For all you Ferrari gaming nerds

i played this game at a florida arcarde few years ago and it really is amazing. problem for me is most tracks are from europe with only few usa tracks. there are some newer simulators that solve that problem and have all types of cars as opposed to 355c, but they are much more expensive. nice thing here is having choice of stick or paddles

 

An arcade near my home had this game. I dropped a few bucks in it over a 4 month period and won on every track. Great soud effects, graphics, a revlimiter that kicks in >8K RPM and twitchy pitch sensitive oversteer at the limit. Very cool game. It would be nice to see a version with a choice of 348/355/360 cars.

 

We used to play that game for hours in Camp Snoopy. If I could have all that money back I probably could win that auction. Great game!!

 

ive played this too, the car handles great and the stickshift and clutch is heeps of fun, pretty expensive though

 

Great game but way too expensive .

 

I am looking forward to Project Gothem Racing 3 for the XBox 360: high definition with 5.1 surround. Previews I have seen look great.

 

Is the Xbox 360 coming shipped with a HD disc/blue laser DVD drive? If not, don't count on HD. My current Xbox setup includes the use of a component cable on a HD TV...but it is only equivalent to DVD quality...good, but no HD cigar.

 

This sim was actually built in direct cooperation with Ferrari SpA and is very well done. The stripped down version for the home consoles lost a lot of the appeal of the arcade by not having three monitors and squeezing the peripheral into an unrealistic frontal wide angle view.

 

Will,

Go buy a used Sega Dreamcast. It has the same 355 Challenge game on CD. You can probably find it on ebay. I have one and bought the force feedback steering wheel with pedals specifically for this game. Put it on a big screen with sound and you are set.

Granted - it is not like the sit in version, but it is damn close. And you could probably be all in for about $150.

http://cgi.ebay.com/DREAMCAST-F355-Challenge-PAL-VGC-Complete_W0QQitemZ8222685504QQcategoryZ15112QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-V3-FX-RACING-STEERING-WHEEL-W-PEDALS-SEGA-DREAMCAST_W0QQitemZ8223892895QQcategoryZ41054QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Add a console and you are set.

I attach my steering wheel to a table in front of the TV and use my leather recliner and it works great.

my
Houston

 

XBOX 360 will be the first mass-market electronics unit with Blu-Ray technology, so it will be HD.

 

Damn close is an exaggeration. I played the arcade version and I had it on Dreamcast and on Playstation. The console versions are a far and sad cry from the arcade simulator with three monitors.

As I mentioned below the main problem is, that they squeezed the three monitors into one. That defied the whole purpose of this simulator: The design team went to great lengths to portray a realistic view forward through the windshield with the two other monitors covering your peripheral vision for cars and walls nearby. All of that gets lost on the console where they had to go back to an unrealistic wide angle view. Aside from that you loose the feeling of being surrounded, meaning of actually sitting in the cabin of the car.

Given all these setback and the fact that the game is fairly old by today's standards you're actually better off playing Forza with a force feedback wheel on the XBox or better yet one of the more sophisticated sims on the PC like GTR with a FF wheel.

PS: What would be really neat is a PC based simulator with support for multiple monitors. (I know you can do it with GPL, buti it is a major pain to hook it up).

 

OT : What is GPL? I'd be interested in setting that up.

Also the F355 challenge game was great - I spent way too many hours on it.. and the Dave and Busters I played at had 3 of the machines (i.e. 6 drivers) all connected.

 

Agreed with the monitor element, but the Dreamcast version is the same game as the arcade version -- exactly the same code. The arcade version is actually 3 dreamcast-based boards, 1 running each monitor. Don't forget, there was a single-monitor arcade version also (pic attached)

There was also a rarely-seen sequel in the arcades, but it wasn't ever shipped here. It had 5 additional tracks.

This place has the 1st version for sale for less than the auction.
http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/driving-riding_games/Ferrari_355_Challenge_(DX)_678.html
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That game is amazung i must have spent 20 dollars on that thing in the arcade. The sound on that game was very good as close as i will get to driving Ferrari for sometime to come

 

Grand Prix Legends
One of the best sims ever for the PC. Simulates the 1966 F1 championship. The game is very accurate in the car physics and open enough in its architecture so that people wrote all kinds of add-ons including a LOT of tracks for it. The latest version also included FF.

But before you set out for a three monitor sim I suggest you play the game on one PC and see how you do. It is VERY hard to master so you might get tired before you go further.

So you know what is involved in a three monitor sim: You need three networked PCs. You place the three monitors on your desk, in the middle you install your steering wheel. The center PC is the master and the peripheral PCs only show the race you're in "on TV monitor display" where you obviously select the left and right side cameras. To get it organized you need a few small additional pieces of software, but nothing big.

It does work, I set it all up at my desk. I used three monitors, so the whole thing was rather big and clunky. Also it took some time to get it all configured for one race session etc. Eventually I gave up and went back to single monitor. But it did leave me with an appetite for more. In an ideal world a game manufacturer would support it out of the box and you'd connect two additional flat panel screens to your graphics card. One PC and off you go!