NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
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| NASCAR Racing 2003 Season | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Papyrus Design Group |
| Publisher(s) | Sierra Entertainment |
| Version | 1.2.0.1 |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac |
| Release date |  February 13, 2003 February 21, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Driving Racing Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) |
| Media | CD |
| System requirements | Windows, 450 MHz Processor, 64MB RAM, 16MB Direct3D compatible video card, 8X CD-ROM |
| Input methods | 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 features a popular multiplayer interface, used by up to 2500 drivers at any one time. This can result in fields of up to 43 human drivers driving simultaneously in online races. There are several online leagues still running, even with the release of countless other stock car sims. Although the Sierra online multiplayer aspect of the game has decreased this game is far from dead or even old. Many private companies have been started to fulfill the need for professional grade mutliplayer servers and league management software for this game. In addition, downloading of new mods, updated cars, tracks and templates have allowed users to give the program a fresh look and keep up with real life racing.
NR2003 is also one of the few 'serious' racing simulations which have also been published for the Macintosh, in a Mac OS X version.
Contents |
[edit] Drivers
While 42 real drivers are present in the Winston Cup Series in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, fantasy drivers are still present, sponsored by fictional or unused sponsors. The list of 2003 Winston Cup Series drivers with their paint schemes and make in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season are:
[edit] Winston Cup
[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 games online multiplayer mode to practice tracks before races. These included 2006 Rookie of the Year 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 Dale Jr. is a paid endorser for EA Sports.)
PC Gamer Sim Column editor Andy Mahood gave the game a 95% rating with HIGHS: Extraordinarily realistic new physics engine; spectacular graphics; rock-solid AI; increased configurability. LOWS: Track tutorials eliminated. BOTTOM LINE: Papyrus’ last-ever NASCAR title is truly the developer’s best one yet.[1]
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.
In July 2006, the game itself began commanding prices of $150 and above on eBay, as the game is no longer available in stores. One year later, the price has dropped to $80.
[edit] Online Multiplayer Termination
On July 16, 2007, Sierra announced that it would be terminating its online multiplayer functionality for NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, as well as nineteen other Sierra titles.[2] The server was scheduled to go down permanently on August 16, 2007. Other forms of online racing, such as direct IP will still be able to function.
On August 16th, 2007 the Sierra lobby chat and player ratings were shut down but online play though Sierra is still possible.
In January 2008, Sierra reactivated their lobby chat and authentication functionality to determine if someone already online using the same product key. The player ratings are still inactive.
[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] Craftsman Truck 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] Busch Series 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.net
[edit] 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Modification
Development of this modification began in early 2006 when new models more accurate to today's race cars were created. The modification is currently in beta 3 and is being developed by the team at Superspeedway.net.
[edit] NEXTEL Updates
Superspeedway.net 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] Revamped Reloaded
One complaint about the game was the AI and how most stock Papyrus tracks did not support side-by-side racing. Several track modders, notably Brian Ring, addressed this complaint, adding multiple grooves to tracks to enhance the racing. However, most tracks tended to be strict graphics updates or focus more on online racing than off-line. The site Revamped Reloaded began producing tracks that were not only graphically accurate, but also offered updated AI that took multiple lanes through corners, instead of taking one racing line and following each other around the bottom. The tracks also included second and third grooves to allow for dynamic online racing, as well as off-line. The founder of revamped stepped down but has since passed it on to his partner in track-making, feempy, although during the off time RC Rigdon made the tracks available at AKM Racing. They are still doing well with their latest release being a 2007 version of Dover.
[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, GN 1970, OWR (Open Wheel Racing, and IRL mod), Late Model Mod (LMPv2), GTP (a Group C style mod), and the Whelen Modified series (SIModified.com). Currently, a mod for the 1955 season is in the works.
[edit] Car of Tomorrow
In 2007, two Car of Tomorrow (COT) mods were produced, (RNR Racing, DanNisbet.com) while a third is now released and is available by Superspeedway.net. This change was necessary due to the inclusion of the COT into Nextel Cup for 16 races in 2007, then full time in 2008. Although there are no new physics to go with this mod to re-create the cars handling, Revamped Reloaded is looking into creating specially designed tracks to reflect this.
[edit] 1990 Winston Cup
In August 2007, A group of professional modders revived the 1990 Nascar Winston Cup series for Nascar Racing 2003. The Mod was supposed to be just 1989-1994. Then there was a 1995 and 1996 set. 1997-1999 are stilll in the plans.
[edit] Painting Community
One of the more interesting results of this simulation was the rise of the painting community. The ability to paint cars using an in game design tool and professional tools like Adobe Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro and race them online has been one of the most appealing aspects of the game. There is also an extensive rendering community designed to show case these paint schemes. A render is a more graphically pleasing view of a paint scheme than an in-game screenshot. This is because programs such as Autodesk's 3ds Max use 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. In the past few years several paint schemes designed by sim racers for NR2003 have found themselves used for actual race schemes, painters have also been hired by race teams to design new schemes. Furthermore many proposed real life schemes are now shown on NR2003 models rather than actual drawings or layouts.
[edit] References
- ^ PC Gamer Review: NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
- ^ Notice of Multiplayer Functionality Termination for 20 Sierra Titles
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Sierra Publisher of NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
- iRacing Company headed by John Henry and David Kaemmer (founder of Papyrus Design Group) and current owners of the NR2003 code
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