[Oztoob]

After having received the N-Digital Master track set for a surprise Xmas present I set it up and here is my initial impressions. Firstly I was under the impression that it came with a sturdy plastic storage box, but all I got was the cardboard box it came in. Secondly, the instructions are terrible. Just setting the track up took a while as it does not come with a detailed piece by piece description of what goes where. I grabbed the small track map in the box only to discover after putting together about 5 pieces that it referred to the old Master Track design. Why was this even in the box? I eventually used the picture on the outside of the box. The instructions for using the different race modes and such is also terrible and I guess it will be a matter of working it out for yourself with trial and error. After throwing a chip in one of my cars ( Scalextric Porsche ) I tried out the track. The amatuer mode is OK and the proffesional mode is much faster but very uncontrollable I found. With a magnet in it would be better. I had to go around at quite a few track joins and bend out the rather flimsy plastic lining that the guide runs in. At many joins it bends in and will actually jam the car to a near stop. I am also having trouble with the double crossover bend section. The cars come into this piece and come to a dead stop as the guide again hits the inner plastic lining at the lane change section. Not very impressed so far. After about only 10 minutes of trying the lane change feature I looked at the button on the back of the contoller to find all the matt black paint on the controller was coming off onto my finger. Spanish quality at its best!!! Lastly is the dead spot system used to trigger lane changes. What a pain this is. If you happen to come around a corner a bit slow near a lane change the car just stops dead and requires a push to get going again. I guess the idea is to have lane change sections only on fast sections of track. I belive SCX doesnt have this system and Im not sure about Carrera or SSD. The track pieces are very soft and bumpy I find. It is not smooth going on Ninco track that is for sure. The family member obviously bought me Ninco as I have spoken about it mostly for the past 6 months or so but I think in hind sight that Carrera might have been the go, or possibly not even digital, as it seems it may not have all the bugs worked out yet. I will keep playing around with it and see if I can iron out the litle problems so far.

 

[Oztoob]

Hi mfogg. Im certainly not going to light the fuse just yet and considering I got the lot for a gift I shouldn't complain so much. But considering what this system costs you should not have to go modifying things straight out of the box. The cardboard box I can live with. I was just under the impression that all large Ninco tracks came in a plastic carry case. No big deal. The instructions for track set up and race modes is very bad and Ninco should improve that in the future. I think I will set up and alternate track design and see how that goes. The Master Track as is, does not lend itself well to digital racing. Anyway I will give it a try for a while and see how the lane changes go and see how different cars run on the track. I had a good look at Carrera track today at my local slot shop and cant believe how much better the rail liner is made on Carrera track. It is flawless. I also had a good drive on it with Carrera cars and loved it. So smooth!!! Actually every car from NSR, Scalextric, Ninco and Pioneer ran beautiful on Carrera. I was once told by the owner of a large store that Carrera is the "Rolls Royce" of slot car track and I can see why. Time will see if I stay with Ninco or sell up and swap to Carrera. Thanks again.