"Speed Circuit vs Formula De" Topic

I own speed circuit and think it's pretty fun. Any have them bother and offer a comparison?

Tom, so glad to hear you daughter is safe.

Best,
Steve

Rothgar,
I did, because I was fascinated by the nice tracks of Formule De… After I checked rules available online, I came away with the impression that Speed Circuit is a more elegant game, and more dependant on actual skills than the good luck of the dice. Formula De reminded me closely of a game I played decades ago in Italy, which was VERY slow and where luck played too much a role.
Hands down, I prefer Speed Circuit. If only it had the same graphic support of Formule De, though, which is areal eyes candy!
DestoFante

Thanks,

That helps alot. I prefer the skill aspect as well. I'm planning on doing a scaled up version with some repainted hot wheels formula cars. I'll be sure to throw down all my terrain to make it look nice.

There's a PBEM Speed Circuit group at yahoo: ISCRS

It would be real cool to mimic the 2010 F1 season and see what happens. Guess I'll have to start working on the Dubai course.

PDF files of several tracks are available here:

lucidphoenix.com/sc/tracks

It should not be too difficult to draw them at a large scale. Good luck with your project!

DestoFante

It appears we have some random post swapping happening again! That certainly is NOT my post – my name isn't Steve!

Between the two games, SC is *easily* my favorite. While FDe looks great, I'm not a fan of the mechanics at all.

Kevin

I much prefer Formula De, it feels like an F1 race unlike Speed Circuit which never did. It plays fast and requires thought, bad players can happily blame the luck of the dice but will lose to good players every time.

Formula De looks so much better too.

@DestoFante
reading the rules online is hardly comparing the games is it?

Formual De is one of my favorite games to play with a crowd. The play is fast and risks have to be taken. Just wish I had bought more tracks when they were available.

@Matakishi -- I did not articulate myself correctly, but no need to be snippy. I own and play SC, and I read quite a bit about FD online because the game is OOP, I do not know anyone around here interested in the genre, and before spending money to buy a used copy I wanted to form an opinion based on the available resources. It is my opinion: a personal opinion for sure, and I stand by it.

I saw some new Formula De tracks the other day.

Sorry, can't recall where.

They are smaller in presentation size, e.g. they have more folds, but I imagine they are the same size when laid out as the originals.

The tracks look pretty much the same for both games. It shouldn't be too hard to try out the different mechanics. I am more in favor of the plotted 'momentum' of SC, but I'll give the FD quick rules a go.

Formula De was reprinted recently and is available from the usual retailers.

I wasn't being snippy, just pointing out that you formed an opinion (incorrect as it happens)based on incomplete information. Your description of what you believe Formula De to be like is nowhere near the reality.

Stand by it all you like, you're still wrong.

Before the Truth, we can only bow. Cuique suum.

My club recently bought a FD reprint from Travelling Man (UK retailer) – its a great game to play after an afternoon's fighting with minis. Sadly, we missed out on buying more tracks.

For anyone interested in white metal cars, unpainted, scaled for the F-De' game, and which might work for the SD game, here is a vendor selling a 10-pack for $23.95 USD delivered ($2.40/car model):

auction

I just ordered a set for myself (wife told me, "Merry Christmas -- order a set."). I've been looking for the old, OOP sets, periodically, off of e-Bay for a couple of years. These are not "official", but I couldn't care less. ;-) As long as they are the correct scale, I will be deliriously happy.

I'm stuck at home recovering from foot surgery, so now I have a fun project that will really be a labor of love. Just wanted to share the holiday cheer and the opportunity for other F-De' fans to scratch an itch… Cheers!

I feel Formula De to be the far better game. I own both, and the club used to play a lot of Speed Circuit, but it hasn't been touched since we got Formula De and about 10 tracks. For years we've run our own 10 race F-1 seasons. FD has far more of the raceing feel to it IMHO.

Do you get to tinker with cars and tires ect in Formula De? Will admit it looks like fun. Speed Circuit is pretty cerebral for a racing game which I actually enjoy. How much pre planning is there in Formula De?
What types of in game decisions to you have to make besides gears?
Thanks

Joe

You get to "build" your car's stat's in the 3-lap races by assigning points to tires, engine, brakes, body, and suspension. Points are lost during the race due to various things such as tires lost for overshooting a corner; body points can be lost due to bumping during the race (die roll); engine points are lost when over-revving in 5th/6th gear (die roll); you can choose different tire types depending upon the weather.

When you "build" your car, you have to guess as to what will transpire during the race, which is largely random, but you can make educated guesses, based on the track, and your anticipated style and aggression.

There are many variables involved, but much depends upon the die roll for the gear you are in, as your movement is a range based on gear. You have to guess how far you will move, and base your decision on what gear to use, based on how many cars are ahead, where you can maneuver around them, if necessary, and, most importantly, can you successfully navigate the corners (they require different numbers of "stops" within the corner, which reflects a maximum speed, of sorts); if you overshoot, you can use brake points to slow down (subtracts movement points, moving your car backwards to avoid calamities…); you can burn off rubber from replaceable tires by overshooting corners; replace tires using a pit stop -- fast (die roll) and your crew gets you out in the same turn, on fresh rubber (full tire points once again), or slow where you sit until next turn; you can burn repair points (1-2, max.)to repair the engine, body, brakes, but this requires a slow pit stop.

There is a lot of what I would call controlled randomness in FD. This makes it exciting, challenging, and unpredictable, just like the real world. We keep track of our racers' successes, awarding points for placing, depending upon how many cars race; points accumulate and when the driver reaches a certain level, they become aces, with fudge points (strictly a house rule, NOT official in any way -- based on Red Baron WWI flying game), which allow them to take back a couple of movement points. This has never been a game breaker as accidents do occur, and they are often fatal, which removes the ace driver from the player's team of drivers (we all run at least two cars in every race).

We love FD. We bought a left-over game, long after it was OOP, along with some left-over stock of official race tracks. We also downloaded some extra, free tracks made by fans, off of the Internet, which are fun. Printing off the fan-made tracks, mounting them on poster board, was spendy, in the end, but still fun. Cheers!

I am a big fan of Formula De over Speed Circuit. SC just did not quite have that "feel" for me.
I got turned on to FD from a friend who happens to be a F-1 Pit boss (who really is not a gamer at all) but tells me that most of the drivers play FD in the evenings, and was asking me about it.
And yea… I got all 35 tracks. Quite an accomplishment!

Looks like I'm going to have to get Formula D and try it out.

Before you do, Rothgar, keep in mind Formula De isn't the same as the new Formula D that just came out. They're similar but different. I'd hunt up the older De version as D has a "street race" feel to it. Some like it, some don't, but De is more "F-1".

Here's another source for FD sized race cars, for about a buck a piece

kbgames.com/product0.html

Thanks for the info!
DestoFante; for the record; no opinion is wrong. It is just that-- an opinion. Thank you for expressing yours and explaning how you derived it.

Joe

Speed circuit via avalon hill race game ,mid 80s rocked.

My friend makes all kinds of cars for this stuff check it out. link

Hi

did I ever show you the actual historical sim I did, stimp?

Used models like this that I was casting at the time.

Rocky

I have a request in Eurekas 100 club for a 1/300th F1 car for these games the more pre order the quicker they will come.

Speed Circuit is a hell of a good game representing the good years of Formula 1 racing….after multiple tire changes and refuelling you may as well play indy car games.