A few weeks ago, the wonderful news appeared that Microprose is to re-release the Geoff Crammond Grand Prix series. Many of you tagged me on X when the official announcement came. Grand Prix 1, Grand Prix 2, Grand Prix 3 and Grand Prix 4 will re-released on steam. Without the license, the series had. Instead, they will are called GCR1 and so on. At first I hailed this idea, I even posted that it is amazing to see the game been re-released. However, a few weeks deeper in and triggered by Tim’s (racesimcentral.net) small article I only have one question left. WHY?
I do not want to be the depressive and negative millennial here, yet I have many questions. The first few screenshots shared look the same as when, for example, Grand Prix 4 was released. For GRC3, what I know as Grand Prix 3 is the same. I dove deeper in to the matter and could not find any satisfaction from my side. Is it just an ordinary move to gain more money dressed as “relive your past” or something?
Of course, it could be that the new games will be released in 2026 for that reason. Re-live our past, or have the youngster enjoying our F1 games. I get the taste that they focus on the mod-community to have the game updated. New liveries, new circuits, new whatever. It just feels not right how they put the games from Geoff Crammond on steam. The legacy the Grand Prix’s series has is enormous. For years, many of us did hotlap chars on racesimulations.com, racesimcentral.net, BHmotorsports.com and so on.
The question why they re-release the games, I cannot answer this for myself. Perhaps others of you can. The issue for here is that I am a relic of that era. When Geoff Crammond and EA Sports published their Formula One games. Twenty years ago, I made even the 2004 season for F12002 from EA. Both series are easily to play on modern PC’s with a few tweaks. So why this?
I don’t know, what I do know is that I will start up Grand Prix 3 and enjoy the crashes and amount of debris coming from the cars. Yep, in the end that is why Geoff Crammond his series was amazing. Sure, many of you will tell different. Yet, ten year old me enjoyed the realism in accidents wheels and front-wings flying across the screen when you hit the barrier and just went mental in the back of Coulthard’s McLaren.
