Grand Prix Driver

Copyright : Britania Software | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

The object of the game is to be the first home, driving a Formula One racing car. There are 30 cars to pass, in order to be first and they won?t let you pass without a fight. Just to make life more difficult, the fastest driver can cross the line in 10 minutes (600 secs). Beware! Don?t go too close to the edge of the track or you may spin off and crash. You only have three lives!!

Early formula one game for the CPC that has gone largely unnoticed since its release.

Graphics

Refreshingly, despite the fact that there was a version released on the Spectrum prior to its Amstrad debut, Grand Prix Driver is not a speccy port and in fact has bright and flashy graphics. Having said that, a primary colour fest it may be but unfortunately it takes more than a healthy dose of colour to create a good set of visuals.

Grand Prix Driver is a very blocky affair with all the cars designed identically and a rudimentary background all of which will make you wonder whether or not you?re playing a game coded in BASIC in not . The blockiness extends to the collision detection and has a detrimental effect on the game itself.

One thing that is true, however, is that Grand Prix Driver gives a fantastic impression of speed and the other cars seem to hurtle towards you. Unfortunately though the speed is pretty uncontrollable as although you can increase or decrease your speed it still flies at pretty much the same pace.

Sound

A crunching mix of various noises that combine to create a piece of audio terrorism the likes of which have to be heard to believe. It?s painfully bad and I can?t understand why given the choice to go with no effects and the ones they have, they opted for the latter? turn down the volume if you can bear to play the game because there?s nothing worth hearing anyway.

Gameplay

Pretty poor. Not only has Grand Prix Driver failed to stand the test of time, I?d be inclined to believe that it wouldn?t have cut the mustard at the dawn of the CPC.

The programmers appear to have stripped down the mechanics of a racing game and decided to concentrate all of their gameplay efforts into one distinct part of the action. As a result, Grand Prix Driver appears to be all about trying to pass the other cars without crashing while the track layout has not so much been a secondary factor as been completely ignored. As the track doesn?t have an on-screen map it is hard to be sure but I imagine that rather than circular, the track seems to run on for miles and miles as the curves don?t appear enough to form a circuit?

Actually passing the cars is difficult at first but with a little practice (and coming to terms with the dodgy collision detection), the only real difficult part of the game is soon conquered and with it all point in actually playing the game, if there ever was one. The collision detection in effect creates a barrier around each car that you have to take into account when passing but with a few goes this shouldn?t be too much of a problem to overcome.

The key problem with the game is that it?s just no fun! Once you?ve shot around the track and successfully avoided all of the other cars, there?s very little incentive to go out again and beat your best score as there?s just so little to the game in terms of providing a challenge.

Doubt it was much at the time and it certainly isn?t now. Nothing worth seeing.