Legendary Developers MicroProse Are Back!

[Ruy Horta]

Sure for a second I had that feeling of nostalgia, but I am not hyped until I see the first late alphas, early betas of any product. There are plenty of ambitious project being announced and most of them fail to deliver. Carrying a name like Microprose and having some of their old guard on contract is good advertising, but more is needed.

Lets see what happens within a 1-3 years, the time it takes to develop something decent.

 

[mrbungle83]

This was my first sim racing game, I was 16 and when I could finally put in what resembled a lap I basically acted like I was pretty much an F1 driver. It gave me my first smug feeling that only the finest SimUlatWor Is capable of.

ACC does it to be even now, my eyes glaze over as I imagine what my life would have been like had daddy been rich. (places 20000 in hotlap competition)

 

[Vera9]

Please not a SimBin-style necromancy prank again. Please not a SimBin-style necromancy prank again. Please not a SimBin-style necromancy prank again.

Thank you.

 

[JonnyCombat]

God I hope they get back into flight sims. Some of my earliest memories are their games.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Grand Prix 4. Still installed on my PC, and works perfectly on my W10 machine with T500RS and T3PA pedals.

Compared to its era, probably the best F1 game ever produced.

I still yearn for a Grand Prix 5.

 

[Salvatore Sirignano]

Grand Prix 4. Still installed on my PC, and works perfectly on my W10 machine with T500RS and T3PA pedals.

Compared to its era, probably the best F1 game ever produced.

I still yearn for a Grand Prix 5.

Does your wheel/pedal combo show as one device in windows? I am hoping to use an accuforce with g27 pedals but I´m not optimistic it´ll work...

 

[pabletux]

Call me what you want, but I have little tears in my eyes, GP series means so much for me, I hope we can see some day a return, the best AI in simracing

 

[MarkR]

Oooh a new F15 Strike Eagle game please, those incursions into Libya taking out the radar sites happy days. Oh, and I want a physical copy with the big thick game manual with all the controls and aircraft stats etc too!

 

[A man with a Harmonica]

GP3 and GP4 have better AI, weather system and game structure than any simulator today. An era when you pay for a product and get it on solid state in contrast to the bunch of bugged betas we have available nowadays.

 

[Alastre]

Shivers...as simple as that!

Oooh a new F15 Strike Eagle game please, those incursions into Libya taking out the radar sites happy days. Oh, and I want a physical copy with the big thick game manual with all the controls and aircraft stats etc too!

Lol mate, those were the days! Still can remember first mission...a bounch of enemy planes in front of you...amraams and sidewinders fired and everything was over...airstrip at Sigonella...ahhhhh

 

[Andrew Harper]

I suppose my fondest memory of the Microprose catalogue was the flight sims. They were just so complete in nature.

I logged up tonnes of hours on Gunship and Gunship 2 (one to many Purple Hearts though). Then went over to the Jane's version of the Apache simulator, which although more complex was just as much fun.

I remember playing F19 Stealth Fighter too, that was interesting because it was more than just attacking a target, it was about being as sneaky as possible to make sure you didn't get picked up on enemy radar as well.

GP1 and GP2 I played on for hours and hours, and then got into the whole modding thing on GP2 and GP3. For some reason I didn't play GP4 much although I do have it on my computer.

Can't remember the guys name but someone created some incredible mods for the GP series. The car models were much more detailed. Amazing work but you needed a quick PC at the time to use them

Will be interesting to see how this develops. As someone mentions, it's just the name that's been purchased. However in my view there is a market for flight sims that re-create attack helicopters and jets. Yes you can get them as add-ons for Flight Sims but what made the Microprose games interesting was you had a kind of career mode which is much more immersive.

 

[DaVeX↯]

Looking their webpage...seems they are focusing on mil-sims, I am more excited for a new Silent Service or flight SIM than another racing SIM

 

[Andrew Harper]

GP3 and GP4 have better AI, weather system and game structure than any simulator today. An era when you pay for a product and get it on solid state in contrast to the bunch of bugged betas we have available nowadays.

Yeah I remember starting a race on a drying track on slicks, whereas all the AI started on wets. It was a nightmare at first but you could visibly see the dry line forming and within four laps I was in the lead, at the time the weather physics were just unreal, and like you say in some ways it's yet to be beaten.

 

[Moustagua]

OMG a return of the Microprose grand Prix serie will make me very happy!!!!! I can't count the amount of hour i played on Grand Prix the first on Amiga... It's with this game that i started in modding. I remember: there was a freeware that allowed to change the color of the polygons on the cars and on the helmets... It was very fun and it's by that i created my virtual racing team: MRT (Moustagua Racing Team that you can still see the logo on my helmet in my avatar, lol)

Then with the others opus on PC, with real textures on the 3d models i spent so many time to redraw all the cars and helmets. For GP4, for exemple, i had even made a website (mrtf1gp.com) that contained all the helmets of all the drivers who take the start of a GP between 1991 an 2004.. A huge database that no longer exist online now and unfortunatly i lost a part of it when my hard disk crashed.

So many memories of theses games... In GP1 It was the first time we have 3d cars and tracks on a video game if i'm right, and in the last ones it was the fist time we have dynamic weather and rain drop on the visor in interior helmet cam view... So great... The physic was marvellous too for this time... And there was a track editor too in freeware. I started a project to draw a track in my city: Nice (in the french riviera for those who don't know it) but i never ended it... Perhaps one day i will do it for Assetto Corsa, but it's pretty hard i think...

So, i love the idea Microprose could make a new F1 game with the actual technologies. It will be perfect and a real simulation...But i don't know if they could have the F1 licence... But why not???

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I still play GP4 as much as anything else, it is an absolute masterpiece!

I use GP3, mainly because I have so many carsets (not mods as in, replace one carshape with another, but just liveries, names and performance changers). I to believe I have from 1950 to 2009, Of course, all the years with more than 22 cars IRL gets quite unrealistic, and the years with less gets a bit random.
But with the championship manager tool, I can save up stats etc. It's quite handy for a singleplayer experience And of course, it got the same weather system where it can rain on parts of the track, but stay bone dry in some corners as well!

Am I the only one that isn't too excited by this news? I mean, MicroProse is just a name. What makes a name great is the people behind it. Unless they've somehow managed to bring back the exact same team that put the Grand Prix series together, the name means very little... and neither does the history behind it. There are too many examples of dead big names being revived, but only being a shadow of their former selves, to really get any hopes up of another ultimate GP game. Or any other type of game, for that matter.

It's also worth pointing out that one of the things that made the GP series great is that it broke new ground, doing things nobody else had done before. That wouldn't be the case this time. Instead, they'll be competing with the other big sims that are already out there, and with more on the way. Doing something that's already established better than anyone else is much harder than setting the standard in the first place.

I think if Geoff Crammon got behind something, it would "feel" the same. But a new GP-game without him would be completely different.

And I wouldn't be so sure that breaking new ground wouldn't be possible. There is always things to "invent"

Hopefully this means a successor to the Grand Prix World management game too. It may be the 1998 season in standard form, but I still play it today!

I found GPM2 to be a better game, GPW was a bit easier on the eye and mind, but in terms of features, rules, rule-changes, injuries, illness, development, bankruptcy - the whole F1 experience, I would say GPM2 is superior to this day.

What happened to Geoff Crammond since GP4?

A short "interview" with VirtualR (2014)

A longer, more in-depth, proper interview with RetroGamer (2009 - this is where he mentions that GP5 feels like unfinished business)

 

[nangu]

Am I the only one that isn't too excited by this news? I mean, MicroProse is just a name. What makes a name great is the people behind it. Unless they've somehow managed to bring back the exact same team that put the Grand Prix series together, the name means very little... and neither does the history behind it. There are too many examples of dead big names being revived, but only being a shadow of their former selves, to really get any hopes up of another ultimate GP game. Or any other type of game, for that matter.

I mean, SimBin have a fine history of racing simulation too. They got revived a few years back, even announcing their next big project and...

It's also worth pointing out that one of the things that made the GP series great is that it broke new ground, doing things nobody else had done before. That wouldn't be the case this time. Instead, they'll be competing with the other big sims that are already out there, and with more on the way. Doing something that's already established better than anyone else is much harder than setting the standard in the first place.

I agree. GP2 was my first entry on racing games, and I miss so much the Grand Prix series, but the name alone means a little to nothing I'm affraid.

I have wet dreams with a new F1 GP entry made by Geoff Crammond since GP4, but I think it's impossible by now :-(

I can't believe we, in 2019, can't have a title which equals GP4 all round. The physics and graphical aspects are now better without doubt, but the "simulation" of the sports and the game "atmosphere" GP series had, nobody was capable to deliver IMHO.

 

[Jugulador]

Gimme Gimme FALCON 5.0!!!

 

[Andy_J]

The start of my computer gaming is encapsulated by Microprose. From GP1 to GP4, from Falcon to F-15, Gunship to F-117 Stealth Fighter to M1 Tank Platoon. I still have every boxed microprose simulation. And I mean every one.

I still play GP4.

 

[Max Melamed]

This news! It all started with Grand Prix 3 for me. I still would play it if I had the CD somewhere. This is what got me into cars, racing and motorsport.

Just the news is enough to make me shiver. I don't care if they ever will do a Sim again but I will be forever grateful that they got me into all the things I love now!

 

[gamer19]

Yeah great news. GP series well ahead of it's time and GP2 was one of the games I've played the most. They also got many their great great games.
I just hope they aren't "SimBin" back.