Your jaw-dropping moments in race-gaming history?

I originally had a lengthy thread listing all my favourite racing games over the years but I realised that would be dull. Instead I'll just leave you with this:

 

Here are few games that really blow me away.
Test Drive (1987)
Stunts (1990)
Gran Turismo (1997) and after this one, every other
TOCA Race Driver (2002)
Gran Prix 4 (2002)
LFS (2003)
...and since then, well, except Gran Turismo non of the games had something so I'd be dedicated to them...

And finally Assetto Corsa (probably thanks to GT)

Cheers...

 

I have played many racing games, but these I can never forget:

• 1992 - Formula One Grand Prix PC
• 1996 - Grand Prix 2
• 2000 - Grand Prix 3 (PC)
• 2000 - Le Mans 24 Hours
• Grand Prix legends 1998
• 2006 - GTR 2

 

1989 - Test Drive
I remember playing this game on the best PC we had on our computer center at the university. I previously played versions on the C64 with much better colors, but the animation flow was very good on the PC.

1992 Test Drive 3
This was a fantastic game, probably one the first simulators. The 3D world was amazing at the time being. Remembering seen insects being smashed on the windshield. It was pretty good.

1996 The Need For Speed
We use to stay at night on the office with some friends just to play this on our LAN. It was so much fun driving the different cars against each other, very nice sceneries at the time.

1997 Indy Car II
After NFS I bought what became my first proper simulator.

1998 Grand Prix Legends
This was the biggest jaw dropping, nothing need to be added.

 

1986 - Revs+ on the C64. Pole position and Outrun arcade rubbish got ditched for the fun of proper F3 simracing with analogue steering and throttle control (emulated via keys). Who else but Big Geoff Crammond - as usual, well ahead of his time.

1987 - Test Drive on the C64. 959 vs F40. Crappy framerates couldn`t stop it being just more fun than you could ask for.



1989 - Stunt Car Racer on the Amiga. Geoff Crammond again. What a guy. It was done earlier on the C64, but the framerate was diabolical, so I`m mentioning it on the Amiga instead.



1989 - Indy 500 on the Amiga. Early days for Papyrus. I spent more time on this than anybody ever should on a game. Fully analogue steering with a mouse, and well done digital throttle and braking on the left and right buttons made this one ridiculously good. You could just go round and round and round and..... forever. The sheer fun you could have causing huge crashes or throwing the car into 5 or so full spins at full speed then recovering to carry on was too good to miss.



1992 - F1GP on the Amiga. Big Geoff again. Phenomenal stuff. Many, many days were spent with a friend or 2 round, taking in full length races, swapping over at pitstops. This one had it everything you could ask for in a sim (even though it was early, early days). Proper dull grey rain races and everything. This game in particular was the first time I hacked apart a perfectly good joystick and started sawing, screwing and gluing wooden bits together simply to make a rudimentary wheel and pedal for better immersion. Well worth the effort



1998 - Grand Prix Legends on the PC. No need to say anything more about that one.

2004 - Richard Burns Rally on the PC. Damn. Still the best at what it does.

2006 - GTR2 on the PC. Long time to wait for a new groundbreaking sim, but there it was.

I`m not mentioning the Playstation stuff, as although I had a huge amount of fun from the original TOCA and GT, CM Rally, NFS2, and MW, I never thought them more than just console games.

 

Some nice memories from this thread.

Street Rod series 1&2


Slicks 'n' Slide


F1GP


Richard Burns Rally
(Definitely my all time love!)


Mafia 1&2
(Mostly because of the unique athmosphere)


Assetto Corsa
(The last but definitely not least)

 

Anyone remember Night Driver on the Commodore 64? Otherwise known as Roadside Bollard Simulator

 

NASCAR Racing
Indycar Racing II
Sportscar GT
Richard Burns Rally
F1 2000 + F1 Challange
Rfactor
Assetto Corsa

All these games where modable and really great simulations!

But also games like Test Drive on AMIGA 500, later Stunts for PC with a great track editor, Microprose GrandPrix2 or Ubisoft F1...i never was a fan of NFS but NFS2 shure caught my attention. I never forget the Lotus Gt1 in this ice world track...

 

Driving the full Targa Florio in Power & Glory remains the single best sim-driving experience I have had. The sounds, the rough and ready FFB, and most of all the amazing challenging grueling circuit!

 

I should post photos of cars partecipating targa florio this year...

 

Game Changer!

My first PC sim; bought my first force feedback wheel just for this.


Laser scanned tracks, nuff said.


I discovered this late in its life cycle, but was instantly immersed and fell in love. For me this was the first game where the tires actually felt like they were made out of rubber.


The best so far.

 

hard to really pick the most memorable/jaw dropping games but I do remember that I was blown away with Gran Turismo3 ( my first Gran turismo) ,the sheer number of cars and tracks, the tuning of cars, tuning having effect even for sound!, fun driver license courses, ..etc)
something that not necessarily happened ever again,

there were some impressive PC titles as well such as RAC Rallye (because it had Skoda Felicia) , CMR3, TOCA1 + 2, GTR2 and in the latest of times I was impressed by pCARS and Dirt Rallye, but I think jaw dropping momement was probablly just Gran Turismo, ( which is especially said since the GT6 wasn't that good, I hope they manage to get back to their game )

AC is also very impressive for it's driving feel, but I'm still missing too many things ( some of which might be too high expectations I admit )

 

already all games are mentioned here...lol....omg i played them all also....

sega arcardegames....super hang on, manx tt, ferrari 355 challenge, sega rally - all were epic at their time - full 355 cabinet is still the best you can get beside of real simulators
for homeuse...hmm first was stunts, then need for speed for the saturn....i loved curising around with the supra and listen to music after homework and before playing football with friends , the first colin rally was pain in the *** with keyboard, gtl also,

but i think it wasnt that bad also for the real world, in karting rl im king and in average 5sec faster per lap then all of my friends which have a driverlicense....i dont have one

omg i drove more kilometers in virtual world then the average trucker in real so devs if you need a addidedicted person to testdrive some new stuff...gimme gimme...i know what good stuff is and from what you get killed by your costumer if you try to sell it to them

 

Yeah, all Games noteable were posted, but STUNTS I have played most of all the car sims.

This guy driving in this picture does not know that the chicane can be passed also when driving exactly in the middle,.... noob


But the game that I have played most is the following, still have it on my PC.
Its not a drive sim its:

So many hours so many years... still the best dynamic campaign ever been seen on a computer (except falcon 3 and 4+) maybe.

My best career with a Pilot was 106 kills till he was MIA. He was a good Pilot and a great Pal to me when I was young

 

I am just surprised noone mentioned NFS porche yet. I did own racesims for pc before this one, but the Pprche game got me hooked and mad enough to buy my first (bungey cord) Thustmaser wheel.

 

im glad this is game experience not sim as my best moment was probably whilst playing gran turismo online with a few guys in the lobby watching and talking with their mics. I had never met them before and they were singing my praises the whole race, I ran out of fuel and literally rolled over the finish line on the last lap with them cheering me on. this is probably my best gaming experience ever.

2nd would be stumbling across an awesome host called steering wheel and racing with him and his friends on GT Legends.

3rd would be the thrill of a competitive race on iRacing (in general) and the effect it had on my underpants knowing that 1 mistake and your towed back to the pits with a 3 hour repair time... that game was bad for my heart!

 

Most of my jaw droppers have already been mentioned...

Indy 500 on the Amiga... The first time I finished the full 500 mile race.

Mastering GPL with a game pad (embrassing, I know but I didn't have a wheel back then). Did a little movie making with GPL..

Exploratory attempt

Montjuic preview movie

Richard Burns Rally

PnG

Assetto Corsa - F40

 

Heres one of mine from GT Legends. After a chaotic start i was trying to chase down SW in the Ford Falcon for the rest of the race... if i remember correctly he actually binned it on the last lap and gave me the win but i kindly left that out of the video

I love the balance they struck between the little agile cars and the big muscle monsters in GTL. I dont think any games list of cars has ever got close to exciting me as much as this one (and any off shoots thereafter)

 

Po

Porsche unleashed has been mentioned, and rightly so as it was great. Shame EA have hogged the license ever since

 

Did you ever race on the Gamers Crib GT Legends TC65+ server, Andy?