Community Question | How Long Have You Been A Sim Racer?

[Max_59]

Uh.. 2010, Race 07, still playing it till this day.

 

[Dan Costa]

Let me just hand it over to wiki as they hit the exact same milestones in Sim racing that I referenced. They are still games, The technology (and thus the user experience) has just improved.


Early arcade years

Prior to the division between arcade-style racing and sim racing, the earliest attempts at providing driving simulation experiences were arcade racing video games, dating back to Pole Position,[7] a 1982 arcade game developed by Namco, which the game's publisher Atari publicized for its "unbelievable driving realism" in providing a Formula 1 experience behind a racing wheel at the time. It featured other AI cars to race against, crashes caused by collisions with other vehicles and roadside signs, and introduced a qualifying lap concept where the player needs to complete a time trial before they can compete in Grand Prix races.[8] It also pioneered the third-person rear-view perspective used in most racing games since then, with the track's vanishing point swaying side to side as the player approaches corners, accurately simulating forward movement into the distance.


Emergence of sim racing genre
Sim racing is generally acknowledged to have really taken off in 1989 with the introduction of Papyrus Design Group's Indianapolis 500: The Simulation, designed by David Kaemmer and Omar Khudari on 16-bit computer hardware. The game is often generally regarded as the personal computer's first true auto racing simulation. Unlike most other racing games at the time, Indianapolis 500 attempted to simulate realistic physics and telemetry, such as its portrayal of the relationship between the four contact patches and the pavement, as well as the loss of grip when making a high-speed turn, forcing the player to adopt a proper racing line and believable throttle-to-brake interaction. It also featured a garage facility to allow players to enact modifications to their vehicle, including adjustments to the tires, shocks and wings.[17] With Indy 500, players could race the full 500 miles (800 km), where even a blowout after 450 miles (720 km) would take the player out of the competition. The simulation sold over 200,000 copies. It was around this time that sim racing began distinguishing itself from arcade-style racing.

I think our definitions of racing sims are at odds with each other. I'm takling driving simulation. Having a garage, car settings etc, is more like racing engineer simulation, which I grant you 100% reason as it doesn't require driving at all!

Driving simulation began when the peripherals (wheel with FFB) and games (with driving physics and ffb) came together imo.

If someone could help pinpoint the date it would be great. I can only go as far as 1998

But if you drove like this in 1989, I grant you the title of oldest sim racer in RD! (even though nothing about the actual driving is being simulated onto the wheel. Just left and right.)

 

[LeSunTzu]

Don't vote, this is a sneaky age poll!

 

[Antony Snook]

I have been a F1 sim racer scince around 1990. so 30 years. I started off with Geof Cramonds F1 1992 . I nor run rFactor 2

 

[Antony Snook]

I think our definitions of racing sims are at odds with each other. I'm takling driving simulation. Having a garage, car settings etc, is more like racing engineer simulation, which I grant you 100% reason as it doesn't require driving at all!

Driving simulation began when the peripherals (wheel with FFB) and games (with driving physics and ffb) came together imo.

If someone could help pinpoint the date it would be great. I can only go as far as 1998

But if you drove like this in 1989, I grant you the title of oldest sim racer in RD! (even though nothing about the actual driving is being simulated onto the wheel. Just left and right.)

Great Grapics

 

[TRASGU]

F1 games since 1988, but my first simulator was Grand Prix 2 in 1996 maybe?, F1 racing simulator in 1998, and then GPL, gp3, F1 racing championship, gp4, F1 challenge, GTR 1 and 2, GTL, rfactor, all the reiza sims, live for speed, Nascar racing 2003, iracing, AC1, rfactor 2, ACC.

The ones that I'm more fond of are GPL, F1 racing simulator and Live for Speed. I still miss that constant sense of being on the verge of a massive dissaster at every corner in GPL and my first online experiences there with Vroc (hold on to your butts). My worst simracing experience was with MS Cart, man, that "sim" had so massive potential and they failed massively with those hyper fake physics and extremelly lackuster graphics engine, but the virtual engineer and the setup UI was so much ahead of it's time that even nowadays nobody has bettered them in that. But anyways we have come a long way.

 

[Metla]

I think our definitions of racing sims are at odds with each other.

Clearly, there wouldn't be a discussion without a difference of opinion.

 

[Jason Whittington]

I played this one religiously when i was a kid.

 

[MattGTX]

Looking at the past, I actually started my journey way before I even knew what sim racing was. I was a big fan of the NFS games back in the PS1 days (especially the High Stakes). But my racing journey would start with the ol' Gran Turismo 4 on my trusty PS2, back in 2009 then, after some time, I bought the Forza Motorsport 4 for my X360.

For many years I would stay on the arcade side of things with the Forza Horizon series for quite some time before returning to sim racing with a keyboard when Project Cars launched. Back then I wasn't paying attention to racing games other than the new Forza Horizon 3 that would come months after.

It wasn't until I got the Project Cars 2 and played with a steering wheel at my friend's place (I think it was Gran Turismo 5 on PS3) last year that I decided to buy myself a G29. I absolutely felt in love with sim racing.

 

[Jason Whittington]

We need a realistic drag racing sim out in the wild.

 

[Dr. Death]

What so you consider "sim racing"? because me as a kid didn't exactly knew what was "sim" and what not. If you mean by the actual definition i was into sim racing as long as i played Nascar by Papyrus games, even if all i did was just turn on god mode and go backwards into a full field to crash into as many as i could.

 

[Chugster2204]

Geoff Crammond's F1 on the Amiga.

 

[mr Sw1tchblade]

Grand prix circuit was my 1st game. But i can't call myself simracer, because i used keyboard in different racing games until project cars 1 was released.

 

[CC]

Since 1982.

Pole Position On the Atari 2600, Cutting edge sim in its day.

Same here all started with the Atari

 

[Mekonrider]

Since the F1GP days back in the early 90s. Then Indycar and Nascar and GPL. Grand Prix 3 was a masterpiece.

 

[azaralamouri]

As always, I have reasons to choose the first or the last answer.I played:

I played:

Atari 2600 VCS (racing games like F1)
Driver (BEST IN TEST)
MidTown Madness 1-2
NFS 2-3-4-5 Under Ground Most Wanted Carbon
MotoGP


Then stopped for like 15 years.


Then I played hard core SIMS for 2 years.


Then sold my main and reserve rigs and stopped sim racing.


What answer I should choose?

 

[MarkR]

In terms of 'racing simulations' it really all began with Lombard RAC Rally for me. Sure it was Keyboard or joystick only and long before wheels but it had many sim elements such as damage, repairs, upgrades and 'weather' (see 12.50ish for fog lol.

When I look back at games like this I just marvel at how far racing games have come!

Back then I was much more into flight and military sims and I remember Combat Lynx as really the fist of those!

Then Microprose came along and both racing and military games got a lot better!

I still see myself more as a racing gamer rather than simmer as I enjoy pretty much any type of racing/driving game. The same goes for flight sims too, DCS etc are great but Ace Combat is still fun to play too.

 

[justfdl]

Well, first racing game was Need for Speed on a C64. Wouldn't call that simracing though, so the first I got a wheel for was Grand Prix Legends.

 

[Rory Wetherington]

I owned racing games on the C64, played them in the arcade in the 70's and 80's, went and bought a joystick to play Microprose Grand Prix 1 and 2 on PC in the early 90's, but wouldn't consider really getting into "sim" racing until 1995 when I bought my first wheel for Nascar Racing and later GPL, Sports Car GT, Grand Prix 4.

 

[Damage Inc]

So it would appear anyone who touched a gamepad back in the 80/90s are "sim racers" since then. I beg to differ.


Sim racing proper, since 2003 or so, with LFS and a Ferrari challenge racing wheel.

gamepad in the '80's? You mean Keyboard or kempston style joystick.