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Gran Turismo was released to the Japanese market in 1997, and was expected to be just a cult-favorite with gearheads; the intention was a video game for people who liked and admired cars and racing them head-to-head. But something else happened: Gamers who normally didn't care about how fast their parent's Toyota Chaser was, were suddenly interested in cars and racing. GT had 170+ cars to play with; you could tune every one of them in some way or another. Most of them could have power upgrades, turning a Honda Civic into something that would beat up on a Nissan Skyline GT-R and take its lunch money.

With the success in the Japanese market, Sony tested it on the Americans. And, it too was a success, except the market also ate the game up in serious demand. The trouble was, hardly anybody in America (except for a handful of people) had ever heard of or even seen a Skyline, TVR, or a Demio before. Not that it mattered; the game was a hit. Even if the Cars didn't look damaged when they crashed into things.

Gran Turismo spread to Europe, and eventually became a Greatest Hit. Or turned Platinum. Or something like that. Looking back now, it's almost a mystery how a game that had 9 fake circuits (but fun circuits nonetheless), and "only" 170 cars (about 5-10 times more than most racing games of the time), made you take tests and frustrated the heck out of people at times...was such a success, spawning many sequels, web sites, attention from the Car press.

Everyone's a Driver now.

*[http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=61 Message Board]
*[[Gran Turismo 1 : Screenshots | Screenshots]]
*[[Gran Turismo 1 : Car List | Car List]]
*[[Gran Turismo 1 : Track List | Track List]]
*[[Gran Turismo 1 : Prize Cars | Prize Cars]]
*[[Gran Turismo 1 : Race Database | Race Database]]
*[[Gran Turismo 1 : Cheat Codes | Cheat Codes]]
*[[Gran Turismo 1 : Soundtrack | Soundtrack]]
*Anything else you can think of...

[[Category:Gran Turismo 1]]