A decades long ménage à trois of computers, sim racing and F1
My introduction to sim racing started back in the mid 80’s when I had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum and anything related to it and programming was my teenage obsession. I have a vague memory of reading a programming article about coding 3D-esque type games by using parallax scrolling and, due to also being an F1 fan, I subsequently attempted to marry the two interests by writing a racing game using the technique. It kinda worked, but the limitations of the machine’s processing and graphics meant it was relegated to a shelved programming project.
Time moved on, the 80s slipped by, as had my original 16K ZX Spectrum and its wobbly RAMpac, a ZX Spectrum+ replacement, an Amstrad CPC 6128, and an Atari 1040ST. The 90s saw my IT addiction transfigured into a beige PC, initially in the form of an Amstrad PC and then a far better milky white tower system from Gateway 2000, an even better Dell and then Dell laptops proved to be both price attainable and space efficient … though, alongside the hardware, my memory darkens so my timeline might be slipping into the noughties at this latter point.
Anyway, while the IT addition ran amok, the love of F1 hadn’t died and sim racing during the 90’s era of beige meant I played Grand Prix 2. Since my PCs were geared towards the hobbyist spec, and not gaming, a few years later I purchased a Playstation PS1 and Colin McRae Rally – including the purchase of a steering wheel and pedals (serious stuff!) But, despite being seemingly mind-blowing at the time these sims were tame stuff compared to what a sim racer has available to them in the present day.
When I say present day, well more like 2020, at which point I had retired and not played a racing sim in the intervening “serious” years of my IT career. The purchase of a Xbox Series X games console towards the end of 2020, alongside a Xbox Games Pass subscription meant that I discovered Forza Horizon 4. Wow! Okay, it’s more of an arcade-sim but jeez-oh was it addictive. Forza Horizon 5 came along in the spring of 2021 (more wow, more exclamation marks), I also came across Forza Motorsport 7 , and shortly thereafter Forza Motorsport neither of which I was particularly taken by (not so wow, and not serious enough).
Then both Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione caught my eye. I was hooked, I bought a Fanatec wheelbase, steering wheel, and pedals … and then realised that to become more serious I had to buy a PC. Alas, being an IT addict I had to build my gaming PC and spec it with the best in-class components. The story continues…
