The Formula One was once a place of joy and excitement for Fans. Especially in the days internet became a common thing in the late 1990s and early 2000s in many households. Teams tried a lot of stuff to lure the fans to their websites. The Orange Arrows team from Tom Walkinshaw might have been the team who understood it the best in those days. When you go back to their website in 2000/2001 and compare it to others, you will see that they tried to be interactive. Wallpapers, e-cards and gifs were available for downloading. There was something extra. Orange Arrows had their own game available! It was called Orange Arrows Pitstop Game.
I was doing some research when I came via web archive on the website from Orange Arrows. Interestingly, I saw on the website downloadables and there it was “Check out the new Orange Arrows Pitstop game screensaver”. Interesting to see, as I can’t recall I saw this back in the days.
It was for me also the first time I encountered a screensaver that was basically a game, how genius is that!
Using a trick on archive, I saw all the files on the arrows.com website. There was also the file for the screensaver game. Which you can download now here. Using otvdm-v0.8.1 (which is also in the map) I was able to execute the file and have it installed on the computer. Installing was easy. However, finding out where the screensaver option was, was a challenge. As I haven’t used screensavers since windows 98. I found out that you can enable it vua personalization and then Lock screen. There you can choose for the Screen saver Arrows. If you hit preview you can actually start the game.
Your welcomed by some 3D-ish generated background where they try to give you the sense of speed. When you hit play, you get in the menu where you can change some parts of the game like amount of laps, pit stops and the speed. I tried all options and changing the speed to lower is just horrible. When you go through the game rules, you will see it is possible to get penalties for jumping the start, to block your opponents and what not. Yes, you do get penalties for blocking opponents I put 20minutes into this game!
In the game there are two opponents obviously it’s Jordan and Jaguar. You would think that your goal is to finish first. While it is the case, Orange Arrows tried to give you the whole experience. When you have to stop for a pit stop, you have to replace the tyres yourself. As well if you crash, too much you have to replace the front-wing yourself. This all you do with the mouse. While replacing the nose was a hell of a job.
The steering is not funny you have to use the arrow keys though it is not the best steering. When you try to take a turn slightly hit the arrow keys a couple of times, as the car doesn’t turn fluently. I failed to win as I’m a king in crashing cars always did and probably will never change this.
Overall, it is a funny game just to kill some time, interestingly is still that it is a screensaver you are playing this game on. I’m glad I came across this hidden little gem by accident when I was looking for something completely different. See the video for an expression of the little game from Orange Arrows.
