Papyrus Design Group Racing Computer Games

Papyrus Design Group

Founded in 1987 by David Kaemmer and Omar Khudari, Papyrus Design Group are famous for developing some of the most advanced motorsport autoracing simulators on IBM PC MS-DOS and Windows operating systems from 1989-1998. Papyrus Design Group's development spans the transition between:

• IBM PC MS-DOS and PC Windows
• i80286-486 and Pentium CPUs
• VGA 320x200 and square-pixel SVGA 640x480 and beyond
• Software-rendered 3D and hardware-accelerated 3D (OpenGL and Direct3D APIs)

cf. History of 1990s Computer Games for more info on hardware and software tech advances.

An American developer, Papyrus Design Group's focus was on American motorsport autoracing; namely, the Indianapolis 500 (Indy 500) and National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). 

In the early-to-mid 1990s British software-house Microprose developed its Formula One Grand Prix Series, which was based on (international) Formula 1 Racing.

Papyrus Design Group's racers are notable for pushing computer-game hardware to the limit: you needed a high-end PC to run Indy and NASCAR at full-frames on max detail.

Indy 500 of 1989 was flat-shaded whereas texture-mapping was introduced in 1993 via IndyCar Racing. cf.:

• The First Flat-shaded Computer Games
• The First Texture-mapped Computer Games

All of Papyrus Design Group's racers feature accurate controls, realistic physics, great graphics, slick user interfaces and bold presentation. In short, they are full-featured computer games that do not cut corners in regards to simulation and background research.

Indianapolis 500: The Simulation 1989

Indianapolis 500: The Simulation aka Indy 500 was released by Papyrus Design Group in 1989 for IBM PC MS-DOS 2.1 and Amiga. Indy 500 was designed by David Kaemmer and programmed by David Kaemmer and Richard Barcia.

Indy 500 could be regarded as the first fully 3D autoracing simulator, but that would be technically incorrect because Crammond's Revs of 1985 on the BBC Micro was first.

Still, Indy 500 is amazing for 1989. It goes to show how far hardware had evolved in just four years. Indy 500 is one of the best games of the late-80s and one of the greatest racing games of all-time:

The MS-DOS version of Indy 500 requires an i808x or i80286 and 384K of RAM, but 386 and 512K is recommended.

Amiga version of Indianapolis 500:

Indy 500 came out before Sega's Virtua Racing, before Sega's Daytona USA and before Namco's Ridge Racer. And when those arcade games came out Indy 500 remained a better racing-sim than all of them.

So did F1GP of 1991.

IndyCar Racing 1993

IndyCar Racing was released by Papyrus Design Group in 1993 for IBM PC MS-DOS 3.3. IndyCar Racing was designed by David Kaemmer and programmed by David Kaemmer and Richard Barcia.

Four more years pass: we have more complex geometry and more detailed textures in IndyCar Racing, but we're still on low-res 320x200 / 240.

At this point IndyCar is practically matching coinop racers from Sega and Namco that run on dedicated hardware specifically designed for racers. The Sony PlayStation of 1994 isn't even out yet.

NASCAR Racing 1994

NASCAR Racing was released by Papyrus Design Group in 1994 for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0. The MS-DOS version of NASCAR Racing requires an i80486DX2-33 MHz and 8 megs of RAM (486DX2-66 MHz for SVGA), but Pentium 90 MHz and 16 megs of RAM is recommended.

The upgrade to square-pixel SVGA 640x480 by NASCAR Racing is huge. HUGE, I say! F1GP did not have 640x480 until 1996. Ridge Racer was not released on the Playstation until Dec. of 1994, and only displayed at 320x240.

IndyCar Racing 2 1995

IndyCar Racing 2 was released by Papyrus Design Group in 1995 for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0. The MS-DOS version of IndyCar 2 requires i80486DX-33 MHz and 8 megs of RAM (486DX-22 66 MHz for SVGA), but Pentium 90 MHz and 16 megs is recommended.

Square-pixel SVGA 640x480 for Indy in IndyCar Racing 2:

At this point, Need for Speed (1995) was ported to MS-DOS from the 3DO console by Electronic Arts.

Reflections released Destruction Derby.

And Graffiti released Screamer.

NASCAR Racing 2 1996

NASCAR Racing 2 was released by Papyrus Design Group in 1996 for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0. The MS-DOS version of NASCAR Racing 2 requires i80486DX-66 MHz and 16 megs of RAM, but Pentium 90 MHz and 16 megs is recommended.

NASCAR Racing 2 maintained support for software-rendered aka CPU-rendered 3D, but also supported hardware-accelerated 3D via 3Dfx and Rendition graphics chipsets.

1996 also saw the release of Crammond's Grand Prix 2:

And Milestone released Screamer 2.

And then Screamer Rally in 1997.

By 1996, and as it pertains to 3D computer games, MS-DOS / Windows had left console and arcade variants in the dust: even without factoring in vehicle, flight and space sims, Quake destroyed 3D arcade and console games all by itself.

Grand Prix Legends 1998

Grand Prix Legends aka GPL was released by Papyrus Design Group in 1998 for IBM PC Windows 95. GPL requires Pentium 166 MHz, 32 megs of RAM and 2 megs of vRAM, but Pentium 2 166 MHz, 64 megs of RAM and 3dfx Voodoo or Rendition v2 is recommended.

As the ultimate racing simulator of the 1990s Grand Prix Legends simulates the 1967 Formula One Season. The following infographic shows the software-rendered version displayed in SVGA 640x480, running in Windows 98. This is the original version of GPL installed natively on Windows 98, without any unofficial installers, patches or mods.

In conclusion, Papyrus Design Group were the pre-eminent developer of autoracing simulators for almost one decade. For good reason, people are still playing these games in 2024.

cf.:

• A part of: History of 1990s Computer Games
• The First Texture-mapped Computer Games
• Return to: cRPG Blog (Master Index)