Indy Car Racing - Opposition Drivers

Opposition Drivers

Depending on the circuit, up to thirty-two opponents would be on track alongside one's own car. The majority of these were real IndyCar drivers who had competed in the 1993 CART world series; some additional names were invented based on real drivers to make up numbers at circuits which needed the full set of opponents. The data file for each track specified the number of cars on the grid for races at that track; in many cases, this was less than the maximum number of 33. However, as these files were in .TXT format, they were easy to edit to change the number. For example, every track could be edited to accommodate 33 cars; this allowed every opposition car to compete in every race in a Championship Season, for example.

Opponents could be viewed from the game's main menu by selecting "CARS" then "OTHER DRIVERS". By pressing , the following details of each driver could be scrolled through: driver name, home city, country, car number, chassis and engine. A picture of the car would rotate at the same time.

Menu selection "OPTIONS"/"REALISM"/"OPPONENTS" allowed adjustment of the maximum number of opponents at each track - from none to 32 - and their relative strength. The latter was expressed as a percentage, from 75% to 125% (default value was 100%). Each car was assigned a minimum and a maximum engine power value (notionally equivalent to brake horsepower), between which their performance could vary from race to race; this was controlled by a random variable within the game. Each car's values, as defined in the CARS93.DAT data file and the accompanying DRIVERS.TXT file, were based on the "opponent strength" percentage being 100%. If the player changed this, for example, to 75%, every car's set of minimum and maximum values would be multiplied by 0.75; the random variability from race to race would still apply within those limits.

By editing the DRIVERS.TXT file in the CARS93 directory, the player could change opponents' names, locations, car numbers, chassis/engine designations, the chassis and engine names and the minimum and maximum engine power values. This could alter gameplay radically.

This table shows the full set of opposition drivers - real-life drivers are in bold: