| IndyCar Racing II | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Papyrus Design Group |
| Publisher(s) | Papyrus Design Group Sierra On-Line (re-release) |
| Producer(s) | Todd Farrington |
| Designer(s) | Adam Levesque Brian C. Mahony Matt Sentell Randy Cassidy David Kaemmer John Wheeler |
| Programmer(s) | Rick Genter David L. Miller |
| Artist(s) | Brian C. Mahony |
| Platform(s) | DOS,Mac OS,Windows |
| Release | 1995 (DOS, Mac) June 27, 1996 (Windows)[1] |
| Genre(s) | Sim racing |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
IndyCar Racing II is aracing game developed byPapyrus Design Group. It is the sequel toIndyCar Racing, and was released in 1995 for theDOS,Mac OS andWindows. A little over a year later, the game was re-released, with a few minor upgrades, under the titleCART Racing. The name change came about as a result of theCART series losing licensing rights to the nameIndyCar, after theIndianapolis Motor Speedway andIRLlockout in 1996.
The game still used many contemporary drivers, chassis (Lola, Reynard, Penske) and engines (Ford-Cosworth, Mercedes-Benz, Honda). 15 circuits were included in this game with Miami (road course) and Indianapolis missing.
This game is based on the 1989 gameIndianapolis 500 and on Papyrus' 1993IndyCar Racing. Little is known about the development of the game, but a demo for the game was released in 1995, and several patches for theDOS andWindows 95 were created after the game's release to improve it. This game could be run inSVGA (640x480) and had some other changes in comparison withIndyCar Racing, such as allowing outside cameras by pressing theF10 key. This was very useful on flat courses like theCleveland airport track.[2]
IndyCar Racing II received generally good ratings, such as 7.8 out of 10 byGameSpot, and 4 out of 5 byComputer Games Magazine. Some reviewers commented on the extreme detail and customization of the racecar, and the ability to change any part.GameRevolution remarked: "There are thirteen different customizable characteristics to the car... You could spend an entire week inside the garage just fiddling with the many ways to improve your car's performance".[4] Finally some reviewers commented on the realism of the game, such as GameSpot, who noted: "Even on the easiest of settings, driving an IndyCar is comparable to riding a wild bull".[5]
Computer Games Strategy Plus namedIndyCar Racing II the best computer racing simulation of 1995.[6] Likewise,Macworld presented the game with its 1996 "Best Sports Game" award; the magazine'sSteven Levy of the magazine wrote that "this champion of race games has just about everything".[7] It was a runner-up forComputer Gaming World's 1995 "Simulation of the Year" award, which ultimately went toEF2000. The editors wrote thatIndyCar Racing II "takes the already excellentIndyCar design and adds much-improved driver AI".[8]
IndyCar II, alongside Papyrus's other games under the CART name, achieved combined sales above 800,000 units by January 1998.[9] However, Gord Goble ofGameSpot reported that the game itself pulled "less than fantastic sales figures", with 180,000 copies sold by 2004.[10]