PCgaming is full of sub-genres. Today I will write a bit about one of them: racing simulators. THis sub-genre is a real showcase of how fans can save the genre from oblivion. In 90s it was all clear and organized. PC racing sim community consisted of two big developers. Papyrus(makers of Nascar Racing series and most of all the revolutionary Grand Prix Legends) and Geoff Crammond(maker of Grand Prix series for Microprose). Few people remember now the revolutions those two teams brought, like Grand Prix 2 being the first game where wheels didn't touch the road all the time. In late 90s another dev entered the race: ISI. Their Sports Car GT put them on sim racing map. THen they took over the PC side of EA's F1 line and started to compete with Geoff Crammond's team. People though nobody would be able to match Geoff's efforts. And yet with F1 2002 and F1 Challenge 99-02 ISI not only matched Grand Prix series, but in the eyes of many they surpassed it. Meanwhile Papyrus was breaking new levels of realism with their Nascar series.

All went well untill 2003. The three masterpieces: F1 Challenge 99-02, Grand Prix 4 and Nascar Racing 2003 were out. But that was the end of those series. Exclusive Nascar rights were sold to EA, which resulted in Papyrus closure, while Sony secured exclusive F1 rights, which ended Geoff Crammond's long career and EA severed their contract with ISI. By mid 2003 all three sim kings were either dead, or near death. It was armageddon for the genre. Warthog surprised everyone in 2004 with RichardBurnsRally, but shortly after release the company was closed also. So what did the community do? First they turned into mods. Grand Prix 4 to this day is regulary updated with new seasons. Nascar Racing 2003 also saw it's share of good mods, including the great Project Wildfire's Trans-Am and GTP( untill the whole mod scandal, where the moron Krammer bassicaly killed the healthy community by threating to sue everyone who make mods for NR2003.) and the incredible Grand Prix Legends saw continous fan improvements. But it was the F1 2002 and later F1 Challenge 99-02 that becamed the modding platform for sim racing community. There were litaraly dozens of mods made for F1C, including such classics like ETCC 2003 Evolution or Prototype C.

But the most important mod was GT Racing 2002. Created by small team of modders who called themselves Simbin, they would later be the driving force behind sim racing resurrection. Still, mods, even the best ones were just a life support, while the genre needed a full recovery. It all started with ISI. They survived on skeleton crew, less than 10 people remained in the team. They had no contract with publisher and no popular racing license to back them up. That didn't stop them though. ISI still had their G-Motor engine they used in F1C. And they sold that engine to SImbin. That's how GTR was made, it was the point from which racing sim genre was resurrected on PC, Simbin later followed GTR with GTLegends, GTR2 and RACE. Giving sim fans finally some new software to enjoy. Meanwhile ISI was working on G-Motor2 engine(which is what GTR2 and RACE use) as a base for their new sim called rFactor. the game quickly becamed the platform of choice for the community. rFactor was released in mid 2005, to this day it's community is alive and well and the game is continuously updated. It's likely the best racing MP you can get now and the net code is just insane. ISI expected good initial sales and then they planned to make a sequel after two years. Instead, the initial sales were disappointing, but the game surprisingly is selling steadily for 18 months now, which is why ISI is still working on new additions for it. Another fan initiative is Live for Speed A indie racing sim with incredible physics. The team was too small to make full game from the start, which is why they cut it into three releases(S1, S2 and S3). Currently they have released S2, which makes the sim almost complete(including the real-time tyre deformation). It's scary to think how good S3 will be. The last contender to the throne is NetKAR PRO The game started as a freeware project, before finaly going PRO. It's currently the most innovative racing sim, with tyre physics that are generation ahead of anything else and stuff like fully interactive clickable cocptic. THe game obviously does have some problems, but they're regularly fixed and now over 6 months after the game release the game is more than playable. The history doesn't end here though. THere's still lot to look forward to in 2007. People from RichardBurnsRally team have formed small indie dev group. THey're working on Drivers Republic, which looks like it will completely revolutionize the way racing sims handle car modifications. We can also expect Live for Speed S3 release next-year, Simbin also is working on new racing sims. ANd most of all..the "big boys" are coming back. The ex-Papyrus people are working on First Racing, a MMO Racing game using upgraded Nascar Racing 2003 engine( even if currently the community is hating this project because of all the NR2003 modding mess) It's very surprising how it all ended. In late 2003 sim racing was all gloom and doom. And in such short time it changed from "worst ever" to "better than ever". Because looking at current condition of this sub-genre... there has never been time where it has been in healthier state than today. Not only there are so many good games to play, but the upcoming line-up is filled with promising titles. This sub-genre shows that no game type can really die in PCgaming. Mods and indie titles saved it. Fans and their continuous effort are one of the things makes PCgaming so damn good