After 1986, eight years of near-misses and miracles followed the loss of Elio, until that tragic weekend at Imola in 1994.

I was young, I had been watching F1 my entire life, but I’d never seen anybody die infront of me. The sport had become over-confident and perhaps ignorant to the dangers. In fact (much like NASCAR today, where many are currently complaining there hasn’t been enough crashes), a good crash where the driver walks away became a part of the show, and even if they didn’t walk away you were usually still amazed and pleased to see that they survived.

My family were a Nigel Mansell family, he was our guy. Senna? He was the other guy. When Mansell departed the sport, it jolted us and I became what I am today: A fan of the sport, not a single driver. I began to recognize that these men are players, with their main loyalties to themselves and are basically driven by the need to complete, and to win. I entered the 1993 season with a real change in perspective and a broader outlook on racing (and sport) in general, because for the first time, I was also watching IndyCar. It wasn’t about Mansell versus Senna anymore, it was about racing.

Only during the 1993 season did I really first appreciate Senna, because I honestly believe that the 1993 season featured some of the best driving I ever saw, from the best driver I ever saw. It often felt like he was dragging that McLaren around the race track, and I began to pull for him to win because I don’t like to watch F1 being dominated. The Williams should have won every race, it had a huge advantage that the team failed to take. Seeing Senna win that year? It felt magical.

The 1993 season is also the year I started to pull for a young Rubens Barrichello. After his drive in the wet at Donington I began to pay really close attention to him because while Senna had moved from 5th to 1st in the first lap, Rubens had moved from 12th to 4th. His ability in slick or drying conditions really reminded me of Senna, and had the Jordan been a more reliable car, 1993 could have been the break-out year that 1994 became.

What a beginning to the year it was in 1994 for me. I expected the Williams and Senna to dominate, so I loved the fact that Schumacher (someone I thought Senna would destroy during the rest of the season) failed to finish in the first couple of races. I also loved that by the time the F1 circus moved to Imola, the young Rubens Barrichello sat second in points behind Schumacher due to 4th and 3rd place finishes in the opening rounds. As Senna said himself, his season was to start in Imola, and I couldn’t have been more excited as that weekend approached.

Friday

I still carry the image of Rubens helmet hitting the steering wheel in my head, it’s been there since 29th April, 1994. A massive hit and one that shook me, but was still possible to pass off as one of those big crashes that was a part of F1. The driver survived, after all, isn’t it amazing how safe these cars are?

That night, I fired up my copy of Formula One Grand Prix on Amiga (edited to have the 1994 season, of course), and ran a full-length race at Imola. I raced as Damon Hill and I finished 5th due to a lot of errors on my part. As usual, this helped me to learn the track for when I watched it on TV.

Such a normal Friday night that it still feels strange to look back on it as that… I remember drying the dishes and putting them away, just the most ordinary day.

Saturday

On this day in 1994, I saw a racing driver pass away on TV for the first time. Sadly it wasn’t the last time.

The commentators (John Watson mainly) were busy talking about how safe the cars were, how lucky Rubens was and then suddenly, they were interrupted, by the Simtek of Roland Ratzenberger sliding to a stop. What followed were some images that I really couldn’t stop watching. It was the first time I had seen anything like that and frankly I was waiting for him to spring back to life, but it never happened.

I first heard that he had actually died when Murray Walker announced it. I can’t remember whether it was on the news that night or the qualifying highlights, but that night I didn’t really know how to handle it.

My parents had no idea how this was really affecting me, but that was a hard night. I had actually been going through my Autosport magazine, preparing my computer for my next simulated race, and had left the magazine open on the final team page. That page, of course, featured the Simtek team and Roland Ratzenberger. I had to close that magazine, I couldn’t look at it, and every time I walked in or out of my room I was looking at the cover like it was the floorboards in The Tell-Tale Heart. I felt a certain degree of guilt that he had died.

RIP Roland.

Sunday

I didn’t watch the pre-race. I didn’t get to see Senna looking so unbelievably sad, but I do remember hearing the initial sadness in Murray Walker’s voice, which soon dissipated as he settled into the event to do his job. I saw the 5-minute warning, the 1-minute warning, the parade lap, and I saw the green light.

Then I saw Lamy and Lehto smash together, I saw them instantly out of their cars and knew they were fine. When Jonathan Palmer told us how a tire had gone into the crowd it was downplayed (and talked over) by Murray Walker, and it seemed a long time before we knew how serious it had been, with nine injured spectators.

The safety car period seemed to last forever. It really did. I don’t think it helped having a particularly slow road car pacing the field.

Then the race restarted, and Senna crashed, I again expected him to get out. When Jonathan Palmer said that he saw Senna’s head move I genuinely thought he would be OK, then I saw that his blue and white racing suit was red, is that blood? Is that blood? I realized that the way his head was twitching could be him dying.

The medical team arrived after what seemed like a really long time. They rushed around, opened packages, removed his helmet and then lifted what looked to be a dead-weight body out of the car. I started to get that same feeling of guilt, mixed with a big knot in my stomach. Am I watching this again?

I didn’t think he was going to survive at this point. They continued to work on him for what seemed like hours, so I hoped, but as time went on it became less and less likely in my mind. Then they kept lifting and moving him, by the time they began to lift him to put him in the Helicopter, you could see pools of blood everywhere he had been laid. It was grizzly. But as soon as the helicopter took off, they felt it was the right time to start showing replays of the crash.

As always in the history of Formula One, the race went on, but not without more problems, as a loose wheel on a later pit stop flew through the team personnel in the pits, with more injuries.

We all suspected, knew, that he had died. The evening news finally confirmed it.

RIP Ayrton.

Monaco

With my thoughts formed by Murray Walker, that this is and always will be a dangerous sport – and that this may have just been a series of tragic events – I watched the next race. Karl Wendlinger crashed in practice, putting him in a coma for three weeks.

Spain

It started to seem like F1 was cursed. The replacement for Roland Ratzenberger crashed heavily and broke his foot.

- – -

It took a while for me to accept the sport again. It was helped, of course, by a close title battle as things finished in 1994, but really this doesn’t just seem like a series of unfortunate events. I’m glad the drivers did something about it, but many (including me) think that the last real F1 car died with Senna. I didn’t believe we would ever see a truly legendary car ever again, and I don’t believe we have. It is for this reason that I really enjoy the historic cars in F1, death traps though they were. I enjoy the innovation and the evolution that pushed the sport forward.

I don’t feel guilty anymore when I see a crash, but I do get that feeling in my stomach, and I did fall out of love with Formula One when Michael Schumacher began to dominate with Ferrari. 1994 feels so long ago, but I do really enjoy thinking about the history of the sport, and Imola was a part of that.

The cars looked very unstable that weekend. They were all running extremely low downforce and Schumacher, with his little V8 engine, was having to push hard. He wrote in his book that he knew he couldn’t beat Senna around that track, so he was going to try to push him into a mistake, and when Senna crashed, Schumacher felt guilty. I can’t imagine how he coped with that, but I think we got an insight during this post-race interview, from the 2000 race at Monza:

I often see people saying that it’s wrong or that it’s a shame Senna’s death is mentioned and Roland’s is forgotten. It isn’t forgotten. Roland was new to the sport, had touched less people. His death or his life is no less important. People just react, in death, to the way that person touched them. People die every day and I don’t mention them, but I remember Roland and Senna, every year and only because of how they affected my life. People aren’t being unfair, they’re being true.

I feel like there is so much more to say in this post, but I’m not going to continue. In the end, the first half of the 1994 season and all it’s tragedy morphed together for me. Imola, Monaco and Spain were just one very long weekend that I’m never going to be able to forget.

One of the most unbelievable things was how McLaren just threw the race away. With a series of bad decisions and mistakes, they literally handed Alonso and Ferrari a victory that the team did not really deserve based on performance. However, not to take anything away from Alonso – HE deserved it.

The rest of the field held pretty much to their form from Australia, with Sauber clearly top of the pack. But it wasn’t just Sauber that caught me eye…

Kimi Raikkonen
The Ice Man once again brought the Lotus home in the points. I am impressed that he has so easily slipped back into the F1 cockpit.

Bruno Senna
Alongside Perez, Senna was driver of the day for me. He restarted after the red flag from last position and finished the race in sixth-place. Difficult not to bring up his Uncle, of course, because I think this was a stellar drive for the young driver.

Sergio Perez
What can I say? What – a – drive. When I watch the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix I watch a young Ayrton Senna, and I kept catching myself thinking about Perez in the same light this past weekend. He may have had team orders, or he may have just screwed up, but he put himself in contention and really that is all a team can ever ask of their driver (and hey, Ferrari got a win out of that very same situation). For him to finish in second-place, right on the heels of Ferrari, is amazing. And well-done to Peter Sauber for rescuing his team when BMW decided to withdraw from the sport.

Fernando Alonso
As I said above, the most a team can really ask of a driver is for them to get themselves in contention, to get themselves in a position to win if the opportunity is there. While McLaren threw the race away, Alonso and Ferrari were there to pick up the pieces. The Ferrari is absolutely, positively, NOT a race winning car – but it still won.

- -

Apart from the good guys (above), there really were a fair amount of bad guys. The biggest being Vettel, who chopped the nose off a HRT backmarker and then blamed the HRT for it. Maybe Vettel needs more practice in traffic, leading all those races from lights to flag has spoiled him…

Marussia impressed me again, as the only team without KERS they do seem to have pretty good pace and were solidly ahead of HRT in qualifying. They really aren’t that far behind Caterham at the moment and I’m thinking that their first in-house design is a very good one. I hope to continue to see them moving forward…

It was nice to see HRT make the 107% rule in qualifying, although they are clearly still struggling for speed. Also good to see both HRT (and Marussia) finish the race. I like a good underdog, can you tell?

I’ve been friends with Jim on facebook for quite some time, and I knew that he is now an artist. He regularly posts images from comics he draws. Recently I contacted him to see if he would be interested in making a header image and to my delight, he agreed.

He charged me, of course (time is money), but not as much as I would have expected considering it’s a talent I will never have. He asked for 50% before and he took away my specifications and came back this past Friday with a pencil drawing.

Pencil version of my 'Eagle Mk1 at Monaco' header image.

I had provided him with a reference photo of Dan Gurney at Monaco (which it turns out is probably Richie Ginther) in the Eagle Mk1 and told him that I wanted my site name (timwheatley.org) somewhere on a banner in the background. So after giving him my approval on Friday, he went away again to add color…

Barely three days later he came back with a full-color version seeking my approval, he got it and was sent the other 50% of his fee, and you can now see it at the top of this page.

It’s pretty cool to not only have been able to reconnect with him over 10 years after I met him online, through a racing simulation, but to be able to use the talents he has, it’s great.

If you want to make use of those talents, or just check out some of his work, visit jimmibo.co.uk.

Ferrari
Having watched all the practice sessions (two of which were wet) I have to say that the worst looking cars in terms of handling were the Ferrari, and HRT. For Ferrari to be in that kind of company is simply shocking, it really looks like the car is incredibly difficult to drive, and that perhaps makes the performance of both Alonso and Massa in Qualifying and the Race both understandable, and impressive.

Sauber
The combination of what looks to be a fine chassis, a Ferrari engine, and two fearlessly competitive drivers really does make me quite excited about what they may be able to accomplish this year. I am sure that the way Kobayashi drives gains him fans every single race.

Lotus
This car looks very competitive, and in Grosjean I believe Lotus have signed the next big star. To be this competitive, this early in his career in terms of speed is absolutely fantastic, and I really hope he is able to get some race finishes together and establish himself. His smile in the post-Qualifying press conference was really good to see. Raikkonen, it seems, took a little while to ‘warm up’ to racing again. After looking quite overwhelmed for part of the race, he did race more competitively later on.

Williams
I am delighted to say that I think Williams have started 2012 with a very good car. However, I am fearful that they do not have a driver capable of helping to develop it during the season. In qualifying Maldonado set the third fastest time in the 1st sector (McLaren were 1-2), and he raced very well, but was solidly beaten by the ailing Ferrari of Alonso. I simply think that Alonso has a higher level of awareness and was able to read Maldonado’s actions before they happened. I hope, very much, that Williams can make the best of this car…

Mercedes
Slightly disappointed in how things finished for Mercedes. As much as their car looks competitive, I still have to class them as an unknown quantity…

Marussia
Considering their first dry running of any real nature with their 2012 car came in the third Practice session for the Australian Grand Prix, I think Marussia have done amazingly well. They made the 107% in Qualifying, they were obedient of blue flags, and they equaled their best ever finish of 14th-place, bringing home both cars in the top-15. It is also worth noting that this really is their first in-house car, and that one of their drivers is a complete rookie, but nevertheless performed well (losing more laps than he probably needed to by being generous to lapping cars). Their performance is especially impressive if you sit it alongside HRT…

- -

One thing that really seemed to happen a lot throughout the weekend was criticism of both HRT and Marussia. While I feel that both teams put themselves into bad situations by failing the final crash test and missing out on any testing time, I do think that one team shone in a difficult situation (see above), while another team fell to it’s knees.

There have been calls to remove these teams, to have Bernie (Ecclestone) act and remove them, but I personally feel this goes against everything the sport of motor racing was built on. The ONLY reason a team should not be allowed to turn up and try to race is if they are unable to do it for themselves, by failing to meet the safety or financial requirements. Shouldn’t Marussia be allowed to continue what seems to be genuine improvement?

While HRT may have seemed to some to be an embarrassment to Formula One, I am very sure that they were more embarrassed of themselves. If they continue to perform at this level, they will seldom make a race, lose sponsorship, lose funding, and die all by themselves without any intervention. Their performance should dictate their fate, Bernie – or the sport itself – should have nothing to do with it.

A two person development team? Yes, that's right.

Geoff Crammond hasn’t been seen since 2002 when he released Grand Prix 4. Before his disappearance his impact on the gaming industry, and more importantly the genre of racing games, is legendary. Whether it was REVS, Formula One Grand Prix or Stunt Car Racer, many people had their first experience of racing on their home computer using one of his titles.

My first experience with virtual racing which I clearly remember came at “youth club”. They had an Amiga 500 and they had Crammond’s Stunt Car Racer for it. Most people were interested in doing other things, so I got my turn relatively quickly and found a challenging and fun experience. This led me to asking for an Amiga for Christmas and essentially led my life to where I am today (working for a software developer making racing simulations).

Stunt Car Racer / Stunt Track Racer box front / back.

Set in 2006 (17 years in the future when the title was released), the idea of course, is crazy. You drive on elevated circuits, inches from death. You have to perfectly time jumps and carry the correct speed to stay on-track, all the time fighting an opponent for the victory.

Winning screen

Box and manual
As you can see in the video below, the Amiga version of Stunt Car Racer came with all the usual things you expected from a game in that period. The manual was an interesting read and really did show just how much Crammond loves racing. Although the type of racing being simulated is entirely fictional, they took the time to write an interesting piece on the history of racing.

Features and content
The title came with one car capable of nitro boost and eight tracks of varying difficulty. The tracks were split two in each division. You raced 11 opponents (four in each division, one per race) and scored points. If you beat your opponents by the end of the season you could move up a division and the difficulty increased with it.

How the opponents start out in their divisions.

The races themselves were quite an experience. You were lifted by chains and dropped onto the starting grid beside your opponent, then were able to race. Any time that you crashed, those chains would lift you back onto the track, unless you had sustained enough damage to be unable to continue. Each track varied enough that you would often have a minimum and maximum speed that you had to hit a ramp to do it right, or you risk losing time in the air, or plummeting to your doom.

Take enough damage and your race is over...

Division 4: The little ramp / The hump back

These tracks and this division are very easy. You can simply sit behind the opponent and wait until the last turn if you want to. The tracks can all be taken completely flat-out with boost on the whole way around. There are jumps that you are better off actually going slower (you’ll lose less time in the air), but you don’t honestly need to worry about that.

Division 3: The Stepping stones / The big ramp

These tracks are again pretty easy, but there is a risk of making race-ending mistakes (see video). On the stepping stones you just need to keep a speed of around 140 (use boost to keep that speed), while the rest of the track you can blast your way around. The big ramp on it’s namesake circuit must be taken at over 200, while the smaller jumps need to be taken at 170 so you can avoid jumping straight into the abyss. Unfortunately I was unable to boost and turn at the same time, so getting over 200 for the big ramp became a problem in the video!

Division 2: The high jump / The rollercoaster

These tracks can be tricky, and the AI opponents are pretty fast. You have to carry 200 over the high jump to make it, and on the rollercoaster you have to go under 160 on the largest hill or you will miss the next turn. It’s a difficult balance, but minimizing your time in the air is probably for the best on both courses, while slowing down on the sloped straight on the high jump course is vital.

Division 1: The ski jump / The drawbridge

I wasn’t able to get into division one by the time I wanted to post this review. That should tell you how difficult division two is! I only managed it a few times back in the day, but I do remember how to drive the tracks (I’m just not as good at it anymore). It should also be noted that you cannot drive these tracks without damaging your car on landing, so it is important to do as little damage as possible in the lower divisions.

The ski jump has some jumps you have to be slower over, while the main jump has to be taken at over 200mph. The drawbridge should be taken at/just over 140, while the rest of the track can be taken flat-out.

User Interface/HUD
The menu and race access system is very simplistic. Simple keyboard navigation gets you in and out of the car.

The in-race HUD gives you the all information you need:

Physics
The physics seen in Stunt Car Racer are weirdly believable. Like all Geoff Crammond titles it feels to me as if there is a driver aid which keeps you on the road, and while it’s certainly possible to crash off at any time, it’s also a little bit easier than it should be. This could be because it was designed for keyboard control, or it could simply be because this is how they believed gameplay needed to be for commercial success.

The best thing I could say about the physics are that being on two wheels, flying through the air or smashing into surfaces all have believable physics which are amazing for the time. Infact it could be argued that if someone improved the graphics, these physics could still sell to this day as a modern title.

Graphics
3D tracks and cars, realistically built to give a proper sensation of distance and speed. Easily one of the first titles I tried which gave me a proper feeling of immersion in a 3D world. It’s a retro style which I feel I would still accept today if available at higher resolution, and it’s actually interesting when you do play it to see just how effective this was 23 years ago on period hardware.

Fantastic draw distance and a true 3D feeling.

Sound
The deep and growling sounds of the engine in Stunt Car Racer were incredible for the time, and are still acceptable to this day when the hardware it was designed for is taken into consideration. The differing sounds of the engine ticking over, scraping metal and crashing are also fantastic. In the sound department, Stunt Car Racer gave you every piece of information you needed to be able to drive effectively.

Effects on the genre
Few people have been quite as far ahead of their time as often as Geoff Crammond. While it would be easy to argue that someone else, probably David Kaemmer, would have reached all these milestones, it is important to recognize that often it was Crammond who got there first. Had Crammond not have seen so much success, we could easily have lost the influence of both him and MicroProse. We may never have seen the F1GP series and we may have lost MicroProse far earlier than we did.

Screen shown when you don't win

Effects on me
Those early experiences at ‘youth club’ were what led me to get a Commodore Amiga, this directly led me onto other racing titles, and wound up leading me to my current employment with a racing simulator developer. It is incredible to think that (until rFactor2, at least) there still hasn’t been a better implementation of wet weather in racing since Grand Prix 3 (12 years ago).

Promotion screen

Anything similar
Not that I am aware of. Geoff Crammond did announce a sequel back in 2003, but it was cancelled. There have been a few attempts to build something similar, and I did have fun with Nitro Stunt Racing for a bit, but it didn’t hold my attention for very long. When you include the single player championship features, etc, Stunt Car Racer certainly feels like it was the last of it’s kind.

My initial searches brought back advice to right click the program in the taskbar, click move, and then use the cursor keys to drag it back. But in Windows 7 with the newest versions of Messenger there is no move option (see below).

No move with right-click

I left the area we live and started to head west on I-80, I decided to stop for Gas and Air at the following location:

7-Eleven
3620 Rock Creek Boulevard
Joliet, IL 60431-9029
(815) 744-2366

My wife had left some Quarters in the change drawer of the car, so I used those ($1) to start the Air. I put the nozzle onto the valve, closed the lever and waited for the PSI to go up… But it didn’t, it went down. It went down very quickly and it confused me, what was going on? I went to another tire and tried again – same thing. I then realized that the lever wasn’t working, no Air was coming out.

I walked into the 7-Eleven and spoke to the lady behind the counter, telling her that because of her machine my tires were now dangerously under inflated, that I was going to have to go to the Gas station across the street to make my car safe again, I’ve wasted a Dollar in their machine.

Her response: “Yes, it doesn’t work. (uncomfortable laugh) Manager not here.”

I don’t care about the Dollar, but the fact that she seems coached to immediately say that is slightly disturbing. I know the manager, probably the owner, is her husband. If this woman can’t even give a $1 refund, think about giving one, or even apologize for not being able to give one, or even think to put a sign on a machine that she knew was broken, how is she going to cope with any emergency situation this Gas station might have? How does she function and how does 7-Eleven run a franchise that way?

I knew nothing was going to happen, I told her that she needs to put a sign on the Air saying that it doesn’t work, and left. I went across the street (on very lowly inflated tires), bought something from their store, filled my tank and used their Air ($1.50).

So remember folks, if you shop at 7-Eleven you always run the risk of buying from fools. I’ll be avoiding those fools from now on.

This time, my interest was sparked by the fact it had been REALLY cold for the last few days. I was hoping to see some Ice. So I set out at about 7am on the 1½ hour journey to Starved Rock.

Apart from a little issue during my journey with 7-Eleven and their customer service, the day was fantastic. I spent about three hours on the edges of the Illinois River trying to get good shots of the Bald Eagles which Winter in the area, and another 2-3 hours walking the trails and checking out the Ice Falls.

As it is my first time shooting the Eagles there, I really wasn’t sure which side of the river to be on. I drove back and forth a few times. The best place to shoot seems to be on the north side of the river, but most of my shots were a bit dark as the sun was causing a silhouette, but I did get a couple of shots where some under-side detail could be seen.

Eagle circling over the Illinois River.

Eagle circling over the Illinois River.

The main thing I learned was that they don’t move very fast. On a windy day they actually seem almost motionless as they use the air to stay up. They are relatively easy to photograph and between 9-11am you’ll see 5-10 Eagles in the air at once sometimes. It’s quite amazing. However, no photo can really do justice to seeing these birds flying, perched and fighting over a fish in mid-air, it really is an awesome experience.

I also learned that I need a longer lens. I was working with a Nikkor 55-200mm VR lens and it just didn’t get me close enough. Next year I will probably rent a big lens especially for this trip.

Eagles everywhere, but I just couldn't get as close as I wanted with my lens.

By 11am the Eagles seem to settle down and become less active, so shortly after that I went to the south side of the Illinois River to walk the trails in Starved Rock State Park. I didn’t know how frozen the waterfalls would be, but I was delighted by what I saw.

Walking towards Wildcat Canyon

Wildcat Canyon Icefall

Wildcat Canyon Icefall

Ice at Wildcat Canyon

I snapped a lot of photos at Wildcat Canyon, but was a little disappointed by the light (the sun was rising a bit higher than I had seen it before at this Canyon). I started to walk to the next Canyon by the side of the Illinois River (south side) and suddenly, overhead, was an Eagle.

I saw it swoop out of the trees and I just had time to snap a bunch of photos before he left to go fishing.

Eagle which surprised me on south side of Illinois River

To my complete delight I had managed to get my best Eagle photos of the day when I least expected to. Because I was on the south side of the river, the Sun had moved enough that the light was just perfect on the belly of the bird. It just goes to show that you can stand ‘where you’re supposed to’ for hours, but you really can end up with a better shot anywhere along the river.

I looked up, wondering where that Eagle had come from, and found another right infront of me.

I didn't get many shots of him, but this just shows the south side of the river has them too...

I carried on walking and went by French Canyon, although I didn’t get many good photos there as there were some other people there (usually I am the first one in and the last one out, but these folks stayed longer than me!)

French Canyon Icefall

Aurora Canyon had disappointing light as it was now the middle of the day (you can see photos of it in the Flickr set), so I left and walked on, but this scene and it’s colors leapt out at me…

Walking back from Aurora Canyon

I then hopped in the car to drive to the other side of the State Park and visit the St Louis Canyon, and this is probably where (when the light settled) I took a few of my best Icefall shots of the day.

St Louis Canyon

By the time I got here it was just getting above freezing, and the melt had really started!

It's not often I rotate the camera

Interesting to see how far the water travels from the main stream

When that chunk eventually drops, it's going to be BIG.

Icicles just scream at me for diagonal framing...

The results of a VERY mild Winter this year.

And to round off the post, here’s a shot of a Goose in mid-flight. Don’t forget you can view a lot more photos from this day in the Flickr set.

Goose in mid-flight

Games were more of an experience than a quick fling like today. They often came with lavish intro sequences and usually with huge manuals which not only told you how to play, but gave you a backstory, too. In this age of digital downloads it is that ‘big box’ experience that I truly miss, and when Jon Denton – who I met through racing games software – posted a blog questioning whether today’s simulated racers could cope with a game based on a single-series, it helped me realize I wasn’t alone in this, and set me off on an eBay spending spree where I re-purchased some of my favorite titles from my early days.

I started out with a Commodore Vic-20 the entire family shared, I then moved to a C-64 and then an Amiga A600 that my parents bought just for me. Although as I’ve said before the earlier systems were great family time, often spent programming our own simple games, the Amiga is definitely the system I look back on with the fondest memories; It’s gaming capabilities and the huge industry around it meant that there really never was a shortage of new and fantastic stuff to play.

Many barriers were being broken at this time because many gaming genres simply didn’t exist before it, and what’s interesting is that even today the types of games I enjoy remind me of a game I enjoyed and want to re-experience from the Amiga. One of my fondest memories gaming on the Amiga was actually taking my system to a friends house so that we could both play Frontier-Elite II at the same time and compare information. We hardly spoke to each other the entire time I was at his house, and I just laugh inside as I look back at his sister coming in to tell us we “both look Anemic” and should eat something. Those were the days!

My first introduction to IBM Personal Computers (PCs) came through a school friend named Kieron: He had a PC. While the rest of us were busy arguing over whether the Amiga or Atari ST were better, he was quietly using a system we’d all have to follow him into whether we liked it or not. I actually bought PC games before I owned a PC, and played one of them – Indy 500 – at Kieron’s house. In a way, he helped me to head in the direction I have with my career.

Many PC games today can trace their roots back to an Amiga title, but still in those early days using a PC I really still did enjoy the ‘big box’ experience. It does seem – as Jon suggested in his blog – that online gaming is what killed the game manual, the box, and perhaps created the online-only, throwaway culture gaming has become. I used to buy games to play them ‘forever’, I don’t do that anymore because there’s nothing of ‘worth’ to hold onto, there’s nothing physical.

I’ve decided to write a few retro-reviews of some of my favorite games from various formats. A personal retrospective of my feelings towards the fun I had with them, and the future they helped to create in the industry. Were they ever beaten? Were they the last of their kind? We’ll find out…

1: Stunt Car Racer.

In order to convert from using Outlook on a Mac to using Outlook on a PC, you can either use a really expensive one, like the one you will probably find easiest in Google, or you can use the software I did: Emailchemy.

For a relatively cheap purchase of $29.95 for a single-user license I was able to tell the software I was converting from OLM (exported from Outlook on the Mac) and select IMAP for output.

It converted the emails (over 10,000) and gave me a folder. I opened the Emailchemy Toolbox, selected IMAP import server, selecting that folder and starting the server.

All I had to do now was enter the server and user information Emailchemy had setup into Outlook, it was then able to access the emails on the localhost server. I then simply selected the emails and folders from the imported inbox, and dragged them into the local inbox under Personal Folders (PST), although it’s quite likely you could just export the IMAP folder to PST within Outlook for re-importing or storage, too.

Note: because some people may forget, never forget to copy your sent items. Also, never delete your original OLM file until you are sure you have a fully working copy in the new location. Lastly, always backup your OLM and PST files, and I recommend Carbonite for that. As always, I’m not responsible for you messing this up.