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

[Scott Borchardt]

Since 1982.

Pole Position On the Atari 2600, Cutting edge sim in its day.

Yup... Right there with you but only at arcade... lots of quarters went into that machine!

 

[BillyBobSenna]

This is how the disease started. Darn you mom and dad.

 

[Chris Down]

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.

Hear, hear. I am also worried about this every time I read comments like "F1 hasn't been good since 2002" or "you didn't see real F1". The amount of gatekeeping that people do around F1 and motorsports in general no doubt puts younger people off. I mean, it's not even valid: in the 2000s we complained F1 was boring and we should go back to the 90s, in the 90s we complained F1 was boring and we should go back to the 80s, etc...

When people don't know random trivia or memes from 10 years ago I often see them ridiculed or excluded online. We as motorsports fans have to be more willing to adapt and be flexible if we want more younger people to be involved. That means not balking at every change to the sport just because it's "not pure", not judging people just because they can't remember the early 2000s (if they were even born then), and not seeking to keep a sport born in the mid 20th century from advancing to a new generation of viewers.

 

[Jugulador]

I play racing sims since the early 90's with Indy 500 and other Papyrus series. But I became a sim racer in 2010 when I bought my DFGT and dived on rFactor online leagues.

 

[danclark]

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

Exactly the same here. I've played racing games since I was 5 years old using Dad's C64 on Pit Stop 2 in the late eighties, but GPL was my first recognisable sim in terms of what we understand by the term today.

Personally I wouldn't really categorise anything I played pre 1998 as meeting the definition. To me, the baseline is realistic physics and controlled by a steering wheel and pedals.

Even the Geoff Crammond games, good though they were, were held back by the lack of any decent controllers. I'm sure many will disagree, but if you can't give the sim inputs that are akin to what you put into a car, then the software can't simulate the right responses. Ergo you can't really have a sim if you haven't got good analogue inputs.

Probably a controversial opinion but I don't think anyone could have been a 'sim racer' before the mid nineties because sim controls weren't available, at least on the consumer market.

 

[mister dog]

From Ferrari GP Challenge on the Gameboy, to Senna Monaco GP II on the Megadrive, and then Virtua Racing and onwards, so 28 years

 

[André Gee]

Guess my very first impressions I've got were with V-Rally and F1 by Psygnosis on PS1, also been mad for Whipeout 2097 in terms of racing titles. But I really dived in with Toca 1+2 and CMR 1+2, switched to PC then, over to Grand Prix (not: Legends ),NfS : Porsche Unleashed, RC 2000 with the longest stages ever, Rally Masters, discovered the ISI F1 titles with Simbin GTR Mods then and got lost . From there on to GTR1+2, RBR and Mods later, GT Legends (tho I'm not a big Legends/Classic Cars games fan generally), well and ended up with RRE, DirtRally Series, rf2 and ACC lately.....well, most of us came a long way it seems.....

 

[passenger]

I think my first 'Sim' or 'game' was on Super Nintendo back in '91 or '92, Nigel Mansell something GP...

But, seriously talking Sims, and with a proper steering wheel, it was with rFactor 1 and
Live for Speed.

 

[flykas]

First I selected 15+ because I considered my first sim game that I really engaged in and acheived somethin in to be Richard Burns Rally. I have tried some other sims before that, but couldn't get into track racing. BUT then I remembered one sim that has no analogs till now and it is Screamer 4x4, only good memories about that, also I remember I found it in a demo cd was really fascinated about all the simish apsects like, realistic colours and environement, not over the top car design and ability turn on and turn of things in the car... hm yeah, that was so cool

 

[RobertGracie]

I started around 1998 so way too long! TOCA was the first racing game I had!

 

[mmmarac]

Borrowed a wheel from a friend back in 2003 for Gran Turismo. Few weeks and that was it. Then again in 2006 for short period during end of my college days. Since then and in between those years I haven’t touched any racing game until beginning of 2019 and PC2. Deleted immediately PC2 after single lap in AC and since then it’s mostly AC & ACC... sometimes Raceroom. Now, racing only at weekends if I catch some extra free time. Forgot to mention I’ve spent a lot of time in early 2000s playing Colin McRae Rally 2.0 with keyboard.

 

[ZeldaACFan17]

For me, I only truly started when I got my Driving Force Pro wheel working with my PC for (I think) Assetto Corsa

 

[ZeldaACFan17]

Now I have a Thrustmaster T300RS with a full 3 pedal setup and a TH8A shifter

 

[ATSSHD]

Started with F1 Challenge 99-02..

 

[David Wright]

Looks like the survey needs re-calibrating adding

20 years +
25 years +
30 years +

Like many, Crammonds Grand Prix on the Amiga 500 is the first racing sim I played.

Interestingly the survey doesn't back up the theory that Simracing has been growing, especially in the past few months, though RD surveys tend not to be very typical of the wider sim racing community.

 

[Wayne Hutchison]

Started "serious" sim racing with Indy 500: The Simulation in 1989. That progressed to F1GP, Indycar, NASCAR in the early to mid-90's when I purchased my first wheel/pedals - Thrustmaster Formula T1. Participated in a lot of "offline" competitions via the Compuserve Sportsims forum and then made the move to online multiplayer racing in April 1996 with NASCAR v1.2 on "Hawaii". Been online racing ever since.

 

[TShrimp]

Also started with Pole Position on the Atari 2600 in 1986 (I guess?), then F1GP by Microprose in 1992 (first on the Amiga 500 and then PC with astonishing 25fps!), Indycar Racing and Nascar Racing and so on. So many great games/sims since then. Love that genre.

My son has my old Atari 2600 hooked up and loves it. I still have Night Driver and the paddle controller (I guess the original gaming wheel ?). I still remember winning that Atari for selling the most candy in Little League.

 

[delpinsky]

We are old...
Arcade Pole Position

C=64 Ferrari Formula One, by Rick Koenig

C=64 REVS

Formula One Grand Prix by Geoff Crammonds
Indianapolis 500: The Simulation by Papyrus
...up to Assetto Corsa Competizione
(someday I will try Automobilista 2, but now I have no time)

 

[TylerDurden4321]

I played Indy 500 in the early 90s and the Crammond Grand Prix games, I had a FFB wheel when this century was new. But not for a second would I think I've been a sim racer at that time. So I'm actually in the 6-7 year range of being a sim racer realistically. Has nothing to do with competitiveness, for me it's just about how much I enjoy it and a little bit how much time I spend doing it.

 

[Jack Vos]

it all started with Pole Position on the good old Commodore 64
then F1GP on the Amiga for years, when GP3 came out I just got a PC

Minichamps 1:18 / 1:43

Couldn't resist, also bought the Opel Omega mod for AC and rF2 wich also has the Commodore livery