193 replies to this topic

[Kingshark]

So, what was the very first racing game you ever played?

Truth is, my first racing game experience was free and came in a Frosted Kellogg's cereal box.

For people who may not know what I'm talking about, it's this game:


Considering that the game is over 10 years old, and was free, from a $2.50 cereal box, it was surprisingly good. Hell, the AI was probably more intelligent than Codemasters' F1 2012.

My second game was another cheap but good one. Viper Racing.


A classic. Early childhood memories.;)

What are some of your first racing video games?

[Zippel]

I remember playing some simplistic arcade game in the mid-80s. You used a steering wheel and had to keep the car on the road, avoid trees, etc.

The one I can definitely remember was Enduro on the Atari.

http://en.wikipedia....ro_(video_game)

My thumb is sore just thinking about that one.

[Youichi]

REVS on the BBC Micro, in 84 written by Geoff Crammond, later more famous for F1GP/GP2/GP3/GP4.


And Chequered Flag on the Sinclair Spectrum, in 83 /84.


And you whippersnappers can get off my lawn !

[Peat]

Accolade Grand Prix Circuit:


Then onto GP2/GP3/GP4/F1Challenge/rFactor/iRacing

[string158]

Hey Kingshark, I recognise that Kellogs game, I bought the non-frosties version which was called.... em, F1 Racing Sim, or something like that.

My first was Grand Prix 2. An absolute classic game. Dont think its ever been beaten!

[Tony Mandara]

Chequered Flag on the Sinclair Spectrum, in 83 /84.


And you whippersnappers can get off my lawn !

X2.

[The Kanisteri]

Pitstop, around 1986-87 with Commodore 64

Edited by The Kanisteri, 24 January 2013 - 14:48.

[AcuraF1]

Pole Position - Atari 2600

[Superbar]

Indy 500 for the Atari 2600

[mahelgel]

The first racing game i played was probably pitstop 1 or 2 on the c64. I also had outrun, pole position and quite a few more, but i'm pretty certain the pitstop series was the first. Later on, on the Amiga 500 it was either Test Drive II or Stunt Car Racer. Both where fun at the time On the PC it was either Stunts or Formula 1 Grand Prix.

I've allways liked driving/racing games, and on most computers i've had, the number og racing games always outnumbers the number of all the other games

[Tenmantaylor]

Acura

Accolade Grand Prix Circuit:


Then onto GP2/GP3/GP4/F1Challenge/rFactor/iRacing

I never saw that game back then, but then I had an Atari ST so might not have been available. Almost identical to Test Drive, also by Accolade which I remember all too well!

The music was way better on the Atari ST

Gameplay:

Edited by Tenmantaylor, 24 January 2013 - 22:25.

[Dispenser89]

Formula 1 98 on PS1. It sucked.

[Tenmantaylor]

F1 97 was actually pretty good though...

[Risil]

Accolade Grand Prix Circuit:

[Sin]

I will start with the pc games, there was a racing game on C64 I played but first I hated it and second I forgot the name

so first PC racing game was
Indycar Racing somewhen between 1993 and 1995





and no I'm not american was on some CD-Rom
and if I remember correctly you could save the replays in that game different than in F1 2012... I only ever drove ovals in the game tho since I didn't understand the concept of gbraking

after that I got Need For Speed II SE which I grew to like



later Need For Speed IV,



Need For Speed Underground and Need For Speed Underground II



and now finally F1 2012 about time I have an F1 game



of course I also played Mario Kart but I dont really put it into the list xD

Edited by Sin, 25 January 2013 - 04:28.

[The Kanisteri]

I've allways liked driving/racing games, and on most computers i've had, the number og racing games always outnumbers the number of all the other games

Same here, except I leave out all Need For Speed arcades, Ridge Racers and Slit Second/Blurs and similar insane **** they do nowadays.

[7MGTEsup]

Fast Lane "The spice engineering challenge" on Atari ST is the one I remember playing properly. I probably played with others before that but thats the one that sticks out the most.

[Tenmantaylor]

7M I had that one too, very tricky!

Who remembers:



Gameplay

What these guys acheived with the computing power they had was amazing. Great artists

[mahelgel]

7M I had that one too, very tricky!

Who remembers:



What these guys acheived with the computing power they had was amazing. Great artists

i do remember, but i played a bit similiar title on the amiga called "Toyota Celica GT Rally" with som interesting opposite lock steering...

[HaydenFan]

Mario Kart for N64. Gran Turismo 2.

[midgrid]

Accolade Grand Prix Circuit:

Same here! I remember crashing into the tunnels at Detroit and Suzuka, and wondering why the Brazilian circuit map (which turned out to be Jacarepaguá) in no way resembled Interlagos, as I first played it several years after it was released.

The first console racing game I played was Total Drivin (aka Grand Tour Racing '98 in the USA). It's a fun game and I still fire it up every year or so.

[ANF]

The very first one must have been either...

Racing Cars,


Auto Racing,
http://youtu.be/fIVQLnyc2y8?t=1m15s

or Motocross
http://youtu.be/Bf3p8q7Mb4o?t=53s

...on the Intellivision.

My first PC racing game was Accolade's Grand Prix Circuit. My first good racing game, however, was Geoff Crammond's Stunt Car Racer on the Atari ST.

[Tenmantaylor]

Yes, Stunt Car Racer was amazing! The ski jump, hump back. They should remake that game, getting the jumps right was really rewarding!

Just found this: http://stuntcarracer...bravesites.com/

Not tried it yet

Edited by Tenmantaylor, 26 January 2013 - 14:19.

[joshb]

Super Monaco GP on the Mega Drive.

[AcuraF1]

My first PC F1 game was Power F1 in 1997 or 1998.

[baddog]

A really REALLY early arcade game, white lines of blocks for road edge and a really crude car outline, with a steering wheel. Maybe 78 or so. Cant be more specific than that!

[Ross Stonefeld]

First proper one? Indy 500 by Papyrus.

I'd played the various console Indycar/F1 games at one point or another but the original Indy 500 was where I first thought "I like racing games". 93 94 maybe? Came with a Creative Labs CD drive and game bundle. It, along with Civilization, was a bit weird to include on CD because they were both rather small and graphically unsophisticated games. Compared to the other things like Rebel Assault that were being used to promote CD games.

[Boing 2]

Pole position on my mates Atari because I had a Vic 20 and no racing games. First one I bought for myself and kept was Project Gotham Racing for the X-Box, great little game.

[Les]

7M I had that one too, very tricky!

Who remembers:



Gameplay

What these guys acheived with the computing power they had was amazing. Great artists

Wow this brings back some long lost memories! I remember playing this, Toyota Celica GT and Lotus III Challenge.

Probably the first one was Outrun which I loved as a kid: looking back its crap though!

The first decent one was Grand Prix by Geoff Crammond which I remember even came with a handy booklet which educated me about racing lines, flags etc

[mahelgel]

First proper one? Indy 500 by Papyrus.

I'd played the various console Indycar/F1 games at one point or another but the original Indy 500 was where I first thought "I like racing games". 93 94 maybe? Came with a Creative Labs CD drive and game bundle. It, along with Civilization, was a bit weird to include on CD because they were both rather small and graphically unsophisticated games. Compared to the other things like Rebel Assault that were being used to promote CD games.

first "sim" i played was probably indy500 on the amiga (later on the PC). Remeber i used the mouse to get analogue steering, a bit strange at first but it worked pretty well.

That said, i did try Revs on the C64, but i think i was too young at the time to prefer it over pitstop and the other arcade racers

[MrFondue]

Same here! I remember crashing into the tunnels at Detroit and Suzuka, and wondering why the Brazilian circuit map (which turned out to be Jacarepaguá) in no way resembled Interlagos, as I first played it several years after it was released.

The first console racing game I played was Total Drivin (aka Grand Tour Racing '98 in the USA). It's a fun game and I still fire it up every year or so.

And here as well. I'm pretty sure Travis Daye was the first "person" in my life I really hated.

[rm111]

Super hang on I think, was on the sega master system?

[Red17]

Pole Position, on the ZX Spectrum.
There was also that F1 strategy game (also on the spectrum) where you could control the one man pitcrew and his universal tool.

Many more titles have followed, but Pole Position still holds a special place in my heart.

[scolbourne]

On a computer it was probably Pole Position on either the Spectrum or the Atari 400. Sometime around 1982

In a video arcade it was a black and white game called something like Datsun 280ZZ where a series of poles defined the track. That would have been in about 1976 at a guess.

http://www.arcade-mu...p?game_id=10669

Edited by scolbourne, 28 January 2013 - 06:41.

[philhitchings]

Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix on the Amiga 500+

[ApexMouse]

F1 97 by Psygnosis. Shame the ones after that were utter pap, right up to F1 2012 sadly.

[SPBHM]

Nascar Racing

I had no idea about what was Nascar at the time, but my father bought the game and it was quite interesting, crashing was fun, and really the game still feels right, the handling and physics are a lot better than some new games, not bad for almost 20 years ago...

[DanardiF1]

My first racing game was Nigel Mansell's World Championship on the SNES. I loved that game and despite the fact that the circuits all looked the same (even Monaco!) I just thought it was fantastic...

The next ones after that would probably be Diddy Kong Racing on the N64, followed by F1 World Grand Prix 1 and 2 on the N64 too... they were great fun, especially the 97 edition where there was a bonus track that partially went through a volcano!

Edited by DanardiF1, 29 January 2013 - 05:05.

[king_crud]

Having started playing video games in the early 80s I have played most of the older titles mentioned here, but......

First proper one? Indy 500 by Papyrus.

I'd played the various console Indycar/F1 games at one point or another but the original Indy 500 was where I first thought "I like racing games". 93 94 maybe? Came with a Creative Labs CD drive and game bundle. It, along with Civilization, was a bit weird to include on CD because they were both rather small and graphically unsophisticated games. Compared to the other things like Rebel Assault that were being used to promote CD games.

Indy 500 was the first that I thought was a proper sim (of course closely followed up by the first Geoff Crammon F1 game). It was/is such a good game that I still have the disk today and play it from time to time. Completing a full 500 is such a challenge that I've only done it maybe 5 or 6 times out of 100s of attempts. Never have I played a game where I set up the car to finish rather than win and still had immense satisfaction. You really got the "endurance" feel, that you were in for the long haul. No saving game options, you were there for 3 hours and if it went wrong then that's it.

[superdelphinus]

Yeah the NASCAR and indycar papyrus games were fabulous for the time. Pretty advanced too from what I remember. I think the first racing game I took properly seriously was gp2 and since then have had pretty much every racing game released, outside of the 'action' type ones

[Ross Stonefeld]

The one that really woke me up was Indycar Racing 2. I had the Papyrus NASCAR game and it was fine, but the ICR2 demo was so much fun at Michigan and Laguna that it took me a long time to get the full game.

GP2 never really grabbed me. It was satisfying in a work ethic way to do a fast time (LFRS made me cry at times) but ICR2 was way more fun. They really hit the sweet spot on how much the car should move around when it's on the edge. GP2 was very snappy by comparison and on a good lap in ICR2 I was neutral steering a few corners, especially on street circuits.

[noikeee]

Grand Prix Circuit by Accolade.

http://en.wikipedia....it_(video_game)



edit: I hadn't realized several people had already posted about it! quite frankly it looks fantastically **** now and I never was very good at the game neither, then again I was what 6 years old? 8?

Edited by noikeee, 30 January 2013 - 08:43.

[Collective]

Battle Grand Prix for SNES. It was lots of fun but it was 0% simulation hehe.

[mahelgel]

The one that really woke me up was Indycar Racing 2. I had the Papyrus NASCAR game and it was fine, but the ICR2 demo was so much fun at Michigan and Laguna that it took me a long time to get the full game.

GP2 never really grabbed me. It was satisfying in a work ethic way to do a fast time (LFRS made me cry at times) but ICR2 was way more fun. They really hit the sweet spot on how much the car should move around when it's on the edge. GP2 was very snappy by comparison and on a good lap in ICR2 I was neutral steering a few corners, especially on street circuits.

I did play a lot of GP2, but it was indeed Indycar Rracing 1 and 2 that started my interest for the more "realistic" games. I actually prefered Indycar 1 over the sequel due to that i felt the cars had more understeer compared to indycar racing 1, even after tweaking the setups. That said, i wasn't (and still isn't) a master of the mechanical side of racing, so it might be that i just didn't set the cars up properly, and that the base setups in indycar1 that i tweaked was more tailhappy to start with

[Red17]

Grand Prix Circuit by Accolade.

http://en.wikipedia....it_(video_game)



edit: I hadn't realized several people had already posted about it! quite frankly it looks fantastically **** now and I never was very good at the game neither, then again I was what 6 years old? 8?

If you think the PC game looked bad? You should have seen the spectrum port, yet they managed to squeeze the basics in there somehow.

Yet, it still has one of the best covers for a Formula 1 game, I was never able to find the original source so I suspect it's a good photoshop.

Edited by Red17, 30 January 2013 - 22:13.

[Tenmantaylor]

Some more early sims I probably played way too much on my Atari ST:

Hard Drivin'

Microprose Grand Prix:

All played on:

Edited by Tenmantaylor, 31 January 2013 - 08:52.

[Wander]

F1 97 by Psygnosis. Shame the ones after that were utter pap, right up to F1 2012 sadly.

Same here. I remember being really disappointed with F1 99 or something, cause 97 was actually pretty awesome at the time.

Other racing early games included (more or less chronologically) Toca 2, Gran Turismo, Rollcage, Gran Turismo 2... I played the hell out of each of these games. Especially Gran Turismo 2.

[Longtimefan]

There were many earlier ones I played and forgot (ie Chequered Flag on the Spectrum, Revs on the BBC etc) but for me, the 1st 'biggy' was.

F1GP on the Amiga in 1992.

I played that for literally thousands of hours, day after day, week after week, for many years!

I find it amazing and staggering that F1 2012 even today lacks some things that that had over 20 years ago.

Class game.

[Jejking]

GP2, what a heroic game it was and still is! After that I continued with F1 Challenge, GP4 and rFactor. Now stuck with rF2 which is very good, but I recently discovered GP3. Oh the humanity, the fun on slicks in the rain

[Imperial]

A really REALLY early arcade game, white lines of blocks for road edge and a really crude car outline, with a steering wheel. Maybe 78 or so. Cant be more specific than that!

I wonder if that's the same game that gave me my first racing game experience...

I believe it was in an arcade in Scarborough (Yorkshire), probably somewhere around 1980, it was the same day an airshow was on there, which incidentally terrified the life out of me.

Anyway, the game...

I believe it was first-person as oppose to top-down, I recall it was a sit-down cabinet with a white on-screen car and white blocks running each side of you. I don't remember if there were even any other cars on track, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't even presented using computer graphics. I seem to remember a backlit belt that looped round.