rec.autos.simulators

Somebody back me up on this before I'm considered a total loon.

I'm not sure that the game was Chequered Flag but it was on the Sinclair
Spectrum (I can remember the *** keyboard on the lid) and the year was
about 1983. I haven't got my Spectrum any more but I'll try and investigate
further.....

Andy.

I then bought Crammond's GP1, but couldn't get it to run on my Amiga -
it only had 512K of RAM.  When I later bought a PC (a Pentium 100) in
1995, I finally got GP1 (called "World Circuits" here in the U.S.) and
loved it.  I bought GP2 the day it came out and played it to death,
although with my lowly P100 I had to settle for VGA mode to get a good
frame rate.

When I upgraded to a 400 MHz P2 with a Voodoo 2 in August, I bought
F1RS.  In spite of the nice 3D graphics, it never felt quite as good as
GP2.

I also bought GPL the day it came out and haven't played anything else
since.  This sim just feels so great to drive.  Amazing stuff.

Dave Ewing

|
|How about the old Atari arcade game, "Night Driving" (I think that was
|what it was called)?  Or the original classic, "Pole Position"??  Do
|those count, or are we just talking computer-based sims?
|
|-- JB
|
|>I was just wondering what the exact date for the anniversary / birthday of
sim
|>racing is?
|>
|>Is it maybe the release date of "Indy 500, the Simulation" or is it
earlier
|>than that? I suspect we're going back to the mid-late 80's here. What was
the
|>first ever sim which was as popular as GPL?
|>
|>I think that since sim racing was born these have been the most popular
(ie.
|>have had dozens of web pages dedicated to them, including racing leagues,
|>utilities and addons)
|>
|>GPL: 1998
|>NASCAR Racing One/Two/1999: 1994/1996/1998
|>F1GP2: 1996
|>F1GP: 1991(?)
|>IndyCar Racing One & Two: 1993/1995
|>Indy 500, the Simulation?: 1988(??)
|>
|>Is there anyone here who was racing and practicing 24 hrs a day any
particular
|>sim 10 years ago, in the same way we all do now? :)
|>
|>Maybe we can try to put an exact date on Sim Racings birthday and cebrate
it
|>sometimes. I think we may have even missed it's 10th birthday! 10 YEARS!
|>
|>What will we be racing in 2040?
|>
|>Rob
|

|[snip]
|>Is there anyone here who was racing and practicing 24 hrs a day any
particular
|>sim 10 years ago, in the same way we all do now? :)
|
|
|Well, I had played the original '76 Atari "Night Driver" in the arcades, as
well as
|a few games that played a movie that shifted according to the track and
your
|steering wheel input (can't remember the names)
|
|Indianapolis 500 was a major motivator for me to defect from the Mac ranks
|and go PC. I wouldn't say I played it 24hrs a day, but I played it quite
religiously
|at the time.
|
|>Maybe we can try to put an exact date on Sim Racings birthday and cebrate
it
|>sometimes. I think we may have even missed it's 10th birthday! 10 YEARS!
|
|Oi! I hadn't realized it had been that long! Yikes!
|
|>What will we be racing in 2040?
|
|
|Heh. If I'm still around then, I suspect that the racing games will be
quite amazing.
|Look how far we've come in ten years! Heck, by 2010 we'll probably have
|accomplished photorealistic graphics, have at least a few sims with
virtually
|perfect physics models, and who knows what else?
|
|The only problem is that some things won't have improved much. The "feel"
will
|always be imperfect at best, and I have my doubts about AI ever getting to
the
|point where you can't tell the difference between human and computer
drivers.
|Either way, the journey should be great fun, and I'm glad I'm around to
enjoy it. =)
|
|Neil M.
|
|
|
|

Later,
John

% lol - nope it's true !

% Somebody back me up on this before I'm considered a total loon.

% I'm not sure that the game was Chequered Flag but it was on the Sinclair
% Spectrum (I can remember the *** keyboard on the lid) and the year was
% about 1983. I haven't got my Spectrum any more but I'll try and investigate
% further.....

I vaguely remember some such method of controlling the car via (a tuna
can in the States).  There were also some "joystick" devices which one
could place over the keys to accomplish the same thing in other games as
well.

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

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

Well, my first racing sim (as opposed to arcade game) was Indy 500 in
(I'm guessing) 1991 or so.  I spent days practicing it.  Thing is, I
was never able to finish a full-length race.  I always ran into one of
those damn back markers that ran like 60 mph off the pace.  I think my
record distance in that game was around 150 laps.

---
Jet Jaguar
I have a spam blocking address.  Replying to me is like pulling teeth.
Visit my crappy home page at http://home.att.net/~chmilnir/
MSTie #54297

35,000 BTU's of propane-fired fury.

10 years ago?  How about 15... perhaps almost 20!

Anyone else remember Night Driver for the Atari 2600?  Or Indy 500?  (Indy
500 */came with/* steering controllers that had unlimited rotational
mobility - no steering stops like the paddle controls).   I think there was
also a game called Street Racer, but I'm not so sure about this one.  These
must have been out around 1981 or 1982.

A year or two later Activision came out with Grand Prix and Dragster for the
same platform that were a */huge/* leap forward in terms of graphics quality
(8 to 16 colors instead of just 4).

These are the ones that got me started.

I can't tell you how many hours I spent playing those racing "sims".

--
Steve Couture

Andy.

birthday of sim racing was .... with Gpl
other was game.

bye
M. 2fast4u Giorgio

Plus, if memory serves, I think Indy 500 came out in 1990. I can't remember
though. As far as the anniversary, I'd go by the date that the first sim came out
for computer, as I have yet to see a simulation come out on console. (Then again,
I might be wrong.)

My first experience? The hand held motorized racing game from Radio
Shack. You had a Grand Prix car and other cars would slide toward you
on the track.
Then I upgraded to Pole Position on the Atari 2600

--
-Gunslinger-

My first racing game may well have been Cassette #4 on Videopac,
driving around in bird's eye view on a small track using 1 bit colored
cars. ;-)
The one in my mind as favorite of all time was Intellivision's Auto
Racing. Great stuff, with lots of freedom. It will probably suck once
I replay it NOW.
And Night Rider, with those black & white road indicators coming at
you. Wow, really 3D!
Real stuff happened when Revs came out. That was real racing.
GPL rocks now.

My wheelchair probably ;-)

Ruud van Gaal
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