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.
As a direct ancestor of iRacing, the ‘Grand Prix Legends engine’ had multiple stock car racing false starts, before eventually releasing as NASCAR Racing 4. The original NASCAR 3, cancelled and replaced by one that used NASCAR 2’s engine, is barely remembered.
Volvo Car Corporation and SimBin Development Team released Volvo: The Game in May, 2009. It was completely free, and could be downloaded originally from the Volvo Web site. A fairly interesting marketing experience, the software was downloaded more than 50,000 times in two days. The software was developed with quite a few optimizations to try to minimize the system requirements. The intention was that anyone with a relatively recent PC would run it.
It included the Volvo S60 Concept road car and Volvo S40, Volvo 850 Estate, Volvo 240, Volvo C30, Volvo S60 race cars. Just two circuits were included: Gothenburg Eco Drive Arena, Sweden and Autodrome Chayka, Ukraine.