Papyrus Design Group

Papyrus Design Group are famous for developing some of the most advanced motorsport autoracing simulators on MS-DOS and Windows operating systems from 1989-1998. Papyrus Design Group's development spans the transition between:

MS-DOS and Windows
i80286-486 and Pentium
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 Formula One Grand Prix and Grand Prix 2, which were 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. Texture-mapping was introduced in 1993 via IndyCar Racing.

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 could be regarded as the first fully 3D autoracing simulator. However, that would be incorrect: Crammond's Revs 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:

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

Four more years pass: we have more complex geometry and more detailed textures, but we're still on non-square pixel 320x200 / 240.

At this point IndyCar is practically matching 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

The upgrade to square-pixel SVGA 640x480 is huge. 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

Square-pixel SVGA 640x480 for Indy:

At this point, Need of 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 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

As the ultimate racing simulator of the 1990s (on an absolute not relative level) 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.

cf.:

A part of: History of 1990s Computer Games
Return to: cRPG Blog (Master Index)

Best cRPGs