========================================== M o t o r T o o n G r a n d P r i x ========================================== FAQ v1.0 Compiled by Jonathan Weeks (jon@animejin.org.uk) All feedback welcome. Contents -------- 1. Intro 2. The Cars 3. The Tracks 4. Driving Tips ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Intro 1.1 Game premise Motortoon is a racing game with all the cars, tracks and game mechanics rendered in cute cartoon style. It is not a realistic driving game, by any standards. The only major feature not common in other racing games is that two player races use a spilt screen instead of needing two machines and a link cable. 1.2 Driving mechanics The cars in Motortoon are relatively easy to drive. They have gears, but there is no manual shift option. There is even a 'drift' button to automatically slide around corners. 1.2 Race mechanics There are four race modes in Motortoon: 1.2.1 Grand Prix One player. Three laps versus fifteen computer cars on one of three tracks. 1.2.2 Time Trial One player. Two laps against the clock on any grand prix or match race track, or one run of any dual race track. 1.2.3 Match race Two Players. 1,3,5,10 or 20 laps on one of five tracks. 1.2.4 Dual race Two Players. 1,3,5,10 or 20 runs on one of five tracks. Unlike Grand Prix or Match Race, the Dual tracks are linear and the players race seperately, each player on a mirror image of the other track. 1.3 Controls Select the config option from the player select menu to see a control diagram in English. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. The Cars The five cars available to drive all behave very differently, much more so than conventional racing games such as Ridge Racer or Wipeout. This adds a lot of depth to the game, as you have each of the cars to master driving aswell as each track. 2.1 Captain Rock Top speed : 311kph (off road 137kph) Acceleration : Average (0 - 311kph in 9s) Handling : Average Fast, but not easy to drive. The best car for experianced drivers. 2.2 Princess Jean Top speed : 301kph (off road 121kph) Acceleration : Average (0 - 301kph in 10s) Handling : Good Better than Rock when cornering, but not as fast on the straights. 2.3 Bolbox Top speed : 280kph (off road 138kph) Acceleration : Excellent (0 - 280kph in 2s) Handling : Good A good choice for novices. 2.4 Raptor & Raptor Top speed : 261kph (off road 232kph) Acceleration : Awesome (0 - 261kph in under 1s!) Handling : Excellent The acceleration and handling make Raptor the easiest car to drive, but the slow top speed makes it the slowest car overall. 2.5 The Penguin Brothers Top speed : 321kph (off road 68kph) Acceleration : Dire (0 - 321kph in 30s) Handling : Poor Experts only. Capable of the fastest times, but you have to drive flawlessly. It takes a good driver to get the Penguin car up to top speed anywhere. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 The Courses 3.1 Toon Island The easiest course, with plenty of gentle bends for novices to practice on. Laughing Wood Chicane - A gentle chicane. Practice drifting here. Prince of Toon - If you're bored, drive off the course in the direction the blimp is pointing for a view of some local wildlife, complete with sound effects :-) You can drive on the right hand kerb on the next bend without slowing down. Jumping Spot - If you hit the jump at full speed, you'll land quite close to the next bend, so pull left as you land to get around the corner. Dori Dori Corner - This is the tightest corner on the course, with an uphill section immediately following. This makes it a great place to loose a lot of time. Sea Side Fall Chicane - Another chicane, not as tight, but with walls either side, so there's no room for error. Baloon Sky Line - There is a narrow road leading up the slope on the right hand side immediately after you exit the tunnel, that you can drive on. 3.2 Plastic Lake More difficult than Toon Island, particularly in the Jumping Maze and Dimension Hall. Negotiating these sections successfully is one of the tougher challenges in Motortoon. Jumping Maze - The best way to negotiate this section is to keep low, avoiding the hills where possible. You can jump the pit near the end safely if you're going fast enough. G-Snake - Lots of tight curves. Slow down and use drift to get through. G-Scramble - The left and right paths are identical. Dimension Hall - It's virtually a blind jump, so experiment to find the best launch point. Avoid the pillars and try to aim for the outside of the bend, as the fastest route through is on that side. 3.3 Guliver House The designers pulled out all the stops here, to give player one of the wierdest experiences in racing game history. This course is a great piece of eye candy, aswell as a tough challenge to drive. Fruit bowl - you can drive closer to the bowl than it appears. Sink - This is a long jump, with a junction immediately after it, so make sure you line yourself up correctly for the jump. Backgammon Board - Going round some of the pieces on the left can be faster than driving straight down the right hand side. Here's a bit of really bad ASCII art as illustration: _ _ __________ / \ __________ / \ / . \_/ / . \_/ / . / * *. * / *_* . _ / *_ . _* | * / \ * / \ _ | * / \ / \ * | * | \ * \_/ / \ | * | \ \_/ / \ | * | \ * . \_/ | * | \ . * \_/ | * | \ * . | * | \ . | * | \ * . |* | \ .* |* | \ * . |* | \ . |* |Route A \ * . |* |Route B \ *. The point is that the driving line of B is not as tight a curve as A, so you get round it faster, even though it's a longer route. This does not work with all cars. Roulette Wheel - Expert drivers can take a short cut by going the wrong way around the wheel. Actually pulling this stunt off is very difficult - even the Raptor car has to slow down to get round the corners. Domino wall - You can drive between the gaps in the Dominoes, but there isn't much point. Sugar Jar Hairpin - You can drive on the edge of the condiment rack on the far side of the bend without slowing down. Piano - If you hit the first black key fast enough you jump the rest of the keyboard in one go. This is entirely pointless. Telephone - There is a sharp drop after the bend just here, so slow down to avoid crashing into the right wall. Chess Board - It would have been cool if they'd used a proper chess position for the pieces, but they didn't. There's not even a white king on the board. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Driving Tips 4.1 Turbo Start If you have the engine revs at just the right level at the start, you'll get an instant kick of speed off the start line. You have to hold the acceleration button down a fraction of a second after the yellow light comes on to get it. This does NOT work in Grand Prix mode. 4.2 Shunting If you are driving a Grand Prix race and have lost speed, steer into the path of any chasing cars so that you collide (use the rear view to spot them). This can shunt you up to the same speed as the chasing car instantly. If you are driving the Penguin car, do this right at the start of any race and you can reach top speed before the first corner on any track. Shunting is most effective on the 'hard' difficulty setting, because this has the fastest computer cars. 4.3 Slipstreaming In Grand Prix mode, positioning your car just behind any other will speed your car up significantly. This can make a big difference to race times, as it allows cars to exceed their usual maximum speed and acceleration. This technique is essential when driving the Penguin or Raptor cars. 4.4 Using the walls Unlike other racing games, colliding with track walls does not necessarily slow you down. Depending on the angle of your collision, you either bounce back to a dead halt, or bounce off without slowing down. This can help on tight corners as you can afford to brush the inside or outside of the bend as you go round. In general, if the back end of the car hits the wall rather than the front, you should be OK. On the two ice tracks, this can be used to significant advantage, due to the amount of sliding that goes on. The right contact with the walls can actually speed your car up! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2000 by Jonathan Weeks. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.