Asobo, known today as the Microsoft Flight Simulator developer, created groundbreaking technology for large scale maps that was intended to be used in a high quality rally raid title. It was never released and ended up as FUEL, a post-apocalyptic open-world racing game. What happened?
Originally working in military simulator design, this Michigan-based studio developed Zone Raiders for Virgin Interactive before moving to Electronic Arts for publishing their second PC title, Sports Car GT, when Westwood Studios (their SCGT development partner) was acquired by the software giant.
Known primarily for their mod-friendly SCGT and rFactor racing platforms, ISI also developed Formula One and NASCAR titles on PC for Electronic Arts, but perhaps their lasting contribution to the genre was the licensing of the isiMotor engine that allowed studios such as 2Pez, Blimey! Games, KW Studios, Motorsport Games, Reiza Studios, SIMBIN Studios, Slightly Mad Studios, The Sim Factory, Tiburon and rFactor 2‘s ongoing developer Studio 397 to begin with or release on an evolution of their software.
Another fork of the isiMotor engine, rFpro, continues to be developed and is used by a wide array of automotive companies for both road and motorsport simulation.
Join Jon Denton, Tim Wheatley, Simon Croft and guest(s) as they discuss sim racing and racing games past, present and future.
Revs is a 1984 simulation of Formula Three. It allows the player to drive an F3 car and offered up to five tracks.
RR is a clone of Atari’s Night Driver or Dr Reiner Foerst’s Nurburgring, but was the first home simulator to include both an attempt at a 3D cockpit view and simulation of basic features like changing gears. Those features were added to the Commodore C-64 home release of Night Driver a year later.
ND is the first home release racing title that attempted a 3D perspective environment, but wasn’t the first home release to offer a first person perspective.
Initially released in Arcades and likely based on Dr Reiner Foerst’s Arcade-only Nurburgring title, the home release for the Atari 2600 featured a ‘chase cam’ perspective and did not add a cockpit view or manual gear changes until the Commodore 64 port in 1982, one year after those features debuted in Commodore’s Road Race.