rec.autos.simulators

: >I was just thinking the same thing.  With the new interest generated by
: >the Rendition version, we need the final big bugs squashed in ICR2.
: >
: I believe that based on the announcement by CART regarding an
: exclusive software license with Sony, Papyrus has lost all business
: justification for working on subsequent IndyCar
: releases/patches/utilities/fixes.  You can read the news yourself in
: the news section of www.cart.com and I believe the release was
: approximately one month ago under a heading regarding a new marketing
: consultant agreement.

First, I believe Papyrus/Sierra can "fix" their broken code for ICR2
without violating any license agreements.  I also think it is in
Sierra/Papyrus' best interest to provide the cleanest & finished product
as possible.  Take a look at the number of people who are not planning
on buying a GP3 if it does materialize.  They are not happy with
"broken" parts of GP2 and don't want to further promote "broken"
software.  There are still some major broken parts in ICR2 which totally
destroy the "race-ability" of certain tracks.  These are bugs, not
missing features we are talking about here.

As to Sony & CART's agreement.  If you go back and read the
announcement, I believe it said "exclusive _video_game_ rights".  This
could be read to mean that the "computer game platform" rights might
still be available.  But, not having read the official agreement this is
pure speculation based on the "wording" of the announcement.

--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
     Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./.  [-  < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

   Sad if its true, but I guess we've all got to move on...  Papyrus
to other racing venues and their IndyCar consumers to other software
publishers.  :(

Before you send me UCE, I know what you're thinking...  Did he complain
to five or six postmasters last month?  Now, you must ask yourself one
question: "Do I feel lucky?"  Well, do you, punk?

Mike

Well, it looks as though the smoke-screen is begining to clear...I jusy
got
some news from a reliable source (still rumor, not documented fact) that
Papyrus was out-maneuvered again - this time, on the Indy-front.  All of
Papyrus' rights to IndyCar (or CART) will have expired by Dec of this
year,
so no new patches, upgrades, etc.  Basically, what you've all been posting
anyway.

This could be the reason they're doing a '67-68 F1 sim, and a
stadium-truck
type thing...No one else wants it, and may have been the only thing they
could get the rights to...at least, the only ones they've actively
pursued.

Papyrus needs to take a hard-look at their marketing group...At one time,
they were the leaders in this area of racing sims...sort of the locomotive
on
a fast-moving freight train.  Now they're simply the caboose.  :(

Marc J. Nelson
Sim Racing News - USA
http://members.aol.com/simracing

Papyrus has soiled the nest with Tony George, so I don't think we'll be
seeing
Indianapolis anytime soon...

Marc J. Nelson
Sim Racing News - USA

<...>

Thanks

I've got NASCAR on the playstation; I love it, while I know many
scream about framrates. Fact is, there are things about it's rendering
that I don't even see in N2- particularly regarding driving line
rendering. But I don't think the AI is as good; I see less attacking
from behind than in the PC based NASCARs. Other than that, it is very
similar.

Now, a few months back I was begging Jim to push for an ICR2 port to
Playstation... I never did seem to get any replies on that. Perhaps
this Sony thing alread had taken this possibility out.

Playstation still isn't as good as a PC for auto simmers, but with
Psygnosis's F1 and NASCAR by Papy, and maybe even Andretti Racing, it
shows just how amazing it's early attempts at it are. The simmer
aesthetic just isn't there yet in the console world... it is still
about arcadish stuff. But I look forward to the day that the
Nintendo64 would have a Papy sim- can you imagine!?!? Be like running
on a SGI machine! I just don't want to see Mario on the track.

Randy

He has "Indianapolis: The Simulation", not the ICR Indianapolis track
expansion add-on.

Best Regards,

Marc

Marc J. Nelson
Sim Racing News - USA
http://members.aol.com/simracing

locomotive

Oh boy. I really thought that being part of Sierra would take care of the
big
money stuff like licensing. This really is a clusterphu#ck...

I think you are right BTW.

--
Header address intentionaly scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

Whoops! That would be a problem alright :-)

BTW, I got a 228 at indy the other night after a few hours of practice.
Hopefuly
I can get back to 235 which was my old record in the Origional
500-Simulation
game. Mostly thought I am looking to do some H2H with a friend :-)

--
Header address intentionaly scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

In what way did licensing fall by the wayside since the Sierra
acquisition in your opinion?

---Jim Sokoloff, Papyrus

--
Header address intentionaly scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

Either I didn't see the original question, or I chose not to answer
it, as I've never used the paintkit personally. (I'm about as artistic
as I am rich; not much of either...)

---Jim Sokoloff, Papyrus

The thing that makes NASCAR and Psyg's F1 good sims for me is that
they do such a complete job of recreating the tracks. In a "Rally
Cross" sim, I'm not sure what specific courses they'd be recreating.
or even what it is about.