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Tim Wheatley
Guest
I really like that engine at the time. It was great in NASCAR Heat (the first one), too!
Savoury
Moderator
After reading Tim's post, I have come to a rather world altering realisation..
Many truly iconic snaps have captured important moments in our history.. the lone protestor facing down the tanks in Tiananmen Square, the US Marines raising the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima, Earthrise from the lunar surface etc.
Meh.. this photograph is the single most important in all of human history!
Many truly iconic snaps have captured important moments in our history.. the lone protestor facing down the tanks in Tiananmen Square, the US Marines raising the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima, Earthrise from the lunar surface etc.
Meh.. this photograph is the single most important in all of human history!
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Tim Wheatley
Guest
It’s the three retro PCs I built over the weekend sat in front of the shelves, isn’t it?After reading Tim's post, I have come to a rather world altering realisation..
Many truly iconic snaps have captured important moments in our history.. the lone protestor facing down the tanks in Tiananmen Square, the US Marines raising the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima, Earthrise from the lunar surface etc.
Meh.. this photograph is the single most important in all of human history!
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Austin
Guest
What's the phrase people are using nowadays? Viper Racing walked, so many other sims could run?
This would have launched... 1998 - I would have been in first grade but definitely had the demo. One of the first "six degrees of freedom" sims, it was GPL without the difficulty, featuring one of the coolest cars of all time, and I believe had vertex-based damage. Fun to drive, fun to crash in, the pinnacle of 90's marketing. Monster's second release refined this into the original NASCAR Heat, which beat Papyrus to a 6 DOF NASCAR game by about six months.
Heat ended up being modded for years (and still is to this day!), with the engine going on to power the cult classic Dirt to Daytona on consoles, and then two years later Test Drive: Eve of Destruction, which was a hit-to-pass simulator. Yes, that racing actually exists in reality, called different things in different places.
As Andy alluded to, we're on Viper Racing 12 or 13 at this point - you likely know it by it's commercial name of SRX: The Game, or World of Outlaws '24.
Mad Al
Active member
At this point I should probably ask the simple question...
A lot of these games are now abandonware and so in theory can be downloaded and played without having to pay.
The question is, would it be OK to post known safe sources for these to be downloaded, known sites for good mods, etc ?
A lot of these games are now abandonware and so in theory can be downloaded and played without having to pay.
The question is, would it be OK to post known safe sources for these to be downloaded, known sites for good mods, etc ?
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Tim Wheatley
Guest
There are sites where you can play them in browser in some cases. In others, I think as a forum rule we wouldn't want people to direct link. In most cases you can just say things can be found on archive.org. Without direct linking. Then it's up to the Internet Archive to police their site.
It doesn't seem to happen in sim racing with licenses, but a lot of old games are being republished (gog, even steam, look also at things like the Tomb Raider remastered titles), so the 'abandonware' status absolutely can change.
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Austin
Guest
Let's see how obscure we can go.
Being from a drag racing family, I owned both Burnout Championship Drag Racing as well as NIRA which was basically a repackaging of the former that focused on the series which would become the Nopi Nationals. They aren't really drag racing sims, but rather engine building sims with a highly realistic drag racing component attached. You could almost consider it to be a 90's precursor to Automation. It's unfortunate they came at the end of MS-DOS's tenure, getting them to run on modern PC's isn't pleasant - though I think some guy packaged his install up as a "ready to go" thing complete with Dosbox configured + all officially released add-ons and texture updates. Was fun to come back to it as an adult and being able to understand at least some of what was going on in the setup menu.
One game I wished I got the chance to play was X-Car; had the demo for it but never saw it in stores. This was Bethesda's more mainstream attempt at breaking into the sim market - fantasy GT1 bodies, what we'd now consider a standard array of setup adjustments, and the ability to pick your engine, brake material, and fuel type. There were a mix of US-based circuits and fantasy tracks, some really obscure (for the time) picks like Lime Rock, Mid Ohio, & Thunderhill. I had this working on DOSBox with a wheel and was hoping to capture upscaled footage of a couple hotlaps, but DOSBox will stop recognizing my wheel completely for months at a time.
Both very cool relics from that special time in PC gaming where niche passion projects were greenlit and released with regularity. Even though I was young, I distinctly remember how exciting it was to log on to I think Adrenaline Vault and basically have a new racing game to try every couple of weeks.
Being from a drag racing family, I owned both Burnout Championship Drag Racing as well as NIRA which was basically a repackaging of the former that focused on the series which would become the Nopi Nationals. They aren't really drag racing sims, but rather engine building sims with a highly realistic drag racing component attached. You could almost consider it to be a 90's precursor to Automation. It's unfortunate they came at the end of MS-DOS's tenure, getting them to run on modern PC's isn't pleasant - though I think some guy packaged his install up as a "ready to go" thing complete with Dosbox configured + all officially released add-ons and texture updates. Was fun to come back to it as an adult and being able to understand at least some of what was going on in the setup menu.
One game I wished I got the chance to play was X-Car; had the demo for it but never saw it in stores. This was Bethesda's more mainstream attempt at breaking into the sim market - fantasy GT1 bodies, what we'd now consider a standard array of setup adjustments, and the ability to pick your engine, brake material, and fuel type. There were a mix of US-based circuits and fantasy tracks, some really obscure (for the time) picks like Lime Rock, Mid Ohio, & Thunderhill. I had this working on DOSBox with a wheel and was hoping to capture upscaled footage of a couple hotlaps, but DOSBox will stop recognizing my wheel completely for months at a time.
Both very cool relics from that special time in PC gaming where niche passion projects were greenlit and released with regularity. Even though I was young, I distinctly remember how exciting it was to log on to I think Adrenaline Vault and basically have a new racing game to try every couple of weeks.
Asturbo
Member
Nice thread !
I also started with Chequered Flag in Spectrum. What a great game from Psion. I still remember the 'Ferreti' and 'McFaster'
Then Wec Lemans, Continentac Circus, Stunt Car and the best in Spectrum was Niguel Mansell.
Then I moved to PC and the first proper sim was Indy 500. Then Indycar and Nascar, but my favorite was Geoff Crammond's GP series.
I treasure all the boxes and manuals that explained everything about the game, setups, engeniering (no internet to search in that ages).
It was incredible that Micropose released fully functional games without patches or updates that you could enjoy for years.
With the Grand Prix I learned that time is relative, because when you returned to MS-DOS, it tolds you "You have been playing for 7 hours and 46 minutes.". In 98 I bought my first wheel with FFB, thas was an incredible step forward. I also discovered online playing with a null modem cable to the serial port.
After many years with Grand Prix 4 (and all it mods), tried the Codemaster's F1 series, but I never liked. I recovered the enthusiasm for a simulator again with WDM thas was a breath of fresh air, but that's an story that almost all of you already know...
I also started with Chequered Flag in Spectrum. What a great game from Psion. I still remember the 'Ferreti' and 'McFaster'
Then Wec Lemans, Continentac Circus, Stunt Car and the best in Spectrum was Niguel Mansell.
Then I moved to PC and the first proper sim was Indy 500. Then Indycar and Nascar, but my favorite was Geoff Crammond's GP series.
I treasure all the boxes and manuals that explained everything about the game, setups, engeniering (no internet to search in that ages).
It was incredible that Micropose released fully functional games without patches or updates that you could enjoy for years.
With the Grand Prix I learned that time is relative, because when you returned to MS-DOS, it tolds you "You have been playing for 7 hours and 46 minutes.". In 98 I bought my first wheel with FFB, thas was an incredible step forward. I also discovered online playing with a null modem cable to the serial port.
After many years with Grand Prix 4 (and all it mods), tried the Codemaster's F1 series, but I never liked. I recovered the enthusiasm for a simulator again with WDM thas was a breath of fresh air, but that's an story that almost all of you already know...
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I remember starting with Chequered Flag on the ZX Spectrum. I had Crammond's F1GP on the Amiga after that. After I moved to a PC, it was Crammond's GP series all the way. I even made an editor for it in ´94 and uploaded it to some BBS and later on some internet site. I still have the source code. I believe that was before the windows based F1GPED. Couple of pictures from it below.
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Tim Wheatley
Guest
Very cool! I played F1GP on Amiga and it was F1GPEd that I used. It was on a coverdisk one day, randomly, and I later read that the author never actually allowed the magazine to release it. They did it without permission.
Your editor looks great. There were so many great 'home grown' programs. Did you know that many of the major edits to F1GP on Amiga (such as the mod for framerate that gave Amiga users access to the NTSC framerate on PAL machines) were by Grant Reeve? He went on to work at Papyrus, then iRacing.
Did any of you ever play this management game?
Attachments
Womp83
Well-known member
I never owned or played a lot of the titles i've seen you guys mention in here. Largely because all my gaming was done on console back in those days. And you'd be very hard pressed to find a sim racer on Super Nintendo or N64.. But i did have a few games on our pc at the time, and i have seen a few titles mentioned here that i had. So in no particular order:
Network Q RAC Rally Championship.
Probably the first proper rally title i ever played. It came bundled with a Madcatz wheel & pedals i got for a birthday or xmas in my youth. I quite enjoyed it, even though i wasn't that great at it. I actually found the instruction book for this in a drawer of the computer desk just recently. Step 2 will be tracking down the disk. I know it's here somewhere.
Monster Truck Madness.
I didn't realise this was a sim at the time. Another title i enjoyed. Likely cause i recognised a lot of the trucks in it from seeing them on tv here and there. Bigfoot, Samson, Monster Patrol, Grave Digger.. And it's monster truck racing. I mean, who doesn't love monster trucks? Not sure if i ever played the 2nd title.
Something else i enjoy, is when the internet decides to stop working and give you headaches while you're trying to do this and watch a Sebring 12h stream..
Bit hesitant to mention this next title, as it's a more modern title. Also not sure if it qualifies as a sim, although the internet tells me it is. But you guys can decide for yourselves.
Dirt Rally.
Just like Cluck with Richard Burns Rally, the first Dirt Rally title made me realise that rallying was harder than i thought it was. Especially when it came to setting up your car properly for a stage. Very different to everything i'd learned from track racing games. I loved it and hated it equally. But it felt rewarding to put a good, clean-ish run together.
I'm gonna break away from the mould here, as this one isn't a racer. But it's still a sim from what i hear. And quite a good one too.
Honourable mention: A-10 Cuba!.
I had a demo of this on a demo disc i got with a pc magazine back in the day (i picked up a few of those) and i played the hell out of that demo. Released in 1996, A-10 Cuba was a flight sim with quite simple 3d graphics, but it had really good flight physics. It was also fun. Never played the full game, so i'm not sure if you could fly any aircraft other than the A-10 Warthog. But i spent plenty of time exploring the demo level. Breaking away from the mission to go look for things, stunt flying through tunnels, arming weapons while taxiing and firing missiles or rockets at the trucks driving around your home airbase.. Not an easy game to play using a keyboard. Especially when your plane gets damaged and doesn't fly straight anymore, and you only have 1 working engine.
Network Q RAC Rally Championship.
Probably the first proper rally title i ever played. It came bundled with a Madcatz wheel & pedals i got for a birthday or xmas in my youth. I quite enjoyed it, even though i wasn't that great at it. I actually found the instruction book for this in a drawer of the computer desk just recently. Step 2 will be tracking down the disk. I know it's here somewhere.
Monster Truck Madness.
I didn't realise this was a sim at the time. Another title i enjoyed. Likely cause i recognised a lot of the trucks in it from seeing them on tv here and there. Bigfoot, Samson, Monster Patrol, Grave Digger.. And it's monster truck racing. I mean, who doesn't love monster trucks? Not sure if i ever played the 2nd title.
Something else i enjoy, is when the internet decides to stop working and give you headaches while you're trying to do this and watch a Sebring 12h stream..
Bit hesitant to mention this next title, as it's a more modern title. Also not sure if it qualifies as a sim, although the internet tells me it is. But you guys can decide for yourselves.
Dirt Rally.
Just like Cluck with Richard Burns Rally, the first Dirt Rally title made me realise that rallying was harder than i thought it was. Especially when it came to setting up your car properly for a stage. Very different to everything i'd learned from track racing games. I loved it and hated it equally. But it felt rewarding to put a good, clean-ish run together.
I'm gonna break away from the mould here, as this one isn't a racer. But it's still a sim from what i hear. And quite a good one too.
Honourable mention: A-10 Cuba!.
I had a demo of this on a demo disc i got with a pc magazine back in the day (i picked up a few of those) and i played the hell out of that demo. Released in 1996, A-10 Cuba was a flight sim with quite simple 3d graphics, but it had really good flight physics. It was also fun. Never played the full game, so i'm not sure if you could fly any aircraft other than the A-10 Warthog. But i spent plenty of time exploring the demo level. Breaking away from the mission to go look for things, stunt flying through tunnels, arming weapons while taxiing and firing missiles or rockets at the trucks driving around your home airbase.. Not an easy game to play using a keyboard. Especially when your plane gets damaged and doesn't fly straight anymore, and you only have 1 working engine.
I've played pretty much them all but here are my nostalgia choices:
80s:
Revs - What the h*ll is happening?
F1GP - Of course
Indy 500 - The thrill of speed, the smoothness of it all.
90s:
GPL - no brainer, again WTF is going on, but after getting MS FFB wheel it all finally clicked in place.
Driver - Sorry, I have to mention this. No sim did the police chase, and general feel of soft suspension 70s big muscle cars drifting delicately around the corners in the city like Driver did. And there is still no equivalent for this! Beam.ng has some promise. Driver in VR, my dream!
00s:
RBR - The saviour of 00s and 10s.
rFactor - Lots of good and bad, mixed bag.
GTR2 - Power & Glory. Sorry GT Legends, my love; Power & Glory got it right where you did not. At least SMS got the money from both sims.
iRacing - Until it went bad (slip angles got tiny and remained there for 10 years)
80s:
Revs - What the h*ll is happening?
F1GP - Of course
Indy 500 - The thrill of speed, the smoothness of it all.
90s:
GPL - no brainer, again WTF is going on, but after getting MS FFB wheel it all finally clicked in place.
Driver - Sorry, I have to mention this. No sim did the police chase, and general feel of soft suspension 70s big muscle cars drifting delicately around the corners in the city like Driver did. And there is still no equivalent for this! Beam.ng has some promise. Driver in VR, my dream!
00s:
RBR - The saviour of 00s and 10s.
rFactor - Lots of good and bad, mixed bag.
GTR2 - Power & Glory. Sorry GT Legends, my love; Power & Glory got it right where you did not. At least SMS got the money from both sims.
iRacing - Until it went bad (slip angles got tiny and remained there for 10 years)
