Formula One Grand Prix (F1GP) (Amiga) - A Track Guide and Review - by LemonAmiga.com

MicroProse Formula One Grand Prix
For our 40'th video I thought I'd showcase one of the games we've been playing on Lemon Amiga.com - F1GP. This racing simulator was the very first of it's kind, and spawning all the GT and F1 clones we see today. We'll take a look at the jerky A500 version compared to later CPUs, as well as a look at the F1GP editor for the Amiga.
The second part of the video is a track-by-track guide for all 16 tracks. This uses the Default game settings and 'D' tyres to show you some of the tricks and short cuts you can make in the game, along will an attempt to show you the ideal speeds around every corner (at some points the video is plainly 'conservative' with it's speed estimates), but I hope it gives you some idea of what each track has to offer. The track guide is also very 'cut' centric - which may be of interest to those who like to go faster. At the end of each track I compare the time with the winner of the Lemon 'D' Championship; and at the end we see the results tables of that battle.
Contents:
0:00:00 [Play All]
0:17:35 [Advanced Driving Guide]
0:19:06 [Pheonix]
0:22:56 [Interlagos]
0:27:48 [San Marino]
0:32:25 [Monaco]
0:35:43 [Canada]
0:38.12 [Mexico]
0:40:22 [France]
0:42:53 [Britain]
0:45:22 [Germany]
0:47:55 [Hungary]
0:50:03 [Spa]
0:52:30 [Italy]
0:54:34 [Portugal]
0:57:00 [Spain]
0:59:06 [Japan]
1:01:24 [Australia]
p.s. If the frame rate looks jerky it is likely because 50% of the video is in slow-mo!
p.s, I ran out of time to remove some of the bugs, but it's 98% complete.

[@t1000v20]

This game was way ahead of it's time. Was like someone came from the future and made a racing sim using current hardware of that time. Was totally mind blowing playing this game for the first time.

[@BlatentlyFakeName]

This was the best F1 game ever made, still is.

[@choecht]

Totally agree! One of the best examples that good game design is much more important than "ugly" graphics. I still remember being really nervous starting at the rather challenging tracks like Hockenheim.

[@tonikouvonen9220]

@@choecht Hockenheim, the cars had low downforce and grip level. I remember well by playing GP2 :)

[@marcwaller3657]

It's still the game I've played the most hours on ever. I barely played anything else for years after this came out. Especially when people released editors and I could make other seasons cars. This was so far ahead of every other driving game when it came out.

[@RMCRetro]

The multiplayer option was so great on this game. 5 mates taking turns on the same race and chatting in between our goes. Loved it

[@onkelebert787]

I really hate the hotseat multiplayer. I played it with a friend of mine and while he was driving, the stupid computer crashed my car in a wall. :D

[@ChrisFeakes]

I loved that, me and my neighbours would run entire seasons like that, customising the teams to keep them up to date!

[@Grauer82]

F1GP was my first Formula game, I've ever played ... on an Amiga500/w 1MB of RAM .. that was fucking awesome^^

[@si4632]

amiga 1200 with fast ram

[@balthazarriviere6036]

Me too! My favorite racing game.

[@danyoutube7491]

The air of professionalism that this game had, its clear attention to detail and realism and the presentation (including that fantastic music which mimicked the real F1 TV theme!) were highly impressive at the time, and I think it is rightly remembered as one of the finest games of the era on any platform. Such quality and realism was unique for racing games of the time.

[@DarraghC]

Loved this game. Was the first one I played on my new amiga 1200, as a kid i was amazed.

[@ffmdotcom]

Wow - the music gave me goosebumps - used to play this when I was a kid of 12 years on my Amiga - didn't see i in 20 years...wow guess we are getting old

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

ffmdotcom older but not old. ;)

[@FINNYBITCH]

I'd have been 11 in 91. Me and a friend used to play it back in the day. We used to put on indestructible mode and drive backwards around the track until we were the only car left running in the race. Good memories of a friend that died a year or two later...

[@ffmdotcom]

@@FINNYBITCH those were the days - we did this as well of course... just to watch replays

[@dopelope_deluxe3308]

"5.45" Car failue and a Marshall push it out of the way. Already better than any Codemasters F1 game.

[@antjarvis]

Glad you featured F1GP ED. An often forgotten yet essential utility for this game!

[@Pickchore]

I feel like Kazunori Yamauchi played this and took mental notes.

[@richardwaldron1684]

I lost count how many hours I spent playing this game as a kid. Happy Days! Thanks for posting.

[@MrMaxaMan]

What a great video, very informative. I loved this game.

[@bjornhellman4797]

the great advantage of this game was the multiplayer mode, you drove a couple of laps and your mean time was registred, while the next player drove your car stuck to that meantime. GREAT FEATURE!

[@EllipseGamer]

I didn't realise your car maintained pace like that. That's even better than I thought it was.

[@MrThairacer]

fabulous game, remind me good old times playing on my Amiga 500+, still good nowadays, i'm going to play again on my CD32 :) . good video , keep the good work !

[@eterenostalgia5088]

I have this videogame in my hard disk, fantastic game. I play for the AMIGA 1200 classic

[@creativetrance1]

I remember playing this on PC. it didn't work first, but later on I somehow got it to work and it was so epic seeing the intro for the first time ^^

[@sperrin]

This was a game changer. While there had been other racing sims in the past, they never got it right...until this game. Even the modern F1 games don't get it quite right. And it's SilverSTONE not SilverSTUN. ;)

[@sperrin]

***** No it's not. Ask anyone that lives in SilverSTONE village...like me. It's pronounced SilverSTONE, not SilcerSTUN.

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

Steve Perrin - If it makes any difference Steve, I've been pronouncing the name SilverSTONE since your original comment above, in all my reviews. I even noticed the BBC have also taken to using it. I hate PC as much as anybody, but it makes sense to me they named the place after the rock found underneath it. The final E on the end is the final nail in the STUN idea, and even Murray Walker always pronounced it, so I guess I was wrong all those years. :)

[@sperrin]

LemonTubeAmiga It's not really about being "PC", I personally detest "political correctness". It's just more a case of an incorrect pronunciation that for some reason has stuck for decades. O can understand incorrectly pronouncing something if you are from another country: like America let's say that pronounce Wimbledon, WimbleTON. But I would have thought being in the same country, people would know better. But as you say, even the great Murray Walker always mispronounced it. It's just a mispronouncement that for some reason has stuck.

[@qwaarjet8547]

Sometimes political correctness can be a good thing.

[@MrDavide914]

Well made video: thank you!

[@Crackity_Jones.]

What great memories, amazing game in its time.

[@Frostie3672]

Oh man, the hours I spent playing this game & it even turned me into a Forumla1 fan and I've never missed a race since 1992, when editors like f1gp-ed came out they really gave this game (simulator!) a whole new lease of life, much nicer playing at 30fps too.

[@DasSuper]

I sunk many, many hours into this game. Absolute favourite on my Amiga 600. Spa was my favourite track. Pro tip: boot from disk 2 if short on RAM!

[@ClassicTrialsChannel]

Played this for hours on end, full practice quali and full races.

[@KnisterBlister]

i hope there comes a remaster if this one. i played F1GP so many years on PC back then.

[@feamatar]

great video. Subscribed.

[@Lakedistrictrider]

Loved this game on my Amiga 500 back in the day

Nostalgia 100%

[@MrStephen182]

Very enjoyable video.

[@markhughes5352]

I had this game. Loved it

[@JonasRosenven]

I remember playing this on the Amiga really liking it and then visiting a friend who had it for pc. It was the first time I was ever impressed about a pc game.

[@evo5dave]

This game was great! Used to love ignoring the chicane at Monza and just flying over the kerbs at about 180MPH!

[@ButeSound]

This, pga tour golf and making Tunes on octamed was my life.

[@stunthumb]

Love this game, we would watch the GP on TV, then we'd all play full length races of whatever track, like 8 or 9 of us taking turns. Took ages to setup and play through but it was worth it. For me, my favorite is the PC version though - really slick, and local multiplayer made a big difference. The ST and Amiga versions are still the best racing games you can get for your 16-bits.

[@JohnSmith-kd6ip]

I used to spend many hours on that game. Often the session ended in me driving the track the wrong direction and slamming into cars until nobody was left. Easy win! Also, I miss the old Hockenheim track. Drove it so many times in F1GP and other racing games. When the company I worked for in the early 2000s became a team sponsor, I got free tickets and that year was the first year with the shortened Hockenheim track. I lost my love for the track. The old part was taken over by wilderness.

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

Same for me with Indy 500, although there were a lot more cars, the camera angles for the crashes were worth it.

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

Thanks so much! I was watching this video back only yesterday myself, as the Spa GP is about to be run again and I wanted to see how close the Amiga version was to the real thing. Very close! :) TBH, this is one of my most popular videos, but I just wish: 1) I'd made the track guides play much faster, 2) I could spell 'Brake' correctly, and 3) played the game in ACE mode with manual gears. Since this video was released, I became very good with manual gears and much more over these auto times.

[@adiands850]

Just watched your video now and it's excellent. Would be great if you did a follow-up video.

[@ArcadeMusicTribute]

Amiga

[@JonasRosenven]

The c64 was my first "pc". Before that I had the "game and watch" hand helds made by Nintendo. Games like IO, Thrust and They stole a million really got me into gaming on the c64. It was absolutely mindblowing for me when I got the Amiga with Virus (by David Braben) and Interceptor. The transition from c64 to Amiga was absolutely incredible. F1GP was one of those magic games for me. I was used to playing Pit Stop. Going from that game on c64 was just insane :)

[@pabluresmg6203]

Obra Maestra de la programación. A pioneer

[@cm5386]

loved the german track. fast as. I enjoyed going the opposite way when I got board (making the car immune first though)

[@RuiassousaFCP]

yes this game on the amiga 1200 is superb

[@jestronixhanderson9898]

Aww man I played this game to death, i would play with all assists off on pro, yeh the Ai was insanely hard. I would play full length races before the f1 aired that night, learning the track, it was great to know the track at any point on tv :) it was actually scary how close this game was as far as speed and brake points. Yep I did it all on the A500! Oh the frame rates!

[@cenkhanevcil1974]

Now I'm 45 years old I never forget AMIGA C64 ATARI 2600 ATARI 800XL LEGENDARY MACHINES ALWAYS I DON'T WANT YOUR 4K WE WANT OUR CHILDISH

[@dallas973]

Hahahaha remember that i was playing this game with my sega megadrive control pad ! So nice to watch that again ...so many memories... These days i m back on sim racing and to be honest it reminds me rfactor2 regarding graphics hahahhahaah

[@RagemanRM]

Thank You.

[@miserychordia]

one of the coolest things is that you can change the names of all ai drivers, me and a friend put in random names from people in our village, made it a bit more fun =) we also did that in the "world championship boxing manager" game.. :) was kinda more fun to take on certain opponents hehe =)

[@SzpenioWPR]

Lovely movie

[@Loggins1969]

I bought both versions and the most impressive difference was that the PC version had textures on the grass and road, and such gave more detail and speed sensation. Both versions were awesome though.

[@paperthings5746]

Great!

[@mariuspunsvik8747]

This game still rocks! Been playing it on dosbox these last few days, happy to see that I actually beat the fastest time at Monaco with a 1.16.984, but disappointed to see you guys cut all the time..

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

They you might be interested to visit the lemon forum some time. :) Click Gaming Competitions and find the announcement thread for High Score Challenge Index. There you should find a link to all of our times, both cut and uncut, as indicated.

[@lucasracing838]

Next Month the Amiga Mini will be released. Hope it is possible to get a GP1 Rom and install it on this hardware.

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

I think the PC game was an altogether better product, but then the PC could handle the 3D graphics - which helps a lot in these vector games. The 030 processor I used to play this on was a real god-send. The introduction of textures (just like the road texture on the PC version) was the nail in the coffin for the Amigas 'flat' graphics, and it's really been all about the textures and ray-casting since that day.

[@Mystipaoniz]

my god i used to play this game on my Amiga 3000. I was goood at the time and i used to play full length races while listening to the tv, with the real GP on. That was awesome. I'm so mad at myself now because i made the mistake to sell my amiga with all the games and demo and programs. I regret it immensely now, because i miss the demos and the music. I even recorded the music i had on cassettes, to listen on my walkman. Good times i tell you. I'm really nostalgic of this period of time.

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

Hi there. I just wanted to say thanks for exploring our Lemon channel and thanks for commenting on many of the shows. I used to have an A500 with 030 Derringer card in there - and this game used to fly! I only just found out recently that F1GP patch allows the game to run at 25FPS instead of 8FPS. We may also have F1GP coming up in our Lemon Amiga Vs EAB competition at the end of next week, so do join us on the forum and play. Funny.... someone only today also mentioned they saw the Mansell Vs Senna 1992 Monaco race, and then loaded up this game on their Amiga and did 80 laps. Fun times. ;)

[@Mystipaoniz]

LemonTubeAmiga Hey don't thank me for exploring your awesome amiga channel man. It's just normal ^^ I could just you all guys on the forum but i probably won't play because i still have nothing installed on my computer and, to be honest, i'm so used to play recent racing games (GTR2, Assetto Corsa) that i probably don't want to tarnish my souvenirs on this game ^^. That beeing said..maybe it won't so...i'll give it a try...maybe. :p And damn...Senna, Mansell, that was the good period to watch F1 on tv. I think i started watching F1 regularly in 1990-91. And every w-e, as soon as i had my Amiga, i watched and play at the same time, full length races. Fun times indeed! **tears** ps : what forum are you talking about?? :) I'll definitely check it out. Thanks for the reply btw! ;) Keep up the good work with your channel.

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

LemonAmiga.com Forum. Games Competition section.

[@ComputerBladet]

The compressed game mode was brilliant. Does any modern game has this feature??

[@PaulWilliamArnold]

I used to play the 2 player taking it in turns with my mate, I would leave it in a great position with the computer, when he gave it back to me after my mates turn, he had put me in the wall, and that's if my mate hadn't wiped me out, as you could turn the damage off in settings which was more fun.

[@GeorgiGeorgievGT]

So this is the Amiga world... You have one more subscriber, Sir. Im having WinFellow 0.5.1 and three Amiga roms. Can I play correctly most of the Amiga games on the net? I have Grand Prix Circuit - it's not loading, Indianapolis 500 on the other hand is a real beast! Im a DOS games player but Amiga looks impressive too.

[@MarcoStillSeasonsCattaneo]

Hello childhood my old friend!

[@Massi3078]

Bellissimo! 320x200 pixel??

[@andyderbyshire3441]

legendary game...AI where so aggressive in this..prolly made it so great to play

[@epochyorkshire55]

Carlos Sanchez has taken the lead

[@tqft]

How did you get the patch for this???? Are you playing via an emulator or the original Amiga?

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

Ive made a special video on this, to be released next month. If you go to the Aminet and type F1GP, you will find the editor and supporting files. This was emulated footage with JIT enabled.

[@GummyCrocBandit]

Is this a port of F1 GP on the Panasonic 3DO?

[@janmansde3dede]

All Access Gaming No, this game's older (1992), surprised that the developer of the 3do game wasn't sued, as this game on the Amiga received three sequels ! all the way into 2002 !Maybe it's because F1 GP (1992) was known as *World Circuit* in the US. 3do wasn't Panasonic's by the way. the 3do Company licensed the technology to other companies to manufacture, such as Panasonic and Goldstar, Goldstar who you now may know as LG.

[@lasersauceretroarchives6544]

DOS version was way ahead of its time

[@suburbia2050]

It came out on the Amiga first

[@diego89167]

excuse me my problem with installation and select carset please.

[@gold333]

I wonder if Ivan is still around? He had the fastest hotlaps in 1993

[@ltheden]

so, the pc version of f1gp when played on a pc from 1986 is that much better than on the A500? I think not... on a pc from 1991, thats a different thing.

[@mrnewton86]

Back in the day I thought it was brilliant, for an Amiga game anyway, the circuits themselves were impressive and accurate to the real thing

[@villerautanen5983]

Crammondin F1:set..aivan legendoja

[@jaywalkercrew4446]

The manual needed to load game..class game.

[@RainbowDashMusic]

You should have used the fps mod to make it playable

[@BD12]

for real I wish someone would just make a packaged-up version of Grand Prix with the patch, because I can't for the life of me figure out what to do with all the files

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

I recently released a tips and easter eggs special, there I give you my F1GP directory, with all files, plus a 10 min guide to how to use them. Hope that helps?

[@BD12]

@@LemonTubeAmiga well that sounds promising because earlier instructions seem to just assume that one will know how to do all the tinkering themselves. Of course there was always the DOS version but for real, I'm not playing F1GP without the proper theme music

[@MarkPentler]

I used to race in an online league for this, and the webpage for it exists still. We used to record our races with a program in the background and then submit our logs via email. They’d be merged together to get a picture of a full simulated race

[@Gylve81]

are you using a joystick or keyboard?

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

Joystick, a Zipstik.

[@formatman525]

Hi ... given that I don't speak English well ... could you explain the step by step procedure to use F1 GP Ed? .... maybe making a video tuttorial ... thanks

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

I will be making a tips special at some point, so I'll make a section for this. Thanks.

[@formatman525]

@@LemonTubeAmiga thank you very much

[@christiankarl1758]

Hey LemonTubeAmiga, i have a small Instagram and KZbin channel and I make one minute Retrogame Videos. So my question is, if i can use your content to make a video about "Grand Prix"? Of course I will put a Link to your video in my discription. Thank a lot :) Christian

[@JongleurJ10]

Let's see if anyone can guess my trick to getting ridiculously good times on the Monaco track... Must add, I tried to a full season (100% race distances) but only got about halfway. Miss my Amiga 500+ something chronic... Mind you doesn't owe me anything, I put SERIOUS hours into that thing. And hit the keyboard when overly frustrated

[@GeneralArmorus]

it's [Muhnyee Kur]

[@darrentaylor1361]

i had this i was the master of this LOL

[@Goldbaer81]

Mit 68020 28MhZ lief das Spiel Flüssig...

[@diego89167]

The tutorial guide please? Thank you very much.

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

If you saw my easter eggs and cheats video, I cant help any further.

[@diego89167]

@@LemonTubeAmiga sorry but i don't understand.

[@diego89167]

@@LemonTubeAmiga hello this program included the database 1991 drivers fake?.

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

@@diego89167 - Yes, the 1991 database set is fake, as the one included with the real game did not include a real drivers list. I realise you are sending me lots of questions I cant help with. Please start a new thread on Lemon Amiga or EAB and maybe others can help.

[@diego89167]

@@LemonTubeAmiga ok but my english not perfect but green.

[@elimin8tor]

The lacklustre commentary ruins this video for me. Otherwise I love the memories see this brings back...

[@ltheden]

sorry 1987 not 1986.

[@ReBITMAGAZINE]

Too fast for an Amiga 500!!

[@Commander_Solo]

I loved my Amiga, and I did think this game was amazing to a point, however I worked in Computer Science so I was pretty picky - and after a lot of experimenting - I noticed this alleged issue, if you roll up to any corner and put no steering input, you will notice the game actually turns the car in on its own as if it is on rails - I allege this is true, and I tested and found this to be so off putting, once I noticed this, I lost interest. I'd be interested for someone to test this (Amiga version) and see if the car without input, turns itself initially into the corners. It was sort of a steering assist you could not turn off (I allege).... And thoughts?

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

Yeah, the game had some kind of AI driving assist which helps to keep the car on the racing line. There is no way to switch this off.

[@Commander_Solo]

@@LemonTubeAmiga Yeah, I remember getting the game, and for a couple of nights I thought what a great game, but after a couple of hours playing I was fiddling around doing some practice laps, and I let the controller go while going into a corner to grab my cuppa, and I was astonished to watch as the car auto steered the corner - I then experimented with it for about 30 minutes, and after realizing the thing auto-steered, out of true annoyance, I put the game away and never touched it again. The interesting thing is, I had a PC, and was also experimenting with analog sticks for the Amiga (which you could use with an adapter) - but by the late 80's early 90's the Amiga was well and truly over for me.

[@LemonTubeAmiga]

@@Commander_Solo - Yeah, there was some kind of analogue steer compensation going on, so when you let go of the controller, the car doesn't automatically auto centre, it moves to the middle slowly. There was analogue support built in to the game, so I imagine they adapted this for digital controls, a bit like Revs and Test Drive 2. But I think there were also other aids which helped the driving too.

[@Emugifs]

Wroom is better then this one

[@si4632]

🤣🤣🤣

[@suburbia2050]

wtf