Better known today as the developer of Skyrim and Fallout, Bethesda once had a well-respected racing game franchise and were deep into development of a licensed Skip Barber Racing title that never released.
Originally known as Papyrus Design, the legendary Massachusetts-based software studio developed highly-regarded simulation titles and published with Electronic Arts, Virgin Interactive and Sierra before their shutdown by Vivendi, owners of Sierra, in 2004.
Co-founded by arguably the father of the modern racing simulation, David Kaemmer, the studio created NASCAR and IndyCar titles that consistently pushed the genre forwards.
Their groundbreaking Grand Prix Legends game engine was used in three NASCAR titles between 2001-2003, evolving to become iRacing after Kaemmer re-acquired former Papyrus assets for his new company.
Join Jon Denton, Tim Wheatley, Simon Croft and guest(s) as they discuss sim racing and racing games past, present and future.
Well, that didn’t last long. Due to the fact that NASCAR Racing 3 will include free internet racing it seems like TEN and NROS are out of business when it comes to forcing users to pay for their racing. They posted a very short announcement on the Web site to give details of what refunds you can expect to receive.
Text from the nros.com Web site:
September 7, 1999
Announcement from TEN / Pogo.com:Howdy Racers,
It is with great regret that I must post the following news:
On October 14, 1999, TEN will officially shut down the pay-for-play game service. It was a tough decision, but we have decided to shift our focus from retail and pay-to-play titles to free family games.
In addition, all TEN local access numbers will be disabled as of today, September 7, 1999, but you will still be able to connect to TEN using your own ISP. All TEN e-mail accounts and newsgroups will be active until December 31, 1999.
Those of you that have already paid subscription fees for any service after September 1, 1999 will be refunded for this amount. This refund will be credited to your credit card by the end of September. No one will be billed for TEN service from here on out–from now until the shutdown date, all active TEN subscribers can race on TEN for free.
The past couple of years of NASCAR Racing on TEN has been wonderful, and we were glad to be able to host it during this time. We thank you all for your support and wish you continued fun and success in future racing endeavors.
Details on Billing Credits:
No one will be billed any TEN subscription fee after 9/1/99. In addition, if you have paid for any subscription service after 9/1/99, you will be refunded this amount.
Example 1: if you have a monthly flat account and your last billing date was August 15, 1999, you will be refunded $10.05 for the 15 days in September that you would have been billed past September 1 ($0.67 per day).
Example 2: if you have a bulk rate account and your last billing date was July 5, 1999, you will be refunded $15.40 for the 35 days that you would have been billed past September 1 ($0.44 per day).
Example 3: if you have a hourly account and your last billing date was August 7, 1999, you will be refunded $2.31 for the 7 days that you would have been billed past September 1 ($0.33 per day).
-Don Walters
Pogo.com
NASCAR Racing 2 is a 1996 racing video game by Papyrus Design Group based on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series of the same year, with a later addon for the 1997 Busch Grand National Series. It featured many drivers, Gen-4 chassis and tracks from both series.
Papyrus developed this title and released multiple NASCAR-based video games with incremental changes up until their transition to the “GPL engine” used in NASCAR Racing 4.
Official 1997 Busch Grand National Series addon for NASCAR Racing 2, featuring many drivers, teams and tracks from the Busch series.