IndyCar Racing II (Mac) Preview

Originally posted in Inside Mac Games. September, 1995.

NOTE: Screen shots and information presented in this article are based on a pre-release version of IndyCar Racing II and are subject to change before final release. This article is not a review.

It’s the final lap…the tires squeal…the engine screams…you check your mirrors and the traffic ahead looking for somewhere to pass…heading into turn three you dive low, nail the turbo boost, and try to push the accelerator through the floorboards…you see the opening but it’s pretty tight…you’ve got to go…it’s now or never…coming out of turn four onto the front straight, your line in the corners has given you a slight speed advantage…jumping on your chance, you squeeze by Fittipaldi and Unser and take the checkered flag by half a car length giving you your first lead in the points standing of the young IndyCar season.

For years, Mac users have been screaming for an auto-racing simulator. The others that came before (and we won’t name names here) never quite fit the bill. But, finally, the wait is over. At last month’s MacWorld Expo in Boston, Papyrus Design Group, Inc. was showing a preview version of their first Mac offering: IndyCar Racing II, due in stores for the Christmas season. Although the “II” part of the title may sound odd for an initial foray into the Macintosh market, the game is a sequel to the critically acclaimed IndyCar Racing (winner of a Software Publisher’s Association CODIE award in 1994) and will be simultaneously released for the Mac as well as DOS and Windows ‘95.

Based on the original, IndyCar Racing II will feature dozens of improvements over the PC version, including crisp 640×480 graphics, improved opponent artificial intelligence, realistic car handling, exciting new crash graphics, 15 painstakingly reproduced IndyCar tracks, new digital sound effects, enhanced garage functionality that allows you to change almost every aspect of your car, three driving modes, and, well, the list goes on.

Although IndyCar Racing II is based on a DOS game, make no mistake, this is not a port. All the graphics, including the cars, tracks, billboards, grandstands, and even the recreational vehicles in the infield have been enhanced to take advantage of the Mac’s inherent high-resolution graphics. A spiffy new user interface has also been added, giving the product a true Mac “feel,” with buttons, pull-downs menus, and a plethora of dialog boxes.

The artificial intelligence of the computer-controlled cars has been improved. Customers’ suggestions about the original game’s AI led Papyrus to spend a great deal of time creating new AI files that allow the computer-controlled cars to behave much more realistically in all situations.

Car handling has also been improved from the original. Lessons learned during the development of NASCAR Racing (currently available for the PC and due out for the Mac early next year) led Papyrus to review the physics model for IndyCar Racing II, and make the car handle even more precisely and react to changes in tire wear, fuel levels, minor damage, and numerous other variables.

The modeling of the crashes has even been updated for the Mac version, and cars can now lose front and rear wings, tires, and other pieces and still limp back to the pits for repairs and be able to continue the race — although you won’t have a very happy pit crew after you bang up their car! All the sound effects in the game have either been re-recorded or remastered to take advantage of the Mac’s digital stereo sound capabilities.

IndyCar Racing II will feature 15 official IndyCar tracks (including Michigan, Phoenix, Laguna Seca, Cleveland, Loudon, and more) painstakingly reproduced from aerial photographs, actual track blueprints, and days studying videotapes of tracks. Details at the tracks will include accurate billboards, grandstands, infields, pit lanes, and panoramas of nearby cities off in the distance.

You’ll have several driving options in IndyCar Racing II. Need to work on that setup for Michigan? The simulation has a Pre-Season Testing mode that allows you to race on one track, continually making modifications to the car’s setup unimpeded by other drivers. Want to have a quick race? The Single Race option gives you the ability to race at your favorite track against a specified number of opponents for a specified number of laps with or without weather and all of the other options that the simulation allows you to modify. Still not enough? Then the Championship Season is for you. Race a full championship season against a full field of drivers with all of the realism set to the maximum and see what it’s like to battle for points in an IndyCar season against the likes of Al Unser, Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi, Andre Ribeiro, and many other real IndyCar drivers.

Of all these features, the garage function may be the thing that keeps you coming back to IndyCar Racing II. The combinations of changes that you can make to squeeze an extra MPH or so out of the car are virtually endless. The simulation gives you the ability to change tire pressure, wheel stagger, tire camber, tire compounds, the pitch of both the front and rear wing, brake bias, anti-roll bar stiffness, fuel levels, wheel lock, shock stiffness, turbocharger settings, and gear ratios. Many of these options can be changed during the race by your pit crew, and some of the options can be changed while you’re driving.

Speaking of the pit crew. The icing on the cake for the pit menus is sure to be the ability to activate this function by voice command. Imagine holding down a “hot key” and telling your pit crew, “Change right side tires” or “Fill fuel to 30 gallons” and having them actually obey your spoken command. Thanks to Apple’s Plain Talk technology, this feature will, at least initially, only be available on the Macintosh version of IndyCar Racing II and is sure to be one of those “cool” features that you’ll have to show your PC-owning pals.

IndyCar Racing II also offers an Instant Replay feature that (depending on the amount of memory you have) may give you several minutes of racing that you can view from 10 different camera angles including several in-car views, a chase view, a sky view, and a blimp view. You can use this to watch that spectacular crash you caused coming down the back straight or analyze what happened in turn three that caused your own crash.

Initially, IndyCar Racing II will also offer a couple of multiplayer features, giving you the ability to race against your friends head-to-head. Two-player modem play and direct connect will be supported.

With dozens of other options, including opponent strength, weather conditions, varying race lengths, indestructible cars, and more, the replay value of IndyCar Racing II is almost infinite. If you’ve been waiting for a racing simulation for the Mac, the wait is over.

About the Preview Demo: The preview demo is NOT the actual Indy Car Racing II Demo and as such is not representative of the FINAL version of Indy Car Racing II. In fact, this preview version might run slow on some computers, crash or do other strange things. For the purposes of this preview, Papyrus Design has allowed IMG to put a preview version on this CD-ROM for our readers. The real demo will be released within a months.