NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| NASCAR Racing 2003 Season | |
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| Developer(s) | Papyrus Design Group |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra Entertainment |
| Latest version | 1.2.0.1 |
| Release date(s) |  February 13, 2003 February 21, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Driving Racing Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac |
| Media | CD |
| System requirements | Windows, 450Mhz Processor, 64MB RAM, 16MB Direct3D compatible video card, 8X CD-ROM |
| Input | Keyboard, Mouse, Wheel |
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, or NR2003 for short, is a computer racing simulator. The programming was completed by September 3, 2002 and was waiting for its February 2003 Daytona 500 release date by Papyrus for PC. The game was the last to be released by the company before EA Sports bought the NASCAR license from NASCAR. The game included all of the 2003 NASCAR season tracks and many of the drivers. The game box featured the cars of Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick on the front cover.
The game featured a popular multiplayer interface, was used by up to 2500 drivers at any one time. This resulted in fields of up to 43 human drivers driving simultaneously in online races. Several leagues for the game still exist, and the well-known TSW 500 uses the game. The game, however, has seen its peak in popularity and now rarely exceeds 500 players online - the more popular racing servers still stay full most of the time. In addition, to this day, downloads of updated cars, tracks and templates have allowed users to give the game a current roster and current look.
NR2003 is also one of the few 'serious' racing simulations which have also been published for the Macintosh, in a Mac OS X version.
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[edit] Popularity
NASCAR driving superstars Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. are known to be players of the game, and many professional drivers are said to use the game to practice tracks before races. These included 2006 rookie Denny Hamlin, who trained for the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway, going on to win the race at a track notoriously tough for rookies. (It should be noted, however, that Earnhardt Jr. is now a paid endorser for EA Sports.)
Motorsports Image used PCs running NR2003 as the central component of their NASCAR simulator products. These included several show-cars and repurposed race vehicles refitted as simulators, and a line of single-seat open models with pitch/roll motion bases. The Coca-Cola Company currently (as of 2006) operates a set of them as mobile promotional events relating to their numerous NASCAR sponsorships; one-to-three day stops at Wal-Mart stores, and some other retailers in the midwestern United States, are the most common venues. However, Motorsports Image is, reportedly, no longer in business, meaning that operators of these simulators are no longer being provided maintenance and technical support.
As of July 2006, the game itself began commanding prices of $150 and above on Ebay, as the game is no longer available in stores.
[edit] Modding Community
Perhaps one of the strongest aspects that has allowed this game to succeed much beyond its shelf life is the modding community. As it was known that this would be the last in a series of games from Papyrus, modding was begun almost immediately. When Papyrus was on its way out of business, it chose to release tools to mod its simulation community, enabling modders to unlock the three other physics engines shipped with the game but previously unused: Busch Grand National (BGN), Craftsman Truck Series (CTS), and Trans-Am physics. Spearheaded by the Project Wildfire Group (PWF), the first sets of mods began appearing.
[edit] Project Wildfire
[edit] PWF CTS Mod
Since the original game only came with Winston Cup models and physics, the need for mods for the other series was becoming apparent. By reworking body styles and physics, an accurate representation of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series was created. This first mod was immensely popular, as there were differences in driving styles needed to successfully win. In addition, PWF continued to put out new and revised tracks to better suit this series.
[edit] PWF BGN Mod
Soon after the CTS mod was completed, a mod for the NASCAR Busch Series was released to the public. Using the BGN Series physics and keeping the original Cup bodies, as the Busch Series uses an almost identical chassis, the mod proved to be an accurate representation of the real Busch Series. In addition, this mod provided several tweaks to the overall game. Scuff marks now appeared on the sides of cars after receiving damage, and tape on a drivers pitstall was now allowed to be painted; these features were later offered in a patch for the Cup Series.
[edit] Superspeedway
[edit] 2007 Speedway Modification
Development of this modification began in early 2006 when new models more accurate to today's race cars were created. The modification will feature the following when completed:
- New Bodies from Scratch
- New Templates
- New Damages
- Extensive Damageable pieces
- Changes to Interior Textures
- Changes to Vehicle Cameras
- Paintable Rims
- Extensive Development of Frame Saving Measures
- Car of Tomorrow
The modification is currently in beta 2 and is being developed by the team at Superspeedway.
[edit] NEXTEL Updates
Superspeedway released updates during the 2005 season to bring track graphics up to date. This update was required due to the change from the Winston Cup Series to the NEXTEL Cup Series and the new fuel supplier, Sunoco.
[edit] Other Mods
There are other mods that have been released for the games as well that vary in both quality and content. They include the Busch Series, Hooters Pro Cup, ARCA, Aero 88 (the 1988 Nascar season), GN 1970 (The 1970 Nascar season), OWR (Open Wheel Racing, and IRL mod), GTP (a grand-am style mod), and a modified series.
[edit] Painting Community
One of the more interesting resultants of this simulation was the rise of the painting community. The ability to paint cars and race it against the stars of the NASCAR series has been one of the most appealing aspects of the game, and the skills of said painters have grown to be remarkable. Today there are artists designing paint schemes for real NASCAR teams that had their start painting car models for NR2003. Some of the top notch painters in the community include Moosewhip, CarKing, WardBurtonFan, JasonRSC, RACNchamp, WCPainter, and Tucknut. In addition to this, there is an extensive rendering community designed to properly show case these paint jobs. A render is a more graphically pleasing view of a paint scheme than an in-game shot. This is because programs such as Autodesk's 3ds Max uses an advanced rendering system to properly generate realistic lighting, materials, and the ability to add more detailed parts to a scene. This has led to creative placement of paint schemes in realistic environments.
[edit] See also
[edit] Major Races
- TSW Online 500
- Bullrun 1000
- Indy 500
- Le Mans 24 Hours Race
- 12 Hours of Daytona
- 12 Hours of Watkins Glen
- DMP 400
- Save The Speedway 200
[edit] External links
- Sim Racing Online Your one stop for sim racing.
- †ARL†RACEWA¥ Cheater replay - Replay file of an †ARL†RACEWA¥ member using a pit road exploit to clear a black flag he received in a pick-up race in their server
- NR2003 Backup CD tutorial - This is a picture tutorial on how to make a working backup of NR2003, so you don't have to use your original, which is legal according to the NR2003 EULA
- NR2003 Hard Drive Image Tutorial - This is a picture tutorial on how to make and mount a Hard Drive Image of NR2003, so you don't have to use your original disk, which is legal according to the NR2003 EULA
