Victory Run/Gameplay

Controls

 * / : Steer your car left and right
 * / : Shift gears up or down
 * : Accelerate your car by holding the gas pedal down.
 * : Slow down the car by stepping on the brakes.
 * : Start a new game, or pause the action mid-game.
 * : Not used.

Player
Throughout the race from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, you are the driver of a Porche 959 Group B rally race car. Drivers of the Porche 959 were the winners of the 1986 Paris-Dakar Rally, and now you are looking to repeat the accomplishment. Despite being such a sophisticated piece of machinery, the controls for the car are very simple. The car steers left and right, it can accelerate and brake, and you have access to four gears. Whenever you accelerate and red line the engine, shift to the next gear up to continue acceleration and decrease strain on the engine. If you are forced to slow down, it is better to down shift into a lower gear, to allow for faster acceleration and resumption of speed.

In order to compete in the race, you must complete each one of the eight sections of the course in as little time as possible. For each section, you are given a time limit to drive in before time starts coming off your total race clock. When the section time runs out, your race clock begins to count down. As long as you complete a section before your race clock reaches zero, you may continue to the next course. If you finish a course before the section time runs out, any extra time is added back on to your overall race clock. At the end of each course, you are shown how you are doing in relationship to other drivers.

Status
Throughout the race, you can find out several important pieces of information from the status bar shown above the screen. Starting in the upper left corner, you can see your progress from the start of the current course to the goal (your progress is shown in blue). Below that is your speedometer and tachometer. While your speedometer indicates how fast you are moving in kilometers per hour, your tachometer shows you how hard your engine is working. The harder it works, the closer the tachometer gets to the red portion. If you are in the red, and you are not in the highest gear, you should consider shifting gears. To the right of your speed is a little icon indicating which gear you are in. The upper left is first, lower left is second, upper right is third, and lower right is fourth.

On the right side of the status bar, you can see the current conditions of five of your car parts. The parts and the colors which indicate their condition are explained below. Below the parts are two timers. The top timer is your overall remaining race time. It will not count down until the remaining course time below reaches zero first. The game will end if the top timer ever runs out. The S.S. icon on the left most side and the number below it merely indicate which leg of the race you are currently on, ranging from 1 to 8.

Parts
During the race, your car will suffer from varying degrees of wear and tear. This happens to five distinct parts of the car, including the tires, gear shift, engine, wheel suspension, and brakes. Before the race begins, you are given the opportunity to choose how to distribute 20 replacement parts among these five categories. Some parts are more likely to wear than others, so choosing the right number to distribute to each part is an important piece of strategy in this game. As the race continues, your parts will wear down if they are not replaced between courses. The condition of the part is indicated by a color, as shown to the right.