1) F1 Spirit, from Konami. We had this game on the MSX homecomputer. The game uses a top-down view. For its time (1987), I think it was quite advanced, with pretty detailed pit stops and various car setups.

2) Grand Prix 2, from Microprose - I loved that back in the day. GP3 and GP4 never quite got my enthusiasm like that. I did like putting mods on it too.

3) E-Racer Online, from Rage - First racer I played online. It's online component was just awesome. Too bad the publisher went bankrupt (Rage) and took the servers with them. With just single player, it's still nice, but it misses the best part. Not long after that game went offline, in search for a new online racing experience I discovered LFS....



Honerable mentions:
- Lotus III (the one with the RECS editor)... this game was a lot of fun, especially in 2-player mode. Smooth too (provided you had a good pc).
- Stunts, it's been mentioned often already - gotta love those physics

Quote from frokki :

I'm not 100% sure and it looks weird to me too. But incar view is the view I've been observing the digital tracks for last 15 years, and that's why I wanted to find a cockpit shot. Please let me know if you find a better one

From topic to another, deggis do you remember that Rally-Sport game?

It is two different games Deggis. His he posted was made in like 1993, and the cover of the one I posted was like 1998 or something.

in chronological order:

Super Sprint (top view)
Pole Position
<very long gap>
Motoracer 2 (motorcycles)
<another gap>
GTR
LFS

Quote from frokkii :

I'm not 100% sure and it looks weird to me too.

Quote from Tweaker :

It is two different games Deggis. His he posted was made in like 1993, and the cover of the one I posted was like 1998 or something.

Yep, I was wrong. I meant the 1997 game.

1) Gran Priz Legends
2) Richard Burns Rally
3) Gr.C mod for EAF1

Out of the podium:
Sports car Gt
Viper racing

Quote from bbman :

YES! Can you please send it (should be fitting in a E-Mail)?

Just download it here: http://home.swipnet.se/~w-26066/slix.htm

Disclaimer: No, this it not illegal.

Forgot F1GP
http://www.mobygames.com/image ... riginal/1028066095-00.gif

Can't remember the driving model at all, but I remember phoenix being my favourite track and I still remember about 80% of the track layout, even its been like.. 12 years since I last saw it

edit:
Forgot TOCA 2 too. The first game I actually learned some close racing.

Quote :

I see there's still some Stunts fans here like Electrik Kar. Why don't you give a try at good old Stunts competitions ?

Becuase I'm crap now with that game. Booted it up again the other day.. I became really frustrated every time I crashed into the side walls. It's a great trip down memory lane, but I don't think I could get serious with it now. Lacks the resposiveness of the more modern track games which I've gotten used to.

It's good to know people are still getting their kicks out of it though.

PS, the first Motocross Madness was a great one for me. All those stunts off crazy jumps, or just putting the camera in 3rd person and watching yourself kick up dirt- really fun. I thought it looked really realistic. I was really looking forward to the second one but when it came around I just lost interest. I didn't play it once.

Well I have been racing for a LONG time now and as such i can't really say that any of the afore mentioned games have not affected me in some way.

So rather than saying which 3 individual games are my fav I will say this.

Geoff Crammond's:
GP series and stunt car racer. GP was awesome (until GP4) and stunt car is one of those games that needs a remake

Codemasters:
TOCA and CMR, insta fun games the like of which you will not see outside and arcade nowadays.

GPL/LFS:
There are no other race sims on my pute, if all the tracks for GPL were available in LFS or if the physics model of LFS was available in GPL then there would be only one.

Honerable mentions go out to GT and Pole Position. GT almost made me buy a console and Pole Position ate WAY to much of my pocket money.

EDIT:-
I forgot the classic that was Viper Racing from '98 DAMN that was a hard game, almost like GPL in terms of grip until you upgraded your car. Physics were 'interesting' at times but it was always fun.

GPL- was my top game, still is great
LFS- duh
GT4- since the RBR demo can't be supported by me crap graphics card, this is were i get to do something like a rally

RBR, and need for speed: porsche unleashed have already been mentioned. Number 3 can be F-Zero for the Super Nintendo. It's visionary.

Quote from sweetreid :

....Number 3 can be F-Zero for the Super Nintendo. It's visionary.

Yeah, That

Whiplash

and I dunno I used to play some old black and white game with a steering wheel at game rooms when I was a kid... I think it was made by Atari
Good ol 4-bit graphics.

I can't tell, which of following games are my top 3, so let me put it that way:

Ex aequo:
Stunts
Micro Mashines
Lotus (on Amiga; don't know if it's it's true title, but you were driving only these)
Carmageddon
Screamer
Viper Racing
Interstate '76 (well, not a racing game, but many cool cars involved )
and LFS of course

top three favourites: LFS, CMR2, Slicks'n Slide And all that I've spend a lot of time with in chronological order: Stunt car racer (Atari ST) Stunts Grand Prix 2 Slicks'n Slide (I had a license!) CMR2 NFS Porsche Sports Car GT GTR LFS. I still miss a game with great physics, great AI and an offline championship mode. A combination of Flatout2 style driving and tracks with Richard Burns Rally physics would be a must buy.

Quote from romus74 :

top three favourites: LFS, CMR2, Slicks'n Slide And all that I've spend a lot of time with in chronological order: Stunt car racer (Atari ST) Stunts Grand Prix 2 Slicks'n Slide (I had a license!) CMR2 NFS Porsche Sports Car GT GTR LFS. I still miss a game with great physics, great AI and an offline championship mode. A combination of Flatout2 style driving and tracks with Richard Burns Rally physics would be a must buy.

LFS, Ferrari 355 Challenge on the DC and Gran Turismo would be mine.

As you requested, no LFS in first place, but LFS is best can't deny that

1. rFactor - great toy to build all kind of stuff, it has it's faults as everything, but certainly possibility to build whatever you like is really nice.

2. 4D sports driving (Stunts to some minority living cross to that small pond ) This one has also nice editor to build tracks and cars were possibly to mod too if you knew how, Quattro FTW!.

3. Street Legal Redline Racing (sorry for chav wing was needed in that game to keep car on ground ) building engine and tuning was great, also damage and instability at high speeds, game was buggy and did not run well with any hardware, it had also not so good tires or engine physics, but lot of fun.

Some worth mentioning are GPL and Hard Truck series until it turned to stupid arcade game for kids, can't remember which part was last good one, but it had almost more faults than good things, one of good thing was freedom and amount of roads that was quite big, more than in GTA but perhaps less than in TDU, oh yes and of course GTA Grand theft auto is worth mentioning, even it is not actually a car game it had quite nice arcade driving part. Then there is Screamer 4x4 and 1nsane that have been great fun, Screamer was nice to mod too, never got around to mod 1nsane.
Slicks&Slide naturally was good entertainment but I don't know if it can be classified as car game, it was something bigger

Rally trophy is something I gladly forget, it was lot of arcade game and nothing to do with realism.

One thing that I don't know where to put is of course arcade rally games like RBR and Colin 2, loads of fun pretty similar to rally trophy but somehow these I liked more...

Quote from JTbo :

One thing that I don't know where to put is of course arcade rally games like RBR

Excuse me but WTF?! The most realistic rally game ever is arcade and on the same level than CMR 2?

Quote from Blackout :

Excuse me but WTF?! The most realistic rally game ever is arcade and on the same level than CMR 2?

That is how I see it, I know there is thousands that disagree, but I certainly don't see much difference, RBR creates good illusion of rallying, much better than CMR 2, but in terms of simulation it does as well as rFactor Some things nice some things not so nice. Good entertainment it is anyway

1. LFS (still the king of multiplayer sims)

2. Motor City Online (still mourning after all this time)

3. Possibly Monaco Grand Prix Racing Simulation 2 on PC (Google it, trust me) or Nigel Mansell's World Championship on the SNES. Or Colin McRae 2 & 4. I've played them all a lot.

Ok without LFS (which comes equal 1st in my book) it goes something like this

In no particular order.

Sega Rally (arcade full cockpit version) :- Simply because it was one of the first arcade racers i was really good at. I have to admit that drawing a large crowd who would watch me play for ages was a nice little ego massage. It cost me a bloody fortune though...probably could have bought my own machine

RBR:- The greatest rally sim ever..nothing even gets close to it for edge of the seat immersion.

NetKar pro:- Nothing gets closer to the feeling of racing a single seater race car. Not even LFS's open wheelers get anywhere near the feeling of nKPro. I've had the best racing experiences of my life with nKPro. It's simply awesome imo. It's a real shame that so many people seem to have problems online with it. i was lucky i guess, even with my crappy old rig.


Special mention has to go to Mr Crammonds GP's 1 to 3 which truly sucked me into sim racing...i'd love to have raced tham online. Fantastic.

LFS (for the tintops) is my equal number 1 sim with nKpro and RBR...all do their thing brilliantly imo.

EDIT:-..lol, just seen JTbo's "arcade rally games like RBR" comment. Are you sure you played the same sim as the rest of us?

Fav is Lfs,but here without lfs

On Commodore Amiga =P

Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge

Pic

Music from Lotus2 Music

1. Carmageddon 1
- Bought original spl edition and played only it for 3 years day and night (was very young) in my 486 running turboed 100mhz,i only stoped playing it when my dad took my computer away.

2. Gran turismo 1
- Loved it since the very first second !

3. Gran turismo 2
- Long waited

I can remember my first racing game I played. Bump and Jump for Intelevision!

Hard Drivin' and Race Drivin'. I can't believe I haven't seen anyone mention these yet. I used to spend all the change my mom gave to me while she was at league bowling on these games. They taught me how to drive stick at the right old age of 11. It still has one of the best game physics out there, besides jumping a Testerossa 150 feet and landing it.

I remember the days of playing Indy 500. Dispite playing it using the integrated PC speaker (that sounded great!) It was still enjoyable. I really liked the little triangle polygons that fly around when you wreck!

Then there's all those damn Papyrus games. I remember my first PC racing game was Indycar Racing. I think I still have the original box. I played this for hours on end. Nascar Racing and Nascar Racing 2 sucked alot of my childhood away as well. I got GPL, but it seemed way too hard to play without a wheel a the time.

Monster Truck Madness kept me occupied for a bit.

Need for Speed was one of my favorites. I loved the NFS series back then, when they at least tried to make it realistic. I ended up getting NFS2, but never really had a good computer to run it properly back then.

Viper Racing sparked my interest for a bit. The first PC game I played that allowed you to use a clutch. I thought that was way cool!

I also had my sessions of of Gran Tourismo as well, 1-3. I have 4, but I rarely play it.

I spent many hours playing Mobil 1 Rally Championship. Though the physics of the game weren't quite there, I still think it's a more realistic rally game than RBR. There's so much more to the game. Day/Night races. Weather, of course. Better pace notes. And OMG, the longest courses! It was great!

I also played Motor City Online for the entire duration it was available. Though I didn't race in it that much, since my computer at the time also could barely run it. Instead I was way too occupied with modding the cars and building up they way I wanted them. That was too fun!

Now I simply enjoy my time with GTR2, GTL, LFS, and RBR, mainly.

If I had to choose 3 favorites of all time?

Race Drivin'
Need for Speed SE
GTR2

Indy 500 The first racing game I ever played, we only had the demo I couldn't have been much older than 3 or 4, I remember crashing into walls blew the tyres up. It was probably the first game I ever played.

Skid marks This was a silly game, my older brother had it on his Amiga. I remember it because the computer asked you if you wanted to play. I also remember my older brother telling me that skid marks are poo marks in ones pants.

Toca 2 Touring Cars This was my first game on the Playstation. The game was so realistic, it was also really hard for me. My older brother more or less completed the game for me/himself. We used to play hide and seek, and tag on it. I also remember being excited when he unlocked the AC/Shelby Cobra.


These probably aren't my favourite racing games ever (Skid marks for example) but these were probably the most influencial.

Quote from The Moose :

EDIT:-..lol, just seen JTbo's "arcade rally games like RBR" comment. Are you sure you played the same sim as the rest of us?

Yes very same, there is difference in realism and what feels like real, you can get very real feeling without doing anything that is realistic...

Yes, in RBR you get good feeling like what it could be driving a rally car, mostly because of how tracks are made, drive around Blackwood with that and you would notice how wrong things really are, but I'm not going to argue about that as I have no idea how to prove point to anyone who really believes RBR being realistic sim that simulates things realistic manner.