rec.autos.simulators

I keep hearing you guys rant and rave about poor sound and no race save
option in Nascar 2.

I don't care about the sound because I usually turn my down so that I can
just hear it, because if I turn it loud my whole family yells at me to
TURN IT DOWN.  guess it gets annoying to them after about 30 minutes.  As
far as race save, I dont care about this either, because

1) easy way to cheat in Nascar1
2) I never used it but maybe 10 times to , you guessed it, CHEAT.

I know some of you may have legitiment reasons for wanting a race save
option, but i don't.

So what I'm really asking is, is N2 better than N1, and is it worth the
40-50 bucks I will have to shell out for it?  I mean does all the added
features that are in N2 make up for it's shortcomings?
Neil Owens

This depends on the following in my opinion :

- What you are looking for:  The graphics are excellent and spotter is a
great addition for both young and old.  For serious racers - the spotter is
very helpful.  For kids and entertainment value - the spotter is fun.  The
new menu system and setup page is much improved from NASCAR 1 - in my
opinion.  However, the driving physics are very different and I for one am
struggling to run up to speed at most of the tracks.  It is fun running at
Bristol and getting passed on both sides (yes - that is how slow I am - wow
??).  I personally had gotten used to the loose physics in Nascar Racing 1.
 Expect many hours of re-learning how to drive.

- Your hardware:  I was not happy with NASCAR Racing 2 at all until I
installed a P200 in what was a P120 system with an S3 VRAM adapter.  I
could not enable any graphics - so the new graphics were not a benefit.
Also, N2 seems to have just a touch slower frame rates than N1.  However,
if you have a Rendition video adapter - I hear the frame rates and 3D
effects are awesome.  I will try this soon - although I cannot use a
Rendition adapter full time until they get a Windows NT driver.  With P200
installed - NASCAR Racing 2 is more enjoyable.  There really are some great
effects in the new simulation.

- Your time and budget:  40-50 dollars is cheap relative to the big bucks
hardware required to run the simulation at 30fps.  You will be frustrated
at first learning to drive tracks that you excelled at before - the physics
are that different.  

- Your needs: I personally am having trouble with no save race weekend.  I
always randomize between qualifying and race to get some variation in the
game.  I think the element of surprise is important when you race against
computer opponents.  There is also a lot of work to do in order to get back
all the utilities and tracks etc. that I had worked up for NASCAR Racing 1.

Both NASCAR Racing 1 and NASCAR Racing 2 are fun sims.  If the spotter and
better graphics are important to you - and you have the PC capable of
running it - NASCAR Racing 2 is worth it.

/THansen

1)better tracks

2)more realistic handling

3) the car reacts as if it has the mega-horsepower the real NASCAR cars
have, the first time you floor it from a dead stop you understand what I
mean.

4) The spotter is greet

5) The graphics are alot better but I believe you need a rendition video
card to get the full benefit (mine should be arriving at my doorstep any
minute now)

6)The car setup process is MUCH improved, done all on one screen with a
place for comments and a print option

7) The computer controlled cars act alot more realistic- not like their
runnin on rails

8) The paintkit is 10X better than in N1.

Did I leave anything out????

Mick in Tampa
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Wayne

Yes, as one of those R&R people, I belive I still have a good game here.
The spotter is cool, until he goes spastic on you.  Sometimes he doesn't
seem to know where you are supposed to be on the track ( cautions ) and
when a big werck occurs, he seems to get stuck on the ' wreck in turn two
', or whatever turn it happens to be.  Ever since I upgraded my BIOS and
began to see some decent frame rates, yes, I like it fine.

Question here.  Has anyone noticed that if you floor the gas in ANY of the
gears it will burn the tires just like you were in first?  Or, have you
jammed the nose against the wall, and floored the gas to see if you could
blow the engine, but it just maxes out at around 8900.  Also, I displayed
the tire temps, and when jammed against the wall and spinning, the rear
tires do not get excessively hot.  In fact, they tend to cool down?

And you ask:  "  Why would you do a dumb thing like that anyway? ".
Because I wanted to see what would happen, that's why.

David

: Question here.  Has anyone noticed that if you floor the gas in ANY of the
: gears it will burn the tires just like you were in first?  Or, have you
: jammed the nose against the wall, and floored the gas to see if you could
: blow the engine, but it just maxes out at around 8900.  Also, I displayed
: the tire temps, and when jammed against the wall and spinning, the rear
: tires do not get excessively hot.  In fact, they tend to cool down?

Yea, I found the same, except I also found that you can jam the brakes
just after the wheels let go and you won't move either as the wheels spin
away. No tire warming though :(  or even gas usage. I let the car sit with
spinning wheels for about 5 minutes, still cool tires and no gas use.
There goes my idea of warming the back tires just before qual. :(

Matt

I see the wheelspin as designed to allow you to more quickly right the
car when you spin and come to rest backwards. I tried pretty hard to
keep it from being usable as a cheating crutch...

---Jim Sokoloff, Papyrus

Mick in Tampa
--
 ______________________________________________________________________
|                               |                 |       ____  ___ ___|
| Mike Schreiner                |CNSRL ADMIN.     |  ---\    / /   /__ |
|http://pages.prodigy.com/CNSRL |                 |    --\  / /---/_   |
| "Mick" on Hawaii              |Earnhardt Rules!!|      -\/ /   /     |
| "Mick_S" on Ten               |                 |             /      |
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ed

1. leaving the pits in a tight pit lane (i.e., full cars at Richmond
or Martinsville)

2. spun out on the track, especially in the groove. light the fire and
spin 'er around and get out of there!  in Nascar1 we all know how long
it took to "turn around"...

thanks again!

David Martin

Another fun thing to do is run the car in reverse, turn the wheel
sharply and spin the tires, you will do a perfect 180!  It's a great
move to turn around quickly and get going.

After reading the posts in this newsgroup for a week, I was finally
able to purchase a copy of N2 this weekend (it sold out at the
software shop 2 weekends in a row!) and was surprised how great a game
it is.  A few annoying bugs that are well documented in this group,
but I'm getting a slightly better framerate than N1 with cleaner
graphics and all those groovy improvements like the spotter.  
Definately an improvement!

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(D)inner not ready: (A)bort (R)etry (P)izza

I, too, really like the wheelspin, though it took some getting used to so
that I didn't come back and smash the cars ahead of me.  Hopefully, I'll
never have to back up again!

ChrisP