THE SPECTRUM GAME DATABASE

CHEQUERED FLAG

PUBLISHER
Psion

AUTHOR
Stephen Kelly
Stephen Townsend (Put in the Engine)

YEAR
1984

DESCRIPTION
A formula 1 racing simulator.

CONTROLS:
Accelerator:            key "0"
Brake:                  key "I"
Gear change up:         key "M" or any key right of M
Gear change down:       key "N" or any key left of N
Steering fast left:     key "A"
         slow left:     key "S"
         slow right:    key "D"
         fast right:    key "F"
Pause:                  key "H" Press again to continue
Abort the race:         key "H" and "T" together


INSTRUCTIONS
Please see the inlay card text.

CHEATS
None

SEQUELS
None

INLAY CARD TEXT
Chequered flag is a fast moving motor racing simulation in which
you have to negotiate some of the worlds famous racing circuits.
From behind the wheel of your thoroughbred formula 1 racing car,
you have a dinamic view of the outside world flashing past and
of continuously changing instuments on your dashboard display.
Watch the various landmarsk appear over the horizon and snake
towards you - trees, milestones, rocks and warning arrows, a lake
etc..  There are even hills to climb and descend. Keep and eye
on your instruments to achieve maximum performance and avoid
skidding or overheating.
Your car has been carefully programmed to model accurately the
dinamics of a real racing car and you even have a choice of cars. 
Peak power will be delivered at the appropriate revs, and drag
and road traction are all evaluated.  In order to achieve maximum
performance you will need to change up and down the gears to keep
the revs at the optimum level, and if you take the corners too
fast you will start to slip sideways. But don't worry, to make
things easier you can opt for a car with an automatic gearbox -
at the cost of a little power of course.
Your dashboard display features full analogue speedometer, rev
counter, fuel and temperature gauges along with a gear selection
indicator - plus lap timer and lap counter. The steering wheel
is also visible and turns in response to your commands.
Driving a racing car is a very skilled business, and apart from
keeping on the road and trying to establish new lap or race
records, you will have to avoid various hazards and look after
your car.

OIL/WATER - driving over oil and water on the road will
dramatically reduce your grip and induce a skid if you try to
turn.

OFF THE ROAD - if you put a tire off the road your ride will get
rather bumpy and the car's performance will be impaired. Don't
go too far off the road or you'll crash!

GLASS - running over glass on the road will cause a tyre to
burst, inducing a dramatic wobble and serious loss of
performance. You must limp round to the pits to have a new tire
fitted. 

OVERHEATING - Constantly over-revving will cause you temperature
to rise, resulting in a blown up engine if you dont take it easy.
a visit to the pits will cool you down quickly. take care that
you don't change down a gear at high revs because this is also
likely to cause sever overheating.

FUEL - If you undertake a very long race, you will have to watch
the fuel gauge. Stopping at the pits will refuel the car. 

PITSTOP - Just pull over to the side of the road by the pits and
come to a halt. A full service will be performed, including new
tires, fuel and some engine cooling.

All that remains now is for you to select the circuit, car and
number of laps, and there you are, on the grid waiting for the
light to turn green....

[the keys]

THE CIRCUITS
Ten circuits have been programmed into chequered flag, most of
them modelled on world famous Grand Prix circuits. Your choice
is between:

Brands Hatch                    Monaco
Psion Park                      Cambridge Ring
Silverstone                     Paul Ricard (France)
Microdrive                      Saturn sands
Osterreichring (Austria)        Monza

THE CARS

FERRETI TURBO
Immensly powerful, this turbo charged car develops 640 BHP
between 8000-10000 revs giving it super acceleration. A very
difficult car to handle, and only recommended to the more
experienced racing drivers.

PSION PEGASUS
A new car feturing the latest technology and the highest
standards of engineering. Develops 560 BHP between 5000-10000
revs and has an exceptionally low-drag coefficient. A very fast
car which is also reasonably easy to drive.

MCFASTER SPECIAL
This car has an automatic gearbox, making it the ideal choice for
the more inexperienced driver. Nevertheless, it is still very
fast and reliable, devloping 500 BHP.

Psion cassettes for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum are designed to load
over a very wide range of volume and tone settings on your tape
recorder.  If you have any difficulty, ensure that the head and
pinch-roller of your tape recorder are quite clean.  Cleaning
kits for this purpose are widely available.

SINCLAIR(R) & ZX Spectrum(R)
are the Registered Trade Marks of 
Sinclair Research Limited.

BACK BLURB:
Ever wanted to drive a Formula 1 racing car flat out round a
circuit?  CHEQUERED FLAG places you behind the steering wheel. 
You'll need one eye on the road and one on the dashboard as you
steer and brake to avoid hazards and work your way through the
gears in search of a lap record.  An exciting full colour machine
code game.


SCORES RECEIVED
71% - Crash 3 (April 1984)
NR - Your Spectrum 1 (Jan 1984)

URL


NOTES
This game took 10 weeks to write.  The game was also released in
a Spanish and a Timex version. There was also a ROM verison
produced for the Spectrum interface (I can't remember if it was
ever released).

Stephen Kelly also wrote Frogs, SuperGlooper and Tempest on the
ZX81 and did the graphical front end for Scrabble, Backgammon and
converted Match Point onto the Spectrum for Psion.  He went on
to be a founder member of The Bitmap Brothers.

Stephen Townsend wrote a number of games for MikroGen and is
still at PSION working on the Series 3.
























