One of PC gaming's finest Formula One racing sims was left to rot on the vine when EA Sports abandoned the open-wheel class (and its award-winning game) to concentrate on NASCAR stockers in 2003. (EA eventually pink slipped F1 series developer Image Space Inc.) Unperturbed, F1's avaricious power brokers struck a monopolistic multi-year deal with Sony to create exclusive F1-themed PS2 titles, and the fruitful 20-year marriage between Formula One racing and PC gaming came to an ignominious end. If you believe that, you don't understand PC sim racers. Thanks to F1 Challenge's mod-friendly code base, a motivated and resourceful sim-racing community nurtured the game into the DX9 era with an impressive series of add-ons and -- in some cases -- total conversions. SimBin's exquisite GTR: FIA Racing began life as a full-conversion mod for F1 2002 ( F1C's parent game), and several other freeware projects, from ChampCars to Le Mans Prototypes to Touring Cars, have tire-smoked their way on to the hard drives of sim racers everywhere.

ISI conceived F1 Challenge as a Formula 1 simulator, however, so this week we're going to check out the latest 2005 season updates for the game to see just how well they test drive. If you're lucky enough to own a copy of the original game (which is currently out of print and commanding steep prices on Ebay), you're in for a treat. ( F1 Challenge 99-02) The 'RH' in Season 2005RH stands for Ralph Hummerich who, along with a small band of collaborators at EmacF1.com, has been building add-ons and seasonal updates for ISI's F1 and Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix series for several years now.

There are serious leauges out there too. You need the game 'F1 Challenge 99-02', by EA Sports. Raskraska po energosberezheniyu full. I guess you can find it somewhere and im pretty sure it wont cost much, since it's an old game. Then you'll need to download the MODs i gave the link to. Unzip the downloaded file. Start the Installation by double click on '2003RH_4_F1C99-02.exe'. Please choose your 'F1 Challenge 99-02' directory.

He released his latest 2005 mod for F1C in late December and it's one sweet piece of work. Every car from the original game gets a full design makeover (cockpit artwork included) and a comprehensive re-skin to reflect 2005 sponsorship liveries.

As well, all driver's helmet, suits, and pit crew uniforms are updated with correct colors and graphics and the AI driver data tweaked to represent real-world performance values. The driving physics also received a significant overhaul to bring the cars in line with the FIA's latest aerodynamic, horsepower, and tire performance changes for 2005. The core download weighs in at 99MB, but you'll also need EmacF1's 74MB Trackpack file if you wish to update your circuit directory to the 2005 calendar. This Trackpack includes circuit alterations to venues like Magny Cours and Imola, as well as new circuits Bahrain and China. Sadly, the new Istanbul track didn't make the cut, so the add-on uses F1C's default (and defunct) Austrian A1 circuit as a placeholder for the Turkish venue. I was pleasantly surprised with the smoothness of this mod. The car detailing is first-rate, the new physics offer a solid challenge at full difficulty levels, and the frame-rates remained playable even when the on-screen traffic piled up.