The SHIRO! community will dust off their Arcade Racers — and accompanying securing devices — in anticipation of the upcoming Community Challenge. Starting May 1 and running the entirety of the month, SHIRO! will compete in the SEGA Sports, rubber-melting racer, F1 Challenge!
Participants have all month long to tackle the six Arcade Mode courses. Each Arcade Mode course sees the player compete against 24 CPU controlled opponents in an eight-lap gauntlet. Needless to say, you will need to memorize the tracks, internalize your lines to hit each apex just right, and master pitstop timings if you want a place on the “Grand Chelem” podium for best combined time for all six courses in Arcade Mode. This award will be given to the top three participants.
Do not worry, Saturn fan, there also will be comparatively bite-sized challenges all month long. Three of the courses in Time Attack mode, those being Hockenheim, Suzuka, and Monte Carlo, have been selected for “best lap” challenges. Here, participants need not worry about the endurance component of Arcade Mode and simply drive fast and shave off those seconds. The corresponding “Glory Runner” (Hockenheim), “Overpassed” (Suzuka), and “Crowned” (Monte Carlo) challenges are winner takes all!
Weekly challenges are back again, this time centered around the tripartite Neo City course. Each of the three weekly challenges will see participants racing for the lowest final time (all laps combined) on a variation of Neo City in Time Attack mode.
“Recon Lapper” — running between May 10 and16 — kicks off the weekly challenges on the Neo City Novice course. Next up is “Qualified” — May 17 through 23 — which will take place on the Neo City Advanced course. We will close out the weekly challenges on the Neo City Expert course with the “Super Licensee” category — open May 24 through 31.
Only times set on real 60Hz Saturn consoles are eligible for consideration in this Community Challenge. Sorry, no PAL or emulation (software or FPGA). Additionally, all participants need to compete with the game set to the “Normal” difficulty. All vehicles and tuning options are allowed in this challenge, with the exception of the Tyrrel Yamaha car. No cheats, and no Action Replay permitted.
Note that best lap and overall course times are shown on the “Results” screen following a race. A photograph of the “Results” screen must be posted on either the SHIRO! Discord server‘s Community Challenge channel or the SHIRO! Facebook group along with your Google form submission. SHIRO! also encourages participants to post recordings of their best times to the F1 Challenge Speedrun.com page, but this is completely optional.
As with previous challenges, SaturnDave has created prize designs to celebrate the winners of the various SHIRO! F1 Challenge Community Challenge events. Custom magnets, made by Xiden, will be awarded to all winners, with the first-place finisher in the “Grand Chelem” event receiving a hat as well. SHIRO! F1 Challenge Community Challenge shirts (pictured above) are also available for purchase in our Teepublic shop.
Check out the F1 Challenge game manual for some useful info!
RULES:
- No Action Replay or Pseudo Saturn cheats. No cheating.
- 60Hz only!
- Normal difficulty only.
- All vehicles (except Tyrrell) and tuning options are allowed!
- Photographic evidence of “Results” screen is mandatory.
- Submissions to Speedrun.com are encouraged
- To submit your score, please post photo on SHIRO! Discord server‘s Community Challenge channel or the SHIRO! Facebook group and complete the Google submission form.
- The challenge organizers reserve the right to request video evidence.
CONTEST CATEGORIES:
MONTH-LONG:
- Grand Chelem: Best combined time for all 6 Courses in Arcade Mode
- Glory Runner: Best lap time (Time Attack) on Hockenheim
- Overpassed: Best lap time (Time Attack) on Suzuka
- Crowned: Best lap time (Time Attack) on Monte Carlo
WEEKLY CHALLENGES:
- Recon Lapper (May 10 – 16): Best overall time (Time Attack) on Neo City Novice
- Qualified (May 17 – 23): Best overall time (Time Attack) on Neo City Advanced
- Super Licensee (May 24 – 31): Best overall time (Time Attack) on Neo City Expert
F1 Challenge is an arcade-style racer with simulation elements that first released in Japan in 1995 (locally titled as F-1 Live Information) before coming to PAL territories as F-1 Challenge and then as the non-hyphenated naming variant in North America in 1996. The game was one of three titles developed by Bell Corporation for the Saturn and — as indicated by the Sega Sports branding — published by Sega themselves.
Formula 1 fans will likely notice that the game has a FOCA (Formula One Constructors’ Association) license and the content is thus based off of the courses and drivers associated with that organization’s competitions.
For more on F1 Challenge, why not check out Peter Malek’s thoughts in this #BestOfSaturn.
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