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

[spark23]

X-car from bethesda, and GP2 from Geoff Grammon with keyboard

 

[OurManInTangier]

I had every intention of saying I’ve only just started Sim Racing within the last month, maybe two. However, having read through the previous twelve pages I guess my love of motorsports has always been there in my gaming choices.

From F1 at the old penny arcades as a very small lad in the late 70s’ and early 80s’ through the Commodore/Amstrad PC years and far too many hours on the SNES at Uni playing Nigel Mansell’s World Championship in the mid 90s’.

It was last year I bought PC2 in a sale thinking I could pick up and play just
like I did with Mansell’s WC just using a gamepad. After realising that it was so different to the old games I knew it was time to buy a cheap wheel and pedals. With the purchase of AC I’d felt the difference in feedback and upgraded to a Fanatec wheel and pedals, plus purchased AMS2....so that is the point that I think I’ve really got into Sim Racing.

I remember being taken to Brands Hatch with my best mate and his Dad, a marshal there, as a young lad and watching the Rothmans liveried Porsche racing there (maybe Derek Bell....around 1983?) and now I can do it myself in VR - things have certainly changed from those visits to the Arcade

 

[MrLonguinha]

Counting only on PC, I started at Indianapolis 500, Grand Prix 1 (by Geoff Crammond), I think in 1991/1992.

 

[carlos quintao]

I started with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOCA_Touring_Car_Championship

 

[BazzaLB]

...
I'll make a mention of VFR Honda on amiga being my 1st proper bike sim, had great set of circuits and doing manual gears n braking was great fun.

This was the first ever game I setup for local multiplayer racing between 2 computers. I had an Amiga 1000 and my mate had a 500. The serial interface connections were different but I modified an existing serial cable via a breakout box to do null modem local racing. Great memories.. Had completely forgotten about that so thanks!

 

[Wulffffo]

If Gran Turismo 4 on the PS2 counts, then 6-8 years, came rather late to the PS2

 

[TPGRacing75]

My first major introduction to proper racing video games was NASCAR Thunder 2003 for the PC back when I was a lil' tyke with my father helping me control the wheel and pedals.

But the oldest title I remember was NASCAR 08 by EA Sports in 2007 for the Xbox 360. In hindsight it waas a terrible game with a bi-polar handling model, flipping in nonsensical ways, immense lag during replays, glitches abound, wonky AI, and the only good things about it were the graphics. But I still play it from time to time for nostalgia reasons.

My first "proper sim" was NASCAR Racing 2003 in 2015, and yes, I did buy a physical disc copy (since has been long gone ) After that I later got GTR2, GTL, RF1 and 2, AC, AMS1 and now AMS 2 as well.

But despite this, I rarely actually race, because I am utter crap at anything but hot lapping, and even then I struggle on anything more complex than an oval. I spend most of my time either finding content that I want to run, designing skins, or adjusting AI to suit my preferences, and running an offline championship.

 

[BP]

• 1st Racing game obsession: either the original Super Mario Kart (SNES) or Virtua Racing in the arcade, both happened in 1992. 7 years old
• 1st Sim/Simcade obsession: the original Gran Turismo (PSX), 1999
• 1st time driving with a wheel at home: Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)with a G27 my future wife got me for Christmas 2011
• 1st actual sim: Automobilista 1, 2016.

So...racing on sims for 4 years, but simulating races for 28 years?
(I voted 3 - 6 years)

 

[Beef36]

.

 

[Guga_Cyr]

Indy 500 in the early 90’s!

Was the sole reason I did my homework as soon as I got home so I could spend the rest of the evening turning laps

 

[RKip455]

for me it was MCM/MCM2 modding and racing... bike games were my favorite Papyrus NASCAR was fun,.... but GTR2 was what pushed me over the top. Still, a fantastic game thanks to all the incredible modders.

 

[FFF789]

All those classics, like the arcades Outrun and Overdrive, even Pole Position on C64 hahah but it was on PC with first few Test Drives, F1GP, Papy's Indycars and NASCAR...

But does anyone remember Mario Andretti's racing challenge? That game had a nice career mode in 1991.

 

[davehenrie]

Guess I forgot about Pitstop. Probably on the C-64 or Amiga 500. I used a Colecovision 4 button controller to run the pitstop guy around. Also Soda Off Road Racing, another Papyrus/Sierra 3rd party title.

 

[blueferrari]

Around 20 years for me, starting with Gran Turismo on Playstation. I then migrated to PC and now stepped up to 4K, which once you do you never want to go back, as the graphics are spectacular! Hardware wise, started with Logitec, then Thrustmaster and currently Fanatec and next up, probably Simucube as I find Fanatec unreliable. I use a Playseat F1, which is nice and solid, but needed some modification for comfort. My favorite sims would have to be AMS2 now, F1 and Raceroom.

 

[thunderpop]

I started playing the first video games when I was 12 years old, I switched to PC when the graphics were in 16 colors and the sound was from internal speaker, my first simracers was gpauto (2d) then I tried formula one grandprix (geoff crammond ), indycar 1 and 2 (papyrus), nascar I don't remember the versions (papyrus), also tried various ubisoft and codemaster titles (not very good), then what I think was and perhaps it is still the greatest GRANPRIXLEGENDS simulator ( always Papyrus), bought just released in 1997, still present on my ard disk, then running but it never gave me a great feeling, accidentally found Stock Car Extreme (Reiza) I abandoned AC, then Tried AMS1 (wonderful) and finally AMS2 (unjustifiable because not yet finished). Hi everyone

 

[thunderpop]

I forgot the rally titles, the various colin mc rae, dirt rally and the absolute masterpiece richard burns rally

 

[AmazingReflex]

1990-1991 era = Super Hang On, Team Suzuki, Indy 500 and Grand Prix on Amiga.
Mid 90's = Dabble with Nascar and Grand Prix on 486PC

All of the above probably with cheap joysticks but I still used to play full length races on original Amiga Grand Prix.

At this point I had too many other distractions eg. going out, drinking, women and all sorts of other distractions other than playing on my computer

Built a proper PC in 2008 but I had fell off the racing game train really.

Here I am now, after having built another decent PC last year and all of a sudden I find Assetto Corsa after all this time! Brilliant game, all the mods you could want and great graphics to go with it now.

I finally bought my first wheel three months ago (Thrustmaster TX) and haven't looked back. Initially it felt weird playing with the wheel and I was slower until my brain adjusted. I now get it and I'm starting to understand how the FFB can give you the feel and precision that makes all the difference.

 

[AmazingReflex]

View attachment 385281

That's the image that's brought it back to me! That game on the Amiga had so much detail built in. Fuel usage, tyre wear (I think included blow outs if tyres over used?), pit stops, long races to really get into the groove, slowly chipping away at gaps, lap after lap of the oval, each corner with a different feel and speed, risk taking to get maximum speed / lap time.

I also remember upgrading to an Amiga 1200 which improved the frame rate a lot.

Many hours spent

 

[morsify]

Disagree with your last point. Having 'graduated' from flight sims, I brought my CH Flightsticks with me. Used the one in my left hand for steering (laterally) and the one on my right for accelerator/brakes (fore-and-aft). Robert Wickens would do very well with this setup. Salud!

Yep, it was definitely sim racing. We were like the Colin Chapman of our time I reckon, cobbling things together to go racing.

I took an old optical joystick and made some pedals out of wood, pivoted on a broom handle. Somehow I rigged it with elastic cord to press the joystick forward and back, and it worked really well.

Then I bought a simple controller wheel for steering, it had no mount, you just held it in mid air and it had some kind of spirit level / rolling ball bearings that rolled left or right as you steered. Sounds strange but it all worked very well, and I did several full seasons of Geoff's F1GP using that. I suppose that was my first 'sim rig' LOL.

(I just wish I had taken a picture of it).

Old traditions die hard - my current rig is also built out of wood, but at least it's got a real seat, wheel, pedals, shifter etc.

 

[Alex72]

Sim racer about 10+ years. Driving games interest? Since Commodore 64. Although Amiga with Test Drive heightened that interest. Remember the music guys?