rec.autos.simulators

I'm new to this group and have some questions:

1) What are the best simulators that run decently on a 486/66?
   As a benchmark, IndyCar (1) runs great on my machine. "Whiplash"
   only runs well in a small-screen mode. I have VESA local video,
   8MB RAM, an NO Win95.

2) How do simulators for the Playstation compare to PC simluators?
   Seeing as how my PC is a dinosaur, and a Playstation costs less
   than most 3D accelerator cards for a PC (assuming I even had a
   PC that would benefit from one), I'm thinking of going that route.

3) Is there a "crack" for IndyCar that gets rid of the manual look up?
   I bought game (when it was full price and came on floppies! :) )
   and I'm sick of the stupid lookup everytime I start it.

Thanks.  Please e-mail (see below) if you can.  Our news server has
stopped receiving new messages for who knows how long.

--

Visit the Classic Home Games Museum at http://www.racesimcentral.net/~brownde/museum

     Your just about out of luck. I originally ran ICR2 on a 486/100-4
with 8 MB of ram,and had to turn off most of the graphics to get
decent frame rate. My old machine also was Vesa Local Bus,nothing
really is made for this anymore,everything is PCI. I run ICR2 and
Nascar2 in MS-DOS,but just about everything else is Windows based.

     Simulators for Playstation are pretty good. My son has
Playstation,and we just go him a wheel combo. But there not in the
same league with the PC versions,especially in setups and options.

I really don't ;understand your question

I would save up and buy a decent P166 setup with a min of 32 MB of
RAM. You should shop around. With all the super new computers coming
out for christmas,P200 and up,many stores have great deals on older
units just to clear them out. You could most likely get a P166 system
complete for under $1000.

Good luck

Joel Willstein

To answer your second question first, I've seen several programs that
claimed to be able to crack the manual lookup for Indy 500, but none of
them seem to do anything.  You're right, the manual lookup was annoying,
but it's a common (older) method of copy protection...  For those who
aren't familiar with the game, when started it asked you a question from
the manual and you had to type in the correct answer.  (i.e.  Last name of
the 1923 Indy 500 winner?)

For your first question, Joel's right.  You're running on a machine that's
at least 3- or 4-year-old technology, relatively little RAM, and an older
operating system.  Most of the Papyrus games (Nascar1/2 and ICR1/2) should
run, though you'll probably have to greatly reduce the detail, particularly
on version 2 of both games.  My father-in-law has a 486/66 with 16MB, and
he runs Nascar1 with about half of the detail options turned off.  There
are a few other older games that might run, but you probably won't be real
happy with them or their performance.  (i.e. NFS, Power F1, etc.)  
--
============
Kurtis Miller

Without upgrading at all, try the ORIGINAL Indy Car Racing (available almost
everwhere for $10-$15.  Also try the original Need For Speed SE, available
everwhere for $15 (old 'puter = old software = bargain prices!)

You can rent a Playstation at BlockBuster and try it out for yourself.  Try
Formula 1 CE, CART World Series and NFS V-Rally.  IMHO, adding a 3dfx card to a
486 won't let you play much more.  Most games require Pentium these days even
with 3dfx.  The above games are, again IMHO, the best driving SIMS on the PSX
(though certainly less "sim-like" than a computer sim) and are a blast to play.
 There are also tons of driving GAMES, but I prefer the sims.

This is the single-most annoying form of copy-protection since
non-standard floppy tracks from the old 8-bit days...
</rant>

There, an anti-Papyrus post to quell the rumors that I'm their
stoolie... :-)

--Jim