Video game development is rarely about one man, but if it was, then Terence Groening should certainly get a mention for his contributions to the genre as the man responsible for the physics of Sportscar GT, EA’s PC F1 and NASCAR games of the early 2000’s, rFactor, rFactor 2 and every title and rFpro simulator that spawned from ISI’s engine.
This interview with RSC details his early life and career, through to him joining iRacing in 2021.
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?
This American studio was formed by David Kaemmer (co-founder of Papyrus) and John W. Henry (at the time owner of the Boston Red Sox and avid sim racer – he has since added NASCAR team ownership and more) after Papyrus was shut down by Vivendi, owners of Sierra, in 2004.
iRacing acquired the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season software engine (itself an evolution of Grand Prix Legends), pushed groundbreaking track technology for home use and developed a Web-based front end where users could easily find races in a variety of vehicle-types using the iRacing service.
The company has acquired a number of other studios, most notably Monster Games.