INSTRUCTIONS Quarter-mile Excitement at the Wheel of your Computer Drag Race is an action-filled, arcade style game which simulates many of the sights, sounds, and racing experiences of a real drag race competition. It requires patience and more than a few runs down the 1/4-mile strip in order to attain the degree of skill necessary to become a winning dragster driver. Racing heats between competitors are arranged following a single elimination chart. Only by following the instructions on the next pages will you have a chance of becoming the grand champion. PRE-RACE SETUP Once the menu appears on your screen, pressing the F1 key will cycle you thro ugh the nine player choices: 1 through 8 challengers and a practice mode. Press ing F3 displays the best times, F7 begins the selected competition, and F8 retur ns you to UpTime. In practice mode, you have control of the blue car (the left hand side). Thi s feature allows you to get used to the feel of the controls without having to w ait for other competitors. You can exit the practice mode by pressing the retur n key. When entering competition mode, each driver is asked to enter his or her name at the appropriate prompt, terminating the entry by pressing return. After all the competitor's names have been entered, a display of the upcoming heats is sh own. The racers of the first heat will then be asked in turn to press the fireb uttons on their joysticks. As they press them, the drivers will be told which c ar they will be driving. The left hand side is for the blue car; the right hand side is for the red. The car's speed is displayed numerically at the top left of the display, and gra phically, with a colored, vertical bar, on the right. Your engine RPMs are disp layed by a tachometer positioned at the top center of your screen. When the tac h's needle is pointing down, your RPMs are 0. As you rev your engine, the needl e will rise and fall accordingly. The red pie slice in the dial is the engine's red line. Your gear selection is the number with a circle around it. Both the number a nd the number's position in the display go up as you shift up, and down as you s hift down. The distance traveled on the race strip is shown by a horizontal bar graph positioned under your tach. The bar fills from the left to the right as you proceed down the track. The elapsed time (in seconds) is displayed just abo ve the track, centered on the screen, and used to record both drivers' times. The left side is the blue car's viewing area. The blue car will be displayed in one vertical position, with the red car shown in its relative position to th e blue car. The same idea holds for the red car's viewing area. When the side of the road turns white, it signals the finish line. Each driver's time is reco rded as the car crosses the line. The race begins after a 5 light countdown. Once the green light goes out, the race will begin. The winner of the heat is displayed as the winner in the elim ination chart, and goes on to compete in the next heat. If neither player finis hes or time runs out (60 seconds), a rematch will be held. CONTROLS The controls are fairly simple, yet they take a little while to coordinate. Pressing the fire button increases your RPMs. Releasing the button decreases th em. If your RPMs fall to 0 once the green light disappears, your car will stall . If your RPMs exceed the red line, the engine will overheat and shut down. Moving the joystick left or right will move your car in that direction. This allows you to block your opponent or maneuver around him. Be careful, though, not to run into a wall or hit your opponent. You will spin-out and be put out o f the race. To change gears, momentarily release the firebutton and move the joystick eit her forward (for a higher gear) or backward (for a lower gear). When shifting i nto a higher gear, you will notice a drop in your engine's RPMs. You must re-en gage the button to increase your RPMs before they fall down to 0. If you shift too soon (RPMs too low), the car will stall. If you down shift with your RPMs t oo high, the engine will overheat. COMPUTER PACER If there are an even number of participants, each player plays against anothe r until there is a winner. But in a game of odd number of players, a computer p acer must be inserted. In one player mode, you get a choice of 3 computers (num bered 1, 2, and 3). Level 1 is the easiest, while 3 is the hardest. If there are more than 2 players, someone will race against computer #2. If the computer wins that heat, the computer will NOT advance to the next heat. Th is is so that people will play other people rather than a computer. But should the computer win in one player mode, it will declare itself the winner. FINAL NOTES As with most games, you'll experience more fun with more players. Try a game with eight players (just to see how it is set up). It is a pretty handy featur e. Before each game, the order of the players will be changed. This keeps the players from constantly finding themselves in competition with the same players race after race. This also keeps the same person from constantly finding himsel f racing against the computer. After each game, you are given the choice of returning to the menu or racing again. Pressing the button will keep the same drivers' names racing against eac h other again. Pressing the return key places you back into the main menu.