EA Sports F1 Series

The EA Sports F1 Series is five racing simulation games based on Formula One motorsport. The games were released yearly between 1999 and 2003, developed by Image Space Incorporated, with EA Sports presumably handling distribution and the gaining of licenses for the Formula One brand and its teams.

Gameplay

Being a simulation, the game at its most difficult settings produced difficult and demanding gameplay, although gameplay could be made easier by selecting various aids, of varying realism. For instance, Traction Control and AutoClutch (automatic clutch) are currently (as of 2005) a part of Formula One. At the other end of the spectrum, Spin Recovery will automatically point the vehicle in the correct direction after a spin, which is highly technological (and contrived for the computer platform), and has never been part of Formula One.

F1 Challenge '99-'02

After losing the official F1 licence from Formula One Administration Ltd. to a multi-year exclusive licencing contract between FOA and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (publishers of the competing Formula One series on PlayStation/PlayStation 2), ISI developed their final release scheduled to hit stores in 2003. Showcasing four full seasons of Formula 1 from 1999 to 2002, many people thought it would be a type of compilation of all the games previously made by ISI but in fact the title turned into a cult following platform for both modders and Sim racers.

Before this release ISI often tended to make mistakes at the time of modeling the tracks, cars and sounds. ISI listened to the fans and fixed almost every single aspect from previous versions, most noticeable was the sound which proved to be the most realistic to date, it was later improved in 2004 in a modding release; Also the cars models were changed and made from scratch for this release, previously they tended to look kind of small; Track versions were created specifically for each season resembling the real ones.

The use of simple text files for track, drivers and cars physics parameters lead to gradually make F1C, as it is Known, into a powerful 3D racing platform which saw from year 2003 onwards the release of Mods from independent developers who posted their work for free in their web sites tuning not only cars physics but circuit physics and of course release every time track dependent liveries and 3D models for the cars, specially CTDP and RH groups have became known for their quality, this last one perhaps with an extra edge over the others.

Although modding is considered as an illegal practice by some observers the reality is that modders always encourage people to buy the game and not owning pirate copies even having taking in consideration they often tend to post a non-CD crack for the game.

F1 challenge three years after its release is still the most fierce competence of PS2 Formula One series in terms of sales and specially people's likes even with GP4 in the minds of many people.

Modifications and Hacks

EA Sports F1 Series was based around various known standards, such as text files for storing player data and an industry known format for circuit geometry. Many extra circuits were created for the series, especially F1 Challenge '99-'02 (often shortened to F1 Challenge or even F1C). A complete touring car championship, ETCC, based on the European Touring Car Championship was released for free, as well as one Gran Turismo game released commercially. There were also mods in the "RH"(Ralph Hummerich) series for the following seasons, RH2003, RH2004 and RH2005. All three were released for F1 Challenge. Another mod group which also have done f1 seasons for F1 Challenge "99-02" is CTDP group(Cars and tracks development project.)

F1 Challenge has remained highly popular amongst Sim enthusiasts up until the release of the de facto successor rFactor, a game self-published by ISI. As of September 2005, it remains to be seen whether F1 Challenge follows a natural decline or endures.

Titles

EA Sports F1 1999, released late 1999 on PC
EA Sports F1 2000, released late 2000 on PC and PS. Released as EA Sports F1 Championship Season 2000 on PS2 and Macintosh
EA Sports F1 2001, released late 2001 on PC, PS2 and Xbox
EA Sports F1 2002, released late 2002 on PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube and GBA
F1 Challenge '99-'02, released late 2003 on PC. Released as F1 Career Challenge on PS2, Xbox and GameCube

External links

Communities

SimRacingPortugal - Portuguese F1 Challenge Community
http://www.racesimulations.com/ RaceSimulations] -Simracing community which includes a F1 Challenge thread