rec.autos.simulators

We've seen the actual box in the stores around Watertown as of yesterday
(Electronics Boutique). It has all three versions in the box (DOS, Win95,
Mac). I was impressed, considering that we only received the test silver
on Saturday.

Rick Genter
Technical Lead, IndyCar Racing II
Sierra On-Line, Inc.

Andy
http://www.racesimcentral.net/~ridger
Kali/***/Nascar

Damn...some companies shouldn't be allowed to have web pages... :(

Neil
--
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel..

       Neil Yeatman, Ajax, Ontario, CANADA

        Karl
        Team 'Dobe'
        Nass 96

Riiiiiight. So a guy who bought it today gets the full unbugged DOS
version, yet I who gave over my money 8 months ago am still unable to
make realistic races due to the plethora of bugs?

Nice to know where you stand.....

Cheers!
John (A little annoyed, but maintaining a perspective)

                      _________________________________
          __    _____|                                 |_____    __
_________|  |__|    :|          John Wallace           |     |__|  |_________

  \     :|  |::|    :|       Team WW Racing TSW        |     |::|  |      /
    >   :|  |::|    :|_________________________________|     |::|  |    <
  /     :|__|::|____:/         Sim Racing News         \.____|::|__|      \
/_______:/  \::/ http://sneezy.dcn.ed.ac.uk/simnews/index.htm\::/  \._______\

Ed Martin
Producer, Series Director
NASCAR Racing League
Papyrus / Sierra On-Line, Inc.

: So the game is out and in stores.  http://www.sierra.com/papy/icrii.htm
: still says "Coming Soon".  So what chance is there that they'll put the
: patch out there if they can't even announce the commercial release of
: their long awaited Win95/Mac version on their web page?

: Damn...some companies shouldn't be allowed to have web pages... :(

To make matters works Sierra's ftp site doesn't have a single Papyrus
file at all.  None of the earlier NASCAR, ICR or ICR2 patches exist at
ftp://ftp.sierra.com

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

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

I think the NASCAR patch is there too, but the only reason I remember the ICR1
patch distinctly is that every day for the past week I've done a Netscape word
search for "indy" on that page to find the ICR2 patch and it always takes me to
the ICR1 v1.04 patch.  :-(

--
+------------------+--------------------------------------------+
|  G. Warren Abao  | Official BBL Jacksonville Jaguars Website: |

+------------------++------------------------+------------------+
| SPOOOOOOOOOOON!!! |  BBL Jacksonville 9-7  | IFL Chicago 8-6  |
+-------------------+------------------------+------------------+

Gene

Well, I was one of those who just cannot wait for anything, so I went to
my local Electronics Boutique and bought the Win95/MAC/DOS patched
version of ICR2.

I don't know how to say this, but the Win95 version is almost totally
unplayable! The Windows menus and mouse control do make it easier to
navigate the assorted options and settings, but this in itself cannot
make up for the performance. And this is on a system with a 166MHz
Pentium, 16MB EDO RAM, 512K PB cache, Matrox Millenium 2 MB WRAM
(retail version) card using the latest ver. 3.01 amd DirectX drivers,
and a Thrustamster ACM card with a T2. The frame rate that it is
displayed on the screen stays between 23-32 fps in SVGA, depending on
the track, with everything on but asphalt and grass textures. But you
would think that it is only getting around 10 fps if you saw it. I'm not
sure what the problem is, but I know that the hard drive is not being
accessed the majority of the time (usually only at the start of practice
when I pull out of the pits). The main problem that I see is in the
delayed action of the controls, as everything seems to lag before an
action takes place. It seems as if everything seems to happen in slow
motion. And sometimes, right before a turn usually, the hard drive takes
a hit, the screen freezes, and 2 seconds later you are in the wall. Not
fun.

I know that I don't have the fastest system around, but you would think
that the Win95 version would run without too many hiccups on it. As was
stated in a previous post, I cannot see how Papyrus/Sierra could release
this in the state that it is in.

Well, on to the DOS version 1.0.1--

With this, you now get the frame rate displayed at the lower left hand
of the screen, just as in the Win95 version. On both versions, the light
that used to only indicate low fuel now does its job of indicating the
redline. I've found this to be very helpful. The cars do not suddenly
slow down at the start at Michigan anymore, but I still think that the
AI cars brake a little too early at Pheonix (although this very well may
be my driving style). I had noticed most of the previous yellow flag
bugs at Cleveland, but during a race there last night none of the usual
weird occurances happened, so I presume that it is also cured.

As far as the traction\grip bug is concerned, I personally noticed a
difference immediatley. The car did not push as bad as it originally
did, and felt more secure during cornering at the ovals. But now, after
a few hard laps, the car will suddenly break into an immediate oversteer
without warning. It definitley helps to do some anti-roll bar adjusting
here. Also, there are now 3 qualifying setups included-QUALACE,
QUALFAST, and QUALEASY. The QUALACE setups seem very fast and
competitive, especially at Michigan.

I don't have a MAC, so we'll have to wait for someone else's review on
that one!

One more thing about the DOS version\patch that is mentioned in the
readme file-if you have a mouse driver loaded or present in MS-DOS mode,
when you try to set controls it will only detect the mouse for any of
the functions (even if you have calibrated your wheel\joystick). I had
to disconnect my mouse before the game was loaded, get the controls set,
and then I could finally play. Hooking the mouse back up later is OK, as
the controls configuration is already set. This is a minor
inconvenience, yet I don't know why they would let this through.

In conclusion, I personally (and this is MY opinion), do not see any of
an advantage to buying the Win95 version of ICR2. Although the improved
menu options are nice, does that really take more importance over the
gameplay? I think not.

Be smart-wait for the DOS patch at the end of this week(hopefully), and
forget about the Win95 version until they find a definite way to improve
the performance and playability.

Thanks for listening, and I hope this helps in someone's decisions....

Eric Giles

Thanks for the W95 & DOS patch review, the "Mouse" issue is troubling
though.
I will SKIP the W95 version and go straight to the DOS patch.

Shawn in Cleveland