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

[640er]

I'd say by the day I did my first AC club race here (Monday 18 Nov 2019). Therefore I played racing games from time to time, but rather with an "arcadic" approach. Only since I have been taking part in races here, I have been a bit more serious about the necessary techniques, spend some time practicing circuits and got myself proper racing gear.

 

[welshtoast]

I mean the first sim I bought was GTR2 back in the day, but I only really started exploring other sims back in 2016-2017.

 

[Niels_at_home]

Missing 30+ option

 

[CrimsonEminence]

Missing 30+ option

You mean God-Tier option
You are part of many experiences made by users, consuming simulation phyics in the past and present...
Without you, i may have never experienced some overstimulation, like, what happened with AMS1 back then, when my sh!tty Athlon X2 was still in use...Thanks Niels.

 

[gecco]

View attachment 385215

omg, I remember the countless hours I spent waiting for the datasette of my C64 to load the game,
then carefully evaluating the numbers for front and rear wing, and then violating the hell out of my poor Quickshot II turbo joystick. Nonetheless, Revs+ was the best there was back around 1986 (I believe it was), and my 10 year old self very much considered himself to be of no lesser caliber then the Prosts, Piquets, and Mansells of the time

 

[AccAkut]

To me the difference between racing games and racing sims comes down to the used peripherals, and going by that my first "sim" was Need For Speed Underground, as it was the first time I raced with a steering wheel and first person view. NFSU2 followed, and then the final step into the real sim business by innocently downloading the Live For Speed demo on day.

As such ist somewhere between 16 or 14 years

 

[CrimsonEminence]

and then the final step into the real sim business by innocently downloading the Live For Speed demo on day.

I was doing this in 2003/2004 and was overwhelmed by the movement i was feeling in the car and how it reacted going through corners. Sometimes i wish, they would have a bigger team to crank up development pace, because their product is pretty impressive. Especially, when it comes to "slide" situations....

 

[MrBraindown]

I first started playing racing sims back in 1983 with Chequered Flag on the ZX Spectrum. I've pretty much played racing games on various different platforms since then. Although my first proper sim was Grand Prix Legends in 1998.

However, I've 'voted' for 6-8 years in the poll though, because that's when I got my first wheel - this, in my opinion, is when things got serious.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

My first proper sim though was Grand Prix Legends in 1998.

It was a huge step in experiencing car physics on a home PC, indeed! But it was also such a hardcore experience, that it could've scared away newcomers, to be honest...

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Not that long. Since Assetto Corsa 1.0 or so. Even when my childhood was in the 80's and 90's

Before AC I had no wheel. Sure I played some old games, Pole Position on C64 and tried Indy 500 by Papyrus and F1GP by MicroProse on Amiga. But I wouldn't have considered myself sim racer, I wasn't particularly into those games

It only started once I tested a FFB wheel and noticed how when combined with good physics, it makes it more interesting and resembles IRL activity (driving), compared to other gaming

I didn't care about Assetto Corsa much either (kinda regretted purchase) until I tested it with a wheel. Now I own pretty much all the realistic sims except iRacing

 

[Ramjet]

My first post, so hello and a big thanks to all the people that make this whole simracing community so great.
My first racing game was maybe Pitstop on the C64 back in the early 80s, so I am old. But the game that got me into simracing was GP2 by Geoff C. I really got into that game, and the sim community was active already then. Since then I became a father 3 times, so only about 1-2 years ago I got a new PC and got Assetto Corsa and I love it.

 

[Dan Costa]

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.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

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

My opinion:
Sim racers are people, driving racing games, that are focusing on having a racing experience, recreating an experience, that delivers something, that could be the deal for a racing driver IRL.
This could already be the case with F1 2019 and My Summer Car.

And for doubts: YES, this is my honest opinion. Build and maintenance your engine in MSC and tell me, this is "arcade"!

 

[Cote Dazur]

Gran Turismo, 1997, love at first sight, never looked back, not playing any other game type, only racing game of the racing simulation type.
Playing daily, usually more than 10 hours per week.
I can never get enough.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

Gran Turismo, 1997, love at first sight, never looked back, not playing any other game type, only racing game of the racing simulation type.

MX-5 or old RX-7 with race mod on Trial Mountain....never forgetti.
Such a BLAST!

 

[AccAkut]

I was doing this in 2003/2004 and was overwhelmed by the movement i was feeling in the car and how it reacted going through corners. Sometimes i wish, they would have a bigger team to crank up development pace, because their product is pretty impressive. Especially, when it comes to "slide" situations....

the LFS Devs simply don't want any more speed in their development, it's been a frustrating thing really since basically at least 2010. The only Dev left "fulltime" is Scawen. Victor works in a totally different field now (baker), Eric nobody really knows, but as a seasoned 3D Artist (ex-Lionhead) he can't be busy with just LFS for the last ten years. Only made four track enviroments, three of which are updates to existing.

They had plenty of free content offers (most memorable was Palatov Motorsport) and dev help offers, and declined them all.

 

[Dan Costa]

Games didn't simulate much of anything regarding "driving" a car before the early 2000's imo.

Year zero for the history of proper-simracing should be set at the date release of the first Sim with proper attempt at physics and wheel support.

People claiming to be sim-racing before that year, were just playing "games".

 

[Michael Payne]

Started with Pole Position, Pitstop 2 and then Revs on the C64. First Wheel was a Thrustmaster Formula T1.

 

[CrimsonEminence]

Games didn't simulate much of anything regarding "driving" a car before the early 2000's imo.

Year zero for the history of proper-simracing should be set at the date release of the first Sim with proper attempt at physics and wheel support.

People claiming to be sim-racing before that year, were just playing "games".

Driving NASCAR by Papyrus on DOS, changing setup values, to make it more lose or tight for specific tracks was pretty sim-ish. They have nailed tyres for this time, i can tell you that without remorse! Also Grand Prix Legends was approaching a field of adapting car and driver to track and situation of a never before seen level. So saying 2000s are the beginning is not particularly the truth. Also afaik the ISImotor engine, which should form a whole sim racing department for so many titles, was born in 1998 already. The borders are blurried...

 

[farjam]

I'm gonna start this Sunday