If you ever played Papyrus’ seminal Grand Prix Legends then you’ve read his name. Rich began working as a tester on NASCAR Racing (1994) and was with Papyrus at the end. In this interview, published in 2022, we discuss his time at the legendary studio and the design of Grand Prix Legends, including initial feelings of hurt at not being asked to join iRacing.
Shortly after the release of Grand Prix Legends the sim racing community looked forward to another title that promised to offer a similar insight into historic racing. Trans-Am Racing ’68-’72 ultimately never released, a victim of a publishers shady dealings, but as a part of my research I uncovered a VHS of a never-released trailer for the game. Watch the trailer and read about what sim racing missed out on.
Orontes Games have released a development update detailing that they are looking to release the newly renamed ExoCross in 2024, and that current focus is on a multiplayer rewrite, new content and more.
Their text:
ExoCross, Orontes Games, and iRacing communities,
Our team remains hard at work on developing ExoCross, the ultimate evolution of DRAG: Outer Zones. We’re currently looking at a 2024 release and appreciate the community’s support and patience as we refine the title. With that in mind, we thought we’d offer a quick development update to let everyone know where things stand so far!
For starters, ExoCross has successfully been ported to Xbox and PlayStation consoles. We’ve added a new Quick Race single-player game mode, featuring AI ported over from iRacing, alongside the existing Challenge modes. The online system from DRAG: Outer Zones is also being rewritten to support multiplayer on consoles.
From a content standpoint, we’re hard at work on our third vehicle and fourth world. The four worlds will combine for a total of 38 unique track layouts, and each world will have 12 all-new driving challenges for a total of 48. The cars will each feature a new tire model and updated engine sounds, as well as new driving assists and a new vehicle HUD.
The driving and physics have been improved, and we’ve also made several UI improvements, including adjustable settings while in-game, to improve the user experience. The overall result is a game that we’re having a blast driving, and we think folks are going to love playing it!
DRAG: Outer Zones remains available via Steam Early Access if you want to get an early taste of what will eventually become ExoCross. Remember, if you purchase DRAG: Outer Zones before ExoCross is released, you’ll automatically receive ExoCross when it launches! We’re also going to be showing off an in-development version of ExoCross for the first time at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte during the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series finale on September 26, so stay tuned for more coming soon!
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