Index 1 How to start

1.1 Installation 1.2 The Menu - audio and video *

1.2.1 video menu 1.2.2 audio menu 1.2.3 Defintion of used words (in the menu documentation)

1.3 The Menu - controls

2 How to play
2.1 The Cars 2.2 The Game 2.3 Tips 'n tricks

3 System requirements
3.1 Important information 3.2 Required and recommend system 3.3 Troubleshooting
* If you are suffering bad performance, we advice you to have a look at this section. You can skip this chapter if you have good performance on your system.

Chapter1: How to start

1.1 Installation
Please keep the game-CD in the CD-rom while playing. Please put the CD in your CD-drive. The installation program will start automatically. If the AutostartFunction of your CD-drive is disabled, please execute the installation manually. Please run the "setup.exe" on the CD. Now the installation will start. Please follow the guidelines of this program very carefully.

1.2 The audio and video menus If you don't experience any problems or bad performance, you can skip this section
When starting FORMULA TAXI USA for the first time, the game will have default factory settings. In some cases it might be necessary to change these settings, for example when suffering bad performance. If you have a slow machine, you might want to turn off some of the cool features offered by FORMULA TAXI USA to increase performance. If that's the case, we recommend you tweak and try some of the below listed options yourself. Important note; Some options might have more influence than others on your performance. This depends on your system.

1.2.1. VIDEO
Device (not-selectable option) Displays the name of your video card. If you have multiple video cards in your computer, the best video card will be selected. If you really want MCC to use the other video card, execute FORMULA TAXI USA with the -v0, -v1 or -v2 parameter. (experts only, use at own risk) Resolution You can change the resolution of FORMULA TAXI USA here. A higher resolution results in sharper graphics but slower frame rate. A lower resolution results in worse quality graphics but higher frame rate. Default setting is 800x600. Texture quality The graphical quality of textures. Lower detail will make the game faster on video cards with few video RAM but will result in blurry graphics. If you have really bad performance and don't what kind of videocard is in your system, try to lower this option. Lighting quality The graphical quality of lighting. Lower detail can result in very bad graphics and should be used with care. Lower detail can result in speedups on very slow systems. View Distance Visible range of buildings and roads. Move the slider to the right for better graphics, move the slider to the left for better performance. Object View Distance Same as above, except this is for trees, parking meters, streetlights and other small objects instead of roads and buildings. Fogging Disabling this feature will increase the frame rate a bit on slow computers, but will result in worse graphical quality. Sky Disabling this feature will increase the frame rate quite a lot, but will result in worse graphical quality. (as there is no sky visible anymore... )

SpecialFX Controls the amount of "special effects" like the glow of streetlights, tire smoke, etc. Less specialFX might result in smoother gameplay during "extreme" situations on slow machines. Cloud Shadows In case MEGACITY is full of rainbow colours, your video card does not support this feature. You can install new drivers or just disable this option if desired. Disabling this feature might result in a minor increase of framerate.

1.2.2 AUDIO
You can tweak the volume of various different items if desired in this menu. Note that the first three sliders will not affect the performance at all. Music Slider Sliding this slider entirely to the left results in no music, but a huge increase of smooth gameplay on slow machines. Sound quality If you experience audio-problems or bad performance, you can try to increase performance by sliding this slider more to the left.

1.2.3 Definition of used words

(for people who don't have much experience with computergames) - Frame rate. The amount of frames per second. A higher frame rate means smoother gameplay, smoother graphics and less headaches. - Parameter. A command you can put behind the executable filename. (experts only) - Video card. Device in your computer which makes it possible to see something on your monitor. The video card is one of your most important hardware-pieces in your computer. The better your video card, the better the games. - Video RAM. Amount of memory on your video card. The more you have, the better. Video RAM is used mainly for storing textures. - Textures. Pictures / materials on objects. A box is an object. The wood-picture on it which makes it look like a crate is called "texture".

1.3 CONTROLS
If you want to use a mouse, joystick, gamepad or steering wheel in FORMULA TAXI USA, you will have to map a function to the desired input device. Just press "ENTER" after selecting the action you want to re-map. Any key, mouse, joystick or steering wheel command issued at the point hereafter will control that function. For more details about the controls in the game, we refer to the chapter 2.2.

2 How to play
2.1 The cars
You can select one of the available cars at the selection menu. All cars react different, so we recommend you try them all before making your final decision. In alphabetical order; Granado

An old muscle car, powered by a 3 litre V6 engine and upgraded with a supercharger, driven by Mandy Fabulous. It is solid, reliable and predictable. The suspension might need a bit of work, so be careful when steering at high speeds. Gulfwar GTI

When you choose to drive with Abdul Snyder in his cab, make sure you have taken care of good last will for your relatives. Snyder bought his driving license on the black market and don't know the words "rules", "brakes", "obstacle" and "fear". The Gulfwar is unpredictable, very weak but incredibly fast. - Mercenary-C

This is a great car to start with. It is solid, reliable, and predictable and will never let you down. Compared to the other cars, it might be a little bit slow but at least with this car you will reach your destination..

- OTTi 5000 (This vehicle is locked)

A car which combines all the good elements of all other cars. But you are not allowed to drive in it before you are the Taxi King of MEGACITY. - Tank (this vehicle is locked)

Blowing away other traffic-cars with ease, this vehicle is strong, slow and dangerous.

- Zetto3

Alois Stadelmeyer just bought himself a new car, but actually can't afford it. When he worked harder and longer he was able to keep the car, but unable to drive in it. He decided to quit his job and become a taxi-driver to solve his problems. The Zetto3 is a combination of all other MCC-cars, meaning it has an average speed, average stability and average strength.

2.2 The game

Let us check out the screen elements of FORMULA TAXI USA. It might seem a bit confusing at first sight, but don't worry. I'm sure you will understand in the game what they are for.

Okay, now the controls to play FORMULA TAXI USA. Arrow forward: Accelerate Arrow backward: Brake Arrow left: Steer left Arrow right: Steer right Spacebar: Handbrake. "C": Change view "Esc": Quit game and go to main-menu.

The concept is easy; Pick passengers up and bring them to the destination. This process will now be explained in detail. 1) First, you have to search for a passenger. Although they are waving and shouting for a cab, we placed a big Euro sign above their head. A green Euro means they will travel a short distance, a red Euro means a far distance. Tip: If you almost reached your time limit (and money limit), get yourself a green passenger. 2) When they are in your car, you will have to drive to their destination. In the left-top the name of the destination is mentioned, so if you play MCC more often you will start to recognize those destinations (and their fastest way to get there). In case you don't know where this place is, a green arrow on top of the screen will be your guide. It acts like a compass actually, as it always points to the direction of the destination. Note that you don't have to follow the rules; You can drive through the park as well as under water... But beware of your pedestrian's mood. This is displayed in the upper-right corner. If the passenger is smiling, everything is OK. If he is not, be careful with the bumps 'n jumps... 3) Sometimes you need to make a pit stop at a garage. It is much cheaper to repair your damage at a garage, then waiting until your car is total loss and has to be respawned. A garage will look similar to this; Simply drive in it, and your car will be repaired.

4) Deliver your passenger at the green circle. This circle is displayed in the map (lower-right corner) too; We recommend to have one eye on the map and another eye on the road. That's all of it; In short. You will learn it is quite a lot more than written down here...

2.3 Tips 'n tricks

A good cabdriver will be capable of performing several special.. techniques to get as much money in the shortest time as possible. Here are a few lessons for you; The rookie-driver. - Making use of the handbrake - (EASY) The handbrake (default key; "Spacebar") will help you take very tight corners, or can help you make a 180' spin for a quick turnaround. Make sure your car has the right speed for this and you know how to use the handbrake exactly. If you want to stop your car as fast as possible AND in a predictable way, we recommend the "normal" brake for this. (default key; "Arrow_back") Note; The use of the handbrake differs for each car. - Select your customer - (EASY) There are different kinds of pedestrians available. Select them carefully. Hint; Red Euro Symbols means longer distances and thus more money for your time. If you almost reached your money-limit BUT also your time-limit, deliver some green or yellow ones to make sure you deliver them BEFORE your time has run out. Hint; Some pedestrians are slower than others (fat or old ones) and thus it will take them a bit longer to reach your car than fast pedestrians. - Repairing your car - (MEDIUM) When your car is total loss, it will be repaired automatically. This will cost quite some money because the garage needs pick your car up and drag it to the garage. It's a lot cheaper (and wiser) to get your

car into a garage BEFORE your car it total loss. Make sure you know where those garages are and try to keep near them when your car is almost broken down. - Taking jumps the correct way - (MEDIUM) Jumping with your car is not for chicken-drivers. It is only for people who have the guts to do everything to deliver their customer on time. Hint; KEEP accelerating when driving up the jump object and NEVER let go of the gas-pedal when your wheels are at the moment of loosing touch with the ground. If you do so, your car will probably hit the ground with it's nose or even roof instead of on your wheels. Note; You will get tips of your customer when performing jumps. - Making use of shortcuts - (HARD) When you know your way through the city well enough, you know there are certain shortcuts that -canhelp you to get at the destination sooner. Hint; Make sure you have reached the "right" speed when taking shortcuts so you can take without needing to brake of steer very hard. A good average speed of taking shortcuts is 80km/h. Entering shortcuts with speeds above will probably result in hard brakes or collisions; Meaning you could better have skipped this shortcut and take the average way.. Hint; Using shortcuts is most useful when there is a lot of traffic. If there's not that much traffic, it's no use taking shortcuts because you can reach a higher speed on the main roads. - Driving on two wheels (EXTREMELY HARD) For *very* professional and skilled drivers, you can drive on two wheels to make your car smaller. This way you can avoid hitting other traffic-cars on small lanes, or take very small shortcuts more easily. The difficulty of this technique differs for each car (can be best performed by the Granada), and requires a lot of practicing (and probably a steer instead of a keyboard)

3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

3.1 Important information

- You need to have installed DirectX 8.1 to run FORMULA TAXI USA

- You need to have the latest drivers of all your hardware to run FORMULA TAXI USA

- Your system needs to be equal or better then the system mentioned in the next chapter.

3.2 Recommended and required system

Required

OS; Win95, 98, Me, XP Processor: 450 MHz Memory: 64 MB Video card: DirectX compatible, 12 MB RAM. Sound card DirectX compatible. Hard disc; 150 MB free Recommended OS; 98, Me, XP Processor: 700 MHz Memory: 128 MB Video card: DirectX compatible, TnL, 32 MB RAM. Sound card; DirectX compatible with hardware 3Dsound Hard disc; 150 MB free

3.3 Troubleshooting
Most 3D card manufacturers provide updated drivers on their Web sites that fix known issues. If you don't know what kind of 3D card you have, in Windows 95 and 98, right-click on My Computer and click Properties. Click the Device Manager tab. Your 3D card should be listed under Display Adapters. Right-click on the card name and select Properties to find the manufacturer name. In Windows 2000 and Windows Me, right-click on My Computer and click Properties. Click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager. Your 3D card should be listed under Display Adapters. Right-click on the card name and select Properties to find the manufacturer name.

FORMULA TAXI USA 2005 Contendo Media Ltd. All rights reserved.