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

Great	Good	Fair	Poor

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.

Part	Description	Wear	Need
Tires	The quality of your tires determines how well your car can grip the road, especially when taking sharp turns. The worse your wheels are, the harder time you will have staying centered when the road curves.	The more your car slides on the road, or the more you drive off-road, the faster your tires will wear.	High: No matter how good of a driver you are, your tires will wear, especially on the courses that are driven on gravel or dirt.
Gears	The quality of your gears determines how many gears you can shift into. Every time your gear wears down to a new color, you lose your highest gear. If you gear icon is red, you cannot shift out of first gear.	Shifting too frequently, or at improper times will cause your gears to wear. While you don't lose any benefit if your gears go from blue to green, it is a warning that you are close to losing fourth gear.	Low: Assuming you do a reasonable job shifting gears at the right time, the chances of you wearing your gears are low.
Engine	The quality of your engine determines how fast of a top speed you can reach. With your engine at top speed, you should be able to approach 239 km/h.	Failure to shift gears when you red line your engine will cause the engine to wear faster.	Medium: In off-road sections of the game, you may need to maintain top speed in third gear instead of shifting into fourth, which can wear down your engine.
Suspension	The quality of your suspension determines how well your car absorbs shock when you hit another car, when you land from a jump, or when you drive off road. Poor shocks cause you to lose more speed, and even lose control of the car if you receive a jolt.	All the things that your suspension protects you against (crashes, hop, and off-roading) wear down your suspension. The more you do these things, the faster it wears.	High: Like tires, your suspension will wear away due to normal driving activity during the course of the race. It is important to keep these in stock.
Brakes	The quality of your brakes determines how smoothly and quickly you can slow the speed of your car down. As brakes wear away, you will have a harder time bringing your car back under control if you are going too fast.	The more you use your brakes, the faster they wear away.	Low: Using your brakes should be limited to taps which isn't likely to cause substantial wear to your brakes. Most deceleration can be accomplished simply by letting go of the gas. Use brakes for emergencies.