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

[CrimsonEminence]

my first simulator was the NR2003

Also was one of my first simulators. (Okay NR2002 Season before that)
Sometimes i still dream of "don't merge yet" today

 

[Paul Glover]

These screenshots bring back memories!
Started out with Microprose Grand Prix on our old 8086 when I was a wee lad.

I was introduced to it at school during lunch, we had a copy and would sit there playing. The Nimbus PC's we had were supposed to stop us playing games, we always found a way haha

Spent many an hour at home playing GP3 which to this day is still going!

 

[FinFan]

Reading all the post so far I discovered I played many more games than I seem to remember. Days must have been longer in the past.

 

[pattikins]

Does Buggy Boy on the Atari ST count?

 

[CrimsonEminence]

Does Buggy Boy on the Atari ST count?

Well...why not?

I wasn't even aware, that an Atari was able to render such things

 

[OptimusRacing]

The result of the vote shows us that sim racers are mostly old

Well...define old. 10-15 years means that one would have started in the early 2000s.. and, if I may insert my own example as someone who started at a damn young age, I'm only 19 and have been doing simracing (more or less) for 15 years as well. So take that with a grain of salt

 

[F_B]

Also started with Pole Position on the Atari 2600 in 1986 (I guess?), then F1GP by Microprose in 1992 (first on the Amiga 500 and then PC with astonishing 25fps!), Indycar Racing and Nascar Racing and so on. So many great games/sims since then. Love that genre.

 

[Aki Korhonen]

Accolades grand prix circuit when it game out and mother of simracing papyrus indy 500 of course

 

[Danimal5981]

The first game I played over and over again was Grand Prix Circuit from 1987/88 which included three official cars and 8 official circuits.

Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix series was a big favourit in the 90's and GP4 pretty much bridged the gap towards the current Codemasters F1 games that started in 2010 (on PC).

As for other racing games outside F1 I started fairly late, with the arrival of Project Cars. That has to do that I was so used to using a keyboard, that the jump to a wheel + pedals has so far been very unnatural to me, so I started doing other games with slower vehicles to get into the swing of things.

 

[Carlo Meller]

since childhood.
microprose gp2 on amiga 500

then gran prix legends,still the hardest sim ever

then gtr2 and gtlegends,race 07 and raceroom.

assetto corsa and competizione nowadays.

(i never played iracing,i know is good but too expensive)

 

[Moustagua]

i started with 3d Grand Prix on Amstrad CPC 6128 then VROOM, Microprose Gp on Amiga 500...

After i get a pc and played all the Geoff Cramond F1 games and Indycar Racing from Papyrus. And The first game i played with a wheel was Grand prix 3...

 

[CrimsonEminence]

(i never played iracing,i know is good but too expensive)

I have tested iRacing years ago in a stock car on an Oval and it was way worse, than NR2003 to be honest ^^'. The car was unsaveable, after you lose it and tyres were working strange over a run....but no clue how it is now...
But to be honest, i found NR2003 to be the superior product, driving wise.
(I still hear and read people complaining about tyres...soooo....)

 

[maranello78]

My first sim was with my Spectrum 128+ and the game was Wec Lemans, after it my favourite game was Indycar Racing 2, i had a kart when i was 8 years old and i think racing is on my dna, love motorsport, i always try to play racing games and learn something new, the last game i bought was fía truck racing and is a great game and fun, with great physics, ffb and graphics, for a simracer games are the most near from motorsports

 

[dakoriki]

If you count playing GP3 on Thrustmaster Force Feedback Racing wheel when I was like 1 then yes, I've been sim racing for over +15 years

 

[Jebus]

If Pole position is considered a sim then my racing started early 80's. But the first driving game/sim with a wheel was the first Gran Turismo on PS1. First PC sim was LFS, when ever that was released.
But in any case my vote was 15+ years.

 

[Steve Worrell]

Love the fact that there are new people coming in to the scene!

 

[Ricoow]

only 60 votes in, but there's a worrying trend there: most have been sim racing since a very long time, and new racers don't seem to stay on very long

I started playing racing games on the original playstation, and started my sim-racing with SCGT

The first years of simracing I also didn't consider joining a community, so that could be a reason

 

[CrimsonEminence]

The first years of simracing I also didn't consider joining a community, so that could be a reason

I was simracing for so many years without racing with a community ...first time was in GTR2 in 2014 or so at the Koelschbierbude in GTR2. At this time i was doing it over 10 years already...the vote has no conclusion to give about the overall community state.^^

BTW. A point about something i've experienced, i don't want to brag about something, but maybe it helps:
This was also the first time, i experienced Aliens, being the magical 2 seconds faster than the rest of the field. I wanted to archieve at least a bit of their pace and i've learned a lot, analyzing their driving.

You can't imagine, how high your own (self made) barriers are, until you've seen it with your own eyes.
NEVER stop believing in your own abilities! See them driving in replays, don't focus too much on setup, bring yourself more into a state of "being whipped up", try unusual things out of the box and most important: Have fun at improving, even if it seems like despair at first.
Use every single bit of the track and brake as explosively, as you can. You will probably get a "heureka" moment at some point in time!

 

[BorisK]

Papy's Indy 500 on PC was first game which was really a simulator
And first online at 2003 on NASCAR 2002 season and F1C

 

[Nevini]

Micropose GP1

Started off with keyboard.
Later analogue joystick. Switched to manual gears, as my best mate was whooping my ass.

Now starting to get serious, Thrustmaster Wheel and GP2 with 2 hour race every F1 race weekend after the race. GF at the time not happy, what could I do I was addictied. ;-)