Formula One Grand Prix MicroProse

Formula One Grand Prix (F1GP) is a 16 bit racing simulator designed and coded by Geoff Crammond of MicroProse for the Amiga, Atari ST and IBM PC (1991-92).

Before the advent of Formula One Grand Prix Crammond designed and coded Revs for the BBC Micro in 1985 and Stunt Car Racer for the ST/Amiga in 1989.

Revs was the first fully 3D auto racing simulator whereas Papyrus Design Group's Indy 500 was the first fully 3D 16 bit auto racing sim.

While SCR's control and physics are equal to F1GP in quality, F1GP is a serious and thorough simulation of motorsport auto racing. Thus, F1GP is the spiritual successor of Revs.

Formula One Grand Prix is notable for its accurate simulation of F1 cars, racing and circuits as well as car setups in relation to particular circuits; that is, one car setup does not fit all scenarios: cars need to be calibrated for specific circuit layouts and weather conditions in order to affect best outcomes.

Front/Rear Wing Downforce Adjust
Brake Balance
Tyre Compound
Gear Ratios

In 1991 Formula One Grand Prix was one of the most well-presented games on the Amiga and Atari ST; its menu presentation is slick, responsive and professional.

As can be seen in the above-right screencap, Formula One Grand Prix employs flat-shaded 3D graphics in a first-person perspective from cockpit view. Even though Crammond's proprietary 3D engine lacks geometric and texture-mapped detail, the speed, acceleration and maneuverability of F1 cars is captured.

The simulation of the car is tight and accurate: on-rails and downforced in comparison to the average arcade racer. Formula One Grand Prix does not feel anything like an arcade game.

At this point, it is important to remember that Direct3D and 3D accelerator cards did not exist for microcomputer games in the late 80s, when Crammond began coding Formula One Grand Prix.

And since the engine pushed around a fair amount of polygons, it was technically impressive. Indeed, it was ground-breaking due to the number of cars that could be displayed on-screen simultaneously. As well, cars can be viewed in rear-view mirrors.

The polygonal car models are modified to show bodyshell damage that occurs as a result of collisions. In addition, flying debris is incorporated.

Framerate: Formula One Grand Prix ran at max 25 FPS on 386DXes. On the Amiga 500 I remember the max being about 15. Back in the day, such framerates were acceptable for 3D games.

IBM PC framerates in 1991:

286: 8.1 frames/sec
386: 10 frames/sec
486SX: 15 frames/sec
486DX: 25 frames/sec (capped at 25 FPS)

As well, the Amiga's superior audio capabilities faithfully reproduce the sounds of the engine, gear-shifting and tyre-squealing. The ST and MS-DOS versions don't sound as good, and their main track music is inferior to the Amiga's.

Overall, the MS-DOS version is not as stylish as the Amiga version, but performs better by virtue of +MHz.

That said, as was always the case with late-80s and early-90s cross-platform games, the Amiga and ST versions of F1GP were very special because microcomputer hardware specs were set in stone for 95% of their user-bases (whereas PC hardware and settings greatly varied).

The IBM PC MS-DOS version of Formula One Grand Prix was distributed on 3x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via Microprose Hard Disk Installation Utility and MSCOPY. The install size is 6 megs and consists of 70 files.

Formula One Grand Prix audio supports PC Speaker, AdLib, Sound Blaster and Roland MT-32/LAPC-1.

F1GP Driver Assist System

Due to the complexity of its controls and the need to satisfy Arcadians, F1GP features "driver help" options as well as other difficulty-downgrading settings.

Auto Brakes
Auto Gears
Self-Righting Spins
Indestructible
Dotted "Best Line"
Suggested Gear

Difficulty levels affect opposing driver AI. The difficulty levels are:

Ace
Pro
Semi-pro
Amateur
Rookie

F1 Championship Season

F1GP offers a full Championship Season with free practice, qualifying, pre-race practice and race modes. There are 16 circuits to race on and 18 teams and 35 drivers represented.

Formula One Grand Prix Circuits (1991)

Each circuit's topography was accurately replicated by Norman Surplus. Before racing, a map of each circuit is projected along with information on its length and records set.

Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo, Monaco
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City, Mexico
Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, France
Silverstone, Northamptonshire, Britain
Hockenheimring, Germany
Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary
Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
Autódromo Nazionale Monza, Milan, Italy
Autódromo do Estoril, Portugal
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló, Spain
Phoenix Street Circuit, United States of America
Autódromo José Carlos Pacel, Interlagos, São Paulo, Brazil
Autódromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, San Marino, Italy
Suzuka, Shiroko, Japan
Adelaide Grand Prix Circuit, Adelaide, Australia

F1GP Teams (1991)

Canon Williams Renault
Camel Benetton Ford
Brabham Yamaha
Minardi
Braun Tyrrell Honda
Leyton House Racing
Team Lotus
Footwork Arrows
7-Up Team Jordan
Larrousse
Ligier Loto
Scuderia Italia
AGS
Central Park Modena Team
Coloni
Fondmetal

List of Corners & Bends

The manual explains how to approach the different corners and bends of the circuits.

Fast Corner
90 degree turn
Constant-Radius Corner
Double-Apex Corner
Hairpin
Tightening Corner
Opening Corner
"S" Bend or Chicane
Tight Corner After a First Bend
A Long Straight After Two Identical Corners
Cornering in Wet Weather

Grand Prix 2 IBM PC 1996

MicroProse released Grand Prix 2 for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1996. Grand Prix 2 was released for MS-DOS only, not the Amiga.

GP2 is one of the few square-pixel SVGA 640x480 games for MS-DOS. Note also the texture-mapping.

Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 are not officially supported (reboot in MS-DOS mode). Runs in 256-color 640x480 VESA mode 101h or 16-color VGA mode 12h (640x480 menus; 320x200 in-game). Requires 8 megs of RAM under MS-DOS.

Lilura1 cRPG

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