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

[The Flying Hun]

Since 1988, I was 21: Ferrari Formula One Grand Prix by EOA, for the Amiga: my very first comouter racing game (not counting those handheld gameboxes with three lanes where you had to steer one LED blip between other blips while overtaking them, also not countign that arcade automat named I think Nightrider, or Nightdrive...).

Highlight titles that I played significantly more and longer than other racing games: Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix Amiga, Papyrus Nascar 2003, SimBin GTR2.

Today actively driving in Assetto Corsa Classic & Competizione (since their earliest beginnings), Raceroom (since late 2015, I think of it as Raceroom 2.0 due to its phoenix-of-the-ashes history since S3 took over, I missed the apparently lousy starting years before, when it was still SimBin in control).

Racing became a real love of mine not before Assetto Corsa's tech demo in 2013, until then I was a flyer (hence my more known nickname Skybird) with Falcon4.0 and FS/PMDG, and a tanker (SBP).

 

[Damage Inc]

In terms of 'racing simulations' it really all began with Lombard RAC Rally for me. Sure it was Keyboard or joystick only and long before wheels but it had many sim elements such as damage, repairs, upgrades and 'weather' (see 12.50ish for fog lol.

When I look back at games like this I just marvel at how far racing games have come!

Back then I was much more into flight and military sims and I remember Combat Lynx as really the fist of those!

Then Microprose came along and both racing and military games got a lot better!

I still see myself more as a racing gamer rather than simmer as I enjoy pretty much any type of racing/driving game. The same goes for flight sims too, DCS etc are great but Ace Combat is still fun to play too.

Combat Lynx...geez that's taking me back...Harrier Attack was cool as well!

edit looking up Durell...Scuba Dive as well!!....ah Nostalgia overload!!!!

 

[pinkimo]

This question and how it's introduced leads to several different interpretations.

For me, being a sim racer is playing proper sims (I would even add "with a wheel", but I know some people are serious in sim racing without using a wheel and I can't exclude them), not early unrealistic sims or simcades. I play to racing games since 1991 or so, I've played to simish games like VROOM in 1992 or Gran Turismo in 1997, I've started to play with a wheel quite late in 2015, but I consider I'm a sim racer since september 2016 when I've started to play to proper sims with GSCE, followed by AMS, rF2 and R3E.

When I see the comments and the votes, most people would have answered 15+ years in my situation.

 

[drws]

My first racing game was Enduro for Atari in the early 90's.
I was playing racing games just for fun until last year when I found GTR2 and it blew my mind!
I never had feeling an experience like that from a racing game before (and I was playing with the keyboard haha)
So, I consider GTR2 my first Sim

 

[MarkR]

Combat Lynx...geez that's taking me back...Harrier Attack was cool as well!

edit looking up Durell...Scuba Dive as well!!....ah Nostalgia overload!!!!

Lol yep it's always fun to look back! Harrier Attack to Combat Lynx was an incredible leap in realism at the time then along came Gunship...wow!! I still find it incredible how games have improved so much.

I enjoyed this Digital Foundry video on how GT has evolved over the years. I was sure the original GT looked better than that back then!

 

[Gabyzen64]

I have always been a car enthusiast, but I have discovered simulators for about 14 years, but only a little more than 11 are simdrivers and only 1 and a half years official simdriver for MSI.
I started dabbling on PC from the distant 2002, with Toca Racer Driver, which was not even supported by the steering wheel, but only the keyboard and I was already going strong.
Then the arrival of Simbin's GTR and GTR2 and my debut as a simdriver, winning 4 European titles. From there I won races and championships regularly and today I still continue with passion and ... a lot of money spent of course but it's so wonderful hahahaahah ♥

 

[davehenrie]

Indy 500/EA sports Ferrari based F1 on the Amiga 500. Then the Papyrus openwheel series, Indycar 2 was a huge leap forward. Played the GP titles for 2 player multiplayer, lurch/lurch/lurch...only so much a 300 baud modem could do. Papyrus Nascar titles MAINLY for the roadcourse TPTCC mod which began as an offline league where you would email in your times. That graduated to full online competition as the league had 2 levels of competition and special events like the Bullrun 1000.
GPL, SCGT, F12k(modding career began) GTR/GTR2. rF1, spent a long long time modding GTR2 and only rejoined rF2 about the time of the S397 purchase.

 

[HF2000]

My answer was 1-3 years as I started multiplayer simracing in AC here on RaceDepartment in 2019.
But if PITSTOP on the C64 also counts, my answer should be 30+

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

My first wheel was 2000, i had been playing GP3 on keyboard prior to that.

I did take an extended break from 2005/6 until 2010, have been here since.

 

[BazzaLB]

My answer was 1-3 years as I started multiplayer simracing in AC here on RaceDepartment in 2019.
But if PITSTOP on the C64 also counts, my answer should be 30+

Pitstop II on the C64.. What a blast that was.. Used to always use the strategy of knocking my opponent into the pits so they had a forced pit stop .. My hands used to cramp up contantly holding the old Atari Joystick in that game for some reason.

 

[Paulo Ribeiro]

Since ZX Spectrum. Honestly, don't remember the name of the game. Too many years...
-Load""-

 

[pcraenme]

My first racing games were probably Motor Mania and Pitstop 1 & 2 on a Commodore 64 in 1982, but you can hardly call that a sim. The first racing sim probably was Grand Prix 2 from MicroProse in 1996.

 

[Richard Ferguson]

Early 80's Pole Position. Inappropriate amount of time in dodgy arcades.

 

[Damage Inc]

Lol yep it's always fun to look back! Harrier Attack to Combat Lynx was an incredible leap in realism at the time then along came Gunship...wow!! I still find it incredible how games have improved so much.

I enjoyed this Digital Foundry video on how GT has evolved over the years. I was sure the original GT looked better than that back then!

Ah Trial Mountian, LOVE that track...I must admit GT3 was the first racing game I spent over a thousand hours on.

PS5 and GT7 looking damn good.

 

[cristianoid]

Also was one of my first simulators. (Okay NR2002 Season before that)
Sometimes i still dream of "don't merge yet" today

When I'm playing any other current SIM I say to myself "good job driver" or if I win "yeaaaah! You win!"

 

[DopeSmokerDoom]

Stunt Car Racer on the Amiga 500 was my first real sim but I played racing games before that like pole position in the arcade with the wheel & pedals

 

[michelforest]

only 60 votes in, but there's a worrying trend there: most have been sim racing since a very long time, and new racers don't seem to stay on very long

I think that sim racing is becoming an increasingly more expensive hobby with people buying VR sets, triple screen, expensive steering wheels, high-end computers, etc. And more expensive gear usually means older folks. I am 54 now and looking back, I could never have bought the stuff I own now when I was in my twenties or thirties.

Also, I teach to students age 17-21 and when I talk about motorsports with them, I find it's not something that interests them at all. Only a tiny little number of them cares about it. I feel like the audience for racing is getting older and older. I'd be curious to see a survey of the average age of racing fans. That is something race organisers should think about for the future.

 

[Tormentor]

Not to mention the F1 1996+ games on Playstation, I think my entry in the simracing world was GPL in 1998.

 

[Mikec87]

Since 1994. Indy 500, IndyCar Racing, then Indycar Racing 2, NASCAR Racing 1, 2 ,3, 4, 2002, 2003 and then heaps more after that lol. Still have them all, even the first Indy 500 game on floppy and 5 1/2 inch disc.

I just built a PC with NOS parts running XP and all the old games from IndyCar Racing 1. Hope to get some races uploaded to my YT channel in the near future.

 

[michelforest]

Since 1989, for me, with "Grand Prix Circuit" from Accolade for the Macintosh Plus. No steering wheel, obviously, and not even in colour!

I tried all kinds of games between 1989 and 2003, but the game that seriously got me interested again in sim racing was rFactor around 2006.