Formula One video games

Ever since Pole Position in 1983, Formula One has always played a part of the racing genre in video games. Geoff Crammond's 1991 simulation Grand Prix played an integral role in moving Formula One games from arcade games to being full simulations of the sport.

The roots of Formula One games can be traced back to the 1970s, with arcade games such as Gran Trak 10 which depicted F1-like cars going on a race track.

However, the first successful Formula One game in arcade history was Pole Position, by Namco. In Pole Position, the player has to complete a lap in a certain amount of time in order to qualify for a race at the Fuji racetrack. After qualifying, the player had to face other cars in a championship race. The game was very successful and it spawned an official sequel, Pole Position II, and an unofficial one, Final Lap. After the success of Pole Position, many similar games appeared in arcades (and later ported to home computers) such as TX-1.

During the late 1980s, arcades began being dropped in favour of home computer games. Late successful arcade games can be considered Super Sprint, which uses the top view instead of the rear view of most games, and its sequel Championship Sprint.

The first true Formula One racing simulators were Chequered Flag and Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix (F1GP). Chequered Flag featured fuel depletion and car damage, and a set of several real circuits. Previously, most racing games representing Formula One, such as Accolade's Grand Prix Circuit and Electronic Arts' Ferrari Formula One, had been arcade-style games, but F1GP paid more attention to the physics of the cars, in addition to innovative graphics and accurate rendering of the actual racing tracks. The game, released in 1992, was based on the 1991 season. Over the years, the game had sequels Grand Prix 2, 3, and 4 (based on 1994, 1998, with a 2000 update, and 2001 respectively).

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