Indianapolis 500: The Simulation
Encyclopedia
Indianapolis 500: The Simulation is a 1989
computer game. It was hailed as the first step of differentiating racing games from the arcade realm and into true simulations. It was developed by the Papyrus Design Group
, consisting of David Kaemmer and Omar Khudari, and distributed by Electronic Arts
. It first released for DOS
and later for the Amiga
in 1990
.
Indianapolis 500: The Simulation attempts to be a full simulation of the Indianapolis 500
race, with 33 cars and appropriate Indy car "feel". While racing, it only offers a first-person perspective, but the game offers a replay
mode as well. Indy 500 offers the ability to realistically set up the car, and any changes made to the car directly affect how it handles.
The field is represented as realistic and the qualifying order stays true to the 1989 Indianapolis 500
starting grid, with one exception: the player's car, numbered 17, replaces Car #29 of Rich Vogler
, who qualified in 33rd and last place.
The game offers four race settings:
There are also practice and qualifying settings. Practice enables car setups to be altered and tested in real time. Choosing not to participate in the qualifying session results in one starting at the back of the field. The qualifying session requires four laps to be completed, with the mean value of the four lap times determining the qualifying position. No car damage can occur during a Practice session, although other cars may be present on the track and their wreckage remains on the track if the player's car collides with them at any point. Car damage can occur during qualifying sessions.
The cars one can drive are a yellow Penske-Chevrolet, a red Lola-Buick, or a blue March-Cosworth, with the Penske having the fastest default
setup (but if one sets the car up well, any of the above racecars can compete effectively). Various settings can be changed during Practice from menus associated with Function keys F3-F10. One's own car is always numbered 17.
Indy 500's theme music was produced by Rob Hubbard
, who at the time was new to Electronic Arts as a music director.
can be altered except while stopped in the pits, and some settings are unchangeable even then.
The settings are assigned to Function keys F3-F10, and changes are made using the Space Bar and "<" and ">" keys:
Real-time data for the Inner, Middle and Outer temperatures of each tire can be seen on F7 and F9.
The Turboboost setting can be changed at any time, using number keys 1-9. This determines the ratio of fuel to air that is sent to the engine, with 9 being the most fuel and 1 being the least. Increasing this setting increases speed, but lowers fuel efficiency, and in some cases can overheat the engine.
The anti-roll bars are found in the lower left area of the control panel and are controlled by the "+" (plus) and "-" (minus) keys. They work much in the same way as the shocks do. Unlike the shocks, however, they can be changed at any time during a race, and changing them does not affect other settings.
. In a 10-lap race, a crash causes a yellow flag to flash briefly in the top left of the screen, but all cars continue racing at full speed as if still under "green-flag" conditions. In all other race distances, yellow flags flash, cars slow down and are forbidden from passing until the incident is cleared. A crashed car typically stays on the circuit for 2-3 laps before being cleared, after which green flags flash as the leader exits turn 4, signalling that cars may continue racing. No yellow flags are shown if ones own car crashes, unless other cars hit the wreckage. During a yellow flag period, speeds are restricted to approximately 90mph (against a typical race pace of up to 230mph).
Ones own car cannot be damaged by crashes in 10-lap or 30-lap races. In the longer races, excessively hard contact with a wall, fence or another car can cause wheel and/or engine damage. It is still possible to recover to the pits after damaging one front wheel, though the car is more difficult to control. Destruction of any two tires makes recovery extremely difficult, and in most cases impossible. A very large impact, especially to the rear of the car, may cause engine damage, from which there is no recovery. After being involved in a crash, computer-controlled cars are shown as "Crashed" in the Standings screen.
Retirements may also occur due to mechanical problems. If a car suffers mechanical problems, it will pull into the pits and remain there for the rest of the race. The problem that caused the car to retire are shown on the standings screen. Possible causes of retirement are: Bearing, Clutch, CV Joint, Engine, Gearbox, Ignition, Stalled, Valve, Vibration, Radiator and Oil Leak. Again, this only applies to computer-controlled cars; the player-controlled car does not suffer from random failures.
There is the ability to blow the engine if it goes too high in revs.
and EGA
graphics settings, and sound also could be transmitted through Adlib
or the PC speaker
. The game is copy-protected
using a simple manual-based question-and-answer method common with many other games of the period.
version of Indy 500 was released in late 1990. It ran from a single floppy disk, and was copy-protected
using a simple manual-based question-and-answer method common with many other games of the period.
The game was identical to the MS-DOS version except in minor details. For example, an error in programming resulted in there being two cars numbered 20; in the MS-DOS version, one of these was numbered 12, correctly reflecting the 1989 Indianapolis 500 grid. Certain minor bugs were removed: in the MS-DOS version, for example, making slight contact with a retired car in the pit-lane resulted in it moving sideways at a slow pace, through other cars, walls and other solid objects, and eventually "wrapping round" and appearing again from the opposite side. However, occasional errors, such as fast cars "passing through" much slower cars without harm, and one's own car briefly locking on to others if slight contact was made, remained.
One instant replay could be saved to disk, as could up to three car settings. However, partly completed races could not be saved. Car control was via mouse, joystick or keyboard; mouse gave a particularly smooth, natural driving feel, and mouse sensitivity could be customised from the main menu.
Replays were only available to those lucky enough to have the optional 512KB ram upgrade installed (normally, Commodore's own "A501").
1989 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* October 3, Brøderbund releases the Prince of Persia game, the first in a series of games, noted for its advancements in animation....
computer game. It was hailed as the first step of differentiating racing games from the arcade realm and into true simulations. It was developed by the Papyrus Design Group
Papyrus Design Group
Papyrus Design Group, Inc. was a computer game developer founded in 1987 by David Kaemmer and CEO Omar Khudari. Based in Watertown, MA, it is best known for its series of realistic sim racing games based on the NASCAR and IndyCar leagues, as well as the unique Grand Prix Legends. Papyrus was...
, consisting of David Kaemmer and Omar Khudari, and distributed by Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
. It first released for DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
and later for the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
in 1990
1990 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*Bonk's Adventure is released for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and is the first US appearance of Bonk, the mascot of the TurboGrafx-16.*February 12 — Nintendo releases the NES game Super Mario Bros. 3 in North America...
.
Indianapolis 500: The Simulation attempts to be a full simulation of the Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
race, with 33 cars and appropriate Indy car "feel". While racing, it only offers a first-person perspective, but the game offers a replay
Replay
Replay may refer to:*Replay , a replayed match in between two sport teams to decide in case of tie or conflict resulting from scoring, officiating, fouling or other factors...
mode as well. Indy 500 offers the ability to realistically set up the car, and any changes made to the car directly affect how it handles.
The field is represented as realistic and the qualifying order stays true to the 1989 Indianapolis 500
1989 Indianapolis 500
The 73rd Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 28, 1989. Emerson Fittipaldi became the first foreign winner of the race since 1966. Though Fittipaldi dominated most of the race, he dropped to second in the waning laps. On the 199th lap, Al Unser, Jr. was...
starting grid, with one exception: the player's car, numbered 17, replaces Car #29 of Rich Vogler
Rich Vogler
Rich Vogler was a champion sprint car and midget car driver. He was nicknamed "Rapid Rich". He competed in the Indianapolis 500 five times, his best finish was eighth in 1989.-Racing career:...
, who qualified in 33rd and last place.
Overview
- 10-lap race (no damage, no yellow flagsRacing flagsRacing flags are traditionally used in auto racing and similar motorsports to indicate track condition and to communicate important messages to drivers. Typically, the starter, sometimes the grand marshal of a race, waves the flags atop a flag stand near the start/finish line...
) - 30-lap race (no damage)
- 60-lap race
- 200-lap race
There are also practice and qualifying settings. Practice enables car setups to be altered and tested in real time. Choosing not to participate in the qualifying session results in one starting at the back of the field. The qualifying session requires four laps to be completed, with the mean value of the four lap times determining the qualifying position. No car damage can occur during a Practice session, although other cars may be present on the track and their wreckage remains on the track if the player's car collides with them at any point. Car damage can occur during qualifying sessions.
The cars one can drive are a yellow Penske-Chevrolet, a red Lola-Buick, or a blue March-Cosworth, with the Penske having the fastest default
Default (computer science)
A default, in computer science, refers to a setting or value automatically assigned to a software application, computer program or device, outside of user intervention. Such settings are also called presets, especially for electronic devices...
setup (but if one sets the car up well, any of the above racecars can compete effectively). Various settings can be changed during Practice from menus associated with Function keys F3-F10. One's own car is always numbered 17.
Indy 500's theme music was produced by Rob Hubbard
Rob Hubbard
Rob Hubbard is a music composer best known for his composition of computer game theme music, especially for microcomputers of the 1980s such as the Commodore 64...
, who at the time was new to Electronic Arts as a music director.
Car Setup
A wide and realistic variety of car settings can be altered during Practice in order to change car performance. In Practice mode, changes take immediate effect, making comparisons between even the slightest changes straightforward, and any number of "testing" laps can be driven (all of which are timed, again helping comparisons to be made). During Qualifying and Race sessions, however, no settings except Turboboost and the anti-roll barsSway bar
A sway bar or anti-roll bar or stabilizer bar is a part of an automobile suspension that helps reduce the roll of a vehicle that is induced by cornering or road irregularities. It connects opposite wheels together through short lever arms linked by a torsion spring...
can be altered except while stopped in the pits, and some settings are unchangeable even then.
The settings are assigned to Function keys F3-F10, and changes are made using the Space Bar and "<" and ">" keys:
- F3 - FUEL
- Between 5 and 40 gallons can be selected, in increments of 5. At 5 gallons, a yellow fuel light flashes on the instrument panel. An approximate miles-per-gallon ratio is constantly updated.
- F4 - WINGS
- Front and rear wing height can be adjusted on a sliding scale.
- F5 - RUBBER
- Soft, Medium or Hard tires can be selected for each wheel. The real-time tire temperature is shown alongside this.
- F6 - STAGGER
- A measurement of the bias on the left- or right-hand side. Adjustable on a 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) scale from -1 inch (left-hand side lower) to +1 inch.
- F7 - PRESSURES
- Adjustable for each tire, from 16 PSI to 33 PSI.
- F8 - SHOCKS
- Shock absorbency on each wheel, adjustable on a sliding scale from "Soft" to "Firm".
- F9 - CAMBERSCamber anglethumb|100px|From the front of the car, a right wheel with a negative camber angleCamber angle is the angle made by the wheels of a vehicle; specifically, it is the angle between the vertical axis of the wheels used for steering and the vertical axis of the vehicle when viewed from the front or...
- Vertical alignment for each wheel. Adjustable on a 0.25 degree scale from -3 degrees to +3 degrees.
- F10 - GEARS
- Gear ratios for 1st to 4th gears, calibrated in tenths on the basis of 4th gear (adjustable from 2.80 to 4.90).
Real-time data for the Inner, Middle and Outer temperatures of each tire can be seen on F7 and F9.
The Turboboost setting can be changed at any time, using number keys 1-9. This determines the ratio of fuel to air that is sent to the engine, with 9 being the most fuel and 1 being the least. Increasing this setting increases speed, but lowers fuel efficiency, and in some cases can overheat the engine.
The anti-roll bars are found in the lower left area of the control panel and are controlled by the "+" (plus) and "-" (minus) keys. They work much in the same way as the shocks do. Unlike the shocks, however, they can be changed at any time during a race, and changing them does not affect other settings.
Replay mode
The replay mode offers the chance to review the previous 20 seconds of racing. The six camera angles available are:- In-car (very similar to while driving)
- Behind (camera positioned behind one's car, following it from a fixed POV)
- Track (camera positioned at intervals on the outside walls)
- TV (simulated television cameras)
- Sky ("helicopter" view)
- Leader/Crash (TV-style camera focuses on either the leader of the race, or, if a crash occurs, the car that crashed)
Crashes and Retirements
The 32 computer-controlled cars can crash at any point in the race, or retire with mechanical problems during pit-stopsPit stop
In motorsports, a pit stop is where a racing vehicle stops in the pits during a race for refuelling, new tires, repairs, mechanical adjustments, a driver change, or any combination of the above...
. In a 10-lap race, a crash causes a yellow flag to flash briefly in the top left of the screen, but all cars continue racing at full speed as if still under "green-flag" conditions. In all other race distances, yellow flags flash, cars slow down and are forbidden from passing until the incident is cleared. A crashed car typically stays on the circuit for 2-3 laps before being cleared, after which green flags flash as the leader exits turn 4, signalling that cars may continue racing. No yellow flags are shown if ones own car crashes, unless other cars hit the wreckage. During a yellow flag period, speeds are restricted to approximately 90mph (against a typical race pace of up to 230mph).
Ones own car cannot be damaged by crashes in 10-lap or 30-lap races. In the longer races, excessively hard contact with a wall, fence or another car can cause wheel and/or engine damage. It is still possible to recover to the pits after damaging one front wheel, though the car is more difficult to control. Destruction of any two tires makes recovery extremely difficult, and in most cases impossible. A very large impact, especially to the rear of the car, may cause engine damage, from which there is no recovery. After being involved in a crash, computer-controlled cars are shown as "Crashed" in the Standings screen.
Retirements may also occur due to mechanical problems. If a car suffers mechanical problems, it will pull into the pits and remain there for the rest of the race. The problem that caused the car to retire are shown on the standings screen. Possible causes of retirement are: Bearing, Clutch, CV Joint, Engine, Gearbox, Ignition, Stalled, Valve, Vibration, Radiator and Oil Leak. Again, this only applies to computer-controlled cars; the player-controlled car does not suffer from random failures.
There is the ability to blow the engine if it goes too high in revs.
PC version settings
At its maximum settings, offered 16-color 320 x 240 resolution VGA graphics and MT-32 sound. It also could run in CGAColor Graphics Adapter
The Color Graphics Adapter , originally also called the Color/Graphics Adapter or IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter, introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card, and the first color computer display standard for the IBM PC....
and EGA
Enhanced Graphics Adapter
The Enhanced Graphics Adapter is the IBM PC computer display standard specification which is between CGA and VGA in terms of color and space resolution. Introduced in October 1984 by IBM shortly after its new PC/AT, EGA produces a display of 16 simultaneous colors from a palette of 64 at a...
graphics settings, and sound also could be transmitted through Adlib
AdLib
Ad Lib, Inc. was a manufacturer of sound cards and other computer equipment founded by Martin Prevel, a former professor of music and vice-dean of the music department at the Université Laval...
or the PC speaker
PC speaker
A PC speaker is a loudspeaker, built into some IBM PC compatible computers. The first IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, employed a standard 2.25 inch magnetic driven speaker. More recent computers use a piezoelectric speaker instead. The speaker allows software and firmware to provide...
. The game is copy-protected
Copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy obstruction, copy prevention and copy restriction, refer to techniques used for preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyright reasons.- Terminology :Media corporations have always used the term...
using a simple manual-based question-and-answer method common with many other games of the period.
Commodore Amiga Version
An AmigaAmiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
version of Indy 500 was released in late 1990. It ran from a single floppy disk, and was copy-protected
Copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy obstruction, copy prevention and copy restriction, refer to techniques used for preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyright reasons.- Terminology :Media corporations have always used the term...
using a simple manual-based question-and-answer method common with many other games of the period.
The game was identical to the MS-DOS version except in minor details. For example, an error in programming resulted in there being two cars numbered 20; in the MS-DOS version, one of these was numbered 12, correctly reflecting the 1989 Indianapolis 500 grid. Certain minor bugs were removed: in the MS-DOS version, for example, making slight contact with a retired car in the pit-lane resulted in it moving sideways at a slow pace, through other cars, walls and other solid objects, and eventually "wrapping round" and appearing again from the opposite side. However, occasional errors, such as fast cars "passing through" much slower cars without harm, and one's own car briefly locking on to others if slight contact was made, remained.
One instant replay could be saved to disk, as could up to three car settings. However, partly completed races could not be saved. Car control was via mouse, joystick or keyboard; mouse gave a particularly smooth, natural driving feel, and mouse sensitivity could be customised from the main menu.
Replays were only available to those lucky enough to have the optional 512KB ram upgrade installed (normally, Commodore's own "A501").
External links
- Download Indianapolis 500 - The Simulation at AbandoniaAbandoniaAbandonia is an abandonware website, focusing mainly on showcasing computer games and distributing games made for the MS-DOS system.Abandonia also features a music section and an Abandonware List, a continuously expanded database of over 4600 games including information about their publishers,...