My Diaries

A Lurid Tale of Obsession, Depravity, Wits and Attempted Wit

Mon Feb 15, 1999

I finally got my IA license!!!

In University, if a guy invited some other guys over to listen to some records with the intention of persuading them that these were particularly good records, we referred to this as "plying".

On Saturday I had a pretty successful Gran Turismo "ply session" with some relatives. The 7-year-old was eager to see it, and liked it once I rigged things so he could win ; the father liked it, and was impressed by the InterAct Barracuda 2 controller, too. The most amazing thing was the mother overcame her staunch "I'm not going to be impressed by anything" attitude and actually marvelled somewhat at the behaviour of the cars. I think it was the bouncing on the springs that impressed her; it's difficult to get the cars to do that on the Clubman R5 Arcade Demo.

One interesting thing was that the 7-year-old had heard about the licenses I had acquired, and expected to see them attached to the car. In general, it would be an improvement if your license status was visible in the "Home" screen.

So, after that on Sunday I didn't do much Gran Turismo until evening, since there was important sleeping and shopping to be done. But in the evening things began really clicking with the final International A class test, and, after about three 1:59.XXX in a period when 2:01.xxx became a really bad run, I finally squeaked in with a passing 1:58.844. Closest non-pass was 1:59.309

I had racked up 1400 simulation days at the point I passed the license. But in reality I had done a lot more days since I would reset without saving the game after too many failures of a particular license test.

I haven't entered any IA races yet, but, although I actually passed relatively early in the evening (by my current standards), I stayed up rather late making sure I made appropriate backups of the game, and also decided to construct a memory card holder, i.e. an open-top "shoebox" type box, out of a piece of the cardboard they put inside calendars. I used dimensions 4.4cm wide X 5.8cm high X 5.0cm long. That comfortably holds 6 cards, but does not allow a single card to fall down flat on the bottom. I put cutouts in the sides and ends, leaving sort of pillars on the corners, so you can grab the cards with your fingers. A lid will be a project for another day. I used bondfast glue, but think maybe I should have tried a glueless design instead.

Checking the dimensions of memory cards, it seems that one ought to be able to have a CD case sized box that would hold siz of them. That might be a convenient storage method.

Earlier on Sunday, while warming up for the License test, and also to verify that my Barracuda 2 controller was still in good condition, I amused myself by winning the Sunday Cup with an unmodified, used Toyota Corolla Levin, and after that a similarly stock '93 Honda CRX. The games' bizarre handicapping formulas failed to allow me to win with a used Eunos Roadster, however; I finished only fourth. With the other cars I would sometimes get pipped at the post on the Autumn Mini-Ring, but would win the other two races. It's sort of a relief driving those cars, actually; they are very difficult to spin out, even the Levin which claims to be FR (although it's so gutless that it's difficult to confirm for sure).

I think I've confirmed that, although alleged qualifying times for the Sunday Cup are better than those for the Spot Races, when the race begins the computer tries slightly harder to let you win the Sunday Cup. I managed to win the Grand Valley East Spot Race with a Corolla Levin, but it was not as easy as the race on the same track in the Sunday Cup.

After the Saturday session, which took place at someone else's place, I was reminded of a factoid about PlayStations. I took my Barracuda 2 controller over to show to the adults, since it is more "adult-sized". Unfortunately, I switched to that controller in the middle of a game. It seemed to malfunction. Specifically, the brakes seemed to be on while the right analog stick was in the neutral position. (I use right analog stick as accelerator/brake).

I guess I got used to pulling out and replacing Commodore 64 joysticks while the game is running; they are digital so there is no problem. Similarly, the digital aspects of the Barracuda 2 worked fine on Saturday even though I had switched to that controller without power-cycling or even resetting the game.

The Barracuda 2 documentation explicitly recommends, although without dire warnings, that you should change controllers only while the station is powered off.

Both Barracuda 2 and the regular Sony Dual Shock Analog controllers are "self-calibrating"; I don't think the documentation makes this explicit, but that is what the Need For Speed III game (I think it was that game) says when you attempt to calibrate them. So, presumably my Barracuda 2 needed different calibration from the Sony controller that had been there. Power cycling, or perhaps even just resetting, the game would have almost certainly fixed it. It's possible that switching to pure digital mode and back would have done it. (BTW one neat feature of the Barracuda 2 is that in digital mode both joysticks are alternate directional control pads; it would be even better if you could put one axis on one, and the other on the other, but you can't).

It seemed that, either because I switched between the two analog modes of the Barracuda 2, or because it continually dynamically recalibrates to some degree, it did get better on Saturday night anyway. It's barely possible that it did have some physical malfunction which fixed itself, but I'm tending away from that theory.

On the other hand, when I attempted to reproduce the problem on Sunday evening by deliberately switching from my Sony controller to the Barracuda 2, without powering off, I was not able to reproduce the extreme behaviour which we had seen on Saturday. (brake lights going on with right joystick in neutral position).

For the first time ever, I examined the "memory car trade" facility of simulation mode. Although I think I've read it elsewhere, I was amazed to see that LM cars can be bought for only Cr35000. The junk prize cars are only Cr20000 (whether a Demio or a DB7).

Judging from the pricing, you pay completely for, and only for, the parts fitted, not ones laying about the sellers' garage, but then you don't get discount for parts you already have anyway, even though you could use the "feature" to equip the cars. Conclusion: have the "seller" strip all removeable parts from the car before "selling", and buy yourself any parts you need after that.

Used car stock does still vary if you examine closely, even at 1400days. I can think of several possible algorithms;

I guess I actually have some "tips" for passing the IA-8 test (bronze level). First of all, the first corner (subtle series of corners) can be taken a lot faster than you first think. A gentle brake at the right point, and a tug on the wheel and you should stay on after some practice. Although the demo goes down from 4th to 3rd, I eventually did not bother to do so. (The demo is a gold run, so doing the downshift may or may not get you closer to gold!)

Now, at the double hairpins following, remember to brake early and severely for the first hairpin so you can hold it in tight and, as soon as possible, take the next hairpin as wide as possible so you can begin accelerating as soon as possible. Get down to first, but not for long; you don't want to lose acceleration through either hitting rev-limit or spinning wheels. In the short straight that follows, you should get up into third. Do not drift that left turn through the one-sided tunnel. Try to cut in and stay reasonably close to the left-hand wall, but as soon as you see the rock on the right-hand side by the exit, let yourself begin moving to the right so you can apply a little more power. Get into fourth along the bridge even though you may think you don't need to, to give yourself more potential for engine braking for the next corner. Leave it to the last moment to brake for that left-hander after the bridge. Throw the car left; downshift to 3rd, then 2nd--by now you should be drifting up the tunnel, but try not to overdo it.

Stay in 2nd and just drive your way through the esse leading into the next tunnel. I suspect I have room for improvement here, to be honest, (obviously I am losing the 4 or 5 seconds over the demo somewhere!) but the demo does stay in 2nd gear for this entire section. You can probably glance at the clock here finally. Better not be above :57 as you enter the second tunnel, around which point you get into 3rd gear.

Learn to brake and downshift late, and almost simultaneously, for the next right-hander at the end of the tunnel, turning as you do. You may or may not end up dropping to first as you exit that hairpin, but don't exit too fast. Just like the previous two hairpins, the three corners after a the tunnel are a combination in which you want to maximize final exit speed, to take advantage of the straight leading to the hairpin, even though it is short. Stay slow and tight for the second corner; and start the final corner early, and shift up to 3rd on the early side to minimize tire slippage, hit the inside apex at about the middle, and then follow a path to the left of the road, but remember to gradually, not sharply, move back to the right side in preparation for the next hairpin.

Brake late for that hairpin, almost simultaneously turning and downshifting. You should threaten to run wide, but kick it down to first gear and let that induce oversteer to throw you around the final part of the corner. Logic says maybe this description of what I did is actually performing that maneuver too late; the earlier you can finish your turn, that is, the later you can apex the corner, the sooner you can begin accelerating. In any case, gather the car in and begin accelerating, and shift up to second before the engine whines and the tires slip too much. 3rd gear comes naturally, and shift into 4th a little early as you begin rounding the downhill left-hander. A timecheck there should show about 1:33.

Remember to come wide out of the right hander, and move back over to the right hand side during the straight after that, even though the straight is relatively short. That action, which you see very clearly in real-life telecasts, minimizes the braking action caused by turning, and allows the extra speed you maintain to compensate for the extra distance you travel. At a point around the grandstands, brake and downshift--3rd, pause, 2nd, and start almost drifting around the final hairpin. Gather yourself in, exit the corner, upshift at the natural points, and stay on the right side for the final run. If you catch the time just as you are exiting the hairpin, it had better be well under 1:50 if you are going to pass. This test features a long agonizing finishing straight, so, once you are in 4th gear there's nothing to do but watch the clock run out (or not).

So in summary, there is a lot of time to be gained on the Grand Valley II circuit in three places; the corners after the main straight, and the two sets of tight corners leading to straights, albeit short straights. In addition, you must round the two straight-joining hairpins smoothly and efficiently, but not too gingerly.