[OT] Remember when? OLD racing games

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Richard Chmielewski, Jan 24, 2013.

  1. Saabjock

    Saabjock Registered

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    You guys have gone and done it...
    I think it's time for a retro-PC.
    I still have two Diamond Monster II and all the cables 'floating' about in a box.
    Vintage SLI and F1RS here I come again.
     
  2. Saabjock

    Saabjock Registered

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    Yup! Spent a bunch of time with that title. Still have it and MGPRS2. I also have countless DVDs full of mods for cars, tracks, addons, paints, etc..
     
  3. woochoo

    woochoo Registered

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    for anyone thinking of loading up all their old titles in dos-box or on an old dusty bit of kit:

    ::WARNING: well-meaning troll alert:
    What might end up happening is an amazing burst of happiness when the game loads the intro and menu music. A really great feeling, and i recommend it for anyone. But think carefully if you want to go on and actually try to play the game. Depending on what game it is of course, but be prepared to have your happy memories undermined. You might enjoy it for 5-30 seconds. Then realise you've wasted however long to find the old box, or install this and that with whichever patches and updates, just to get it running.

    You'll have to try really hard to forget everything you know about current sim racing to avoid thinking "oh, wow, did i really like this? This actually hurts me to play it". I reckon the best way to get all the good feeling for old games (there may be exceptions) without the indescribably underwhelming sensation of playing them (these days) is to load up youtubes with the game's intro, menu music, and a bit of game play, which you might just skip through anyway.

    You might guess I've been down this road :\
    And you know what? You'll probably end up installing them and giving them a go anyway.
    Since racing games are based (in theory) on physics, you're not gonna like it. Other games age ok. Games that rely on raw CPU power don't feel so good no Moore('s Law). :)
    Have fun, and good luck ;)

    Remember, intro movies and menu music...
     
  4. gorgias1976

    gorgias1976 Registered

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    Do you remember this arcade cabinet released in 1999?. Ferrari 355 Challenge.
    In those days I felt it as a superb racing simulator, clutch (mandatory if selecting manual gears), 6 speed gearbox, 3 screens, real well modeled tracks (Monza, Motegi, Suzuka...), real car sounds..... It was awesome.

    [​IMG]

    Last year I had the chance to play it and it has nothing to do against rFactor2, though it was still really fun.

    Here is a video of a guy playing it
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 27, 2013
  5. Johannes Rojola

    Johannes Rojola Registered

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    I agree with woochoo. Simulators and racing games don't age really well, as they are products of era's technology. To be honest, they are actually quite horrible even if you loved them back in 90's. There are some exceptions for sure, like Stunts I mentioned earlier. It happens to be enough simple and enough abstract representation of a "race" and "cars" that it actually works. And the controls are just as perfect as they were.

    Simulators thrive for technology, thus old titles are just becoming bad and unplayable.
     
  6. Prodigy

    Prodigy Registered

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    One of the games where I was brushing my driving skills :D

     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 27, 2013
  7. Jos

    Jos Registered

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    if i ever wanted a sequel of something it would carmageddon... <3
     
  8. Johannes Rojola

    Johannes Rojola Registered

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  9. CraigT

    CraigT Registered

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    Anyone remember Total Immersion Racing? The ai had memory of racing with you and grudges could be started.
    I am still racing in a GPL league (oAo) on Saturday mornings. It has continued to grow with mods and graphic improvements. If you haven't tried it in a while check out the All-In-One installer and get right up to date
     
  10. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    I really wish Empire had used that engine for its originally intended title. :(


    Sent from a mobile device using Tapatalk
     
  11. the-D-

    the-D- Registered

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    With that all in 1 installer, does that allow for online play?
     
  12. jjcook

    jjcook Registered

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    -dinky cars on patch of dirt fashioned into a track - simulated racing - albeit - a childs game

    -then this came along right after high school- :pole Position released in 1982... in the United States, it was manufactured by Atari, Inc. Pole Position was released in two configurations: an upright cabinet, and an environmental/cockpit cabinet. Both versions feature a steering wheel and a gear shifter for low and high gears. The environmental/cockpit cabinet featured both an accelerator and brake pedal, while the upright cabinet had only an accelerator pedal.
    Pole Position was the first racing video game to feature a track based on a real racing circuit. It was also the first game to feature a qualifying lap, requiring the player to complete a time trial before they can compete in Grand Prix races. Once the player has qualified, they must complete the race in the time allowed, avoiding collisions with CPU-controlled opponents and objects along the sides of the track. The game's publisher Atari publicized the game for its "unbelievable driving realism" in providing a Formula 1 experience behind a racing wheel.The game's graphics featured full-colour landscapes with scaling sprites, including race cars and other signs, and a perspective view of the track, with its vanishing point swaying side to side as the player approaches corners, accurately simulating forward movement into the distance.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUU_F9TvXco

    -20 players on an on-line grid started with gpl for me-
     
  13. Pluginz

    Pluginz Registered

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    This was one of my first car games as a young kid, Turbo Esprit on the Speccy 48k

     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 28, 2013
  14. 88mphTim

    88mphTim racesimcentral.net

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    I must agree there. Some games just do not re-play well after a long time away. Your memory is often that the graphics looked amazing, but that's because in those days, you used your imagination to fill the gaps. :) I've played games that I thought were photorealistic, etc, but oh my... :D I actually have a working Amiga 600 that I use to play Frontier Elite 2 (which must like Another World, has a non-textured graphics style that still works with my modern eyes).
     
  15. Sub

    Sub Registered

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    Pole Position in the arcade in the early 80's was my first racing game. I ended up playing the much worse version of it on the Atari 2600 along with Enduro (which was way better). At some point i got into Off Road and Outrun in the arcade and stopped playing racing games on consoles entirely.

    I didn't end up playing another racing game until the late 90's when i got Need For Speed 3 on some crappy PC i had at the time. Not long after that i got a job at EA Seattle in the QA department and started testing Motor City Online. To this day that has remained my favorite racing game of all time. Cool old cars with live auctions where you could get rare cars, parts and paint jobs. The car building aspect of it was amazing. Not just "upgrade 1" or garbage like that, but real world engine, chassis and body parts that you had to buy, earn or trade for to build into your cars. The only thing wrong with the game is that it was made by EA and they killed all the live servers a year and a half after releasing it. No one was able to play it again until just recently when a debug version of it surfaced.

    After Motor City, i got pretty into Flat-Out 1 and 2, NFS Underground and Nascar 2003. I was pretty addicted to Project Torque until they screwed with the balance of it so bad that it became unplayable. That was a sad day. It's kind of been resurrected in Heat Online, but i haven't really gotten back into it. I played rF1 for while and that's what got me excited about track building. Aside from the Motor City debug and a little rF2, i don't race much at all right now. I've been rebuilding an old Motor City track for rF2 and that's been more of a focus than any actual game playing. Funny how that works.
     
  16. Deadpedal

    Deadpedal Registered

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    I started very early but once my parents found me in my crib outside my room too many times, my Dad fabricated a bracket and screwed one leg to the baseboard. Not my idea of an upgrade. From that day, there was always an empty spot in my soul until I learned to drive in high school. Once I could afford a car of my own, all my driving fun was restricted to provincial rural roads in my VW GTI. Then there was marriage and kids and I never ventured across a yellow line for an apex again. Sometime in the mid 90’s I bought the kids a Nintendo 64 and I found FIA F1 World Grand Prix. That was a serious infection and I bought my first racing wheel for it, an Interact V3. In 1999 I got my first PC with an Apollo Riva TNT2 32MB video card (had its own fan on the heat sink!) and I was all set to go virtual racing. Having experienced the V3 as a controller, there was no going back so I sprung for an Act-Labs Force RS wheel and RS Shifter. It came with Mobil 1 Rally Championship to showcase the RS Shifter (as it was one of the first games to support an H-gate shifter) and the desk-shaking FFB. That was followed by just about anything that would support the RS Shifter, either natively of by an official/unofficial patch or utility. ISI’s Sports Car GT, Viper Racing, NFS Porsche Unleashed, every ISI F1 title except F1-2002, GPL, GTR, Colin McRae Rally 2005 and, of course, the spoiler, RFactor in late 2005. GTR2, GT Legends and GTR Evolution came later but none could supplant RFactor as my sim of choice. That was all interspersed with a few titles that I never really enjoyed: a silly NFS II or III, NASCAR Revolution, Midtown Madness 1 & 2 for the kids and some unconvincing demos. Now of course the only thing on the current PC is RF1+25GB worth of mod content and RF2. Currently on my 3rd PC, 6th video card, 2nd wheel, 3rd shifter, 5th set of pedals I’m still thinking about upgrades to support this addiction. Seriously, this could be pathological.
     
  17. [NAR]Steve

    [NAR]Steve Registered

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    I came in late to the game, my first racing game was AMA Superbike, then F1 2002 by EA.
     

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