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Game play overview



You will use the mouse,joystick or keyboard to accelerate, shift gears and lean into and out of curves.
Additionally, you can get system status updates such as speed, fuel remaining, and rpm from the keyboard.
In single player mode, you will be racing against an artificially intelligent racer named Art.
Depending on the level of difficulty, you will earn from 1000 to 10000 dollars for each race won.
Additionally, the game features an extremely easy interface for racing your friends online, where you can gamble your racer's money if you like against your opponents.

The Menus


When you first start the game you will be in the main menu. Use the arrow up and down keys to change menu selections, then hit return to select a menu.
You can also use the following shortcut keys to jump to the appropriate menu.

You can use the escape key at any time to return to the main menu
Start new race will do the obvious.
Continue current race will let you jump back into a paused race.
Select difficulty will allow you to choose from 4 difficulty settings.
The settings are as follows:
Me go fast one day.
Push faster daddy!
Catch me if you can
Rail Racer Pro
You will earn more money for a win against higher difficulty levels.
If you can beat the game at Rail Racer Pro, you are definately a Rail Racer Master.
Choose game type will allow you to choose between 3 types of races.
Race 5 laps.
Race 10 laps.
Tag race.
Tag race is a style of racing where you and the computer opponent take turns being "It" and attempting to catch the other racer.
I refer to the computer racer as Art, short for Artificial Intelligence. If you are it and catch Art, you get one point.
If Art catches you when he is it, he gets a point.
If you manage to outrun Art for 3 laps when he is after you, you get a point.
After a point is awarded, the role of "It" is switched and a new chase starts.
The first racer to get 5 points wins the match.
Again, the harder the difficulty, the more money you earn for a victory.

game Options will allow you to choose your game settings.
The first item in options is control options
You can set your input device to keyboard, joystick, or mouse controls.
Additionally, you can select how you wish to engage your jump jets, using either the spacebar or middle mouse button.
Change distance reporting mode will change the way distance is reported between you and your opponent between time and actual distance.
Calibrate mouse will allow you to adjust the sensitivity of your mouse.
When you select this item, you can move your mouse left and right to get a feel for how far you need to move the mouse to lean.
Use the D key to check the current lean angle.
By using the D key, you can practice leaning and get a feel for how much to move the mouse.
Use the r key to reset your lean angle to 0.
To adjust the mouse sensitivity, use the arrow keys, the higher the number, the more sensitive the mouse is to input.
The last item in control options is one handed mode
One handed mode will allow you to control the game with one hand.
In this mode, some of the key mappings are changed
N will activate nitros
M will activate the gravity puller
P will put in a pitting command
The spacebar will activate the jump jets
To get feedback from the game in one handed mode, you switch to feedback mode by pressing the H key
Once the h key is pressed, the following keys give feedback:
I Speed
K Fuel
J Lean angle
L Gives distance between yourself and your opponent
U Altitude
O RPM
Here is an example of using this system:
You are accelerating with the I key, and you need to check speed
Press the H key to go to feedback mode
Press I once to read the speed
Press h again to return to control mode
With some practice, this will become second nature.

The next menu in options is voice options
Here you can select your Sapi voice, and adjust voice rate and volume.
Turn on or off web posting will allow times and career money to be posted to the web after each race
Backup player settings to the web will allow you to save your settings in case your computer dies
Also if you install a patch for the game later on, you will need to back up your settings because you have to delete the config.xml file which contains your racer information in your Rail Racer directory for the patches to work
Retrieve player settings from the web will allow you to get these settings back
The next menu item is Enter shop which will allow you to purchase various items and upgrades for your racer.
Nitro cells cost $500 each, and give you a dramatic boost in acceleration during a race. Note that nitro will not boost your top speed, additionally you must be going at least 150 Miles per hour to activate nitros.
Extra Nitro ports can be purchased as well.
You can purchase up to 5 nitro ports for your racer.
The more ports you have, the more nitros you can use in a race.
upgrade racer will allow you to purchase items to boost the performance of your racer.
Note that these upgrades are class dependant, so you must be at least class 3 to purchase the supercharger for example.
The Supercharger will give you an overall boost in acceleration and speed. You can only have one supercharger installed in your racer.
Once the supercharger is installed it will always be active for class 3 and higher tracks.
The gravity puller will allow you to pull your racer back down to the track quickly after a jump, this is activated by holding down the v key.
The 6 speed transmission will give you another gear, and therefore more top speed.
The Extra fuel tank will increase your racers range in a race
The next menu item is enter garage, where you can make adjustments to your racer depending on which track you are racing.
Adjust gear ratios will allow you to change the gear ratio of your transmission
The higher the gear ratio, the higher the top speed, but the lower the acceleration.
Conversely, the lower the gear ratio the lower the top speed, but faster the acceleration
If you are on a very tight track for example, you will want to lower the gear ratio a bit to get better acceleration
You will have to play around with the gear settings to see what works best on which track
Adjust wing angle allows you to adjust how sensitve your racer is to input in the curves
The higher the wing angle, the easier it is to accurately take curves, but the lower your top speed.
When you first start playing the game, you will want to raise the wing angle until you get used to the curves
When you get good at taking the curves, you should leave the wing angle at 2 degrees for best performance.

Our next menu item is enter multiplayer mode
In this mode, you can join your friends and race against them online
In this menu you can either join an existing game, or create a new one
Note that you can only race on tracks that are rated at your class rank and lower
The last menu item is quit game. Back to the regular old slow boring world.
To bring up the main menu from the game and pause the action, hit the escape key during a race.

Controlling your racer


Mouse control


To accelerate, push the mouse forward.
Depending on how sensitive your mouse is set in your control panel and mouse calibration settings in the game, you may have to push the mouse several inches for maximum throttle.
To shift gears, use the mouse buttons.
The left button shifts down one gear, while the right button shifts up.
Note that your RPM must be below 8000 before you can shift down
There are a total of five gears.
If you need to downshift to first gear rapidly, for instance after a crash, you can simply hold the left mouse button down for a couple of seconds.
To maximize your acceleration try to shift up just as your engine reaches maximum RPM. This is something you can check with the R key, but after a while you will be able to hear when your engine is wound out.
Likewise, shift down if your RPM's drop below 8000 or so.

Keyboard control


The I and K keys will accelerate and deccelerate respectively.
The J and L keys will lean your racer left and right.
The U and O keys will shift gears

Joystick control

Using a steering wheel or joystick, pushing forward or holding down the accelerator pedal will accelerate your racer.
Like wise leaning left and right is controlled by either moving your joystick left and right, or turning your steering wheel.
Various system keys, including shifting are mapped to the first 8 buttons of the joystick.
Additionally, you can change the default joystick buttons in the game settings menu.

Taking curves

As you race down the rail, you will hear a beep on either your left or right. This beep indicates that a curve is going to start in two seconds, and also indicates which side the curve will be turning.
When you reach the start of the curve, you will hear a tone that increases in pitch as you move towards the middle of the curve.
This tone indicates how much you should be leaning the racer.
After you reach the middle of the curve, the tone will decrease in pitch until you exit the curve.
All curves have a maximum perfect lean that is exactly half of the curve angle.
Don't worry, this isn't as complicated as it sounds.
Say for example you are entering a curve that is 90 degrees to the right. When you enter the curve you will be at zero degrees of lean. As the pitch increases, you will lean your racer further and further over to the right.
If you do this perfectly, you will be at 45 degrees of lean when the pitch is at its maximum value, indicating the middle of the curve.
As the pitch decreases, you will gradually straighten your lean up, and if you were to do this perfectly, you would be at zero degrees of lean just as you exit the curve.
The more accurately you do this, the faster you will traverse the curve.
Your drive wheels automatically disengage when you enter a curve, so even if you take the curve perfectly, you will lose some speed while in the curve.
However, if your lean isn't fairly accurate, you will lose much more speed.
Additionally, if you lean more than 10 degrees off the perfect amount, you will scrape against the sides of the curve, dropping your speed even more, and if you are racing at the higher difficulty levels, this will cause damage to your racer.
Taking curves smoothly and accurately is a key component to fast lap times in Rail Racer, and after some practice it will become second nature.

Jumps


Your rail racer is equipped with jump jets that allow you to jump your racer over hurdles in the track.
A hurdle will be indicated by a boop sound two seconds before you reach the hurdle.
Hold down the spacebar to jump over the hurdle.
Your altitude will increase by 64 feet per second as long as the jets are activated.
Just as with the curves, you drive wheels are not propelling you forward during a jump, so you want to jump just enough to clear the hurdle so you will come back down on the rail and keep accelerating.
On the other hand, if you don't get high enough to clear the hurdle, you will crash, and this is bad.
If you have the gravity puller installed, you can use it to bring your racer back down to the track quickly after a jump.
To use the gravity puller, simply hold down the v key.
Properly timing your jumps is something that comes with practice, and I reccomend using the "a" key to check your altitude as you get the hang of it.

Loops


You will hear a brief rising and falling tone 2 seconds before a loop.
Your racer will deccelerate during the first part of the loop, and gravity will accelerate your racer through the second half.
Properly taking a loop takes quick and accurate shifting to maintain a high RPM.
This is something that will become second nature with practice.

Force Shields

Force shields are designed to slow you down.
If you are going over 150 MPH when you enter the force shield, you will immediately be stopped.
You want to wait until the last possible moment to start decelerrating, and slow down just below 150 MPH before the shield.
Again, this is something that will come with practice.

Nitro

If you have purchased nitros in the shop, you can activate one of your nitros for a boost in acceleration with the z key.
The number of nitros you have abailable to use in a race depends on how many nitros you have in your inventory, as well as how many nitro ports you have installed.
For instance, if you have 10 nitros in inventory and 5 ports, you will have 5 nitros available to use. If you only have 3 ports, you will only have 3 nitros to burn and so forth.
I reccomend using nitros only when you are behind and need to catch up, as nitros are fairly expensive.
you must be going at least 150 Miles per hour to activate a nitro boost

Checking your Racer status


Using the keyboard, you can get feedback on your racer's status.
Following is a list of keyboard status keys:
All of these keys are reached without having to move your keyboard hand.
Aditionally, the N key will tell you how many nitros you have left, and the M key will indicate how much money is in your account. These keys work in the menus as well.
Please note these keys are different if you are in one handed mode
The following keys are active during a race:
The up and down arrow keys will allow you to adjust the speed of the voice.
The left and right arrow keys will raise and lower the volume of your engine.

Function keys


The F2 key will turn on and off lean panning, which will indicate your lean by panning a sound left to right.
The f3 function key will turn on and off gear indications, so each time you shift, it will speak the current gear.
The f4 function key will turn on track help, which will tell you the upcoming curve angle as well as the upcoming jump height. This is turned on by default, but once you get used to a track it is more efficient to turn this off.
Shift F4 will turn on speech for turns, so you will be told if the upcoming turn is right or left.

Pitting

If your fuel level gets below 300, the pit boss will let you know.
To enter the pits on the next lap, hit the X key.
At the beginning of the next lap, you will enter the pits and be refueled automatically.
Once you stop in the pits, use the left and right arrow keys to take on fuel. Each arrow key press will add 50 pounds of fuel to your racer, so you can take on just enough fuel to finish the race, without wasting time getting a full load of fuel.
If you fill the tank with the arrow keys, you will automatically leave the pits with a full tank of gas.
You can add nitros to your racer if you have open nitro ports and nitros in your inventory as well.
Each press of the up key will add a nitro, note that it takes a full second to load a nitro
If you max out your fuel, your racer will leave the pits automatically, or you can hit the enter key to leave manually

Lap Info


Each time you complete a lap, the system will tell you your lap time and lap number.
The same goes for Art's laps.
To check what lap you are on, hit the q key.


Sound Replacement

I have left the sounds folder open, so racers can replace any of the sounds in the game with their own.
Make sure you use the exact same name for te sound you replace and that it is recorded in .wav format
I reccomend you backup your sounds directory before modifying these files.

Making a career of it


You earn money for winning races, as you earn more money you will move up in class ranking, which will allow you to purchase higher level upgrades to your racer
Also, as you move up in class you will open up more and more tracks of harder difficulty
For example, to get to class 2, you must have at least $50,000 in your account
Here are the class breakdowns:
class 2 50000
class 3 100000
class 4 200000
class 5 300000
Class 6 400000
Class 7 500000
Class 8 600000
Class 9 700000
Class 10 800000
Class 11 1 million
Class 12 1.2 milyan
Class 13 1.5 milyan
Class 14 1.8 milyan
Class 15 2.2 milyan
Right now, this is as far as the classes go, but if needed I can introduce more classes to the game in future releases.
The higher the class ranking of the track, the more money you earn for winning
Note that the lower track classses will automatically turn off some of your upgrades, for example you cannot use a supercharger on a class 1 track
Additionally, you will be able to post your fastest lap and course times to a online board to see how you compare to the other Rail Racers out there.
You can also add to your bank account by betting money against your friends online, if you beat your opponent in the race, you will win whatever money you bet

Playing winAmp during a race


Using the f5 through f8 function keys, you can control winAmp as you race, so you can listen to your favorite tunes while you kick your friend's butt.
You will need to have winAmp running before starting the game, with a playlist loaded with songs you want to listen to.
The keys work as follows:
f5 decrease volume
f6 increase volume
f7 Pause
f8 Play
shift f7 previous track
shift f8 next track

Multi Player Mode


Rail Racer has an extensive multi player component, allowing up to 20 players to race against each other at once.
Once you are in the multi player menu, you can choose to just shoot the breeze in the chat lounge if you wish.
To check what games have players, and join one of them, select "Join existing game"
Once you select a game to join and hit return, you will be taken into the chat room for that track, where you can text to the other players in the room.
To get a list of players in the room press the right arrow key.
You can place bets against your friends as well here, simply hit enter on the name you wish to bet against, then use the up and down arrows to select the amount you wish to bet.
your opponent can accept this bet with the up arrow key or decline it with the down arrow key.
Once the race is over, the player that finishes with the fastest time wins the bet, and that money is added to their account.
Once the race is over, you will be returned to the chat room for that track, and once everyone has finished, the results will be posted.
To review the results, press f3
You can hang around and chat, or you can start a new race when everyone is ready, or hit escape to return to the multi player menu.
It is good manners to type starting in five before starting a race, in case someone wants to place a last minute bet or they just aren't ready to race yet. Once you type this, if no one says anything simply press the right shift key and f4 after five seconds have passed to start the race.
To create your own game, simply select "Create new race"
Select the track you want to race and hit return.
This will create the game and take you into the chat room for the track you selected.
Once you have some players to race against, hit right shift f4 and the race will begin.

Multi Player keyboard controls

In the chat room you can get feedback with the following keys:
/n followed by enter will give current nitro info
/m followed by enter will tell you your current money
f5 Will read your current gear ratio to you
Shift f5 will take you to the garage so you can make adjustments to your racer
The up arrow key will put you in chat review mode, where you can press up and down to review the latest 10 messages
Pres the left arrow to leave review mode
The following commands are active during the actual race:
By holding down the left shift key and pressing the gear shift up and down you can get your current rank and distance from the racer behind you and ahead of you respectively.
Additionally there are multi player feedback keys on the numeric keypad.
The numpad 5 key will tell you your current position in the race.
Numpad 4 will give you the distance between yourself and the racer behind you.
Numpad 6 will give the distance between you and the racer ahead of you.
The numpad 1, 2, and 3 keys will tell you who is currently in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
When you are passed by another racer, you will hear a passing sound , likewise you will hear a sound indicating you are being passed when you lose position
When a position change takes place involving your racer, your new rank will be read to you.

Mouse tips


I realize that using the mouse is a new concept to mose accessible gamers.
I personally prefer using the mouse to race with, because it gives you more subtle control than the keyboard, and you feel more like you are actually controlling a racing machine instead of hitting buttons and hoping for the best.
If you have never used a mouse before, never fear, it is actually quite easy, and will feel like an extension of your hand after a little practice.
The proper way to hold the mouse is to plant your wrist in one place on your desktop, and rotate your hand left and right to steer your racer. This way, you will get a feel for just how far you need to move your hand to achieve the desired angle in the curves. If you need to move the mouse further than you have desktop space, simply lift the mouse up using your thumb, shift the mouse over, and set it back down, then continue your move.
After a little practice, you won't have to do this much, as with a proper setup, even the longest curve can be taken with no more than 4 inches of mouse movement.
Keep in mind, if you aren't in a curve, you can move the mouse without leaning, so after a curve, if you need to reset the position of your mouse, go ahead and move it, no problem.
Be careful that you don't pull the mouse backwards as you turn, or you will decellerate the racer, and this is bad.
I think with time, you will come to really enjoy using the mouse to race, and I plan on featuring the mouse as a control option in my future games.

Racing tips


Here are some tips to help lower your lap times and make Art eat your dust.
Timing your shifts is very important. You ideally want to shift up just as your engine reaches 10000 RPM. Any sooner and you aren't getting all of the acceleration you could be getting.
Any later, and you are just cruising at your current speed at 10000 RPM.
Your RPM can be checked at any time with the R key.
practice your jumps with the spacebar to get a feel of how long it takes to jump different distances. As soon as you release the spacebar, hit the A key to get your altitude.
Accurately jumping is a very important skill in Rail Racer.
Likewise, check your lean angle in the curves with the D key.
If you turn on track help with the f4 key, you will know the curve angle of the upcoming curve. Your lean should ideally be half this number in the middle of the curve.
With practice, you will know exactly how far to move your mouse to get the desired angle.
Rail Racer is an intense game, and it takes precise timing and smooth hands to turn good lap times.
The game is very challenging, especially at the Rail Racer pro level, but with practice, you will have Art crying in the pits in no time.

Track editor


Rail racer includes a track editor to allow you to create and race your own creations.
If your track is a good one, email it to me and I will check it out.
If it is a fun race, I will include your track in the game and allow everyone to race it for money.
Check below for my email address
Click here for track editor instructions:

Track editor instructions



Back to Rail Racer page

Contact info

Your suggestions, questions and comments are welcome, please email me at Che@blindadrenaline.com and I will most definately read and respond to you as soon as possible. If you have an idea that would make the game better, feel free to send it on. Additionally, please send all tracks to this email with a brief description


Copyright 2007 Blind Adrenaline Simulations