F1GP.

The FIA provide an official sticker which you can stick on your Formula 1 game. Should you of cause be making one. With this endorsement and with millions of F1 fans around the world, you can goad loyal F1 fans into buying your game.

Probably the most memorable of these was Psygnosis’ first effort, Formula One, developed during 1995. It was very impressive. Impressive graphically, technically and more importantly as a game. So, along with its FIA seal of approval, it sold in huge numbers around the globe.

On October 28th 1995 a game born in Japan also carried the coveted emblem of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. It, as it turns out, was significantly less impressive.

During the mid-nineties it was fashionable for developers to impress the game buying public with details of the number of polygons in their games. A pseudo arms race emerged, fought not with weapons of mass destruction but with polygons of mass squabbling.

It is re-assuring then that some companies managed to keep their heads clear of such childish squabbling and continued to develop 3D games as they saw fit.

Pony Canyon, developers of F1GP for the 3DO, saw ‘fit’ but clearly didn’t know what ‘fit’ actually was.

The result? The wheels are square.

Virtua racer on the Saturn was being promised, it had already emerged on 32X and had been in the arcade for years. Fun? Perhaps but as far from technically true to F1 racing as is possible. It was an arcade racer at heart.

F1GP is in the same graphical vein as VR, however it is a F1 simulator at heart. Tracks, teams, cars and drivers all present and correct for the year. Damon Hills not so beaming smile, staring back at you, jumbled amongst a small glut of Japanese characters.

To begin F1GP starts off impressively. Its 0-60Mph is actually awe inspiring. The license, the introduction, the level of detail in the options open to you. All of which will have you thinking you are on to a winner. It is a Japanese game but very English language friendly.

Up until the game actually starts everything looks promising. You key in your name, pick a driver and team and it’s eyes down for a quick round of qualifying. Then a free run. Then more qualifying. More free running. A practice run and then, finally, the Grand Prix.

It’s quite anally retentive about pre-race qualifying. Which will grow weary if you are like me and like your racing games with power-slides, sudden death and nitro.

However, something will have struck you long before you see your first all-car F1 line-up. The graphics. Essentially the lynch pin in any racing game, are appalling. The first thing to hit me was the wheels. There is no animation to show the wheels turning in the direction you are heading. Unsurprising really, when considering the wheels appear to have something of the cube about them. The car itself is made of no more than a handful of polygons and doesn’t really look too much like an F1 car of any era.

We then move on to the subject of pop-up. As a rule I don’t see pop-up. It is usually pointed out to me, at which point I go ‘Oh yeah’ and then that is all I notice until the game ends.

…but in F1GP the pop-up is so bad it will have your eye out.

All of which is a shame because despite all this the game is actually not so bad.

You see, technically the game is accomplished. It features a myriad of tweaking options to alter the cars handling. From gears, to brakes, to steering, some 10 things in all to alter the way your car behaves and while some have lamented F1GPs handling and mentioning also while the car appears to pivot in the middle and not on the front wheels, the handling isn’t all that bad - albeit with effort.

In terms of graphical intention it is pretty strong too. Full car-line up on Grand Prix day. Replay modes, available at anytime, including a TV mode which would have been impressive if the graphics themselves had been better. It is all implemented well and there is a representation of pit-crews. Which is generally a crowd pleaser.

Missing or rather what we expect now in August 2006 from a racing game is that there is no damage to the cars. No smoke. No skid marks. The collision detection routines would allow me to hit you right now from where you are sitting. At any time. Vague then. And no commentary. Japan blissfully unable to correctly pronounce “Murray Walker” let alone impersonate him. Whether that is a negative or not is entirely up to you. Other niggles are perhaps the absence of a reverse gear but you can balance the desire to go backwards against rear view mirrors which actually the game does have.

Being of the impatient variety of human I find F1 Simulators on the whole can be a trifle slow, and the tedium of trying to race simulator style very rapidly kicks in. So in my opinion often the true test of a F1 game is trying Ridge Racer style techniques on it. From the starting green lights, try charging up the inside, shouldering people off the track at the corner or better using people at the corner as brakes to slow you down before charging off again. F1GP didn’t quite let me do this. I could do it. It just never seemed to benefit me in anyway. The point being the opponent drivers come straight from the Polyphonic school of good AI – i.e. it is none existent and they will doggedly stick to the racing line come what may. So - perhaps - it is a true simulator rather than an arcade racer pretending to be a simulator.

Ultimately, like so many 3DO games, F1GP is half way to being a good game. Back '95 it seemed a good 3DO game engine never met the right graphics and the right graphics were always dating the wrong game engine. And F1GP doesn’t break any moulds. I personally believe fun can be tickled from under the rough graphics but only with patience and a love of FIA endorsed racing sims.

Pretty rare too.

3DO Kid.