Tag Archives: racing simulation

Fatal Rewind

Formula 1 97: Racing, Refined

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fatalrewind-wide-header-3923218This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
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A year after the well-received Formula 1 hit the PlayStation, Bizarre Creations proved that their apparent skill in creating great racing games wasn’t just a fluke — because they made another Formula One game, and it was even better.

Formula 1 97 hit store shelves in September of 1997, a month before the 1997 racing season came to a close. While development ran fairly smoothly — and apparently legendary commentator Murray Walker was so impressed with the game that he signed an exclusive agreement with Sony to provide commentary for another two years — Psygnosis and Sony ran into legal issues with the sport’s various governing bodies after the game launched, and ended up having to repackage, rename and rerelease the game.

Thankfully none of that matters now, and Formula 1 97 still provides an enjoyable racing experience for both arcade racer fans and more dedicated petrolheads. So let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading Formula 1 97: Racing, Refined →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Fast Lane

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The “sim racer” has very much become its own distinct thing over the course of the last 20 years or so.

Back in the 16-bit home computer era, the lines between arcade racers and more simulation-like affairs were a little more blurred thanks to the limitations of the technology of the time. And that’s where games like Fast Lane come in, combining old-school “vanishing point” racing with an arcade feel and more simulation-style aspects such as damage, wear and tear and realistic pit stops.

Praised by several publications around the time of its original release, Fast Lane holds up surprisingly well today… although its lack of save functionality means you’d better set a whole day aside if you want to run that whole championship!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Days of Thunder

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In the 8- and 16-bit home computer era, movie license games were typically developed either as platform games with a tenuous link to the movie in question, or some sort of minigame compilation, with each major scene from the movie being represented as some sort of interactive challenge.

Mindscape’s Days of Thunder was different. Here was a game that took the basic concept of the movie and simply used it as a basis to create a fully fleshed out experience — one that complemented rather than attempted to imitate the original work. The subject matter — motorsport — was ideal for such a treatment, and, on paper, Days of Thunder was a great idea.

Sadly, less than stellar performance meant that the game wasn’t as good as it could have been — a lack of speed and responsiveness in a racing game is a bit of an issue! — but it remains an interesting proof of concept as well as an intriguing anomaly that broke with the conventions and norms of the time. So I salute the effort involved, if not necessarily the final product we ended up with!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Auto Modellista, Sunday Driving

Sunday Driving: Fear the Mighty Yaris – Auto Modellista #2

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I enjoyed Auto Modellista so much when I tried it for the first time last week that I felt it deserved another look or two. So that’s what we’re up to today!

For the unfamiliar, Auto Modellista is a 2002 release from Capcom that, alongside Monster Hunter and Resident Evil Outbreak, was supposed to be Capcom’s big break into online gaming. That, uh, didn’t quite work out — indeed, the initial Western release of Auto Modellista didn’t have any online modes at all — but it didn’t stop it being a cool, immensely stylish game.

Hit the jump for the latest video to see what I mean!

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Fear the Mighty Yaris – Auto Modellista #2 →