F1

"F1 is an Official Formula One Racing Game. It's also the fastest, most authentic, most thrilling racing game yet. Battle it out on the real Formula One Circuits against the real teams and the real drivers of the FIA Formula One World Championship."

F1 is the accumulation of the previous work done by Lankhor, a French developer producing one of the fastest, if not the fastest formula one game on the Amiga. The initial version of the game known as Vroom released late in 1991 with six tracks followed up by a data disk in 1992 adding six more tracks. This was followed by Vroom Multiplayer in 1993 which added split screen multiplayer to the game with six tracks and I assume the data disk still works with this version. By late 1993, Lankhor were getting out of the publishing game acting as developers only and Domark bought into it producing F1. Domark saw fit to put all 12 tracks into one game although strangely the Amiga game only lets you choose between a set of six (Leg 1 / Leg 2) and overhaling all the artwork although retaining the rather basic main menu system. Another benefit is that the game sports the official FIA licence adding real world driver names to the game. The game also released on the Mega-Drive and was re-worked a little to make give it a more console like experience such as podium award screens and having all twelve tracks flow in one run which helps in justifying the price of the cartridge.

The game is developed for the Amiga 500 and moves at a pretty slick pace making it one of the fastest if not the fastest for the system. Blink and you will crash. Played on an A1200 for a little extra smoothness but its not all that different. We start out at the main menu where we can configure the game. Arcade or championship mode. The difference being more of a knockout vs accumulated points for winning as well as a pre race qualifying lap. The way the car handles is also different, being more slippy in championship mode. Difficulty can be changed between Novice and Expert which not only effects the speed of the game but also how much damage you can take including tyre ware as well as how aggressive the other racers are. We can also switch between two legs containing six tracks each. We can also change between Mouse and Joystick control. Muse just doesnt offer the precision needed so joystick all the way although you do have to push up the whole time to accelerate. Lastly, we can set wing and tyre type and this has to suit you for the entire six race session. Once we are in game, you get a split second to prepare before the green light.

In the longplay, the initial six tracks are played at the default Novice difficulty. The other racers don't pose much of a challenge and speed is almost manageable. There is not much fanfare for winning, just a score tally and onto the next race. The game is super slick and any slight movement can send you flying across the road. Speed control is quite important on corners as you will overshoot and crash into something if too fast, if only slightly too fast you will cause tyre screeching and tyre ware so ideally you get it just right for a smooth ride around the corners. On some races you may need to pit for fuel or new tires and that comes with its own challenge as its all to easy to crash into the pit wall and have the game push you past it and fail the race. You need to come in slow and line up with the pit lane. The are a few ways to crash and wreck the car. Hitting something like a post, tree or car which will eventually wreck the engine if crashing too much. If tires are allowed to ware out, they will burst and it's race over. After championship completion I step it up to Expert for the next six races. here the speed ramps up making corner speed control extra crucial and crashing is a very bad idea as damage accumulation is accelerated. The cars a little more aggressive but not annoyingly so. At the end of the video I show a player vs cpu split screen race followed by a Turbo race running the game at ludicrous speed which I don't finish.

Overall, this is one of the great Amiga racing games but more for it's technical achievement than gameplay. Presentation is minimal and the controls can be a big hindrance to fully enjoying the game. The racing is good but it doesnt feel all that rewarding for completing a championship. Domark didn't do much to transform Vroom so this was probably an easy n quick release to get something out of the FIA licence. Later in 1995, Domark would revisit the game and update it with some of the mega drive game features.

00:00:00 Titles
----------- Leg 1 ----------
00:02:02 Brazil (Interlagos)
00:08:55 San Marino (Imola)
00:17:16 Spain (Barcelona)
00:24:38 Monaco (Monte Carlo)
00:30:26 Canada (Montreal)
00:37:20 France (Castelet)
----------- Leg 2 -----------
00:43:23 Britain (Silverstone)
00:49:35 Germany (Hockenheim)
00:57:06 Belgium (Spa)
01:05:43 Italy (Monza)
01:12:00 Portugal (Estoril)
01:18:16 Australia (Adelaide)
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01:23:55 Player vs Cpu
01:32:20 1 Player Turbo Mode!!