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Lucky for us, Tony Dillon hasn't passed his driving test yet. If he drives anything like he does in Domark's new racing game, he'd probably rack up more points than the entire Death Race 2000 team!

I've been a fan of racing games since I loaded up Chequered Flag on my trusty ZX Spectrum almost ten years ago! Recently, we've been a little dry of third-person perspective games (with the exception of F17 Challenge), instead being flooded with top-down racers. No to worry, though, as Domark have come to the rescue with F1, Lankhor's extension to the Vroom series of games.
You see, F1 has been released before, albeit without all the flashy 'Official' badging. It was released in France, two years ago, under the name of Vroom Multiplayer. If you remember Vroom, you'll know that it was a simple but stylish race over a selection of courses that leaned away from realism and more toward sheer 'seat of your pants' driving. It was constantly mourned for its lack of a two-player option. This is where Multiplayer came in, but for some reason was never released in the UK. So when Domark needed a game to tie in their official F1 license, all they had to do was buy up the rights to Multiplayer, give it a fresh lick of paint and design some new courses. Playing F1 is almost exactly the same as playing Vroom. It's still fast, it's still wildly unrealistic and it's still the smoothest racer around. Looking at the screenshots, you might think it looks a little sparse. That's only because Lankhor threw roadside detail out of the window in favour of speed, so although there isn't much roadside detail on the screens, you don't really notice because it isn't there for long anyway.

As you have probably guessed by now, speed is what makes F1 such a playable game. With a blend of polygons and sprites it looks the business, but running it on a faster machine and the game comes into its own. It's so fast and so smooth on the A1200 that you are given the option to slow down the update, making the game run at the same speed as the A500!

But any driving game soon becomes dull when you can win on all the courses. Computer drivers soon become predictable and the game loses its edge. Unless it's a two-player game, though. Ever since Pitstop 2 was released on the C64, publishers have strived to create the perfect two-player driving game and it looks like F1 could be the one. The screen is split horizontally, with each player taking up half the screen, as usual, with no loss of speed. There's nothing like racing against someone of similar skill, screaming 'round corners while screaming at each other. I'd go as far to say that if you have ready access to two joysticks and a large group of friends, then this is a game you should not miss. If you're going to be playing it alone most of the time, then it's worth getting, but nowhere near as addictive. Of course, the question still remains as to whether or not you should buy it if you already have Vroom. It's a tough one. There's the big difference in that it's a two-player simultaneous game, which always ups the playability stakes of any game, and is a welcome addition to Vroom. On top of that, there's the championship league, a host of new tracks and a slight speed increase. Whether or not that's enough to make you rush out and buy it is down to you.

CU Amiga, February 1994, p.79
PITSTOP 3?
One of the most charming and, indeed, one of the irritating points about Pitstop 2 was the pitstop itself. Pulling into the pitstop lane and breaking brought up a screen showing a top view of the car and two mechanics, which changed tyres and filled the tank under direct joystick control. F1 pitstops are almost as charming, with similar little men running out and doing repairs in real time, but you don't get to control them directly. Instead you press a key and the respective task is carried out. Somehow it just isn't the same...

DOMARK £29.99
A500
A1500 A500+
A2000 A600
A3000 A1200
A4000
DOMARK SOFTWARE LTD, FERRY HOUSE, 51-57 LACY ROAD, PUTNEY, LONDON SW15 1PR. TEL: 081 780 2222

RELEASE DATE:
GENRE:
TEAM:
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HARD DISK INSTALLABLE:
MEMORY:
OUT NOW
ARCADE RACER
LANKHOR
JOYSTICK, MOUSE
1
1/2
NO
1Mb

GRAPHICS
SOUND
LASTABILITY
PLAYABILITY
83%
71%
81%
86%

A superb two-player game, but pales a little when going solo.
OVERALL: 84%