Simulation Game, based around Formula One as it was in 1967. One of the most realistic, and impossibly difficult, driving sims ever created.
Following the success of their Indycar and NASCAR games the Papyrus Design Group decided to make a Formula One game... with a slight twist. Although historic Flight Sims had become a very popular genre, the Driving Game was always set in the present time, with contemporary cars. Although modern Formula One was a very high tech and glamorous activity, it had lost some of the danger and excitement it had in the 'sixties. Perfect for a simulation...
Notable for being an extremely difficult to master, and for being kept alive many years after its release by a modding community.
The game features examples of these tropes:
- The '50s: The 1955 F1 mod has the cars, tracks, and drivers of that year's F1 championship.
- The '60s: The initial release consisted of most of the cars and tracks of the 1967 Formula One World Championship, set during that year. Later, mods were released with other F1 cars (and some tracks) during those years, as well as Can-Am, Sports Cars, and a few other disciplines/series of the time.
- Collision Damage
- Cool Car
- Cosmetically Different Sides: Notably averted. All seven cars in the game handle and perform very differently.
- Difficult, but Awesome: The Lotus. It's easily the fastest car if you can deal with the ridiculous torque.
- Fake Difficulty: The sim would keep the faster cars if the player reduced the number of opponents. A three player race would result in a race with the two Team Lotus AI cars of Jim Clark and Graham Hill.
- Fictional Counterpart: Coventry and Murasama stand in for Cooper and Honda, while Brabham, BRM, Eagle, Ferrari and Lotus retain their names.
- Game Mod: 1965 carset, 1966 carset, 1969 carset, the Targa Florio track, the Isle of Man track, the Montjuic Park track, Le Mans etc, etc, etc...
- Scenery Porn: A lot of the mods qualify, notably the more than 70km long Targa Florio set on Sicily.
- Jack of All Stats: The Brabham, until the player becomes proficient enough to drive the Lotus and the Eagle. Then those become the cars to have.
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Nintendo Hard: The manual even says something like "When you'll drive for the first time, you will spin out and crash. Because everyone spins out and crashes the first time they play this game". - Nonstandard Game Over: In cockpit view only, if the player barrel rolls and flips the car over by close to 180 degrees, the screen will fade to black. As in other situations, and uncharacteristically for the game, a car reset is available though.
- Period Piece: Set in 1967.
