Formula One (1985 video game)

Throughout the season the game focuses on budget management. With limited funds and resources the player has to establish in each race the best ways to invest in its race cars. In each race there is also a possibility that the race car(s) get damaged, destroyed, or even that the driver is injured. Any of these setbacks mean added expenses for repairs or having to hire new drivers.

The game is based on four management points, which are:

• Driver's skill level
• Power (Engine)
• Car (chassis)
• Pit-crew

The driver's skill, unlike the other three management points, is the only one that cannot be improved by applying funds to it (short of hiring a better driver). The driver's skill level changes dynamically during the season, slowly increasing after each successfully finished race, or decreasing in case of accidents that force an early retirement from it. In the event of an accident in which the driver is injured all of the driver's skill level is set back to the minimum value and he is marked as injured until the end of the current season. A new driver must then be hired for the position.

The engine and the car levels determine how fast and how reliable the car will be in race for the driver. Applying more funds into the engine and fewer in the car (chassis) means that the car will be faster and more reliable but with a fragile chassis. Applying the reverse settings will mean that the car might be more resistant in chassis, but slower and more prone to engine failures.

During a race the player sees the cars passing by every lap.

During each race the player's task is to watch the race as it goes lap after lap from the starting lane point of view, and react depending on the events that may occur. The blackboard on the top of the screen shows the top six drivers time differences in seconds,[1] but the player can also tell how well their cars are doing just by watching closely to the cars passing by in each lap. The speed and time differences between the drivers are noticeable in game.

A number of different events happen during every race, the most common being weather changes and accidents. If the weather changes the player can call the cars in for a tyre change, in case the drivers do not do it themselves first. In the case of accidents, if the car is still able to race, the driver will take it immediately to the pits for repairs.

But if the cars are damaged beyond the ability to repair in race, or even if they crashed out, the player will have to watch the rest of the race, even if none of their cars is on track.

Pit stop routine. The player has to change each tyre on the car before it's ready to go.

The pit-crew also has a deciding factor in each race because the more funds are applied into it, the faster they work when in pit stops. The pit stop events are controlled by the player, when a car has the need to go in for a pit stop the player controls one of the mechanics in the pits, which changes the tyres one by one, and applies any other repairs if necessary. The faster the mechanic moves, the less time is spent in pit stops.[2]

In the demonstration mode of the game, the pit crew includes four extra mechanics placed next to each of the car tyres who make the tyre changes, but they work one at a time until all tyres are replaced and the car is ready to go.

The game features five different kinds of tyres to choose for racing, Slicks (soft, medium and hard compound variants), Intermediates, and Rain tyres. Each kind of tyre is best suited depending on the present weather and track conditions, and the weather conditions can vary during the race.

Formula One's game play setup is a season comprising 16 races, and all the game's data including racing circuits, number of laps of each race, past season winners, and track record holders is based on the official 1984 Formula One season.

Round	Race	Location	Laps
1	Brazilian Grand Prix	Jacarepaguá	61
2	South African Grand Prix	Kyalami	75
3	Belgian Grand Prix	Zolder	70
4	San Marino Grand Prix	Imola	60
5	French Grand Prix	Dijon	79
6	Monaco Grand Prix	Monaco	76
7	Canadian Grand Prix	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve	70
8	Detroit Grand Prix	Detroit	63
9	Dallas Grand Prix	Dallas	67
10	British Grand Prix	Brands Hatch	71
11	German Grand Prix	Hockenheimring	44
12	Austrian Grand Prix	Österreichring	51
13	Dutch Grand Prix	Zandvoort	71
14	Italian Grand Prix	Monza	51
15	European Grand Prix	Nürburgring	67
16	Portuguese Grand Prix	Estoril	70

A gambling mode is also available in-game, in which the player can bet an amount of money on one or more drivers to win. This is an optional feature of the game, and is only accessible by pressing a specific key before the races.[3] The gambling screen presents the list of drivers that are going to participate in the race to follow, as well as their respective winning odds.

An uncommon feature of the game was the addition of a special alphanumeric code that was revealed to the player once the game was beaten in expert mode, that served as proof of authentication that the player had mastered the game at its highest level of difficulty. This special code was used as means of entry on a competition held in June 1985 by Sinclair User magazine.[4]

There are visible differences between the Zx Spectrum (top) and Amstrad CPC (bottom).

Both ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions are very similar in all aspects, and the gameplay is not altered between ports, but some visual differences exist between them.

Due to the native color palettes that each system uses, the game presents itself very similarly in both versions but with slightly different color tones. The ZX Spectrum attribute clash problem is also widely visible through the game, whereas in the Amstrad CPC it does not occur.

Some in game objects though are painted differently in the Amstrad CPC port, for example the pit stop screen shows different colored doors, windows and other objects in the background. Also, on the race screen, the publicity stripe below the spectators is mostly red in the Amstrad CPC port while in the ZX Spectrum version it shows mostly yellow.

A noticeable difference is that in the ZX Spectrum version, in the race screen, there are four rows of spectators on the left side and three rows on the right side. The Amstrad CPC port shows one fewer row of spectators on each side, making it three rows on the left side and only two rows on the right side.

Another difference is that at each race start, in the ZX Spectrum version six cars are visible in the starting line, while in the Amstrad CPC version only four cars are visible.