Indianapolis 500: The Simulation ********* IMPORTANT: If you are having trouble running Indy with later versions of windows, do a google search on the program "DOSbox" It works wonders. ********* Version 5 -------------- NOTE: You can distribute this document freely, but it MUST remain unchanged. If you have anything you want to add, email it to me and I will put it on. This document is (c) Elliott Mahler (KoD e946) 2002- 2005, and may not be changed by anyone by myself. -------------- Indianapolis 500: The Simulation is a game for DOS made in 1989 by Papyrus Design Group, and later re-released on CD. For its time, this game was revolutionary. It was one of the first to handle the car settings well, and to have different replay angles, and the like. For being 1y years old, this is a surprisingly good game. Contents 1.0 Things to know while reading 2.0 The settings screens 3.0 Designing your own car 4.0 Prefab cars 5.0 Advice for races 5.1 Short races 5.1.1 10 lap Race 5.1.2 30 lap Race 5.2 Long races 5.2.1 60 lap race 5.2.2 200 lap race 6.0 Answer table 7.0 Driving tips 8.0 Contact info. 9.0 Version history ______________________________________________________________________ 1.0 Things to know while reading Many times in this guide, I use abbreviations and lingo, like.... LF=Left Front tire LR=Left Rear tire RF=Right Front tire RR=Right Rear tire "Loose"= The car overreacts to turns. The back end slides around, pointing the car to the inside of the track. "Tight"= The car does not want to turn. you have to wrestle with it, and, in general, it slows you down out of fear of hitting the wall. Making a car tighter or looser isn't necessarily bad. If your car is loose, the goal is to make it tighter, and vice versa. It's important to note that tire pressures rise over the first few laps of practice runs, due to increasing temperature. The pressures I provide are the STARTING pressures, not the pressures during race time. ______________________________________________________________________ 2.0 The settings screens The various screens for settings can get confusing. What does raising the RF shock do? What does changing the diameter difference do? I'm here to help. This section will take a look at each of the settings, from F1 to F10, and how to use them. IMPORTANT: Each of the settings found from F3 to F7, while they can be changed at ANY TIME during practice, they can only be changed while you are STOPPED IN YOUR PIT during qualifying and race time. F8, F9, and F10 CANNOT BE CHANGED during qualifying and racing. Ever. The F1 screen is different from the others in the fact that it changes depending on what mode you're in. ------ F1: Lap Info: Practice mode ------ -Down the center of the screen, there are three times. -'BEST' displays the best time you've made since you loaded the game. -'LAST' displays the previous lap's time. -'CURR' displays your current lap time. -To the right of BEST and LAST are speeds, which reflect the times next to them. -To the right of CURR is the amount of laps you've gone since you last pit. ------ F1: Lap Info: Qualify ------ This is quite similar to the Practice screen, except for two differences. -First: In the place of BEST is AVG, which represents your average time for the four qualifying laps. -Second: LAP represents which qualifying lap you are on. ------ F1: Lap Info: Race ------ This one is quite different from the other two. -Down the center, in order: -The first, LAP, represents what lap of the race you are on. -LAST represents your previous lap time. -Below LAST, there is a picture of a car, then a time. The car pictured is the car you would have to pass next to gain a position. The time next to it is how many seconds you are behind that car. -To the right of LAP, there is text that either says LEAD LAP, or (number) DOWN. This represents what lap you are on in relation to the leader. 1 DOWN means the leader has completed two more than you, 2 DOWN means the leader has completed two more laps than you, etc. -Below this is the average speed you completed your previous lap at. -Below this is POS (number), which represents what place you are in. ------ F2: Standings ------ This is, as the name suggests, the standings. This is a list representing what position each of the cars in the race is in. When you originally press F2, the screen will show you the car in front of you, your car, and the car behind you. Your team number is 17. -In the center on the left is the position. -In the center on the right is the team number. -To the right of the position and team number is a picture of the car. -To the right of this is how many seconds/laps behind the leader the pictured car is. OR, if the car is no longer in the race, the reason is shown here. (I.E. Crash, Gearbox, Ignition) -Pressing < will move the view higher up in the standings -Pressing > will move your view lower in the standings ------ F3: Fuel ------ This shows how much fuel you have left, among other things. -GAL LEFT shows you how many gallons of fuel you have left. -FILL TO shows how much fuel you will load up on the next time you pit. -MILEAGE and PROJ LAPS kind of work together. MILEAGE shows you how many Miles Per Gallon you are getting(anything above 2 is good), and PROJ LAPS shows how many more laps you will be able to race, assuming the fuel mileage stays the same. ------ F4: Wings ------ This section determines the size of the front and rear wings, and, thus, how much downforce your car gets. In general, moving markers upward will increase fuel mileage and speed, but will make handling worse. -This entire screen shows a picture of your car, and there are dashed lines on either side. Press < to move the markers up, and > to move the markers down. Press SPACE to switch between the front and back. -The marker on the left represents your front wing. Moving this UPWARD will make your car tighter, while moving it DOWNWARD will make your care more loose. -The marker on the right represents your rear wing. Moving the marker UPWARD will make your car looser, while moving it DOWNWARD will make your car tighter. ------ F5: Rubber ------ This section determines how hard or soft your tires are for the selected tire. You can move from one tire to the next by pressing SPACE. In general, hard tires last longer, but provide less grip. Soft tires provide great grip, but don't last very long. -The center of the screen shows picture of your car. Next to the car, the currently selected tire and its temperature are shown. -On the right, the compound of the currently selected tire is shown. -Press < and > to change the compound. ------ F6: Stagger ------ The stagger is the difference in size between the RR and the LR tires. -The center of the screen shows the rear of your car, and gives an exaggerated representation of the difference in the tire sizes. -This is pretty straightforward. The numbers by NOW and SET TO represent the actual difference. Pressing < subtracts .1 inch, and pressing > adds .1 inch. -A positive number means that the left tire is smaller than the right, and vice versa. -The higher into the positive numbers you set the car, the better it will turn in the corners. However, good turning comes at the price of bad handling in the straight areas. ------ F7: Pressures ------ This determines the PSI inside of the selected tire. You can rotate between the selected tire by pressing SPACE. -In the center if this screen is a picture of your car. Next to it is the currently selected tire, and its current PSI. -To the right, are the letters I, M, and O in a column, with number next to each. -The number next to I represents the temperature on the part of the surface of the tire that is closest to the car. -The number next to M represents the temperature on the middle of the surface of the tire. -The number next to O represents the temperature on the part of the surface of the tire that is furthest from the car. -In general increasing the PSI of any given tire will increase its M temperature, and lower the I and O temperatures. ------ F8: Shocks ------ This sets the stiffness of the shock absorber for the selected tire. Again, you can move from tire to tire by pressing SPACE. -In the center is the usual picture of the car, and next to it, the currently selected tire. -On the right is the setting for the shock absorber for the currently selected tire. -Pressing < will make the current shock firmer, and pressing > will make the current shock softer. -In general, making the rear shocks firmer will make the car looser, and making them softer will make the car tighter. -Conversely, making the front shocks firmer will make the car tighter, and making them softer will make the car looser. ------ F9: Cambers ------ When down force is applied to the car, the car is pushed down, and the wheels tip inward a little bit. Because of this, the inside of the wheel receives more wear than the other parts of the tire. The camber counteracts this, by angling the wheels so that they will lie flat on the ground when down force is applied. However, you must also counteract the effect of sliding to the right in the turns, so it's not that simple. -On the screen, you are shown the usual picture of the car, the currently selected tire, and a line representing the current camber setting. As usual, you can press SPACE to move from tire to tire. -On the right is the exact same temperature screen seen in F7. In fact, they both display the exact same temperatures. -Pressing < will tilt the tire to YOUR right, while pressing > will tilt the tire to your left. -In general, tilting a tire towards the inside of the car makes the I temperature increase, and the O temperature decrease. ------ F10: Gears ------ -This area is pretty straightforward. You are shown the gear sizes for each of your 4 gears. Pressing > will increase them, and pressing < will decrease them. You do not need to switch between anything, because the gears change together when you press < or >. -In general, higher gear settings will make the car accelerate faster, but theRPMS will be higher, gas mileage will be lower, and, after a point, your max speed is limited. If it is TOO high, you risk engine failure. Lower gear ratios mean better gas mileage, less RPMs, higher max speeds, but lower acceleration. ------ Roll Bars ------ The roll bars are not found in any of the F screens. These are on the lower left of the dash board. The roll bars work like shocks, only you can change them during a race. -The right roll bar can be pushed forward by pressing ], and can be pushed backwards by pressing [. In general, pushing this FORWARD makes the car more loose, and pulling it BACK will make the car tighter. -The left roll bar can be pushed forward by pressing =, and can be pulled backwards by pressing -(the dash key). Pushing this FORWARD makes the car tighter, and pulling it BACK makes the car more loose. -This, unlike the other settings, can be changed at any time during a race. It is to your advantage to use them. ------ Turbo ------ -This setting is also found on the dashboard of the car on the left- hand side. This is also straightforward. Pressing the keys 1 through 9 will set the turbo to whichever key you choose. -The turbo determines how much gas is used in the gas/air mix that is used in the engine. The higher the setting, the more gas you use, and the more speed you get. However, the higher you set it, the worse your gas mileage is, and the hotter your engine runs. ______________________________________________________________________ 3.0 Designing your own car Now that you have a better idea of what each setting does, you can more easily design your own cars. Just go through each step in order. You may have to repeat the process multiple times. An important note is that while they may look very different, the yellow and blue cars handle very much the same. A good setup on one of them will easily transfer over to the other. This is not true wih the red car. ---------- 1. Run a few laps around the track under practice and get a feel for the car. Figure out what its main problems are and what your goal is. ---------- 2. Set the anti-roll bars equal, and put them in the middle of their range of motion. This will come in useful later. ---------- 3. Work with the gear ratios to find one that works well for your goals. If you're going for a long race, set them lower. If you're just looking for some speed in a short race, set them higher. ---------- 4. Change the wings. Generally, you'll want the front and back to be equal. Remember, raising them will speed you up but will make your car more unstable and difficult to control. ---------- 5 / 6. Work with the cambers and tire pressures. This is an EXTREMELY important step. It increases your speed, grip, AND tire durability. You want the temperatures on all three areas of the tire to be equal. I suggest doing cambers first, to make the I and O temperatures equal, then, once those two are equal, use the pressures to make the middle of the tire match the other two. Do this one tire at a time until they are perfect(One of the temperatures being 1 off the others is okay) Please note that, although each change DOES have an affect, it may take a lap or two for it to become noticeable. This is the longest step, so don't worry if it takes you a while. it's worth it. Once you're finished, go to the tire composition screen. Generally, the left two tires should be soft and the right two should be medium. There are exceptions, though. A good rule to remember is, if the temperatures for a tire are less than 200, decrease the hardness, and if the temperature is greater than 300, increase the hardness. Once you've changed the composition, go back to the cambers/tire pressures to make sure nothing has changed. ---------- 7. Set the stagger. This is one of the biggest deciders in how your car turns. I don't suggest having it more than 3 or so. Set is as low as you can handle comfortably. ---------- 8. The shocks are your next goal. Use these to fine-tune the handling of your car. The shocks are your main tool for changing the handling of the car. You cannot change these during the race, so make sure you get it right now. Effects from changes will not be extremely obvious when you don't have a lot of downforce, so make sure you pay attention. Anther point to remember is that if the shocks of any given tire are stiffer than the average of all the tires, that tire will wear faster than the rest. For this reason, set the left shocks stiffer than the right ones so that your LF tire, which you probably won't change once all race, will hopefully take some of the wear off the RF tire. ---------- 9. it's important to note that all of these settings affect each other, so changing your shockks may have an effect on your tire temperatures, etc. Your second run though the process should take much less time.. ---------- 10. After you're sure the car is to your liking, get a feel of how the roll bars affect your car. You don't need to change them now, but make sure you know what they do. During long races especially, you'll be changing these quite often. ______________________________________________________________________ 4.0 Prefab cars This area contains configuration settings that will get you by. I have tested them, and they all work, but may not be suitable to all people. Fuel and tire laps are how many laps your car will go without changing fuel and tires, respectively. A pit window is 3 or 4 laps where you would most likely want to pit. For now, I only have one car. Car 4 Settings: CAR: Penske/Chevrolet FUEL: 40 WING: Front: 3 from top, Rear: 3 from top RUBBER: RF: Medium, RR: Medium, LR: Soft, LF: Soft STAGGER: +.10 PRESSURES: RF: 26, RR: 24, LR: 24, LF: 26 SHOCKS: RF: Topmost, RR: 3 from top, LR: Bottom-most, LF: 4 from top CAMBERS: RF: -0.25 RR: +0.25 LR: +1.00 LF: +0.75 GEARS (4th): 3.70 TURBO: 9 ANTI-ROLL BARS: LEFT: 3 from front, RIGHT: 4 from front Stats: FUEL LAPS: 35 TIRE LAPS: ~60 ENGINE DURABILITY: Entire race AVG.SPEED: 225MPH COMMENTS: The great thing about this car is how malleable it is. With a few smal changes, this car can be well-suited to run in any type of race. It's a tiny bit loose, but not enough to ______________________________________________________________________ 5.0 Advice for races ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 5.1 Short races If you're new, stick to the short races. They'll be more fun for you. ----------------- 5.1.1 10 lap Race This is a really fun type of race. Because you cannot receive damage, and you can crash anyone without a yellow flag being thrown, you can do some pretty interesting things. For example, qualify somewhere in the low teens, then start a 10-lap race. IMMEDIATELY crash the cars next to you. Most of the time, a huge pileup will occur. If you do it right, you can spin a couple times, then be able to speed up again and drive though the pileup as it's happening, which is really fun. Another fun thing to do is to try to take out every car in the race before the 10 laps are up. If you're going for a serious win, then set your car up for speed. While the car needs to be driveable, you don't need precise handling. ----------------- 5.1.2 30 lap Race This kind of race is a good introduction into long races. There's really not much else to say about it. The same strategies that work for the 10-lap will work here, except you should worry about handling a little more. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 5.2 Long races These are fun, but only for the more advanced. They require a LOT of patience, and a LOT of strategy. IMPORTANT: NEVER BLOCK THE LEADERS IF THEY TRY TO LAP YOU!!! THAT IS A GUARANTEED WAY TO CRASH!!! ----------------- 5.2.1 60 lap race This one is the most fun for me. It provides a challenge, yet isn't too long. It's a MUST that you finish the race on only one pit stop. There are two main ways to do this: The first is to set your car up so that it goes very fast, and has to pit in or around 30 laps. The second is to stretch your fuel out as far as it will go (Like in the 200 lap race), and fill up on less fuel on your second stop, making you faster. I prefer the second way, because stretcng your fuel mileage is much easier than cutting it down to 30 laps, as strange as that may sound. ----------------- 5.2.2 200 lap race This one will take more patience than most people have to spare. It will take you several tries, and TONS of frustration to beat this fir the first time. The most important thing is to stretch your fuel, even at the expense of speed. I have posted above the car that I won with, which is by no means fast. The second most important thing is balance. Make sure your car handles very well, because if it doesn't, you will eventaully end up spinning out or running into somebody. In general, don't worry about leading the race. Try to set yourself up so that you're not losing TOO much time. The best strategy is to use your boost setting to roughly match the leader's speed. Don't worry about outpacing them until near the end. Keep an eye on your fuel. One good trick to stretching your fuel is this: If you have less than two gallons of fuel left as you exit turn 4, pit. If you have two or more, go another lap. There is no disadvantage to doing this, and only advantages (you go much faster when low on fuel). One major advantage of stretching your fuel out is that near the end of the race, you might be able to take on less fuel than normal, which will greatly speed you up. If you're making a pitstop after doing the 2-gallon thing above, only change tires that are half-worn or more. If a tire has 1/3 wear or whatever, leave it on. The computer players have 2 huge weaknesses. First, their pit stops take much, much longer than yours. Second, they have trouble getting through lapped traffic. Keep both of these in mind. ______________________________________________________________________ 6.0 Answer table Before you can enter the main menu and begin racing, you must answer an incredibly hard question about the past winners of the race. Because this is so hard, I have decided to include a table of the cars, thedriver names, and the year of the race. Unfortunately, because I can't really include pictures, you must guess at which I am talking about, but I will try to make it clearer. Here are all the answers in the book, in this order: Year, Driver's last name, AVG speed, Time, Team number, Sponsor, Description 1911, Harroun, 74.59, 6:42:08, 32, None, Looks like a metal trash bin with white wheels. 1913, Goux, 75.93, 6:35:05, 16, None, One person behind the huge steering wheel, other standing behind the car next to him. 1915, DePalma, 89.84, 5:33:55, None, None, Looks like a boat with wheels. 1919, Wilcox, 88.05, 5:40:42, None, None, Car is sitting in front of a brick wall with windows. 1921, Milton, 89.62, 5:34:44, None, None, Looks like a cigar. 1923, Milton, 90.95, 5:29:50, None, None, Scaffolding in background, nothing else. 1925, DePaolo, 101.13, 4:56:39, 12, None, one person in a white suit standing behind the car right by the 12, all white. 1927, Souders, 97.545, 5:07:33, 32, None, Four people in white suits clearly visible behind car. 1929, Keech, 97.585, 5:07:25, None, Simplex(hard to see), A tree off in the distance. 1931, Schneider, 96.629, 5:10:25, 23, (in a black circle) Seal Fast, "winner" written directly below the driver, looks like car is in an open field. 1933, Meyer, 104.162, 4:48:00, 36, None, Two people in the car, car is in the same field as the one listed above. 1935, Petillo, 106.240, 4:42:22, 5, None, Flames painted on coming out of a heart-shaped grill in front. 1937, Shaw, 113.580, 4:24:07, 6, None, Sitting on the track (bricks). 1939, Shaw, 15.035, 4:20:47, 2, None, grandstand in background, the stands are not raised at all. 1946, Robson, 114.820, 4:21:16, 16, None, Car is black. 1948, Rose, 119.814, 4:10:23, 3, None, number is in the far front, car is very shiny. 1950, Parsons, 124.002, (2 or 3):46:55, None, None, Nothing outstanding in this picture. Just hope this guy doesn't show up in the questions. 1952, Ruttman, 128.992, 3:52:41, 98, None, Exhaust pipe leading from the front of the car, near the top, to the rear of the car behind the wheel. 1954, Vukovich, 130.840, 3:49:17, 14, None, Car is a perfect tube. 1956, Flaherty, 128.490, 3:53:28, 8, None, Black stripe down the lower middle, Writing below left rear tire. 1958, Bryan, 133.791, 3:44:13, None, None, White. 1960, Rathmann, 138.767, 3:36:11, 4, None, Looks silver in photo. 1964, Foyt, 147.350, 3:23:35, None, None, Nose bends downwards. 1966, Hill, 144.317, 3:27:52, 24, None, two clearly visible exhaust pipes sticking out back. 1968, Unser, 152.882, 3:16:13, 3, None, Front wheels unusually far back, exposing a long nose. 1970, Unser, 155.749, 3:12:37, 2, None, Last of the 'tube' cars, number 2 is in a square with lightning coming from it on front. 1972, Donohue, 162.962, 3:04:05, 66, None, First of the 'modern' looking cars, still has an old look to it. No central hump. 1974, Rutherford, 158.589, 3:09:10, 3, None, You can tell that the car is yellow. First modern car with a central 'hump' in the car. 1976, Rutherord, 148.725, 1:42:52(this number should be at least an hour and a half higher, so I don't know), 2, cant read it, the side facing you is heavily shadowed. 1978, Unser, 161.363, 3:05:54, 2, cant read it, white stripe running along the side of the central hump 1980, Rutherford, 142.862, 3:29:59.56, 4, Pennzoil, rear wing supported on sides, not in middle 1982, Johncock, 162.029, 3:05:09.14, 20, STP, STP can be seen on the front just above the front wings. 1984, Mears, 163.612, 3:03:21.660, 6, Pennzoil, you can tell that the car is yellow 1986, Rahal, 170.722, 2:55:43:480, 3, Budweiser, not much outstanding here 1988, Mears, 144.809, 3:27:10:204, 5, Pennzoil, black sreipes on all the edges 1989, Fittipaldi, 167.581, 2:59:10.049, 20, Marlboro, it's a Penske car ______________________________________________________________________ 7.0 Driving Tips If you're planning on doing long races, it is to your advantage to practice pitting. One good strategy is to floor it, then slam on the brakes once you get to a certain spot, and slide into your pit. This is tough to get the hang of, though, which is why I suggest that you practice. A joystick makes this game easier in the same way that eyesight makes flying an airplane easier. Every time I play, I start out with a 10-lap race to "warm up" before qualifying and longer races. In long races, it is to your advantage to "short pit". Time your pit so that everybody else stays out for another 10-15 laps. This will make pitting much easier. For shorter races, if you are using the red car, test to see what the highest gear ratio is that will get you past 10 laps without blowing the engine. If you want to change one of your settings during a pit stop, press P just after you stop. You can make your changes without taking up any time! If you see a large block of slow cars up ahead, and you're in your pit window, then pit! You will kill two birds with one stone, both pitting and not having to deal with the large pack. The computer drivers have a very hard time getting around lapped cars. Use this to your advantage. ______________________________________________________________________ 8.0 Contact info. If you wish to reach me for any reason, E-mail me at join.together@gmail.com, and make sure the subject has something to do with this guide so that I know what you're talking about. ______________________________________________________________________ 9.0 Version history October 11, 2006 Version 5 Heavy revision and restructuring. I almost completely rewrote the "how to set up" section. It feels like every time I come back to this, I find errors and repeated phrases and stuff. I also wrote out the section on the 200-lap race. April 17, 2005 Version 4 Damn it's been a long time since I updated this. I finally found a program (DOSbox. Google it.) that runs Indy, so I can finally keep updating. I rewrote nearly EVERYTHING in this update, and added a section on the interface of the game. Enjoy. August 2, 2003 Version 3.5 Went through and cleared up some things, fixed a lot of errors, and added two car setups. My new computer doesn't have the right plug for my joystick, and it has trouble running Indy. So until I find a solution, you won't be seeing many updates. February 19, 2003 Version 3.4 I finished the answer list (finally) and added the 500 race tips. January 1, 2003 Version 3.3 I mostly revised and made things clearer, but added the 60-lap race tips and cancelled the crash paths. July 19, 2002 Version 3.2 Revised a little, added a few comments to the cars, added more answers to the questions. June 26, 2002 Version 3.1 Added to the Driving Tips section, added to the answer table, and added the 30-lap race tips. May 8, 2002 Version 3.0 Mostly revised, added the answer list section and the 10-lap race section. Added the version history. April 13, 2002 Version 2.0 Added the How to Make a Car section, revised a little bit. February 2002 Version 1 Created the document with Driving tips, Prefab cars.