rec.autos.simulators

From memory, nicknames such as pjgtech, batchie, stownsend, and a few
others come to mind. They were all in the UK. They should remember me
if they are around :-)

We were one of those "mad monk squadrons" that lowered the laptimes in
GP2 by an amount disbelieved by those who casually played the game - a
bit like what appears to have happened with GPL enthusiasts...

Anyway - just wondered what happened to them all!

JB

Jonathan Beckett, Senior Developer
Nutek Services Ltd.

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Maybe interesting to compare those "incredible" times against some
current GP2 toptimes at  

www.lfrs.com

Sit down first   :-)

JoH

Are the tracks (at least the ones with the same names) the same
though? There are some anomolies - Brazil being a case in point. I was
way faster than any of the current qualifying times for Brazil (whole
seconds)

We were doing top five times in relation to those in 1995... with full
analogue and no assistance.

So you were GP2 beta tester?  <G> I think 1997 might be a better
estimate for a game that was released in the summer of '96.

Remember also that these times are not "unlimited trial" times. They
are just driven during one session for one race. Hotlap competitions
would have even faster times (nowadays checked against slowmotion
driving)

Make sure that you compare times to "open-setup" categories and not to
"mandatory setup" categories.

It's true that the last 2 years, modified tracks have been used
sometimes. Some are also checked against shortcutting corners now
(Monza...) And if a track is used in another "position" than
originally, the times will differ. Don't recall the exact rules used
by LFRS lately so I don't know for the last season or so.

But of course you might have been fast already back then   :-)

JoH

It's difficult to compare because I don't know if the tracks you are
using are the same or not.

We were among the first to really become purists at doing quick laps
in strict conditions. Somewhere on the CIX servers the hotlaps survive
from those days... we did know about the qualifying power advantage,
and other such "assists" :-)

As to me being a beta tester - afraid not.

It's been probably three years now since I played GP2!

From memory, I was doing times something like the following in the
original game...
        Monaco   1:13.8 (qualifying)
        Brazil    1:14.3 (qualifying)
        Hungary    1:15.6 (qualifying)
        Spa    1:37.5 (qualifying)

It's been a long time... it'll be interesting to see how quickly I get
up to speed in GP3. I would love to get hold of a copy of Grand Prix
Legends too - see how I fair at that.

Those are very decent times for 3 years ago. The current records are
about 2.5-3s faster.

I assume this was a 1:47.5      :-)

Hotlap competitions typically use *practice* times (less HP), BTW.

JoH

8-)

And I'm still on CIX!

Most of the old faces are still here too, ajcook, batchie, djgibson,
andrew_mcp, stownsend, etc, etc. Fancy coming back and joining us?

8-)

*Peter* -  http://www.cix.co.uk/~peterpc/home.html

And I first played GP2 on a 486 dx4 100 in vga mode at about 15fps...

I've learnt my lesson though, and have a shiny steering wheel and pedals
now (two actually).

We were fast compared to most peeps on CIX, not sure about the rest of
the World though?

Happy days eh?

8-)

*Peter* -  http://www.cix.co.uk/~peterpc/home.html

Theres a good UK based GPL league too, (UKGPL -  link on my webpage)
with some real close racing. Up to 20 people on-line racing at once,
great fun! Pity it looks like GP3 will *not* have this feature, although
we may get a workaround as it supports IPX?

8-)

*Peter* -  http://www.cix.co.uk/~peterpc/home.html