Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit

To do: Are the icons for substitute drivers in Record Holders mode used? With exception of Mika Hakkinen (Portuguese GP's 1993 Mode challenge), none of the substitute drivers can be used by the player.

Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit, like the English title says, does indeed push the limit of not only the Sega CD's processing power by utilizing Mode 7-like effects for circuits (similar to Sonic CD's Special Stages) and race-relevant FMV, but also the experience of Formula One racing on a console. The game's 1993 Mode also preceded Video System's and EA Sports' (for a different motorsport discipline) take at "recreate/correct the moment of the race" challenges.

The roster was a driver short, which was Sega's second occurrence with the issue.

Ayrton Senna?#

To do: Search further the PRG files for any further leftovers/references, if any.

Despite not being explicitly named or shown anywhere within the game, the menu tiles for the qualifying's pit menu has an entry for "A.SENNA" on it. Curiously enough, an extra number 30 (already used by the Sauber team) is stored with the extra numbers used for the write-in "McLaren No. 1" name/number setting, but not number 8. It is possible the number 8 for the write-in car number is pulled from Senna's name mention.

The name mention in its assembled form.

Additionally, present only in the English versions is an accompanying unused portrait for use in the Record Holders menu. It also happens to be stored right after the portrait for the pre-season tryout at the beginning of the Grand Prix mode, as this unused portrait is absent in the Japanese version.

Developer Credits and Build Dates#

Some of the PRG files on the disc contain developer credits or build dates. The build dates are the same for the Japanese and English versions of the game and are all located at the beginning of each file, except for files relating to the Cinepak compression, which begins at 0x8.

F-1 TitleProgram
Ver1 H.Sakamoto

F-1 Team Select
Ver3 H.Sakamoto

TeamMeeting S0
'94 02/19 23:10

TEAM MEETING S1
'94 02/19 23:10

COURSE_EXPLAN
'94 03/03 21:50

TEAM MEETING SEL
'94 01/05 15:50

TEAM MEETING A
'94 03/06 04:15

TEAM MEETING B
'94 03/06 04:15

TEAM MEETING C
'94 03/06 04:50

TEAM MEETING D
'94 03/06 04:50

TEAM MEETING Z
'94 01/24 11:45

STARTING GRID
'94 01/20 15:40

03-09-94 CINEPAK LOADER For Main-CPU
03-02-94 PCM 2ch
03-07-94 User2

"H.Sakamoto" is programmer Hiroaki Sakamoto, who is referred to "H.SUCKMATT" in the game's ending credits.

Regional Differences#

To do: Demo replay runs faster in the English version?

Intro and Title#

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit

In the English versions, the kana text for Fuji Television is removed in their title intro and the English "FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK, INC." text is moved closer to the logo.

Following the Fuji Television logo, a Sega Sports logo was added in the international versions of the game, with a logo transition where three tryout cars at the beginning of the Grand Prix mode drive by.

Heavenly Symphony uses a different intro music, also named "Heavenly Symphony", as the intro FMV music. This song is only present on the soundtrack album and is not present as a CD audio track in the game disc. Beyond the Limit uses "Time to Detonate" instead. Both versions also have a different logo animation at the end.

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit

Heavenly Symphony uses an internally simpler logo, as well as different font for the Start button prompt and Sega logo outlining. Beyond the Limit uses a more complicated method for its title screen: in addition to adding a background image of an exposed Formula One engine, the "Beyond the Limit" graphic is overlaid above the F1 car silhouette that was part of the Japanese version's title (with the "1993" text removed). Additionally, "Time to Detonate" plays here after the Sega/Fuji Television credit from the narrator.

Menus#

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit

Record Holders is called "Data Mode" in Heavenly Symphony. The menu highlighter is subsequently wider because of the option's longer name in the English version.

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit

The Data Mode/Record Holders icon for the pre-Grand Prix mode tryout car (shown only in the Sega Park section) was accordingly changed due to the rebranding.

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit

Beyond the Limit adds a Qualify setting to the game's options menu. When the setting is enabled (the default setting), only 25 drivers will make the grid, like in Heavenly Symphony. When disabled, one additional car will be added to the grid for a total of 26, granting the player immunity from failing to qualify and reflecting a rule change the FIA and teams unanimously agreed to before the 1993 German Grand Prix.

It is worth noting that the car shown in the background of the options menu is actually a 1992 season car, specifically the Ferrari F92A.

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit

To complement that change, a "QF ON"/"QF OFF" indicator is added to the save pit boards in Beyond the Limit, reflecting the Qualify setting associated with the save.

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit

When selecting a team after the pre-season test in Grand Prix or after selecting the track in Free Run, trailing zeroes are removed from single-digit car numbers in Beyond the Limit.

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit

Beyond the Limit also fixes a typo in Jordan's team name in the same screen... although curiously enough there is still a Yamaha logo (the team's 1992 engine supplier; Jordan dumped them for Brian Hart-designed engines after nearly failing to score a point all year with Yamaha) that were never removed in the localizations.

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit

The option to leave the qualifying session while in the pit garage menu is "EXIT" in Heavenly Symphony and "RETIRE" in Beyond the Limit.

There is also an additional change relating to in-game menu music: the pre-race menu music is "Triscope" (the post-test team selection music) in the Japanese version and "Winning Beats" in the English versions.

Race HUD#

Heavenly Symphony	Beyond the Limit (US)

The race HUD is on the top of the screen in Heavenly Symphony and on the bottom in Beyond the Limit. The player's cockpit was also moved eight pixels down (not accounting for the HUD graphics or borders) with the move. The Total Time indicator was not moved with the change, though, probably so that it would not block the player's car.

Others#

• Engine failure probability as a result of using engine boost was reduced.

Oddities#

Unless otherwise noted, all of the oddities below occur in both the Japanese and English versions of the game.

Tobacco Sponsors#

To do: Replace the Player's sign images with a sprite rip.

Jordan's Barclay and BMS Scuderia Italia/Lola's Chesterfield, both of which are cigarette sponsors, are explicitly visible in the car settings menu if the player drives for them. Additionally, whenever a BMS-Lola car appears on the FMV scenes, the Chesterfield decals are not edited out. This issue was a rather ironic one for Sega, as they previously had found themselves in hot water regarding (parody) tobacco branding in Super Monaco GP.

Barclay (Jordan)	Chesterfield (BMS-Lola)

Additionally, on the Canadian Grand Prix track there are logos for Player's Ltée (the French form of Player's Ltd; full name Player's Racing Ltd./Autosport Player's Ltee, the latter indicated by the "autosport" text in the bridge banners), a "disguise" company created by Imperial Tobacco to promote the Player's cigarette brand in Canadian motorsports. (This took advantage of a government-sanctioned loophole provision in the Canadian tobacco law from 1988-95, when the then-current law was ruled to be unconstitutional, that was originally intended to allow corporate, non-brand advertising/sponsorship by tobacco companies.)

Trackside	Bridge

Upside-Down German Flag#

In the briefing for the 1993 Mode challenges where the player controls Michael Schumacher (the Canadian and German Grands Prix), the German flag is shown upside-down.