25 years ago

[Duke]

ICYMI

[Big Kev]

Cool I'll watch that tonight.

Still, for me, one of the greatest games I've ever played. I didn't stick with it through the '65s and sports cars but the '67s really ticked all my boxes and I learnt and appreciated so much more about the drivers and the tracks of that era. Going negative for my GPLrank is still one of the best things ever

Starting off and struggling to do a 1.10 at the Glen and seeing 'aliens' doing 1.05's thinking jeez I'll never manage that and then 1-2 years and thousands of laps later I could do 1.05s until the cows came home.

Online racing leagues were a completely new thing for me. That sense of being totally in the zone on a track you excelled at was amazing. Chasing someone down seeing the gap dropping lap after lap, especially at tracks that you just fitted like a glove (for me Watkins Glen, Monza, Silvy and Kyalami). I won a few league races so I wasn't too shabby. And crazy as it was I had some great Saturday afternoons on VROC. I remember once I was in a cooper, skipped qually, started at the back for some fun (this is when I was about -20 or so for a rank and I was all over a relative noob in a ferrari and he probably thought I was cheating but it was such a fun race. I think we did the full 8-10 laps, whatever it was set for and he'd get away from me on the straight and I'd be all over him through lesmo, pass him either going in or coming out and then he'd get me back at parabolica and we did that for the whole race, utterly wonderful.

[Bauer]

I just logged in to gpl rank. Amazed I could even remember my username let alone password.

I only went negative in 2 cars and didn’t have any negative times in the Cooper. -6 in the eagle and -5 in the lotus. My next best was +7 in the Ferrari.

That was a fun trip to yesteryear.

[norbs]

Im going to move this to General so more people can appreciate it.

[markus]

Appreciated. Will watch tonight

[norbs]

GPL started ARSE. So we should all be thankful.

[Jamo]

A work of genius. For me alongside Deus Ex the only video games I'd thusly describe.

Still the only Sim that to me felt 'connected' the rubber and the road etc. I loved it so much. GPLEA releases were like Christmas to me.

[Bails MacKenzie]

Admittedly got into it far later than everyone else here, But still, loved it. Great immersion.
For all the cars in AC and RF1, I ran a ton more races in GPL.

[durbster]

I still remember going to buy it with my mate, then going back to his house and selecting the Ferrari and either Spa or Nurb. He revved the car and we both looked at each other and squeaked like little girls. It sounded awesome.

I remember playing the Watkins Glen demo to death with a joystick, trying desperately to do a single lap without spinning but loving every failure.

A lot of my Uni time was spent playing it. Racing against my mate over LAN and watching the best bits back in the replays.

That evolved into online gaming. We set up a league and the British members would meet up and go karting a few times a year. I went over to Holland for work a couple of times and met up with the two Dutch members of our GPL league for a beer. When I went to Australia it was Norbs who picked us up from the airport and took us in for a few days, and Woodsy who watched over us the whole time we were there. All people I only knew through sim-racing and GPL in particular.

There were also the GPL videos I used to love making, and the skills I learned doing those came in handy at various points through my career.

I can trace back so many good times to GPL, whether it was sat behind a cheap desk at Uni sawing away at a plastic wheel, or visiting the other side of the world.

Cheers to 25 years

[Brett_S]

Still got my CD - not that it's much use now, gotta be worth something someday right?

Had to get the nice people at GPLRank to change my email address - looking through some of the names brings back memories

[pixelboy]

That video is awesome..

[Coopz]

What a great video. I was a teenager when GPL came out, bought it the day but was released, played it played it played it more. Now I'm old lol.
Still remember the golden era of this sim, RSC, The US Pits, Vroc, Greger Huttu, Negative rankers, rail sluts at Monza, Big Chief man boobs videos, trying to do a sub 8m at the Ring, Arse race nights, downloading 200meg updates on my 56k pos modem.. Some of the weird and funny people that played this game, Van Gossum, Charlie, Greg Whyte, Flying Panda, Zook.. No other game had such a great community.

[Duke]

So... it is up & running again.