THE ROBINSON'S GARAGE / SELECTION SCREEN This is the main selection screen covering all of the actions in the races ahead. Use this screen to pick the characters that you wish to challenge to a race, the additional obstacles that you will come across on the tracks, and the type of skateboard that you wish to compete on. THE RACE CHALLENGERS The following Neighbours characters, past and present, can be challenged to appear as race opposition. CHARLENE RAMSEY Charlene borrows a Go-Kart from Jim Robinson's garage, tunes it up, and is raring to go! HENRY RAMSEY Landscape Gardener extraordinaire, Henry takes to the track in his Tractor Lawnmower. MIKE YOUNG Still studying hard as a student, Mike races on a skateboard against his best pal from his school days at Erinsborough High. MATT ROBINSON Matt has borrowed Mike's motorbike to give him a race advantage. The number of contestants are selected in the above order by pressing on the characters. THE SKATEBOARDS There are three skateboards available to race on. Pressing skateboard indicates your chosen racing board. [S] - SLOW handling and speed [M] - MEDIUM handling and speed [F] - FAST handling and speed Trial and error will enable you to select the skateboard that suits your own racing style. SPECIAL OBSTACLES Extra obstacles can be selected to make the game more challenging. The more objects revealed, the more obstacles appear on the race track. DES CLARKE'S CAR Des is late for work at the Bank, and will tend to pull out without looking where he is going RADIO CONTROLLED CAR Todd Landers has just received a new RC car for his birthday from Jim and Beverly. He is just getting to grips with the controls, so the car can cause havoc everywhere! KANGAROO Erinsborough Wildlife Park has accidentally let one of its kangaroos escape. The animal passes through the Neighbours locations on his way to the Outback. Press keys 1-3 to select the additional obstacles which appear in the racing screens. Remember that the special obstacles not only cause havoc for Scott, but also for all of the other race opponents. RACE LOCATIONS There are eight individual races that make up the Neighbours Challenge. These races take place over the following locations, under the guidance of Harold Bishop: RAMSAY STREET LASSITER'S COMPLEX ERINSBOROUGH HIGH ANSON'S CORNER There are two races at each location, with two lap races on each track. Each race scenario has its own particular layout and design, as well as obstacles relevant to that Neighbours location. POPULARITY METER At the bottom of the racing screen, Scott Robinson's Popularity Meter is dislayed as a large Neighbours logo. During the race, this will increase and decrease as the viewing audience judges Scott's performance in the race. Colliding with popular characters will reduce your popularity, wherease picking up pieces of rubbish will increase your ratings in the eyes of the audience. Bonuses are awarded at the end of every race based upon Scott's current Popularity Rating. If Popularity drops to zero during the course of a race, Scott is automatically dropped from the series and the game ends. The aim of the game is therefore to keep Scott's popularity high, whilst at the same time arriving in the highest possible scoring position in the race. Your current position is indicated on the map of Australia, with Scott's score and laps completed shown on the opposite side of the screen. RACING All players line up at the starting line at the beginning of the race. The starting pistol cracks into life, and the game begins. As you race around the track, avoiding obstacles as well as other contestants, you must pass through the gates set up by Harold Bishop to mark out the agreed course. If you do not pass through all of the gates, you do not advance your score and you cannot win the race. The television sets on the left hand side of the screen register the positions of the first three characters across the line.