Devised and originally written by Andrew and Phillip Oliver for the Amstrad CPC in 1986.
Graphics by the Oliver Twins and James Wilson.
Amstrad music and sound effects by Jon Paul Eldridge.
Atari and Commodore conversions by Adrian Sheppard.
Commodore loading screen by Steven Day.
Spectrum programming by Surjit Dosanj.
Spectrum graphics by Mervin James.
Atari, Commodore and Spectrum sounds by David Whittaker.
Design and artwork by Nigel Fletcher.
All versions published by Code Masters in 1987.
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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS
In an attempt to make the Format Wars article series in Reset64 magazine slightly bigger, the already announced racing theme for issue #16 gave the opportunity to choose a game with more versions, but less content. I found myself two optional games to write comparisons of, and I chose to write them both - the other one is still waiting for the next issue of Reset magazine to be finished and eventually released, but I decided to release this comparison now, just to get rid of it. One of Code Masters' earliest hit games, Grand Prix Simulator, was designed by the Oliver Twins on their Amstrad CPC, but was ported to other platforms by developers other than themselves, which, if you read my comparison of Dizzy at FRGCB, should make GPS a much more interesting game to compare.
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DESCRIPTION & REVIEW
Shortly put, Grand Prix Simulator is another variation of the age-old Formula 1 racing game form, that started with the likes of Atari's Gran Trak 10 from 1974 and Kee Games' Sprint 2 from 1976. Unlike Atari's then latest attempt at riding that same old horse with Super Sprint, GPS focuses on getting the racing cars' movement and sliding more natural, instead of trying to make the game more appealing by various types of vehicle upgrades. Here, you get what you are given from the start, and you need to master handling the vehicle for the duration of a dozen (or more) tracks. Picking up the randomly appearing bonus items from the track will only give you bonus score.
For a young gamer at the age of approximately 7 or 8 when I first played Grand Prix Simulator, the massive amount of speech samples was enthralling, more than any gameplay related aspect. I remember playing this quite a lot on my C64 in the late 80's, though, and I remember those sessions rather fondly, too. However, it's not an easy game to get into, precisely because of the sliding, which made it more fun than Super Sprint ever was for me. Also, you only get one attempt for each track, and if you lose, it's game over, and back to the beginning. Harsh, but addicting, much like most other early Code Masters' games.
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PLAYABILITY
Because the ATARI version seems to be unavailable as a proper cassette image file, we skip the loading section for this one, and get back to the loading screen in the Graphics section. From the title screen, you can go to either select your more or less preferred controls, or into the game by selecting one or two players. Whichever number of players you select, there will always be one computer opponent to play against. The SPECTRUM and AMSTRAD versions both have a very free range of controls you can use, with Kempston joystick option for the former and any compatible joystick for the latter. The ATARI version is only playable with joysticks and the C64 version has options for joysticks and two pre-defined sets of keys. As a minor inconvenience in the C64 version, player 1 cannot use joystick in port 2.
To be honest, I have never been able to get all that far in this game, because the better you perform, the better the computer driver performs in the next race. The computer driver was actually recorded into the game by the Oliver Twins themselves, and as far as I know, by the other developers for the other versions, so there is no AI to play against, as such. For certain tracks, this might prove a bit too much of a challenge, since some of the tracks have been driven for the computer car somewhat too perfectly, even for the earlier tracks.
Looking up from the internet, I found out that the AMSTRAD and SPECTRUM versions have 14 tracks, while the C64 and ATARI versions only have twelve. Also, the order of tracks is a bit different for the latter two. As a couple of examples, track 5 from the CPC and SPECTRUM versions is the last one for C64 and ATARI, and track 5 for the C64 and ATARI is track 10 on CPC and SPECTRUM.
From the actual gameplay differences, the first notable one between the four versions is the game speed. The AMSTRAD version plays slightly quicker than any of the others, and the SPECTRUM version plays slightly slower. There is also some odd little juttering in the SPECTRUM version, which makes the gameplay generally slightly more uncomfortable. The C64 and ATARI versions are lodged between the other two, and the two versions seem to play exactly the same in all regards.
Second, the collision areas for the cars in the C64 and ATARI versions are much wider than in the AMSTRAD version, but the SPECTRUM version has it even worse with some of the collision areas in the track going according to the attribute clash problem. Then again, the other collision problems in the Spectrum version have been balanced out by omitting collisions between the racing cars.
The third mentionable difference is with how accurate and easy the car's handling actually is. Often, when I'm trying to align my car straight towards the road ahead, it feels impossible to get it perfectly aligned. Even when the rare thing happens, the car tends to veer off slightly to either side, despite it looking like it's going completely straight. This is especially annoying, when you need to be going under bridges, Only in the SPECTRUM version, I found this lesser of a problem, but then it is a bit slower than the rest.
Finally, not exactly a gameplay-related problem, but there is an annoyance in the AMSTRAD and SPECTRUM versions, nonetheless: in the title and control options screens, you need to wait for the animated LED message screen to become fully ordered, before you can enter any commands at the game. There is no such animation in the C64 and ATARI versions, so you can get to the actual game more quickly.
So, while the SPECTRUM version is a fairly enjoyable one, its cons far outweigh its pros. Having more tracks doesn't necessarily mean the game is any more worthy of your time, but the AMSTRAD version doesn't suffer from any the same problems, save for one. In fact, the original does feel slightly more balanced and fine-tuned than any of the conversions, so we have a clear order here.
1. AMSTRAD CPC
2. COMMODORE 64 / ATARI 400/800
3. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM
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GRAPHICS
Because Grand Prix Simulator was developed as a sequel of sorts to the Darling brothers' earlier Code Masters racing hit, BMX Simulator, it was only logical to design GPS similarly as a single-screen top-down racer. Unfortunately, there's not much more to it than that, really.
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| Loading screens, where available; left to right: Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64. |
As far as I know, the ATARI version doesn't have a loading screen, but I have no way to actually confirm it. Based on Codemasters' earlier title, BMX Simulator, though, the loading screen is no more than black text on a grey background for about 11 minutes.
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| Title screens and control options, where available; left to right: Amstrad CPC, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari 400/800. |
Just below all that, separating the top part of the screen from the action part of the screen, is the dot-matrix style message display, which is only fully designed as such in the AMSTRAD version - the other versions have a solid blue background with either white or yellow text. The biggest difference regarding the text display is, that in the AMSTRAD and SPECTRUM versions, the title screen and control defining screens, the white dots are scrambled and reassembled into text, which looks neat, but takes a long time, while in the C64 and ATARI versions, the only animation is scrolling from right to left.
Laid over on the action screen are some very rectangular boxes filled with red background colour and some white and yellow text. The instruction boxes are grey in the AMSTRAD and SPECTRUM versions.
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| Starting lights / Track #1 with all players, left to right: Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Sinclair ZX Spectrum. |
What you don't see in the title screen is the starting lights, which take the spot of the checkered flag between the two cars at the top. Also, the current track number... eh... letter is shown just below the light in the AMSTRAD and SPECTRUM versions.
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| Tracks 2 and 4, left to right: Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Sinclair ZX Spectrum. |
During the race, apart from the cars, the only other moving thing on the screen is the text display showing laps and times. Sometimes, you do get a bonus item randomly thrown somewhere on the track, which is a new item for each new track. Apart from the ATARI version, the bonus items appear as solid white objects with no animation whatsoever, but in the ATARI version, the bonus items flash through all the colours available in the computer's video chip.
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| Random further tracks and Game Over screens, left to right: Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Atari 400/800, Sinclair ZX Spectrum. |
1. AMSTRAD CPC
2. COMMODORE 64
3. ATARI 400/800
4. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM
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SOUNDS
If Grand Prix Simulator can be considered famous for any particular thing, it's the amount of voice samples included. Happily, all four versions feature all the same speech bits, although some versions have a different person having spoken the clips. In the original version, there are samples for the words "three", "two", "one", "go!", "car", "position", "is out", and "game over", and the SPECTRUM version has been blessed with all the phrases as well, despite its 48k memory. The C64 and ATARI versions drop the "is out" phrase for some reason.
The rest of the sound effects are more or less passable, or worse. The SPECTRUM version has practically none, apart from a couple of different pops and ticks, so it's hard to even count them as sound effect. There is no separate 128k version, either, so this is all you're gonna get there.
Even as a young'un, I absolutely hated the super-stretched and echoed tire squeals in the C64 version, because they were both loud and overly long, and took about 85% of the soundscape. Sure, you do get some well-enough made engine droning for both cars, as well as a strange arcade-oriented sound effect for picking up a bonus score item, but it's your tire squeal that steals the entire show.
Although the ATARI version is otherwise very similar to the C64 version, it's the general sound effects where the biggest differences lie. The tire squeals are much less prominent and irritating, but the two cars' engine droning is so much less pleasing to the ear, that the comparatively positive effect is negated by it. The bonus item pick-up sound effect is less noticeable than the C64 equivalent, and perhaps because of it, more tolerable.
You're probably wondering, how the AMSTRAD sound effects fare here, seeing as they are the original design? So am I, because they are simply too quiet to be considered notable. There is some odd problem with the balance of channel volumes here, because the engine noises and the usual tire squeals are practically unnoticeable on the volume you would normally keep your TV at, but when you hit an oil patch on the road, the tire squeal goes 500% louder. Other than that, I like the engine noises being more low-frequencies and juttery than the constant booming you get in the ATARI version, for instance, and the regular tire squeals are more exact screeches than long, echoed and loud.
As for the music, the original soundtrack by Jon Eldridge features two tunes, the most prominent and memorable of which is undoubtedly the main theme, which actually doesn't change the chord at all during the whole 54-bar loop. The other track is reserved for the high score entry screen, and is basically an endless four-bar loop of four back-and-forth trichords with the same tempo and rhythm as the main theme.
The SPECTRUM version only features the first 24 bars of the main theme, but for a 48k beeper rendition, it uses all the known tricks at the time to make it sound as full as possible. The C64 version of the main theme is about 12 bars longer than the original, but does a modulation up a full step after the first 40 bars, making the composition a little bit more interesting. From the original soundtrack, the high score entry tune has been replaced with a short Game Over ditty, which plays just as you are taken into the high score entry screen. The ATARI version uses the same music as the C64 version, but has some tuning problems with certain notes caused by POKEY's characteristics.
If it were just about the music, the C64 version would win hands down, but since you will not be hearing any music when playing, the sound effects are too important not to give them top consideration. In balance, it's the AMSTRAD version again that comes out of this with the least problems. The rest of them are pretty easy to put in following order.
1. AMSTRAD CPC
2. COMMODORE 64
3. ATARI 400/800
4. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM
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OVERALL + VIDEO
If this game and the previous Codemasters game here at FRGCB is anything to start noticing a trend by, it should be somewhat evident, that Codemasters had their primary focus on the Amstrad CPC, at least in the early days. Since I wasn't too enlightened about the beginnings of Codemasters prior to working on the Dizzy comparison (as, admittedly, I simply didn't care enough), this has been a surprisingly educational journey thus far. I guess the results speak for themselves.
1. AMSTRAD CPC: Playability 3, Graphics 4, Sounds 4 = TOTAL 11
2. COMMODORE 64: Playability 2, Graphics 3, Sounds 3 = TOTAL 8
3. ATARI 400/800: Playability 2, Graphics 2, Sounds 2 = TOTAL 6
4. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM: Playability 1, Graphics 1, Sounds 1 = TOTAL 3
If you didn't bother to read the comparison through before getting to this section, you might want to scroll back. Alternately, you can click on this video link to Mikroman01's video comparison of Grand Prix Simulator from a few years ago to see the evidence for yourselves. Still, there is no better way of making all these observations, than by playing all four versions.
That's one down from the archives, and another racing game comparison waiting to be released, for which we need to wait for the next Reset magazine to get published. In the meantime, we still have a few more comparisons in the pipeline. Thanks for reading; see you next time!
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