The first true Formula One racing simulators on home computers were Chequered Flag (1983) and Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix ( F1GP) in 1991. It was ported to the SNES by Nintendo, and spawned two sequels and a Super Mario Kart-style spinoff.ĭawn of F1 home computer games (1980s–1990s) Later arcade manufacturers began developing games in this style, like Sega with its Virtua Racing (1992), and later Namco again with Ace Driver (1994), which featured futuristic, F1-like cars.įormula One began officially licensing video games in the early 1990s, starting with Video System's arcade game F-1 Grand Prix (1991). Examples of this are Super Monaco GP (1989) and its sequel Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II (1992), which had a license to display only Ayrton Senna's name), or Nigel Mansell's World Championship, but many other less known games had similar features.įormula One racing games made the transition to 3D computer graphics with Namco's arcade game Winning Run (1988). Most of these games featured racetracks, cars and driver names similar to the real ones, but all modified slightly, since they did not have official licenses from FIA. After the success of Pole Position, many similar games appeared in arcades (and later ported to home computers) such as TX-1 (1983).ĭuring the late 1980s, successful arcade games included Super Sprint, which uses the top view instead of the rear view of most games, and its sequel Championship Sprint.įrom the second part of the 1980s more games were being created. The game was very successful and it spawned an official sequel, Pole Position II, and an unofficial one, Final Lap. After qualifying, the player had to face other cars in a championship race. In Pole Position, the player has to complete a lap in a certain amount of time in order to qualify for a race at the Fuji racetrack. The first successful Formula One video game in arcade history was Pole Position (1982), by Namco. However, it was an electro-mechanical game, rather than an arcade video game. The roots of Formula One games can be traced back to the 1970s, with arcade racing games such as Speed Race and Gran Trak 10 which depicted F1-like cars going on a race track.į-1 (1976) by Namco has been cited as the first true Formula One arcade game. History Early roots and arcade games (1970s–1990s) Early Formula One games were typically arcade racing games, before Formula One Grand Prix (1991) popularized Formula One racing simulations on home computers. Ever since Pole Position in 1982, Formula One (F1) has always played a part of the racing genre in video games.

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