Sim racing

A racing simulator is a computer game of the type racing game in which the player must control a simulated as realistically as possible means of locomotion to victory in the role of one of the competing drivers.

History

As with all simulation games, technical progress has made possible an ever more realistic simulation of the race. Games that the best approach represented at the time of their appearance in the reality and thus can be counted among the simulations were far surpassed later by the prior art.

Especially the arcade machines, which until the appearance of the home computer in the early 1980s, the dominant platforms were published in 1976 and appear as measured by the state of the 2000s rather than simulations.

The time of the arcade simulations

The first racing game was Gran Trak 10 Atari (1974). This arcade game was the first one steering wheel and a four -speed gearbox, brake and accelerator pedals. The game was black / white and you could see the action from a bird's perspective.

The first 3-D racing simulation that can sold from 1976 by Atari / Namco, electro-mechanical projection system F-1 may be regarded as already used the typical for most games of this genre first-person perspective. However, this is not a video game, because no monitor.

The 1976 also brought out by Atari arcade Machine Indy 4 showed the race track still bird's-eye view, but already taken into account the condition of the substrate and was also the first multiplayer racing simulation.

Also in 1976, the arcade game Night Driver was created by Atari. It was a black and white game. You could see the left and right white bars. A private car was stuck as a plastic disc on the monitor. Night Driver is considered the first video game racing simulator. In the same year appeared Fonz by Sega / Gremlin, a motorcycle simulation, was controlled over a motorcycle handlebar. This was the first attempt to make the race simulation by a realistic design of input devices even more realistic.

Other milestones:

• Sprint 2 (Atari, 1976) 1 racing game on microprocessor-based
• Monaco GP ( Sega, 1980) 1 racing game in the sit-in housing, color graphics and stereo sound
• Out Run ( Sega, 1986) 1 racing game with force feedback
• Cruis'n USA ( Midway, 1994) 1 racing game with Reality Mapping

The published in 1982 by Atari Pole Position was the first racing simulation, replicating the processes of a real race: Qualification and race were separate parts of the game. The preparation was carried out as in modern racing simulations common in the first-person perspective, and a variant of the arcade machines had three screens to provide the seated in a mock cockpit driver a panoramic perspective of the race and as a realistic visual impression mediate.

On the art of pole buildings on all other racing games.

As the successor to pole position there was TX -1 ( Tatsumi, 1983) with 3 monitors that were slightly angled to each other. Buggy Boy, there were 1 or 3 monitors.

Very successful was the game Out Run ( Sega, 1986). This also occurred in a version with a small Ferrari to put into it. For the first time there was force-feedback.

Advancement in home appliances

With the advent of home computers, it was possible to significantly increase the complexity of the simulation. The commercial success of a game sold to home users depended not like arcade machines on whether the operation of the game was quick to learn and a single game was over in a few minutes, so that the machine was the next paying customer.

The most significant milestone in the personal computer era was the 1984 developed by Geoff Crammond for the BBC home computer as well as the C64 Revs. It offered Setup options ( angle of front and rear wings ), a realistic physics model and two realistic race tracks ( Silverstone Circuit and Brands Hatch ). While the gameplay as provided for in pole position qualifying and race, the computer opponents were no longer as in the arcade machines randomly appearing, slow obstacles. Revs instead offered a full field of drivers, each with its own name, a cart in its own colors and their own pace.

An unusual simulation was published in 1990 by Brøderbund stunts. It differed from the typical sports game imitation of a real sporting event, but had a realistic and flexible physics model that made ​​it despite the unrealistic circuits that offered ski jumps, loops and other obstacles to a true simulation. Unlike most previous simulations at stunts it was possible (and needed) to take advantage of the third dimension.