Race Master guide
Race Master is an audio racing game built for blind and low vision players. This guide is the same Read Me that you can open inside the game. To download the game, go to Games and Tools.
About the game
Race Master is a racing game played entirely by ear. There is no need to see the screen to play. Every part of the game, from the menus to the race itself, speaks to you through screen reader style narration, so you always know where you are, what is around you, and what is happening on the track.
You can race by yourself against computer controlled cars, race other people over the internet, or race friends on the same Wi-Fi network without needing an internet connection at all. The game keeps track of your level, your progress, and your best results, and it has its own worldwide leaderboards.
Racing earns coins. With coins you buy better cars, spare parts and fuel on the shop road, a real ten kilometre road with showrooms, garages and fuel stations along it, which you drive and walk exactly as you race.
Special thanks to Asif Karim Rupom, who helped throughout the making of this game by finding bugs and by helping in the gradual testing period. His input made this a stronger and more reliable game.
This guide explains how to register, how to log in, how the main menu works, every keyboard command used to play, and how the different race modes and race types work.
Registering, logging in and the main menu
When you start Race Master, you arrive at the welcome screen. Depending on whether you already have a saved account on this computer, you will hear some or all of these options, moved between with the Up and Down arrow keys and chosen with Enter:
- Continue as (your name)
- Only appears if you have already logged in on this computer before. Lets you continue with that same account after typing your password again.
- Offline Mode
- Play as a guest, with no account and no internet connection required. Good for trying the game out or playing without registering.
- Local Server
- Play with friends who are on the same Wi-Fi network or the same mobile hotspot as you. No internet connection is needed, only a shared local network.
- Register
- Create a brand new account. You will be asked for your name, your gender, your country, your email address, and a password. There is also a Show Password option if you want to hear the password read back to you as you type it. Move between the fields with the Up and Down arrows, press Enter to fill in a field, and press Enter on the Create Account button once all fields are filled in.
- Log In
- Log in with an account that already exists, using your email and password.
- Forgot Password
- Recover access to your account if you cannot remember your password.
- Read Me
- This guide. It sits on the welcome screen as well as in the main menu, so you can read the controls before you play for the first time, without needing an account.
- Exit
- Close the game.
A computer can keep up to two accounts saved at once. If you want to add a third, you will need to delete one of the existing two first.
Once you are logged in, you arrive at the Main Menu. This is the home base of the game, and from here you can reach everything else. Depending on your account and your role, you may see some or all of the following, again moved between with the Up and Down arrows and chosen with Enter:
- Notice Board
- Any announcements from the game administrators. This appears first in the menu so it is never missed.
- Single Player
- Race alone against computer controlled cars.
- Multiplayer
- Race other people over the internet, either by joining an existing room or by hosting your own.
- Local Server
- Race friends on the same Wi-Fi or hotspot, with no internet required.
- Tournament Mode
- Enter or host organized tournaments. Open to every logged in player. Hosting a tournament requires a Tournament Hosting token, but entering one does not.
- Go to Shop
- Drive out onto the shop road to buy a car, spare parts or fuel, or to fetch a car you left there. It is not a race: there is no clock and no finish line, and you leave when you are done. The keys for it are in section three, part five.
- My Cars
- Every car you own, with where it is standing. Enter on a car makes it the car you drive from now on, in races and on the shop road.
- Leaderboard
- View worldwide rankings, including total wins, top speed records, tournament champions, and the Fastest Human times described in section four.
- View Profile
- Hear your full profile: name, level, progress, and race history.
- Edit Profile
- Change your saved details.
- Friends
- Send and accept friend requests, and see who else is online.
- My Features
- See any special features or tokens tied to your account.
- Activate Token
- Type in a code to activate a token you have purchased or received.
- Buy Tokens
- Purchase tokens, for example a Tournament Hosting token or a car.
- Clear Game Data, Delete Account, Log Out, Switch Account
- Manage your account and saved data on this device.
- Speaker Test
- Check that your speakers or headphones and the game audio are working correctly. The horn moves from your left speaker to your right.
- Learning Sounds
- Listen to the different sound cues used in the game so you can learn to recognise them before racing. Up and Down choose a sound, Enter plays it, Backspace or Escape returns.
- Accessibility Settings
- Turn Screen Reader Narration and Global Chat Announcements on or off, and adjust other accessibility options. These can be changed at any time.
- Exit
- Close the game.
Keyboard commands
Part one: General menu navigation, used throughout the whole game
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Up and Down arrows | Move between menu items or fields |
| Enter | Select the highlighted item, or confirm a field |
| Escape | Go back or cancel, usually with a Yes or No confirmation first |
| Backspace | Go back a step in some menus and forms |
| F1 | Hear who is online right now |
| I | Open your inventory: coins, any loan, health boosters, the cars you own, nitros and active tokens. Only when you are signed in |
| Slash | Write a chat message. It goes to whichever chat is selected with Home and End |
| Home and End | Choose which chat the Slash key sends to: Room Chat, Private Message, Global Chat or Admin Contact |
| Shift+Home Shift+End | Switch between different private conversations |
| F2 | Hear the recent messages and the current announcement again |
| Page Up and Page Down | Move through the history of the selected chat, older or newer |
| R | Open the message or item you are on, to read it line by line, word by word or character by character |
| Applications key | In a room lobby, delete the private or admin message you are on. The Applications key is the one beside the right Ctrl key |
| C | In a room you are hosting, hear the room code again |
| Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V | Copy, cut and paste inside text boxes |
| Ctrl+A | Select all text inside a text box |
| Ctrl+Shift+Left or Right | Select one word to the left or right inside a text box |
Reading a document inside the game
The Read Me, any notice on the Notice Board, and any private or admin message can all be read this way, with the keys you already know. From a list, press R to open the item you are on. While browsing your private messages or your admin conversation, press R to open the message you are on:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Up and Down arrows | Read line by line |
| Left and Right arrows | Read character by character |
| Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Right | Read word by word |
| Home | Go to the start of the line you are on |
| End | Go to the end of that line |
| Ctrl+Home | Go to the top of the document |
| Ctrl+End | Go to the bottom of the document |
| Ctrl+C | Copy the line you are on to the clipboard |
| Ctrl+Shift+C | Copy the whole document to the clipboard |
| Escape or Backspace | Close the document |
Part two: Before a race begins
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| O | Open the car door |
| L | Lock the car door |
| Up arrow | Start the engine |
| Space | Race start countdown. In single player you press it yourself; in a room only the host presses it, and everyone else waits for the host |
In an internet multiplayer room the host presses Space in the lobby to lock the room. Everyone then has one minute to do O, L and Up, and the host presses Space once more for the countdown, which runs for everyone together.
Part three: Driving during a race, every difficulty
The three difficulties use the same keys; where they differ, it is said.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Up (hold) | Accelerate |
| Shift+Up (hold) | Cruise, holds your current speed with no acceleration or braking |
| Down arrow | Soft brake, a tap slows you by 5 kilometres per hour, holding brings you to a full stop over about 5 seconds |
| Left Ctrl or Right Ctrl | Hard brake. Holding it brings you to a full stop within 2 seconds from any speed, and the brake sound keeps going for as long as you hold. From over 100 kilometres per hour it costs a little health |
| Ctrl+Up (hold) | Brake with throttle, revs the engine while the car stays still. Let go and you hear the revs fall away |
| Left arrow | Slide one tile left, 10 centimetres. A tap is one tile; holding drifts you a tile at a time. In a race the lane walls stop you, and a space another car is already in is refused |
| Right arrow | Slide one tile right, the same way |
| Shift+Left | Curve the car left. Hold the keys for continuous curving, or tap for a single step; both work and you can mix them. On Hard a step is 15 degrees, on Medium 30, on Easy 45. On Easy the car does three quarters of every corner for you and you hold through a quarter; on Medium it does half; on Hard you steer the whole corner yourself. In every difficulty the keys work at any time and the angle they give stays until you steer back or the corner is done, so steer only when the turn is called: an angle held on the straight drifts the car to the edge of the road |
| Shift+Right | Curve the car right, the same way, in the opposite direction |
| Alt+Left | Signal a lane change to the left. You hear the indicator in your left speaker. Other players in your lane hear it on the left too; players in the lane you are moving into hear it on the side you are coming from, with "Car number, signalling left". Only players within 50 metres of you who have not yet passed that opening hear it. A signal is for the opening you are in, or the next one, and covers one lane change there. Changing lanes without signalling costs 3 coins, except near a turn or a U-turn. Signalling and then not changing lanes by the end of that opening costs 2 coins, unless you tried and were refused because the space was taken. Three such signals in a row cost 10 coins more, and your signals stop reaching other players for the rest of the race. None of this applies on the shop road or in Local Server races |
| Alt+Right | Signal a lane change to the right, the same way |
| D | Announce your compass heading and your car angle (every difficulty) |
Part four: Other controls that work during any race, all difficulties
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| G | Gear up, this is timed according to the race rules. A press that cannot shift yet is simply ignored |
| Shift+G | Gear down, this sheds 35 kilometres per hour and brakes the engine without causing damage |
| Alt+B | Activate the Nitro speed booster. Not while stationary, and on Hard only with the car straight |
| Space (hold) | Sound the horn, continuously while held |
| O | Toggle Outside or Inside view. Outside lets you hear the two nearest car engines, Inside lets you hear only your own engine. On the shop road O is the door instead, see part five |
| I | Open your inventory. Enter on a health booster uses it; Enter on another car you own chooses it for your future races |
| S | Announce your current speed and gear |
| K | Announce how far it is to the finish |
| Alt+K | Kill the engine. Below 50 kilometres per hour the car and the engine stop at once. From 50 up you hear the engine dying for 3 seconds while the car rolls on at its natural pace; then it stops and you hear "Engine killed". While it is off the throttle does nothing; press Up to start it again |
| X | Announce how far you have travelled, in metres, and your lane |
| L | Announce your location on the track, how far from the start and how far to the finish |
| C | Announce where your car sits across the width of the road, for example 0.5 to 0.9 metres, and your lane |
| Alt+C | How many cars are in your lane, as a bare number |
| Alt+1, Alt+2, Alt+3 | How many cars are in lane 1, 2 or 3 |
| T | Announce the time remaining in the race |
| H | Announce your car's health |
| Alt+H | Read your car's condition: fuel, brakes, tyres, oil, headlight and spares. Only with the car stopped |
| Alt+F | Announce the fuel left in the tank, in percent. Works at any time |
| Shift+Backquote | Take a loan of coins. The backquote is the key to the left of the number 1. See section five |
| N | Announce nearby cars within 7.5 metres, with their distance and their place on the road |
| F | Announce the two cars ahead of you, their distance and their place on the road. In a race, your own lane only |
| B | Announce the two cars behind you, the same way |
| Alt+A | In an internet race, the two nearest cars ahead of you in the other lanes, with their lane named |
| Alt+Z | In an internet race, the two nearest cars behind you in the other lanes, the same way |
| W | Announce the closest car on your left, where it sits beside you and how far it has travelled |
| E | Announce the closest car on your right, the same way |
| A | Would driving dead straight strike a car ahead? Answers Careful or Clear, nothing more |
| R | Announce the nearest turn, U-turn or tunnel ahead. Turns and U-turns give a distance only within 150 metres |
| Z | Announce your own current race position, works in every mode |
| 1 to 9 | Announce a specific car by its fixed grid number, its place and how far it has travelled. In internet multiplayer the number is the race position instead, so 1 always tells you who is leading |
| P | Pause or resume the race. Single player only |
| Escape | Exit the race, after a Yes or No question |
A note on distances. Everything the game speaks to you is in metres, or in kilometres once the distance passes one kilometre. Short distances keep one decimal place, so a car three tenths of a metre ahead is announced as 0.3 metres rather than being rounded away to nothing. One tile is 10 centimetres. The road is six metres wide from edge to edge and your car is 0.5 metres wide and 0.7 metres long, so a position of 0.5 to 0.9 metres means your car is sitting near the left edge. The game announces the road width and your car size again at the start of every race.
Part five: The shop road, reached with Go to Shop
The shop road is a real place. It is ten kilometres long and three metres wide, with no lanes and no finish line. Every kilometre there is a showroom with a garage beside it, and half a kilometre on, on the other side of the road, a fuel station. The road has five corners. Its two ends join at the parking zone, a fifty by twenty metre yard, so driving straight on brings you round to where you began. Your car starts wherever you last left it, and it stays there when you leave: at the kerb, in the parking zone, or standing in the road, which costs 2 coins.
In the car
In the car you drive with exactly the race keys from parts three and four. Only these are different or new:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Up, Down, Left or Right | Standing beside the car at the start, before you have pressed O, any arrow walks away from the car on foot instead |
| O, L and Up | Getting going. O gets you into the car, one press. L locks the door. Up, once the door is locked, starts the engine. Until the engine is started, O gets you straight out again, whether the door is locked or not |
| Shift+Left or Shift+Right | Steer. Every press is 15 degrees, at any speed and even stopped. Keep steering past 90 degrees on the straight and the car turns right round, and you drive back the way you came. Turned round, left and right are your own: what was on your right is now on your left, and the speakers, the corner calls and every key follow you |
| O | Stop first, then O gets you out of the car. The car is left exactly here. Kill the engine first with Alt+K and it is off: back in, lock the door and press Up. Leave it running and it keeps idling where it stands, burning fuel, and you and everyone near hear it, quieter the further away. Back at a running car you left open, stand right against it and press L: you are in, the door is locked, and you can drive away at once |
| T | How far the place you are tracking is, and whether it is ahead or behind. For the parking zone both ways are given |
| Alt+L | Choose what to track: a showroom, a garage, a fuel station or the parking zone. It locks onto the next one ahead and stays on it |
| M | Find the nearest door within ten metres, and which side of the road it is on |
| Alt+Shift+R | Stopped and short of fuel? A robot brings fuel from the nearest station. Type how many percent of a tank you want and press Enter. It costs the fuel plus 2 coins for the sending |
| 1 to 9 | A car by its number: which way it is going and how far off it is |
| Escape | Leave the shop road, after a Yes or No question |
As you come within 150 metres of a place you hear it, in the speaker on its side of the road, louder as you get closer, and it is announced once. Everything else, the gears, the brakes, the horn, the booster, the loan, the fuel and condition keys, F, B, N, A, R, W, E, C and I, works on the shop road as it does in a race. Here the inventory only tells you where each of your cars is standing; you change car by walking to it and pressing O.
The shop road is shared. When you are signed in online, everyone on the shop road at the same time is on the same road with you. You hear "Rupom arrived on the shop road" and "Rupom left the shop road" once each. Their cars drive past you, and F, B and N call every car by its owner and its name, for example "Rupom's BD71 Racing Car", or "Rupom's Standard Car, parked" for one standing still. Every car every player owns is on the ground somewhere: where they left it on the road, at a kerb or in the middle, or in the parking zone, where each player has bays of their own. Drive and walk round them with care, in the zone too. When a player gets out, or changes to another of their cars, the car they left stands exactly there for everyone. Horns are heard by everyone near, on the side the car is, and the traffic sounds its horn at whoever is in its way. The traffic is the same traffic for everyone, with the same names, and it keeps moving while you walk or shop, so take care on foot: a moving car can hit you. On foot you hear the engines of the two nearest moving cars, where they are, and the footsteps of other players walking within 10 metres. Inside a car you hear no footsteps. Alt+Left or Alt+Right in the car signals: you hear it on that side, and every player within 10 metres in front of you or behind you hears it on the side you are moving toward, as seen from where they are, with "Your name signalling left". On the shop road the signal is never charged.
On foot
One arrow press is one step of one tile, 10 centimetres, and holding an arrow runs at two steps a second, sixty steps in half a minute. Up walks the way the car was facing, Down walks back, Left and Right step across the road. You hear a footstep for every step, in the speaker of the side of the road you are on. Be careful of the traffic; a car can knock you down. Every car is solid, from every side: you cannot walk through or over one, you are told which car is in your way, and you walk round it.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Up and Down arrows | Walk along the road, one step a press. Hold to run |
| Left and Right | Step across the road, one tile a press. Hold to run |
| O | Standing right against your car, on any side, get in, one press. At another car of your own, get into that one instead, and it becomes the car you drive. Away from it, O says how many steps your car is |
| L | Lock your car from outside, from right beside it up to 3 steps away |
| Enter | At a showroom or garage door, go inside. At the fuel station, speak to the pump attendant. You have to be on the building's side of the road, within two metres of the door or the pump |
| M | Find the nearest door or the pump attendant, with the distance, ahead or behind, and which side |
| T | How far the tracked place is |
| Alt+L | Choose what to track |
| R | The nearest place, how many steps back your car is, and the next corner |
| F, B, N | The cars ahead, behind and near you, exactly as in the car |
| C | How many coins you have |
| Alt+F | Fuel in the tank, in percent |
| Alt+H | Your car's condition |
| H | Your health |
| Shift+Backquote | Take a loan |
There is no Escape and no inventory on foot. O at your car is the way back.
Inside a showroom or a garage
The room is a corridor with the counter at the far end, twenty steps in a showroom and forty in a garage. The door sound stays behind you, quieter the further in you go:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Up and Down arrows | Walk toward the counter or back to the door. The wall sound tells you when you have reached the counter |
| Left and Right | Step across the room |
| M or R | Where the salesman or the mechanic is |
| Enter | At the counter, speak to them. At the door, go out. Anywhere else, how many steps each way |
There is no shortcut out. Walk back to the door and press Enter.
At the counter and the fuel pump
Every counter is a spoken menu: Up and Down read the options, Enter takes the one you are on, Backspace or Escape walks away.
The showroom sells cars, for coins, and spare parts, which go into your boot. A car you buy is brought round to the kerb outside; you are asked whether to drive it away now, with Y or N, and whether the showroom should park your old car at the parking zone.
The garage fits the spare parts you bought, for a fitting fee. It sells no fuel; fuel is at the fuel station. Your car must stand within two metres of the garage door to be worked on; if it is further away, you are asked to bring it closer. A job takes up to three minutes. Press H while you wait to hear how long is left.
The pump attendant has two options. Refill now fills the car standing at the pump: type how many percent of a tank you want, from 1 to 100, and press Enter, or type C for a can of fuel to carry back to a car that ran dry. Request for sending fuel is for a car that is away from the pump: type the percent, and you ride out to your car in a delivery car for 2 coins on top of the fuel. While riding, R says how far is left to go and H your health. A can is emptied into the tank when you press O at your car.
Race modes and race types
Race modes describe who you are racing against and how you connect:
- Single Player
- You against computer controlled cars. Choose this from the Main Menu, or reach the same thing quickly through Offline Mode from the welcome screen if you just want to play without an account.
- Multiplayer
- Race real people over the internet. You can host your own room or join someone else's. This requires a logged in account and an internet connection.
- Local Server
- Race real people on the same Wi-Fi network or mobile hotspot as you, with no internet connection required at all. Good for racing friends in the same house or the same place.
- Offline Mode
- Reached from the welcome screen without registering. It plays exactly like Single Player, against computer controlled cars, and does not need an internet connection or a saved account.
Race types describe how long the race is and its format. The same six race types are offered in every mode:
- 5 Minutes Race, 15 Minutes Race, 30 Minutes Race, and 60 Minutes Race
- Timed races over four different track lengths, roughly 6, 18, 35, and 70 kilometres respectively, giving you a short sprint all the way up to a long endurance race.
- Quick Race
- A short, fast race for a quick session.
After choosing a race type in Single Player, you also choose a difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Hard. All three steer with the same curve keys described in section three; on Easy the car does most of the corner for you, on Medium half, and on Hard you steer the whole corner yourself with the finest steps. In Multiplayer and Local Server, the race type and difficulty are chosen once by the host and shared by everyone in the room.
Go to Shop is not a race type. It takes you straight onto the shop road with no race type and no difficulty to choose.
Other things worth knowing
- Leaderboards
- The Leaderboard screen keeps several kinds of worldwide records, including total wins, top speed, tournament champions, and a Fastest Human board. Fastest Human tracks the shortest time anyone has taken to actually cross the finish line, kept separately for Single Player and Multiplayer, and separately for each of the four timed race lengths. Only a genuine finish counts, running out the clock or crashing out never earns a time, and only a faster run ever replaces an older one.
- Coins, cars, fuel and loans
- Every race you finish pays coins, ten for every point it earns you. Coins buy cars and spare parts at a showroom, fitting at a garage, and fuel at a fuel station. Fuel is sold by the litre: every tank holds 15 litres, a full one is 15 coins at the starting price of 1 coin a litre, and it lasts about 90 kilometres in the Standard Car and further in a better one, and fuel carries over from race to race, so keep an ear on Alt+F: an empty tank stops the car. Brake pads, tyres and oil wear with use, and Alt+H reads their state. The headlight never wears out: three hard front hits break it, into another car or into a wall, on the shop road too. After that, you are asked once before every match to change it, and every match costs 2 coins until a new one is fitted. The match it breaks in is free, unless it broke on the shop road. Changing lanes through a wall opening without signalling first costs 3 coins, in Single Player and Internet races. Near a turn or a U-turn it is never charged. You can borrow with Shift+Backquote: up to 300 coins owed at once, and the loan repays itself, 2 coins out of every 10 you are paid, once you hold at least 10. Half of a loan has to be repaid before you can borrow again.
- Chat and messages
- Paging back through messages with Page Up and Page Down only ever reads the conversation you currently have open, never a different one. Use Shift+Home and Shift+End to move between your different private conversations if you are talking with more than one person.
- Tournaments
- Any logged in player can enter a tournament. Hosting one requires a Tournament Hosting token, purchased through Buy Tokens or activated through Activate Token. Joining a tournament someone else is hosting does not require a token, but a paid tournament requires an entry pass.
- Accessibility Settings
- Screen Reader Narration and Global Chat Announcements can both be switched on or off at any time from the Main Menu, under Accessibility Settings. If you are new to the game, Learning Sounds in the Main Menu is a good place to listen to the sound cues used throughout the game before your first race, and Speaker Test lets you confirm your audio is working before you start.
- Race Master has been built and tested with NVDA, and is designed to work smoothly with screen readers in general.