GT1 Memories

  • Thread starter Nidgi
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Yes it does, but play GT5P and then GT1. Even epsxe can't save it's (admittedly) outdated graphics. I'm not saying GT1's graphics are bad, it's just...well, outdated. Which makes me sad sometimes, because I used to believe it's the best looking game ever. Ah well, at least it's still FUN :).
 
GT1 memories, hmmm...i would say driving a car made of colored blocks. I fired it up not too long ago and i was like wow, the graphics are just horrible compared to things today but when it came out i was impressed by them...lol.
 
a6m5
Put in perspective, breakpoint. Perspective. :lol:
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Guess me saying when it came out i was impressed didn't get through that well :lol: They were good for the time is what i was getting at.
 
ajrichar
What a magnificent game. Loading it up and playing it gave me a tingle up my spine that no version of GT since that first one has ever given me.
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I would agree with that. I don't know what it was about GT1 but none of the later versions were able to re-create that tingle.
 
TMM
I would agree with that. I don't know what it was about GT1 but none of the later versions were able to re-create that tingle.
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Probably that's because it's the first GT you've ever played. I'm sure if you started with, say, GT3, you won't feel anything special when playing GT1.

I'm thankful I started with GT1 though, it's such a fun, down-to-earth game. With GT5, the series seem to be heading in a more complicated direction. Good thing I guess, since there will be more diversity, but sometimes it just feels...too much.
 
GT5 has the entire series in competition with Forza (mostly), wheras GT1 returns us to those golden days when PD had no obvious competition.

It's like comparing a Model T to a Model A. The Model T was the auto that brought Fords to the masses affordably (many who never had been able to own or afford a horseless carriage). There's something pure & uncomplicated about it. The Model A was created to face direct competition from General Motors, who (arguably) would have wiped Ford out of existence if Ford didn't upgrade.
 
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Well, it depends what you mean by "had no obvious competition". It was obvious to compare those titles to [size=+1]GT1[/size], but perhaps they wouldn't fare as well as Forza does now.

And, yet, you could even add Grand Prix Legends as competition to [size=+1]GT1[/size].
 
From what I understand, Ridge Racer features imaginary cars (never played it myself, so correct me if I'm wrong). Need 4 Speed sometimes puts the gamer in different scenarios from GT, using police pursuits and stuff like that. And Test Drive features exotics.

GT is different from Test Drive because it included more ordinary cars along with the exotics...all of which could be fully modified to racing specs. There's more "ordinary" cars in Gran Turismo games than there are exotics. GT also focuses solely on pure lap-racing, rather than silly police pursuits or gangbangy scenearios like Need 4 Speed does. For all these reasons, I've read that Sony was initially sceptical that Gran Turismo would have its own following.
 
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Not sure why, but I'd thought Forza was entirely fictional cars, but, checking wikipedia, I must have been thinking of another game.
 
No, Forza is similar to GT. The main differences are it allows damage and lots more customization. You can do engine swaps, for instance. Body paint. It doesn't have as many cars as GT, and some say its physics aren't as good. But plenty of people say the opposite: Forza has truer physics, but GT is wack. Personally, I think both games capture elements of real-life in their own way (I've tried Forza a few times).
 
SportWagon
Well, it depends what you mean by "had no obvious competition". It was obvious to compare those titles to [size=+1]GT1[/size], but perhaps they wouldn't fare as well as Forza does now.

And, yet, you could even add Grand Prix Legends as competition to [size=+1]GT1[/size].
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Back then, Gran Turismo was king. As Parnelli said, GT didn't have direct competition when it released - most of the racing games at that time were arcade focused. But since the whole "console simulator" thing was very new, games like Need for Speed and Ridge Racer were the only ones you could compare it to. For the next few years, every racing game that came out lived in GT's shadow. PC titles were on a different planet.

It wasn't until Sega GT released on the Dreamcast that Sony was challenged in the console sim market. While I didn't like that game at all, it recieved great reviews and spawned a sequel on the Xbox. Fast forward three or four years and Gran Turismo has gone from being literally on top of the world to a bit of a relic. The franchise still sells very well and is just as good as it used to be, but with games like Forza, NFS Shift, Ferrari Challenge, Race Pro, and what used to be TOCA Race Driver, Gran Turismo is no longer the only option out there for serious enthusiasts. I'm hoping GT5 is so good, it will return everybody back to the old days.

As for memories...my first one was back when I was four, I remember spinning out a DB7 struggling to keep it on the road as my friends watched. I attempted to convince them to try it, they didn't care, they just wanted to play Mario Kart. :nervous:

The menu music also gets frequently stuck in my head, if you would call that a memory.
 
I remember the first time I played Gran Turismo. I was very dissapointed, thinking it was the same as NFS and the other games I'd played. Thankfully I played it a few more times anyway, and realized how wrong I was!
 
TrievelA7X
I remember the first time I played Gran Turismo. I was very dissapointed, thinking it was the same as NFS and the other games I'd played. Thankfully I played it a few more times anyway, and realized how wrong I was!
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:lol:
 
Ridge Racer, Test Drive and NFS are all arcade games. None of them can ever hope to compare to GT in terms of driving physics. But I've played all of them, and they're fun in their own unique ways. I think that given the choice of these games and GT, many people would undoubtedly trash GT because it's just less fun and harder to play (to the average gamer). But history says otherwise. Why? It's because GT (back in the day) is different. It managed to "break the norm" but at the same time doesn't suck. Games that try to be different usually suck. But GT didn't. Kaz and PD got the execution spot on from the start.

Fast forward a few years to PS3 and the upcoming GT5, things are looking very different on the console sim market. People are now tired of arcade games (exception for really famous ones like Burnout or Ridge Racer). Sim racing is the 'in' thing now, and GT/PD/KY got lots of competition. Looking back through the series, it's remarkable how they managed to evolve so much, yet change the basic formula so little, and somehow still manages to be at the top of the console sim market. I pray to god that GT5 will not change this, because even though there are better sims out there (Ferrari Challenge comes to mind) the game I played most on my PS3 is still GT5P. That basic GT formula is what pulls me back. Again and again.

Ramblings over. I hope I don't annoy anyone lol.
 
LeGeNd-1
Ridge Racer, Test Drive and NFS are all arcade games. None of them can ever hope to compare to GT in terms of driving physics. But I've played all of them, and they're fun in their own unique ways. I think that given the choice of these games and GT, many people would undoubtedly trash GT because it's just less fun and harder to play (to the average gamer). But history says otherwise. Why? It's because GT (back in the day) is different. It managed to "break the norm" but at the same time doesn't suck. Games that try to be different usually suck. But GT didn't. Kaz and PD got the execution spot on from the start.

Fast forward a few years to PS3 and the upcoming GT5, things are looking very different on the console sim market. People are now tired of arcade games (exception for really famous ones like Burnout or Ridge Racer). Sim racing is the 'in' thing now, and GT/PD/KY got lots of competition. Looking back through the series, it's remarkable how they managed to evolve so much, yet change the basic formula so little, and somehow still manages to be at the top of the console sim market. I pray to god that GT5 will not change this, because even though there are better sims out there (Ferrari Challenge comes to mind) the game I played most on my PS3 is still GT5P. That basic GT formula is what pulls me back. Again and again.

Ramblings over. I hope I don't annoy anyone lol.
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Actually, no, you didn't annoy me. Very well said, actually.


I got a pretty good GT1 memroy I'd like to share.

That song Cake does: "He's going the distance" or whatever. I remember that song became a hit right around the time I started playing GT. OR perhaps it already was a hit, but I never noticed it till I started virtual racing. Anyways it goes


He's going the distance...

He's going for speed...

She's all alone (ALL ALONE!)

In a time of need​
...

It's basically about a race driver who's driving around a track long after the race is over, while his girlfriend stands in the bleachers, completely annoyed. :lol: At least that's what it seems it's about. Who knows...a lot of these artists use double meanings...

Anyways, at the time, I was seeing this girl who HATED the fact that I was a gamer at 37 years old. :grumpy: If I was on the phone with her, and I was tuning a car or whatever, I'd turn the volume WAY DOWN, so she wouldn't hear the little beeps and bloop noises. Somehow, she'd often STILL hear these noises! :mad:

ARE YOU PLAYING YOUR GAME AGAIN????? :mad::mad::mad: she'd say, annoyed!

Then I'd make up some BS..."uh no, uh...that's a commercial!" But I was busted....:guilty:

Needless to say, we didn't last long as a couple. 💡 :indiff:
 
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I never heard of that song, but I looked it up on youtube just now. I have to say, the lyrics are quite funny :lol:.

As for your story, terribly sorry it didn't work out. This is the exact reason I'm holding out from having any relationships. I simply love cars and racing too much to give up my time for dating and all that stuff.

Another fond memory I have is way back during my primary school years. I have a mate who has problems with his eyes (he can see, but only just), and we always played GT together at least once every week. No other kid in my class were into racing games back then, so we're the 'outcasts', so to speak. Every time we race, it always consists of 3 mandatory races. First at HSR (a track he's best at), then at SSR11 (a track I'm best at), then finally Deep Forest (a track we both hate). Car will always be the 930 HP GTO Twin Turbo. We didn't care about serious driving techniques back then. We simply drove as fast as we could. Swapping paints here and there. Having a laugh. Getting frustrated over losses. Pretending to employ 'strategies' during a race. I will almost always win, but he's always close on my tail, which is amazing considering his disability. It's been a long time since I've met him though, I should try to get in touch again.

Awesome times.
 
LeGeNd-1
I never heard of that song, but I looked it up on youtube just now. I have to say, the lyrics are quite funny :lol:.
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I saw Cake at a free outdoor event about a month ago, and they DIDN'T play their race-car song. I was so pissed! :lol:
As for your story, terribly sorry it didn't work out. This is the exact reason I'm holding out from having any relationships. I simply love cars and racing too much to give up my time for dating and all that stuff.
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I'm GLAD it didn't work out. We weren't right for one another. I didn't initially see that of course. But it only lasted 4 or 5 months, so no harm.

O/T, but she had a habit of calling me just after she took some of her pills. She'd then fall asleep right on the phone, but she'd still be talking the entire time. :eek: But what she was saying would make absolutely no sense. It was so damn creepy.

My current gf is also a gamer, so that part of our relationship is relatively flawless.

Another fond memory I have is way back during my primary school years. I have a mate who has problems with his eyes (he can see, but only just), and we always played GT together at least once every week. No other kid in my class were into racing games back then, so we're the 'outcasts', so to speak. Every time we race, it always consists of 3 mandatory races. First at HSR (a track he's best at), then at SSR11 (a track I'm best at), then finally Deep Forest (a track we both hate). Car will always be the 930 HP GTO Twin Turbo. We didn't care about serious driving techniques back then. We simply drove as fast as we could. Swapping paints here and there. Having a laugh. Getting frustrated over losses. Pretending to employ 'strategies' during a race. I will almost always win, but he's always close on my tail, which is amazing considering his disability. It's been a long time since I've met him though, I should try to get in touch again.

Awesome times.
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Wow. Yea, you may have read this before, but I lived in a house a few years back and this guy moved in who was a closet GT freak. He saw me in my room and heard the noises:

"Is that Gran Tree?" he asked. He called it Gran Tree.

Anyways, those were fun times. He had been in some sort of accident when I met him, and couldn't work yet, so he'd borrow my game console, and then play FOR HOURS while I was at work. Despite this, he still wasn't as good as I was. :lol:
 
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One reason [size=+1]GT[/size] succeeded (I've probably mentioned this here before) is because it offered an achievable learning curve. To many people, it seemed very difficult at first, but one really could master it with practice. On the other hand, to veteran driving gamers who understood the physics, the racing seemed unbelievably easy. But they would enjoy watching the emulation done by the physics model; the feel almost of real driving.

So it had something to please almost everybody.
 
Interesting. I also think the idea of a replay after the race must have been mind-blowing, too. I'm not sure if such a thing had been done before 1997 for a console game or not, but that's initially one of the features that got me hooked.
 
I almost forgot about the replays. I don't think there is any other game with replays as life-like as GT1 back in the day. Not only in terms of graphics (which was the best back then), but also camera angles and stuff. When I'm watching a replay I used to think I'm watching a TV coverage of a real race!
 
Before i got my PlayStation i was playing pokemon red/blue and training my pikachu to the maximum Level. Lately after buying the console with the red lableled demo i started to play the demos. There were quite interesting games such as Spyro, medievil and tekken 3... Gran Turismo was nothing special ....just racing around circles.... Lately after the release of the full game i just saw it in a game-store for ca $80. Pretty expensive... i asked the store-owner if i may test it on the playstation in the shop.... As soon as i started play the simulation mode, i was hypnotized... i just bought any car and saw that you can tune it up (just like training pokemon to its max level) and after i saw the racing modification look, i was amazed!!! The owner asked me if everything is alright :D
i just asked him, how much did that game cost again.. 80$... alright i bought it and just started racing. I know i took the GTO SR car with 220hp (guess what why ;p) i had trouble at the first 10...20 races but then i handled it and have played it many hours! Since then, the game became my favourite racing-game :)
 
One thing I've just remembered.

Whenever I just felt like having a race, I'd go into Arcade mode and pick either Clubman or Special Stage R5, just because the night races were always the coolest.

I remember one race I'd probably picked an R33 GTR or something similar because it was that class of car I was racing against, and I'd streaked ahead at the start. I remember getting towards the hairpin and then looking at the map.

One of the dots wasn't moving at all and I really couldn't figure out what was going on.

Watching the replay I saw that one of the AI cars had gone wide in the left right sequence just before it departs down the hell away from the Clubman course. This caused it to crash and spin and all hell broke loose.

The Supra in the race had somehow managed to ride up on top of the car in front in the fracas and gone flying into the air, only to land right on the end of the wall that blocks off the other track. Of course with GT1's AI being primitive all it did for the rest of the race was edge up and down that wall.

I was amazed at the time watching the replay, and easily spent ten minutes watching it over and over again. The joys of being amazed at everything when you're eight years old eh?

One other thing, did anyone here ever have the OPSM UK issue 32?

It has a video montage showing off GT1 on it, and my abiding memory of that is a black Impreza Rally Edition flying through the air on what must be Trial Mountain reverse I think.

I'd love to see that video again.
 
matherto
Whenever I just felt like having a race, I'd go into Arcade mode and pick either Clubman or Special Stage R5, just because the night races were always the coolest.
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Night races were the coolest, in fact they still are in my opinion. When I started GT1 back in oh, about 1999 or 2000 (late I know, that was when I heard about it), I absolutely hated SSRR11, now it's my "Showdown" stage. :sly:

As for my memory, I remember buying my first car in the game, a Gun Metal Grey Nissan Skyline GTS or whatever the name was, it wasn't the GT-R. And I would just mow down the competition in Sunday Cup, and I'd just rack up so much money. Problem with me, I didn't spend it wisely, I didn't spend it on parts, I just spent it on cars. Finally I got enough to buy the Viper GTS, and I couldn't control it at all.

But that is history... I am wiser with my money in the game and I focus on actually advancing through the game.
 
Yup. I wouldn't say I initially mowed thru all my early races...I wasn't that good at first. Plus, I paid attention to my car's power to weight ratio (in comparison to other cars in GT) in an effort to try to make my car an equal to the Ai.

But I did get to a point where I was overkilling everything, early during GT2. Hence, that's why I created this page:

http://www.gtcarreviews.com/id22.html
 
Special Stage R11 still gives me cold sweats in its GT1 guise. I could never truly feel comfortable with that track - especially the centre chicane with those walls......

I play the game now and what astonishes me is how quickly and easily the cars flick out sideways. It makes GT5 Prologue feel like a doddle in comparison. For example, take a standard Honda NSX roadcar onto the Grand Valley circuit. At speed, braking for the first corner hairpin, that car is extremely diffiocult to keep straight. I kept wondering what was so great about the NSX. It wasn't until GT3 when they ironed it's handling bug out that I truly understood what a sublime handling (and sounding) car the NSX was/is.
 
ajrichar
Special Stage R11 still gives me cold sweats in its GT1 guise. I could never truly feel comfortable with that track - especially the centre chicane with those walls......

I play the game now and what astonishes me is how quickly and easily the cars flick out sideways. It makes GT5 Prologue feel like a doddle in comparison. For example, take a standard Honda NSX roadcar onto the Grand Valley circuit. At speed, braking for the first corner hairpin, that car is extremely diffiocult to keep straight. I kept wondering what was so great about the NSX. It wasn't until GT3 when they ironed it's handling bug out that I truly understood what a sublime handling (and sounding) car the NSX was/is.
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I have always said that if the NSX handled as badly in real-life as it does in GT1, Honda/Acura would have had a slew of NSX-based lawsuits to contend with. :lol:
 

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