
  -- F-1 SPIRIT REMAKE --


1.- Introduction & Disclaimer
2.- How to play
3.- The main menu
4 - Game tips
5.- Credits
6.- Additional Information



1  --  INTRODUCTION & DISCLAIMER  --

This game was developed for the RETRO-REMAKES REMAKE COMPETITION 2004 
organized by http://www.remakes.org

This is the unofficial remake of Konami's F-1 SPIRIT which was originally 
released in 1987 for the MSX home computer systems.

Making sure that Konami won't sue us, we are telling you that we are not
related to Konami in any way except for liking their excellent games.

Also, this is a not-for-profit remake. So, we don't get any money from remaking
this or any other Konami titles.


2  --  HOW TO PLAY  --

F-1 Spirit is a racing game. You will race with many different types of cars, starting by
Stock or Rally cars, and finishing by driving F1 cars (once you have classified for it by 
passing for F3, F3000 and Endurance cars).

Specifically, there are 6 track car categories:
- STOCK CARS
- RALLY CARS
- F3 CARS
- F3000 CARS
- ENDURANCE CARS
- F1 CARS

Initially, you can only race in STOCK, RALLY and F3 categories. But, as you win races, you
will accumulate points that will allow you to play in more car categories. Specifically, you
will sum 9 points if you finish a race in 1st position, 8 if you finish in 2nd position, etc.
If you finish in 10th position or more, you will not sum any point.

Moreover, there are 16 different tracks of F1 cars. As you win races, you will be able to play
more tracks in the F1 car category. To complete the game, you have to win in all the 16 F1 tracks.
This makes a total of 21 tracks (stock + rally + f3 + f3000 + endurance + 16*f1). The first races
are the easier races: the cars are slow, and the enemies do not drive very well. But as you classify
for new tracks, the difficulty will increase: F1 cars are impresively fast! You will need a great
dexterity to win in F1 tracks. The first time you race with F1 cars it seems impossible to control
the car, but as you accumulate experience, the races start becoming easier, and finally you are able
to win any F1 race! It's time then to play in multiplayer mode against some friends and show them
how well you can control a F1 car!!!

During a race, you ca collide with other cars and with the track fences, etc. This will damage
your car. In every track, there is a zone (labelled with the "PIT" letters) where you can replenish
the fuel tank of your car and fix your car. 

Moreover, in F-1 Spirit, you can construct your own car to play with. Later in this document, we
will explain how you can select the car that best matches your racing habilities!

The default keys are:

CURSOR LEFT/RIGHT : turn
CURSOR UP/DOWN : shift gears
SPACE : accelerate
M : brake

In order to start a new game, press SPACE in the tittle screen. This will give you access to
the main menu.


3  -- THE MAIN MENU --

To browse the menus use LEFT/RIGHT or UP/DOWN arrows. ENTER or SPACE selects an option, and
ESCAPE goes back to the previous menu (in the case of being in the main menu, it goes back to
the title screen).


The first choice you will have to make is:

- NEW GAME
   If you start a new game, you will be asked to enter your name, and then
   you will start a new game from scratch. The name you enter here is the name
   that will appear in the HIGH SCORE table.
- CONTINUE GAME
   This option will only appear if you have previously started a new game. By continuing
   a game you will continue from the point that you left the game last time, preserving all
   your time records and accumulated points.
- PRACTICE
   This option allows you to play quick races. You don't have to enter a name, and therefore
   the times made in practice mode will not appear in the HIGH SCORE table.
- TITLE SCREEN
   Goes back to the title screen.

Once you have started a game (practice, new or continue), you will face the main game menu:

- 1 PLAYER
   Starts single player game.
- MULTIPLAYER
   Allows you to select 2, 3 or 4 player mode (games made in multiplayer mode do not accumulate
   points nor count for the HIGH SCORE tables).
- NETWORK
   Not available in this demo
- CONFIGURE
   Allows you to change the game settings: 
      - music and SFX volume (using LEFT/RIGHT arrows)
	  - change the type of HUD (dispersed or like in the original game. By default it is presented
	                            like in the original game).
	  - change the options for each one of the 4 possible players (since up to 4 players are allowed
	    to play inmultiplayer game). For each player you can change:
         - the CONTROLS: keyboard, joystick	  
		 - the CAMERA mode: (the default value is FOLLOW TRACK)
		    - FIXED: the camera does not rotate, i.e. the brackground will be fixed, and only the cars
			         will rotate.
			- FOLLOW CAR: the camera will rotate as the player car rotates.
			- FOLLOW TRACK: the camera will follow the direction of the road.
			- HYBRID 1: in straight roads, the camera follows the road, and in curves it follows the car.
			- HYBRID 2: symilar to HYBRID 1, but with a slight variation in the curves.
- HIGH SCORES
   Presents you the HIGH SCORE table. There are 3 HIGH SCORE tables:
   - ACCUMULATED POINTS: is a ranking sorted by the top 25 players with the highest accumulated
                         points.
   - ACCUMULATED TIME: only players that have finished the game appear in this ranking. The accumulated
                       time is the sum of the best times in all the tracks.
   - BEST TRACK TIMES: keeps a record of which player has finished each track in the minimum time.
   High scores are stored in a file called "hiscores.dat", if you want to reset the HIGH SCORE list, just
   delete this file.
- TITLE SCREEN
   Finished current game and goes back to the title screen.

After you select 1, 2, 3 or 4 player mode, you will have to select the track you want to play in.
Initially, only STOCK, RALLY and F3 races are available. But as you accumulate points, more races
will become available.

Once you have selected a track, you will have to select the car with which you want to race. There are
two ways of creating a car:
- READY MADE CAR
	You will be ble to select among three different reay made cars. The left most car will be
	constructed in order to be robust, easy to manage, automatic gear shifting), but with a lower
	maximum speed. The right most car is weak, difficult to manage, with manual gear shifting,
	but with a higher maximum speed. The medium car is an equilibred design.
- ORIGINAL DESIGN
	You will be able to change 5 parts of your car:
	- BODY: 3 different bodies, stronger but heavyer bodies or weaker but lighter bodies.
	- ENGINE: 6 different motors with different power and fuel consumption values.
	- BRAKES: 3 different settings
	- SUSPENSION: 3 different settings that determine the sharpness of the turns you can do.
	- GEAR: 3 different settings for the gear shifting box.

The next thing after selecting a car is to race!





4  --  GAME TIPS  --

- The most important one: THE BRAKE IS YOUR BEST FRIEND (Specially in the F1 tracks).

- Use the PIT STOPS if you have a very damaged car. For instance, having the engine damaged,
  your peak speed will decrease, making you lose time in each lap.

- When you are in the PIT STOP, if you hold down the DOWN arrow, the fuel replenishmend will
  slow down, but the car repair will speed up.

- The fuel consumption is a function of the RPM at witch the motor is turning (as in real cars),
  moreover, your car only consumes fuel when you press the acceleratioin pedal. Keep this two
  things in mind while you race to save fuel.

- F1 tracks cannot be won at the frist race unless you are an ACE driver. To win an F1 race, try
  to memorize each curve, play several times to each race to know where you can run at higher
  speeds and where you have to brake.


5  --  CREDITS  --

The BRAIN GAMES team:

Programming: Santi "Popolon" Ontan
Graphics: RamonMSX, Miikka "MP83" Poikela, Valerian, Olivier "Picili"
Music/SFX: Jorrith "Jorito" Schaap 
Beta Testing: 
	- JEames, Jorito, MP83, Daedalus, Pakoto, Vampier, Chocobo2k, Silver Sword,
	  Valerian, theNestruo, RamonMSX, Lars the 18th, Konamito, AcesHigh
Special Thanks to:
	- Jason "JEames" Eames: Web hosting
	- Joram "Daedalus" van Hartingsveldt: png format reduction tools
	- Lars the 18th: game font, mirroring
	- Valerian: website design
	- Ootini: scaned original manual of F1-Spirit


6  -- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION --

The game starts in windowed mode, switch to fullscreen by pressing ALT+ENTER

Due to the scrict time constraints (or due to a bad plannification by the development team),
the game is no 100% finished. It includes only 17 out of the 21 tracks of the original game.
However, 17 out of 21 is 80.95%, and as the rules state, the games must be more than 80% complete.
Therefore, our game satisfies the conditions to be presented to the compo. The remaining 4 tracks
will be added in the near future (before the judges finish testing the games). However, you can finish
the game. If you select one of the missing tracks, the track loaded will be the STOCK car (the
first one) but you will race with F1 cars there!

Moreover, the graphics couldn't be completely remade. Therefore, original graphics + remade graphics
coexist in this version of the remake. Future versions will feature fully redrawn graphics
The same has happened with the music. Almost all the original musics are redone, but some are still
in their original MSX form.

Another feature that couldn't be added is network play. This is reserved for future versions.

This being said, just check http://www.braingames.getput.com to be updated in future versions
of the game.