Why Grand Prix 4 is the Best Racing Game of All Time

[@adammiller011]

"a game 20 years ago could do it, why can't you?" The answer is actually pretty simple; they don't feel like it

[@DjDolHaus86]

Too busy adding pixels to the billboards

[@villehursti]

@@DjDolHaus86 All the fluff is more important in the marketing meeting.

[@OhItsThat]

@@DjDolHaus86 Fanatec billboards to be exact.

[@sailingmaster]

Adam, you're not wrong. For the last decade or so the focus of big game companies hasn't been on making great games, it's been making shareholders and investors happy.

[@Jb19906]

This is also why there’s been such a downfall of FIFA and Madden etc. Game companies just don’t give a fuck anymore. Indies do and it shows in the indie game market.

[@thirdwheel1985au]

Fun fact about Revs - he needed more memory for that game than the BBC Micro had, so he used memory in the video processor by storing game data in the sky, and tricking it into showing it as blue. If the game crashed, the sky would be replaced with garbage. Storing data in the cloud before it was cool.

[@John-k6f9k]

"Garbage"? is that American for rubbish?

[@JohnyG29]

​@@John-k6f9k I think so, but not sure.

[@noveltybobel]

Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix series was and still is the greatest F1 simulation ever produced. Grand Prix 2, which was the game of my childhood, was phenomenal. I'm sad he stopped at 4. If they could produce that 25 years ago, imagine what they could do now

[@Hammerhead547]

One of the things I remember most about Grand Prix 3/4 was when I was racing at Indianapolis and had a spin while i was trying to pass someone at the beginning of the innerloop and I couldn't figure out what happened until I watched the replay and noticed the marbles alongside the racing line and realized that's what caused me to spin.

[@marisgertans2438]

I do not agree. Steering assist with keyboard was awful. In all other sims it is possible to race with keyboard (although, yes, it seems not the best input device), but here - totally unenjoyable. Indycar Racing II at the time was better.

[@wabba67]

Depends what you mean by simulation. For example, IIRC, the mechanical damage was still just random numbers and if you saved your game in the middle of a race and you later had an engine failure, the engine failure would occur at the same time if you loaded that save.

[@nielstieman9594]

They didn't stop developing at 4. There was a Grand Prix 5, but due to changes at Microsoft the project was stopped and it was never released. :(

[@TheAlphaDingo]

GP2! What a game! Loved editing the Simtek team name and drivers to form my own team - then when the races were on and you took control of various cars in the field, using them as kamikaze Coulthards to take each other out so my drivers and team could progress up the order to the points positions. Erik Comas, Ukyo Katayama and Michele Alboreto were my fave human F1 driver missiles 😎

[@martinbell8369]

I remember setting Grand Prix 4 to zero drivers and just watching the AI do a full race. In TV mode. It was great to watch.

[@markusjuenemann]

I did that often as well.

[@FORZAPOTENZA]

Did a full season like that - Montoya won the championship

[@monoman1223]

Used to love doing that! Shame you can't on modern games, it just feels somehow lazy of modern developers to not include features that were in a game that's 20+ years old

[@GarkKahn]

Before learning how to play i did that when i was a kid

[@McPlayer8t]

I did that with the B-spec mode in GT4 when I was younger. I was terrible at the game, but I enjoyed watching the cars go around. It’s easy to see that as cheating, but there is an element of challenge in a few slim cases.

[@RonaldZaZ]

I am the author of ZaZ Tools (CSM/TSM/Slimtex/Easywad) and I am amazed still game is still going. I've spent many hours developing and investigating this game, helping mod builders, adding new features and stuff like that. There still was much nice stuff in the pipeline, but I have never finished it because time wasn't my best friend. Nonetheless, it warms my heart to see the game is still loved and that my work became a small part of it. So thank you all for making it worth all the effort and sorry for not delivering the stuff I've teased you with

[@ericb3593]

SkaningeN from GPG.org here. Just wanted to say thank you for all you've done :)

[@hashico]

@@ericb3593 it's been ages since I last logged into gpg.org, happy to see it still keeping up

[@atlantic_love]

@@ericb3593 Stop spamming.

[@atlantic_love]

@@hashico Stop spamming.

[@ericb3593]

@@atlantic_love Posting a few answers and commenting on a video is not spamming. Stop whining

[@GPLaps]

GP4 and GPL, all a man needs!

[@ams4490]

oh hi there

[@AidanMillward]

GPL: .1% racing, 99.9% swearing at the computer screen.

[@ddt3619]

RBR for the rallying side of things

[@Jd-808]

Wait, does this mean we might one day see a junior axelson racing the ‘01 season?

[@stuartleckie]

@@ddt3619 still the toughest racing game ever 😃

[@andrewdotmp4]

The NR2003 of F1 games

[@gt5man21]

I'd say it's the other way around given NR2003 was released a year after Grand Prix 4.

[@apolofeve]

Same with Richard Burns Rally

[@utkarshchaurasia2233]

Man that still holds up realllly well. I love it

[@kiiro712]

The GTR2 of NR2003 of F1 games

[@AndreaP76]

@@gt5man21 come on...GP3/4 physics were embarassing, if there even was some physics engine in that game, that was like running on rails. Papyrus's engine for N2003 was a huge improvement over the already good one they used in 2002 and 4, and that was already a massive improvement of the Grand Prix Legends one. People should stop living in the past. GP1 & 2 were great because with them Crammond tried something really new and innovative and pushed the hardware to their limit (the first one with the Amiga and the second with pc), the other two were simply made for the money counting on the Crammond fanboys. There may have been few good ideas here and there but the games were awful and on the arcade side. And these people are probably the same that say that Iracing is still better than sims like AC or ACC. Seriously? Leave all the online service aside and talk about the game engine: it's the same one I was talking about before, simply improved over and over but with its obvious limits, some bugs still here after more than twenty years. Sims like ACC are objectively on another planet in terms of physics, literally, and are still improving update after update.

[@Corvilux52]

Grand Prix 4, one of my favorite features is the "Hotseat" feature. You would typically use this as a form of multiplayer on a single system where one player gets to drive for a set period of time, then there's a countdown before the AI takes the car back over, it switches to the next car in line, the next player would sit down, take control and continue driving. The interesting thing for me about this feature is not that, however. It's that if you wanted to, you could control BOTH cars on a team. If you are Ferrari, you would one second be trying to grow your gap, and when you switch cars, you're now focused on trying to catch back up. You can control EVERY car on the track this way, or you can control a couple select teams if you want(Ferrari vs McLaren). It cycles through the field based on qualifying order of the cars you have selected, and as it cycles through the field, there's NEVER a shortage of things to do. It's not like some modern racing games where you get out front and you just check out. No, one second you're in the lead by 7 seconds, next second you're in third fighting Montoya in a very intense battle for P2.

[@Corvilux52]

And to add to this, my favorite thing I used to do with this game was to use Hotseat to control all the cars on the track in a 100% distance race. There is ALWAYS something going on. It was the most fun I'd ever had with a racing game since the Gran Turismo 2 days and when I was finally able to first get on NR2003. Nothing came close to it. It was amazing how such a simple feature, something that most people probably haven't even used on this game, added so much more to it for me.

[@Hammerhead547]

I've still got my copy of Grand Prix 2 that was given to me for christmas in 1996.

[@TomGS]

Ditto

[@bluetoes591]

I still have my copy somewhere too I think.

[@khaven1656]

I still have a copy of GP2 also

[@johnedwards230]

Crammond made F1 sims possible, there is no doubt it the landscape would look a lot different without those games. The trouble is, the licensed games today are like bubblegum, they just don't have the depth and immersion. Totally agree on the Ai and wet weather drying lines etc, most games don't even have that now. GP2 was the game that for me was the one that stood out as it was modified to the nth degree, I even ended up designing heaps of tracks for it, misspent youth!

[@CADMunkieUK]

EDIT: can we admit that we like these mainly because of the into to GP2? The gameplay was awesome and the engine was brilliant ... but that wailing of a V10/12 opening to the fisheye shot of the pit crew at the end of the GP2 intro ... we were never going to leave. I endorse this video completely ... though it’s only this year that graphics cards have caught up with Geoff Crammonds vision :) Long time listener.. first time caller :) Thank you 😁

[@Olivyay]

The bad part of GP3 and GP4 really is the scene rendering engine and the demand it has on the CPU, not the demand on GPUs. Even on my 4.5 GHz Haswell, GP4 is still showing 20-35% CPU usage at 60 fps, while my GPU is hardly breaking a sweat, not even reaching its base clock. The fact the framerate still had to be fixed manually is indicative of how old the tech in that engine actually was, parts of it probably dating back to 1991.

[@gfs5551]

Gp2 intro was good and provided immediate immersion but as Aiden mentioned, the bass intro and song from gp1 (world circuit in some countries) together with the semi-3d modeling of the intro was one of the best i have seen to this day. Still revisit the Midi file of the intro sometimes.

[@Olivyay]

@@gfs5551 One thing I also loved in GP2 was the background music in the menus.

[@gfs5551]

@@Olivyay yup. That guitar is still in my mind

[@ventisette.]

The GP3 intro is unbeatable, one of my earliest childhood memories.

[@justicebroker2271]

Never forget trying to get as much air off another cars wheel while at 300+ km/h at Hockenheim in GP2 back in 1995.

[@MrSniperfox29]

The original Grand Prix was amazing, cutting corners at San Marino, Canada and Germany to save 30 seconds per lap was hilarious

[@djcopie]

ok... LOL whatever turns you on!

[@GarkKahn]

In the old f1 games melbourne was paradise for that

[@hanklancaster3532]

Thats some quality immersion right there!

[@MrSniperfox29]

@@hanklancaster3532 The best was Belgium were the barriers were just there for show and you could drive through them

[@atlantic_love]

@@MrSniperfox29 Sounds like you're just making fun of the game.,

[@OddOrangeSocks]

One of the things I miss most from GP4 is the great telemetry graphs. Helped setting up the car so much.

[@Craigmt12]

A fantastic series of games. Loved Grand Prix 3. I’ve been crying out for proper car failures on the Codemasters games forever. Adds extra realism.

[@micsunday14]

Cars don't really fail much these days

[@lucasbailey8878]

@@micsunday14 tell that to Charles

[@mr.fister4738]

@@lucasbailey8878 lmao ahahha

[@fredericktennant9151]

Yep I remember Grand Prix, I had it on the Atari ST and my friends had it on the Amiga we used to practice all week and then on a Friday we would take our settings on the floppy disc to our friend's house to race while having a drink that was in the early 90s what a game

[@MyLonewolf25]

“A game 20 years ago can, why can’t you 1 it doesn’t make them money 2 they don’t fucking care. Muh 8k ray traced 60000 gig textures make money even though less than 1% of users will ever be able to use. Yet can’t even be bothered to make it an OPTIONAL download

[@s2korpionic]

Preach

[@codybellanca6852]

Now EA is set to ruin codemasters with loads of 'micro'transactions it is THE time for a Grand Prix 5.

[@AndyS-kv2jh]

I loved Grand Prix 2 and thanks to the modding community I played it for four years straight. I remember downloading all the tobacco and non tobacco car sets from 1990 through 1995 and playing all those seasons.

[@mikepowers572]

I lived for these games in the 90's! Never knew they carried on into the 00's. Amazing

[@TheOutsideLine]

I feel like I have been asleep my whole life and now I'm waking up. I never had a PC to play games on growing up so slept on this series (I was a Psygnosis boy) but now I need all of them in my life. Awesome video!

[@stuartleckie]

Old enough to remember when Revs came out. My still good friend to this day had a BEEB, and I was amazed how great this game was. Grand Prix on my Amiga though, *chefs kiss*

[@ContractCAD]

.. until you played Grand Prix on even the most basic PC. We had a 386 laptop with a greyscale LCD screen at work and it gave probably double (if not more) the FPS and a textured road surface that really pumped up the illusion of speed even on that shite display. A great series of games though. I happily have 5 boxed copies sat looking at me now.. GP1 Amiga, GP1 ST, GP2 to 4. If the aliens wanted to put my body in a tub of goo to make electricity they wouldn't have to wire my brain to anything as complex as The Matrix.. SVGA GP2 will do just fine :)

[@vaporisedair4919]

GP2 and GP4 was so much fun. The nice thing about it is that you can just as easily play it with a keyboard and it was still fun, which is really nice if you didn’t want to get a wheel.

[@hansolo631]

If keyboard players are pleased with this game, that tells me alot about the quality of its handling and physics model. Rose tinted glasses guys.

[@nvstewart]

@@hansolo631 keyboard had an automatic steering assist, it guided the car around the corner for you. It may sound lame when I explained it like that, but it's better than it sounds.

[@benjohnson5222]

I'm 38 and started my sim racing on Grand Prix 1 and then played Grand Prix 2 until the CD nearly melted in the disc drive! haha. The Grand Prix 2 game was so awesome and it was kept alive by modding for me until the late 90s, when my PC just couldn't cope with new games like GP3. I owe my sim racing hobby today entirely to my time playing GP2 as a teenager.

[@marjoh669]

I remember playing GP3 as a 4-5 year old. I always used to pick Schumacher's Ferrari on the streets of Monaco xD And maaan, that intro still gives me shivers till this day

[@snowcune9342]

I still play grand prix 4 from time to time and I'm still impressed with the level of the AI.

[@zefanjacopini5269]

where can i download it?

[@republikadugave420]

Best AI ever...not even close AI in modern F1 games is retarded and takes you out for no reason...

[@kraikkonen05]

After 20 years iv just brought it from Amazon

[@KingofWolves3277]

Shout out to the GP4 OC that's been going on for 5 straight Physical years!

[@X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X]

It's unbelievable how little computer games truly improved in the last twenty years.

[@AidanMillward]

@Peters6221 gamers judge a book by the cover. They want shiny graphics so that’s what the companies work most on and will judge a game just off the graphics alone. When I’m streaming rf2 stuff I get so many “the graphics look bad” comments. The players are probably as much to blame as the companies.

[@utkarshchaurasia2233]

Oh come on man. The physics have made a huge step up. I don't think it's fair to say this. Play acc. The detail is amazing

[@mattmattmatt131313]

@@utkarshchaurasia2233 That is true, but only because physics is kinda ACCs selling point (along with the graphics). What about other parts of the game? Career mode, championship, AI,...? It took them years to implement multiclass racing and even that not with all cars,... With the spreading of multiplayer gaming a lot of development of parts of the games we used to take for granted kinda took a back seat. I always say, take a game form 2000 and compare its graphics to a game from 2020. Do you really think all the other elements take make a great game (physics, AI, sound, career mode, gameplay, game features...) went through the same level of development as the graphics did? I would say in many of those aspects we even went backwards.

[@MrTomWaffles]

Not all games, gotta look deep into the real gems

[@mr8I7]

Some genres are lazier than others. Try and play an FPS on a console from 20 years ago. They're horrendous now!

[@timyo6288]

It does amaze me how the 22 car limit is hard coded into the game.

[@Zamppa86]

Grand Prix 2 and 4, the best formula 1 games ever made! I remember playing a ton of GP2 with my 486 back in the mid 90s! I also bought GP4 but did not play it that much.

[@DDFRacer]

The fact that RaceRoom decided to use those original Grand Prix fake driver names when they brought out the FR 90 cars makes me smile.

[@andygreener3130]

I played all 4 in succession on keyboard using A, Z and . Loved them and agree totally. Keyboard use tended to stick you pretty solidly to the racing line but this added to the sense of being on the limit. My favourite feature that nobody else seems to have done properly in the modern era was the gradual drying of a wet track....It dried out where loads where highest first and only where the tyres passed i.e 2 separate dry tyre tracks. These gradually expanded until they joined and spread further along the surface until you had a dry track. It was also visually obvious unlike modern attempts. Can’t say a bad word. I do remember having proper driver names in the original though, maybe I put them in from the manual.

[@tosehoed123]

Memory is unreliable

[@sipope70]

I played Revs, GP and GP2 many fantastic memories of these games

[@thomassmith4999]

REVs was a decade better than it had any right to be. Amazing game.

[@jmurkz]

GP4 really captured the essence of F1 in a way that modern games just can't seem to replicate. Watching this always reminds me of what we've lost in the shift to more graphics-heavy racing games. It's like a bittersweet reminder of how amazing racing sims used to be. This game truly set the standard, and I miss the depth and realism it offered. Glad to see others still appreciate what made GP4 so special.

[@raithrover1976]

I remember playing Microprose F1 on a friend's Amiga in the early 90s and being blown away by how good it was. I had an after school / Saturday job at a local supermarket that paid £18 a week and I saved for what seemed like an eternity to afford an Amiga 1200 (£400) purely so i could play Microprose F1. That said, Sensible World of Soccer got a fair amount of play as well.

[@KingRagnar]

I played Grand Prix 2 on a keyboard last night and then found your video today. I’d say it’s my favourite game of all time

[@chifurbr]

one of my favorite memories is doing ralf's special move at indianapolis and splitting the car in half, there's nothing like the surprise of seeing your own gearbox while still in the car for the first time

[@thedeegee1601]

I remember playing Grand Prix 2 as a kiddo. To create my ultimate "playseat" i removed two wheels from my deskchair, so it leaned back. Angled the wheel by adding some books underneat, and put the pedals on a wooden crate. It felt like i sat in an F1 car :D And the wheel used was a Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel Gameport, which came out a year after GP2.

[@d3al3rplays68]

Ahhh the good old day's.... Played all 4. Still got parts 2, 3 and 4 in my archive.

[@supersalmon2279]

I played GTR2 alot when I was younger and I recently rediscovered my love for the game and its still going now due to mods I love it.

[@blackflagqwerty]

GP2 was awesome! The first time I took eau rouge flat, I cut the car in half I was stunned and addicted!

[@martinclift2750]

Got this for my birthday yesterday the timing really is immaculate

[@GodlessGrandpa]

Thanks for covering this. These we some of my favourite games. I remember buying GP1 at a shop in Crawley and the thrill of playing it for the first time on my Amiga.

[@gabormiklay9209]

Grand Prix Series by Geoff Crammond is just awesome! I bought all of them (even GP3 2000), except GP4, because somehow that wasn't distributed in Hungary. Which is a pretty big thing (I mean the buying) given the software piracy in Hungary back then. I played Revs a lot also on the C64. I didn't know it was Geoff Crammond creation until recently.

[@dutch_bullet]

grew up with the Grand Prix series, great memories!

[@KLUTCHdot58]

Carlos Sanchez from Grand Prix still sticks in my mind from my copy for the Amiga. Such a great sim for the day.

[@LimitPro1]

The golden era of gaming

[@Glen6899]

The Grand Prix series and Shenmue… wow. My whole childhood. In another life, we’d have been best friends.

[@MerrekSK]

Oh man, my first PC game - F29 retaliator, second - Grand Prix 1 on six diskettes and you'd switch them in the right order during unpacking of the archive, so it'd fit on 6 diskettes. Grand Prix 2 was my first CD-ROM. Played 3rd installment many years after it came out and 4 during college years with too little time and too much nostalgia. Still best racing games ever. Excellent video, Aidan !

[@kiiro712]

What is more incredible is GP2. GP4 “only” updates graphics and introduces rain, but all the features in GP4 are also present in GP2, a DOS game from 1996, including the amazing AI

[@BoJack_HorseFly85]

Grand Prix 2 was my first proper race game that started my love for F1. Grand Prix Manager 2 came next. My god I've played those game so much. And in GP2, who hasn't tried to drive against traffic on Monza or Hockenheim and then when you hit a car head on you hear 'HHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE KGGGGG...... KGG... KGGGG'. Ah, memories.

[@georgelpons]

Loved that series, played from 2 to 4 all, with the keyboard. As i had no wheel. Played always 100% races and stil do because of that game series.

[@pjweds]

I still have Grand Prix 2, 3 and 4. Not played GP4 for many years, I'll have to try it again.. Thanks for the reminder..

[@jamesbehra2690]

Eventually It is and I'm playing it now . 1991 season 😁 Geoff was a visionary of his time ahead everybody. Since GP1. 1992.

[@nashrace]

I started my pc racing career (haha) on Grand Prix 1 in 1991/2 on a Dan 486 (heady days). I remember in the weekend between real races I would take my entire PC around a mates house and we would connect the 2 pc's together and race each other in the previous weeks GP. No interest in those days! Just the 2 PC's facing each other on his dining room table with a flight sim wheel joystick. Pushed forward to accelerate and pulled back to brake! There was nothing like it at the time. We followed this routine for 5 years! My mate and I 30 years later still lament those sessions. I vividly recall the week after Imalo 94 having a 1 minute silence before we started the race! Aiden, thank you I was for a few minutes in my very early 20's again!!

[@UpTheAnte1987]

I remember the painfully long wait for Grand Prix 2 to come out after seeing a couple of screenshots in a PC mag that looked incredible. My imagination ran wild about how amazing it was going to be.

[@TweeksCoffeee]

One of my favourite things in GP2 was setting opponents to "All the Same," then instead of Schumi and Hill, you would end up with a front row of Eric Comas and Jean Paul Belmondo!

[@207rb]

I started with gp2, played gp3 and gp4 and yes I'm in my mid 30s. Before that i even played gp1 at a friend's. They were great games and you picked out all the great things. The latest f1 game has some elements that gp4 doesn't have gp4 was the drivers perspective but current f1 gives a tv type perspective, but at least it does that well. There hasnt been any other game as complete for running a season, with ai making mistakes and the different types of failures as well as strategy coming into play. I played about 7 full seasons in gp4 at about 50% distance and it was completely immersive.

[@edincanada]

I loved GP4. There was an option to set all cars to the same spec. Any car could win the race. That was fun. I wish we had that feature in modern f1 games.

[@damionlee7658]

A certain famous driver by the name of Lewis Hamilton grew up playing the Geoff Crammond Grand Prix series... There's a clip floating about with him mentioning in a post race interview when he was young. Anyhow, loved the series. Battling against the strength of my Microsoft Sidewinder 2 Wheel, with the pedals modded to allow independent acceleration and breaking. I've been gently pestering Microprose through their social media to commit to bringing back the Grand Prix series. Geoff Crammond has retired, and had said after 4 that he wouldn't consider doing another one unless it was a fully official FIA release. The chances of Codemasters giving that up are as round as a tyre, but even so, I remain hopeful that we'll see a return of Grand Prix, and that it will be as immersive and detailed as it's predecessors.

[@rickbarnes3546]

I am pretty sure another f1 champion (Jacques Villeneuve) said he used gp2 to learn the tracks during 1996

[@stevezeoke]

@@rickbarnes3546 So that's* why they won 4 races each in their rookie years! Coool 🙂

[@kiwicanuck5459]

Got this when it was released, fell in love with GC GP series after the 1st one.

[@markusjuenemann]

Had REVS on the C64, started GP1 on the Amiga, then changed to the PC and had GP1-GP4 there. Goeff Crammond and his team just knew how do it right. Every single argument of Aidan is absolutely true. I always thought I´m the only one who felt like this. Brilliant video!

[@MrMooose2010]

Some of these games are giving me major flashbacks. I used GP3 modded to hell with new physics and updated driver and livery packs. Miss these games

[@markpohl75]

What about the 2 player interchange mode...? We used to have a regular Monday night session over full race distance. The only way to go when you have only one computer.!

[@johnohara2337]

LOL ... I’d forgotten about that. That was a fun feature.

[@reynardvt]

Grand Prix 2 was the first game i ever played and with that i got stuck in racing games :D absolutely loved the co-op seasons in GP4 that i played back then. I still hope that at some point the 'big' games will pick up at least some of the things that were in there back then, starting with random failures. It just adds this certain something

[@davidoldham5958]

Grand Prix 3 is what got me into F1 in the first place. Grand Prix 4 I sadly never got to enjoy as my computer at that time in 2002 was not up to spec to handle it. Still have the original game and would love to try it again one day.

[@djcopie]

I never played GP4, but the very first sim racing game I had was GP2; & to this day I often find myself reminiscing & wishing that today's games had even half of the realism when it comes to the setups on the cars. Back then you could really relate the setup options with the real thing! So much better than any Codemasters product has ever been.

[@gregfelix6979]

So many wonderful memories. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[@danielvomb98]

I`m 22 and I started my whole gaming career on GP3 as a 3 year old. Still remember some of the races I did back then. Have GP3 and 4 installed on both my PC and laptop, so I can get my GP fix while in class. Nothing even comes close IMO in terms of F1 games. Simply the best.

[@terminateshere]

One of only two PC games that I keep installed outside of my Steam/GOG universe. Even if I can race 'old Hockenheim' in more recent games.

[@mattiapresti7295]

Does exists a way to legally download GP4?

[@RaceSimCentral]

The thing I like about GP4 is that it runs flawlessly in 4K. It really does start to look extremely sharp at that res and does begin to compete with more modern titles.

[@ericb3593]

First off, thank you! Finally a video about GP4 that tells the world how it was and still is! I myself got the game in march 2002 just after release, found the modding community in 2005 and have played and modded the game ever since. Some weeks more, some weeks not so much. I am a fanboy, yes, but there is a reason you still want to come back and you mentioned it in the video. The immersion. And of course, the freedom of choise between cars, tracks, seasons and mods. Even your own compiled one's. For all racing fans, F1 fans in particular, should try this in my view. I've played this game for almost 20 years, and there are not nor will ever be a game that I will play even half as long as GP4. I have to mentioned something you've missed in your video. There is another feature in GP4 that's not been seen in any game since (atleast not to my knowledge) and that is the broadcast mode. Nowdays I don't play the games as much anymore. Instead, I do a season were the AI controls all the cars, 80% races any qualifying, and watch the battles ensue. The broadcast mode switches between cameras and cars and finds incidents an so on. It's awesome!

[@Daslandroverman]

Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix Series, played all four to death in my teens and recently downloaded GP4 again. A ten lap race remains a fun way to fill some time.

[@gabornemeth522]

The Jimmy vod you mentioned in this video actually appeared on the top of my feed the day after watching this :D

[@kwdroneflights2374]

Played all of them. Used to do hotlaps and then save them to a 3.5" floppy to give to my mate who'd take it home and try and beat my time. They were awesome games and nothing has really replaced them. Cheers for this Aidan, a nice walk down memory lane.

[@dukelive]

I still play GP4, and play a season alongside my 9-year old son, who says it's his favourite game. 10 turns each on a 50% race distance. Gutted I lost my copy of ultimate gear ratios per track a few years back - not been able to find them online since.

[@KMASCII]

What I recall being fond of from GP4 was the atmosphere it created for the player. It was you experiencing the race through your helmet visor. It made you feel like it was all on you. Yes, wet races were particularly intense... and intensely fun. The AI was great too. But for me it was the atmosphere the game created.

[@Nekudza]

Played through all of them, started with GP1 in 1994 I believe. Amazing games! And that realism and immersiveness that you were getting even playing on keyboard are just unbeatable. Smallest changes to the car setup actually matter there and you feel them even without racing wheel

[@Andy15678]

Totaly Agree, even i liked the intermediate weather. That was insane in GP4, way better then nowdays

[@miy1925hassun]

I’ve always been more of an F1 2002/Challenge guy. I wanted to play this one too but have never been able to get it to work properly.

[@zerof0rce]

I still love me some F1C easy to mod tons of fun!

[@leminent2489]

I love F1 challenge VB Its a super mod that comes with every single season of F1

[@zerof0rce]

@@leminent2489 I need to check that out this weekend. Thanks!

[@straatham1738]

@@zerof0rce Its an awesome mod, but you'll need quite a lot of hard drive space lol

[@utkarshchaurasia2233]

F1c is simply timeless

[@theabsolutedrive]

Totally agree with you. It was the last PC sim game I ever bought. Well, honestly, because life was starting to get in the way. But I still have a dedicated PC for playing this wonderful title. If Crammond would ever make a GP5, the sim racing world would probably fall over from the excitement.

[@MrBlazemaster525]

Schumacher, Verstappen, Alonso and Raikkonen on the grid together in 2021 > BWOAH

[@ContractCAD]

GP2 was the peak for me. GP1 is what computers were made for. 100's and 100's of hours spent on the Amiga but as soon as I saw the superiority of the PC version there was no going back - way more FPS and a textured road surface that gave a much better impression of speed, even on a basic 386 laptop with a greyscale LCD! And no matter how good I got at this game, I never mastered the wet. I remember the excitement and promise around the often delayed release of GP2 - with my pal joking that one delay was "due a sausage out of place in the butchers window in Monaco" - it was going to be THAT real! And this game ate so much of my time it was unreal. My first ever mod was drawing JV's helmet in MSPaint (on day 1, the wanker) and that worked really well. My 2nd (and last) mod was putting boobs on a billboard at Catalunya only to find that even giant billboard bitmaps were something like 50 x 20 pixels :) GP3 was ok but sadly for it, it featured those pig-ugly narrow wheelbase cars of the late 90's. I tried to love GP3 with it's rotating steering wheel n' everything but it just didn't happen. GP4? If you love it, you're very lucky. I'll never forget the first time I saw the reflections of the sky and the scenery in the puddles on the way to 130R and marvelling at the dry line appearing. But I didn't do any of that for very long because the sodding thing crashed constantly. I had a modern gaming rig, all fully compatible with the DX of the day but this game was just broke. I don't recall searching out patches or fixes but I might have. One thing is for sure, it was soon left gathering dust. I have boxed copies of nearly all of the GP games now including the ST and Amiga versions and the original hardware to play them on including a PC from the GP4 era. I look forward to trying them all over again.

[@Pinegrapple]

Grand Prix 2 is where I got my start with sim racing. I'll never forget the first day I had it. I remember it would always tell you how long you had been playing when you exited back to DOS. I played on that first day for something like eight straight hours.

[@Skreezilla]

Random mechanical failure's are a thing i sorely miss in modern Sim racing. :( The heart break of leading the German GP only to loose with 7 laps to go when the engine let's go! Now you only have issues if you drive like a knob, you never have a gear vanish on you, a random tire go down, suspension failure at Spa..... I really miss random mechanical issues, I loved making it to the end as my car was smoking and just making it to the end.

[@70mavgr]

I've sunk so many hours in Grand Prix 3 & 4 than all other F1 sims combined. Surely over 1000. I even had dossiers with telemetry print outs and researched technical stuff about F1 in order to set up my cars as proficient as possible.

[@PatrickMcTie]

Bravo!! Absolutely agree with your thoughts, and wish someone would show this video to all of the modern studios that are making sims.

[@peterhiggins3736]

Had 2,3 and 4... I wish the series had continued. Absolutely right that no sim has come close since!

[@noahfernandez9219]

I share your sentiments with regards to another classic simulation title: GTR 2. Moreover, MoTeC data analysis in a game from 2006! All these years later and only ACC offers the same option; aside from modding it in for other games. Despite having Automobilista, Assetto Corsa and even DiRT Rally, GTR 2 has given me the best immersion compared to them all.

[@lemontree8269]

To this day I cant play modern F1 games because if the gp series. Started as a young boy on gp2, ran so many sessions over and over again on 100% race distance. Even hooked up pcs at lan parties for it and 3 that followed. After gp4 I have tried a few other F1 games, but yes as you said, why don't we have what we had 20 plus years ago. Still all my gp games, and keeping yhem as momentous. The remainder of why we are now racing gt cars on sim racing games, but completely ignoring any f1 cars on those sims. The hole gp series thought us how to do proper setups and thanks to a guy that doesn't even like racing, us nerds could also enjoy it. Thanks for this vid adain.

[@brendotec7241]

Grand Prix 2 was where I fell in love with racing sims. I also had Power F1 and CART Precision Racing. But GP2 was moddable and worked so well with the family PC. Pity I'm not as tech savvy as when I was 14 lol

[@skister82]

Seen as were on the topic of old F1 games, did anyone here play Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP 2 on Sega MegaDrive?? What a game for its time, The career mode was brilliant, you could get fired from teams, you could set you rival and if you beat him got his race seat if you wanted it, it had one lap qualifying, multiple tracks, manual or auto gears and you could run the marshall with the finish flag over. Brilliant memories of that game.

[@TheLukesterGaming]

Those Grand Prix games were definitely FAR ahead of their time, and whilst I unfortunately never owned/experienced Grand Prix 4, I did own Grand Prix 2 and was probably the first big F1 game I played on PC, considering I was usually playing the likes of F1 95, 97, 98, 99, etc on the PlayStation, so it was certainly quite an incredible experience playing Grand Prix 2 in comparison, with those insane crash/damage physics and the sheer levels of detail everywhere!🤯👍👏

[@DimitriMoreira]

I grew up playing GP and GP2, when GP3 launched I was just astonished. And when GP4 came out just... Wow. One game better than the other, it was the best thing I could wish. And I used to race with a wheel back then. Since the GP2 era in fact. I missed that so much... I then went to EA F1 '99-'02 CE. But always came back to GP4... Until the F1 2006 CE for the PS3. Which was great. No Codemasters title, as much as I liked them, did never came close to that immersion.

[@finellershaw295]

First f1 game I ever owned. Remember playing on a keyboard when I was maybe 5 or 6

[@pelimies1818]

So happy PCs developed fast in the 90’s. Revs was great, but in GP2 Geoff got really what he was dreaming of - a perfect, uncompromised F1 simulation. Only few older gems have reached the same level of epicness: - Elite - X-wing - System Shock (enhanced) - Falcon 4+realism mods - Blade Runner (original, not Steam-version) - Civilization 1/2 - Medieval Total War 2+Stainless Steel mod - Morrowind All Epic Games (no pun intended)

[@KayoMichiels]

Oh you can you use modern controllers on it: Virtual Joystick and Universal Joystick Remapper.

[@jussiollila7714]

@Aidan can we get a pinned comment? People need to know that VJoy and UJR make it possible!

[@timmuston2687]

I played all four Geoff Crammond games - even played GP1 on an Atari ST. A friend and I had a GP1 world championship, which I won - twice. This irked my friend, as he had done a little real life racuing and I hadn't even got a full driving license. Happy days.

[@Heldermaior]

Gp4 was chasing a friend of mine in my turn on the wheel (hot seat mode... it worked) and was behind his car for a while and then I started losing speed. What happened was that his dirty air did not allow for enough cooling to the engine and caused the engine to overheat damaging it. 20 years ago...

[@martinbell8369]

Hot seat mode worked better than it should of.

[@danielprieto8315]

I played them all A LOT. My favourite is still Grand Prix 2; that thing aged so well, but yeah, the level of finesse these had are yet to be matched nowadays which is kind of outrageous really.