The track pack of course contains a CD-ROM. The package also contains 'Track Guide & Manual' book. Within this manual you can find information on all existing and new Tracks. This information contains a short history of the track, a short setup guide and a more detailed hotlap guide.
You need Windows 95 to install the Package. The installation itself is easy. Just put the CD-ROM into the drive and the pack will install itself. Funny though that you have to select twice the location of the GP2 directory. But that's just a detail.
When finished, you'll find three icons in the Perfect Grand Prix menu:
- Install Internet Explorer and register (comes with the CD-ROM)
- Install Car Setups
- Perfect Grand Prix Editor
With this option you can install so called TSU files into your GPSAVES directory of GP2, which contain setups for all circuits. There are setups for Joystick, Wheel and Keyboard controllers.
| Perfect Grand Prix Editor |
Now this is probably what most of you have been waiting for. :-)
I won't bore you with an extensive review, I will just mention the options and point out the items I haven't seen before yet.
There are 15 options to choose from:
- Names & Numbers
With this option you can change the names and number of the teams.
- Engine Power
Here you can change the engine powers for all teams for both Qualification and the other sessions.
- CC Grip
CC Grip allows you to change the grip of all individual drivers.
- Car Failure
Here you can determine the Car Failure probability for each Team-Engine combination.
- Car Tuning
With Car Tuning you can change the weight of the players car (no BHP changes though).
What's new is the possibility to change the color of the rev lights (original cockpit only) and to let the player's car performance depend on the the selected team. This seems nice to me. :-)
- Nose Cones
Change the noses of the teams into raised or lowered ones.
- Pit Lane Settings
Change the pit order and pit lane maximum speed
- Cockpit Colours
Self explanatory. :-)
- Pit Crew Colours
This is obvious too.
- Car Jams
Here you can change the looks of the cars. Its weird though that you have to load each JAM file before you can have a look at what the car looks like.
- Helmets
Here you can change the ingame helmets.
- Cameras
This option allows you to change the 9 camera positions around the car. A screenshot shows the default position after which you can change the X,Y,Z axis and the image tuning.
- Track Editor
Obviously not the right name...
With this you can not change the Tracks themselves, only some items related to the Tracks. These items are the setup of the car (Wings and Gearbox only), the Fuel consumption, the Tyre consumption and the Tyre type (A,B,C or D).
- Cockpit Manager
The cockpit manager allows you to install the 1997 cockpits used by all teams. (Both SVGA and VGA). What's lacking here though is the possibility to take a look at the cockpits within the editor: That's is not possible.
What do they look like? Well, I guess it's just a matter of taste, but I don't like them that much. It's nice to see that there are now realistic cockpits available for all teams, but in my humble opinion they are not perfect.....
- Track Manager
The item most of us have been waiting for. :-)
First of all: more attention could have been payed to this option as well. It only allows you to install ALL new tracks or none of them. It's not possible for instance to only pick one track and install it.
After you installed all tracks, the names of the Tracks are included in the Tracks Selection menu of GP2. This is a nice feature which makes it very easy to select a new track.
Being Dutch, I of course tried the Dutch track Zandvoort right after I installed the set. The track was perfect regarding the turns etc, but it was totally flat....while the real track has elevations all over the place.
I tried some other tracks as well and they seemed ok to me (they weren't flat), although I encountered a few minor bugs: Every time I crossed the finish line, my car bumped. And on all the tracks I viewed there were problems with the pit entry. Maybe it's technically not possible yet to get that right.
There aren't much track objects alongside the tracks, but as explained in the readme this is done intentionally to make sure "you are capable of running in much higher detail than with the original tracks".
To be honest: I have mixed feelings......
Although the Installation is easy, there is no documentation at all. No explanation on how to use the Editor, nothing. But I guess that's something we can live with
The Editor isn't exactly what I had been expecting. Apart from the very few extra options I hadn't seen before, Steven Young's GP2 Edit has a lot more to offer.
What's really disappointing is that the Track Editor itself is not included on the CD-ROM....
Maybe it's because they have plans to release more CD's, or because they didn't had the time to create a nice interface, all I know is that such an editor alone would have been worth the money and would really have been an asset to the GP2 Utils list.
And the Tracks? They are nice and probably the only thing that makes it really worth to buy the package yourself too....
For questions and or support, please contact:
Instant Access International Ltd.
The Technology Park
Colindeep Lane
London
England
NW9 6DU
Telephone: +44 (181) 358-6636
Fax: +44 (181) 200-9882
email: tech.support@instantaccess.com
Web: http://www.instantaccess.com
Instant Access Track Pack & Game Editor
A comprehensive Windows-based editor for Microprose Grand Prix 2, that allows you to change grip levels, engine power, car weights, pit lane positions and speed limits, camera positions, likelihood of car failure, split-time information
22 new car cockpits (11 SVGA and 11 VGA) that replicas of those on the 1997 grid.
Pre-defined set-ups for joysticks, keyboard and wheel and pedal controllers.
10 new and updated tracks from around the world that allow you to bring Grand Prix 2 right up to date for the
1997 season. If that isn't what you want, try one of the other 4 tracks included.
Race at any of the following tracks:
- Albert Park (Australian Grand Prix 1996-1997 layout)
- Circuit Oscar Galvez (Argentinean Grand Prix 1995-1997 layout)
- Nurburgring (Luxembourg/European Grand Prix 1995-1997 layout)
- Zeltweg (Austrian Grand Prix 1997 layout)
- revised Silverstone (British Grand Prix 1997 layout)
- revised Imola (San Marino Grand Prix 1995-1997 layout)
- Paul Ricard
- Donnington Park
- Brands Hatch
- Zandvoort
Detailed track guides for the both original Grand Prix 2 circuits and the new circuits included with this product.
You can download a demo of the Track Pack:
"Perfect Grand Prix - Track Pack and Game Editor" Demo is now available with one track and one cockpit.
Click here to download the demo from the Instant Access site, or here to get it from the Mirror site. (Filesize=1,358,848 bytes) (This demo requires Windows 95).
System Requirements
- PC CD-ROM IBM PC and 100% Compatible (PC 486/66MHz or higher.)
- Windows 95 - 16Mb RAM required (This program will not run on Windows 3.1)
- VGA or SVGA and 2-speed CD-ROM or faster required.
- Microsoft Mouse or compatible
Copyright Instant Access International distributors
Recently Instant Access also introduced a patch which will fix a few bugs in the Editor.
They are working on a patch for the tracks as well, but this will take a little longer.
You can download the patch for the editor from:
http://www.instantaccess.com/products.dir/pgptrack.dir/pgppatch.exe
