on
paper & cardstock, but all quite reasonable for the low price. The
basic team starts with a pair of drivers, a (potential) engine
contract, a chassis, and the remains of #500,000. Drivers vary in
ability, and chassis and engines vary in development potential. Money
is obtained from sponsorships and winning results. Money is spent to
pay drivers, run chassis-developing test sessions, buy engines (which
improve at varying rates over the season and have only a limited life
anyway), and replace damaged equipment. Races are abstracted into four
quarters, and a set of dice is rolled for each driver in the full field
each quarter. The only real decision during a race is whether or not
to "charge", and each race (of 16) takes about an hour including the
post- and pre-race bookkeeping, but the overall atmosphere of each race
is good. Early bankrupcy is likely if a team doesn't start off well,
and there is a game problem with the positive feedback effect as the
better teams improve much faster than those behind (even though this is
probably realistic). Most or even all but one of the teams may be
controlled by the "system": solitaire play is both possible and
challenging.
Grand Prix Re-Run & The World of Motor Racing (Lambourne)
These are two "re-run" games, which means they are designed to
reproduce realistic results rather than provide a competition between
players. They are well-suited to solitaire play. Prices are
relatively low, but there is some component assembly work required,
such as cutting out cards from cardstock pages and separating car
markers. The "guts" of the game is in the pages of charts and
statistical ratings, which are provided for particular seasons of
racing. For instance, all the participating cars for a particular race
are given ratings for their speed and dependability, but these ratings
apply for that particular race only, so there is very little "what if"
flexibility in the set-up. Races are abstract; the track is used only
to indicate relative positions, and different circuits vary only by
"type" membership. Both games are interesting more as exercises in
comparing the game result with the historical outcome, rather than as
explanations of why some particular driver & car combination was
particularly fast in the first place. The two games differ in the
seasons they cover, and TWoMR has the most recent revision of the
rules.
Das Motorsportspiel DTM Hockenheimring (pms games)
This is a new German game with stunning components and a "style
over substance" set of rules which works surprisingly well. "pms games"
stands for "Professional Motor Sport" Games, and apparently the
designer is a racing fan rather than a gamer. It is quite expensive
(~100DM), but packed in the large plastic tube along with the usual
rules and marker bits are a full colour plasticized paper map about
2.5' x 5' in size and six Herpa 1:87 scale DTM miniatures for use as
playing pieces. These miniature cars are also sold in auto enthusiast
stores (for C$25+ each, locally); the ~2" long Mercedes model, for
instance, has the three-cornered star hood ornament. The downside is
that it's too easy to break bits off, especially the spoilers. The
stylized Hockenheim track has an appropriate amount of (real?)
advertising, and is divided into two lanes. A car is moved by rolling
(up to) three dice, two normal d6 and one d3. Corners are rated by the
maximum die number which can be used to move within the corner without
penalty, and lane changes are allowed only when using a die result with
a diagonal dot pattern (i.e. 2, 3, or 5). Also, the results on each
die may be changed by flipping the die to its opposite side (1 <=> 6,
2 <=> 5, 3 <=>4). What makes it all work is that the dice must be
rolled & arranged in the order in which they will be used, and then
the car must be actually moved on the track, all within a strict time
limit (we use 25 seconds). The result of going too fast in a corner is
a spinout and/or a penalty flag, and an accumulation of penalty flags
forces a car to make a pit stop. A race distance of three to five laps
is suggested, and a six player race can be completed in a little more
than an hour.
There is still some awkwardness in the rules (or the
translations), particularly over pit stops, but this is not a critical
problem as long as everyone knows and uses the same interpretations.
This is a game which simulates racing in the feelings it produces
rather than by modelling the mechanics, and there is none better in
duplicating the need for making fast correct decisions under pressure.
The game was just released at this fall's Essen game fair, but should
by now be available from the usual suppliers of German games.
Speed Circuit, Winner's Eye View
It was originally part of the 3M game line, but Avalon Hill
still sells _Speed Circuit_, a Formula One racing game. (In fact,
_Speed Circuit_ may have "borrowed its mechanics from the even earlier
_Formula 1_ by Waddington's.) This is a pure race game, and is much more
of a simulation. The corner spaces have various speed limits and the
cars' speeds are set each turn by the players with consideration for
each car's limits for acceleration, braking, top speed, and "wear".
There is relatively little chance involved, and passing can be
extremely difficult due to the one-car-per-space limit and the usual
single racing line through each corner. The current components aren't
very good, with plastic blobs for the cars and three tracks overprinted
on a single (mounted) map board. Six cars are included, and playing
time is about 2 hours (30 minutes per lap). Many expansion tracks have
been released, although these are harder to find now. Any game store
should be able to order this game if they don't have it in stock.
Meanwhile in England _Winner's Eye View_ was developed by SDD,
apparently independently even though this game was only released in
1995. The game is relatively expensive, and is actually more like a
miniatures system or game kit, as the provided miniatures (.5" x 1")
need to be painted and the track and dashboard contols need to be
assembled before play. As for the rules, it's a more detailed _Speed
Circuit_, with (for example) 10mph increments instead of the 20mph, and
with the generic "Wear" category replaced by separate ratings for front
& back tires and engine durability. Miniatures for many 1960's F1 cars
and sportscars from the 1930's and '50's are also available. The game
is available from Michael Garton (awg...@prodigy.com) or Brookhurst
Hobbies in LA, or from SDD directly.
The Stock Car Championship Racing Card Game (McGartlin)
First, if you want to order it you should get in touch with
Michael Garton at "awg...@prodigy.com". He's the co-designer, and
also carries other racing games such as Formule De for as good a price
as you're likely to find in North America.
The game essentially consists of one card deck for the track,
which indicates laps completed and track events (crashes, etc), and one
car deck for each participating player. The boxed game includes four
car decks in different colours, but additional car decks can be added
from another game or purchased individually. The physical card quality
is excellent (big & sturdy). Card graphics are restricted to line art:
there are no Magic-stye pretty pictures, but the drawings are attractive
enough and functional, rather in the style of _Up Front_.
The car deck cards all have four separate values or actions on
them: laps completed (have to play one or more cards with a total at
least equal to the track deck number just revealed), actions and
responses (various types of pass, draft, block, etc), a "speed" number
(for resolving random events and position challenges), and pit stop
duration (an advanced rule). The cardplay is only concerned with the
lead group of cars, but even the basic game adds "gaps" in the lead
draft, and the advanced game tracks the distance behind (in seconds) of
cars which aren't up with the leaders because of pit stops or
mechanical problems. Since the driver cards are multi-functional but
can only be used once each, the interesting part of the game is
deciding how and when to use your good cards. A four player 200 lap
race should take about 45 minutes. I haven't read all the rules about
running a season yet, but they're in there, along with methods for
translating the performance of a real driver into ratings for the game.
Rules revisions are now essentially complete, and the
designer/vendor is available via e-mail to answer questions. The game
plays quite quickly: it's simple without being simplistic. The
atmosphere is quite good too, although you can improve it even more by
providing your own N*SC*R miniatures (in place of the included cards)
as alternative position-holders. The game skips over the boring
aspects of an oval race because the track deck makes the game
event-based rather than time-based. With four players it's a good
game, but it's even more fun with 6. I expect that trying to play with
more than eight would slow things down too much and make remembering
earlier moves difficult.
Niki Lauda's Formel 1, Daytona 500, Mayfair's Indycar game
Daytona 500, from Milton Bradley, is as much a card game as a
racing simulation, but it's still good fun. It's been discontinued for
several years, but still appears on dusty discount store shelves or in
garage sales. The mechanism is based on one used in a long
out-of-print European game called _Niki Lauda's Formel 1_. The game
winner is the one with the most money after three races; each turn, the
movement cards are dealt out and the six cars are sold in an auction,
while finishing earns prize money for the owners. Player turns consist
of playing one card, and are taken in seating order around the table.
Movement cards apply to all of the cars listed on the card played, and
the cars are moved in the order on the card; for instance, a card might
move the red car 6, the green car 4, and the blue car 2. Unusable
movement, caused by blocking cars and/or narrow track, is lost. The
straights are three spaces wide, but the corners have only a single
normal lane plus a passing lane. The passing lane is divided into
twice as many spaces as the norml track, and a car cannot end its move
in the passing lane, so position in the corners is very important.
Officially the game is for four players, and that's definitely the best
number, but it's playable with as few as two or as many as six. The
entire game (three races) shouldn't take more than one hour to play.
Mayfair has a new edition of the Niki Lauda / Daytona 500 game
due out "in the first quarter of 1996" (the release date has slipped
several times). This time it's an Indycar motif, with the Detroit and
Cleveland tracks included. The road course should make for a much
nastier game than Daytona (i.e. a return to the Niki Lauda style of
play), as the blocking can be brutal in single-lane sections. I'll be
buying this one as soon as it's released.
Finally, here's a final group of mostly British games which I only know
about because I either read about them in _Sumo's Karaoke Club_
(particularly the combined #16/17/18 issue) and/or they are reviewed in
the Motor Racing Board Games Reviews WWW page (see
<http://www.man.ac.uk/~zlsiida/text_files/mrbg-rev.html>):
Formula 1 (Waddington)
-the original (?) _Speed Circuit_ design from Britain, now long
out of print
Gear Shift (Actiongable)
-numbers on track spaces determine the length of the car's next
move; out of print
Grand Prix (Philmar)
Grand Prix (Ravensburger)
-diceless; three-car teams moving 4, 5, & 6 spaces each turn;
out of print
Grand Prix (Waddington)
-movement by die roll & general silliness; out of print
Grand Prix Championship (CPag)
Grand Prix Manager (Lionel)
-manage a team over a season; relatively involved race mechanism
with full 26 car field
Pole Position (Piatnik)
-abstract, movement via cards
Super Speedway (Crestline)
Turbo (Milton Bradley)
Williams Official Grand Prix Race Game (Domark)
-manage a team over a season
--
Tim Trant Electrical & Computer Engineering
t...@eecg.utoronto.ca University of Toronto
Mark Zomer
>I would recommend the French game "Formule De" without going into great
>detail, take a look on the WWW at Ken Tidwell's Game Cabinet
><http://www.gamecabinet.com> (in the "Extra Bits" section) you will find
>Tim Trants alternate rules and car record sheet layouts.
>
>The game is simple, fun, yet challenging. The only problem is how to get it
>(since it is a French game); in North America, you can contact:
>
>MICHAEL J GARTON of "McGartlin Motorsports"
>his e-mail is: AWG...@prodigy.com (I can dig up a phone # if needed, it can
>be found in his ad in "Game Fix #9")
>
>If you want the "great detail" drop me a line, and I'll try to answer
>your questions.
>
>Ross
>(ro...@informix.com)
I would recommend Formule De as well. The car's moves are determined
by the current gear cross referenced with the roll of the dice.
Speed is restricted by forcing the drivers to end a specified number
of game turns in each corner. Failure to comply results in damage to
the cars tires and other components. It is often neccessary to plan
many turns in advance when making a gear selection, which makes for
challenging decisions and a fun game.
Besides gear selections, the main aspect of the game is deciding how
to allocate 24 points between the cars various components (brakes,
engine, etc.). These points are deducted as penalties and once they
get low the risks you are willing to take will decrease. We have
found that the risk vs. penalties ratio works quite well. (ie. there
is no component you can stock up on and run away with the race, you
need a balance of all components, but there is still enough leeway to
make the decisions interesting).
We are now in the process of buying some expansion tracks. You will
find very quickly that one track is not sufficient, the game works
better when run over a series of individual tracks.
DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! I purchased this game recently and was
dissapointed by a number of things. The game is not well supported
in English, the rules were extremely poorly translated. The card
record sheets are in French, with photocopies of an English version
included (many of the words sill in French). There isn't much to the
game components besides the track, which can be purchased
individually.
Some may inquire, what did you expect, you purchased a French game?
That would be true if it was sold as a French game, but if an English
version is attempted, it should be done professionally.
My suggestion is this. Mcgartlin Motorsports sells the game for
US$52 + $6 shipping. He sells the tracks individually for US$22.
Metal cars are available for $1.70 and are much nicer than the 10
plastic ones included with the game. I'm sure you could get two
tracks and the cars for the same $6 shipping as the game.
So for US$67 you get ten cars and two tracks with the following
advantage. You get to pick the tracks. Tim Trant does not consider
Silverstone (included with the English version of the game) to be one
of the better tracks. His track reviews and house rules are
available at http://www.gamecabinet.com/rules/FormuleDeSheet.html
The rules Tim has posted are very well written and will provide a
better understanding of the game than those provided by Ludolerire.
We have implemented most of Tim's house rules. If anyone decides to
go this route and wants to know where Tim's rules differ from the
original, make a post and I'll reply. I would also suggest
downloading the car record sheet by Martin Higham, available from the
same web site.
The only thing missing will be a 20 sided die, available from your
local hobby store, and five gear markers. These are the standard
wooden game pieces with the ball on top. Any game piece will do.
Tim's house rules require two 10 sided dice as well.
Mark
P.S. I am in favour of supporting game designers, manufacturers, and
distributors. I do not respond to posts like 'Building my own game
"X", please provide rules and list of components'. If the hobby is
not supported, we can't expect to see new games developed. This
situation is different for a couple of reasons. First, you are still
supporting Ludolerire and the distributor by purchasing the tracks.
There is not much included with the game besides the track. The game
is better supported (in N.America anyway) by The Game Cabinet than by
Ludodelire.
P.P.S I have heard that Games by Mail (g...@ottawa.net) is shutting
down and has a limited selection of Formule De tracks available at
discounted prices.
Tim Trant
Philip Dutre <phi...@cs.KULeuven.ac.be> wrote:
>Some time ago someone announced here that he had almost completed a
>postscript file of self-designed track for Hockenheim or Nurnburg (don't
>remember which).
>
>Is it already available somewhere?
I'm that "someone". My version of Nurburgring for FDe is "finished"
and will be available in Game Cabinet <http://www.gamecabinet.com> Real Soon
Now. It's a ~350k PostScript file designed to be printed out via a laser or
Ghostscript onto 10 pieces of paper (and I think the margins are big enough
that A4 paper will work too), and then trimmed and taped together. It's
similar to the ASPIFD big photocopies in style, and "finished" means that
there is no scenery. But overall, I'm quite pleased with it.
Philip Dutre
postscript file of self-designed track for Hockenheim or Nurnburg (don't
remember which).
Is it already available somewhere?
Also, does anyone know where I can buy extra tracks in Belgium or Europe?
Thanks,
Phil
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Philip...@cs.kuleuven.ac.be Department of Computer Science |
|http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~philipd/ Computer Graphics Research Group|
|Phone: ++32 16 327094 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven |
|Fax: ++32 16 327996 Celestijnenlaan 200A |
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+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Michael Garton
that's what they give you. I always recommend the Game Cabinet rules and
tell customers to print them out. I import the game, but will not open
the shrinkwrap, they're shipped the same way they come from France.
It's amazing, many people love the game, but quite a few others hate the
repetition and 'luck' of the dice rolls.
Point one: Racing is repetitious, nature of the sport to do lap after
lap after lap. (Actually, it isn't repetitive, the laps are different as
the position and die rolls change causing strategy and approach to vary.
Point two: Die rolls, yeah I hate it when I have a 5 or 6 space lead
and roll low on the straight and miss the next turn and the car following
me zooms right on by. I write this off as an abstraction of slow traffic.
Only 10 cars are in the game, and really many more are in the race,
the 'bad die rolls' could be attributed to running in to (a) lap car(s)
and not picking the best route to get by, therefore getting stuck behind
him for a little while. At least this makes me feel a little better and
justifies the game mechanics in my own mind.
Mike
McGartlin Motorsport Design
MICHAEL GARTON AWG...@prodigy.com
P.S. Thank you all for your kind words and recommending me as a source
for the game.
P.P.S. As for not buying the game, you guys who will want all the tracks,
I do not import Silverstone separately. So, if you think you will want
it sooner or later, by the game.