I don't drive a car. I have no intention to. But I enjoy racing games and can - should the make and model suit - enjoy looking at cars. For the longest time in gaming you couldn't really do both, and certainly not to the extent that Gran Turismo offered.
One hundred and forty licensed and detailed cars from manufacturers the world over, a simulation mode to take you from your first driving test to your final championship victory, an arcade mode to try out some of the best cars before you find the in-game cash to buy them in the simulation mode - Gran Turismo gave an awful lot to players when it finally hit the shops in the late 1990s, and at some point near its release it gave an awful lot to me too.
I've not played the original game properly since there was only the original game to play. Its many sequels and the console generations that have launched since have given me no need to, though I have always wondered whether it holds up, and just how different it is to the modern Gran Turismo titles.
Fitting, then, that I come back to where it all began while the PlayStation Network is experiencing problems that stop me from fully enjoying GT Sport...
Fond Memories
It's not my original copy and it's not the original PlayStation I played it on, but being able to fire up Gran Turismo brings back memories.
While split into two modes, I was almost exclusively found on the simulation side of things, grinding my way through championships and challenges in search of better cars and bigger paydays. I am fairly confident that I didn't complete everything there was to do, but I got my money's worth and was sold on the inevitable sequel as soon as I knew of its existence.
After two decades of iterations and improvements to the driving experience, however, it's more than likely that 'The Real Driving Simulator' is a fair bit different to what I remember. Into the arcade mode for a quick race we go...
Fun Times
It's almost horrible to look at now, but back in the day, these menus were stylish. They felt important and dignified, as well as obviously functional. The cars were front and centre, and their badges and brands even more so. Gran Turismo was all about the cars as much as it was about racing them.
With three arcade mode difficulties and 11 tracks to race about on, both forwards and backwards, drivers can put their foot down across a variety of tracks against five very competitive opponents.
Frustrations
I had not expected the normal difficulty to be so cut-throat in Gran Turismo. I was consistently finishing anywhere other than first, often nearer the back of the pack than the front. While the driving skills you learn from the many games in the series are handy for quick lap times, they can seem like a necessity for getting into first place.
I don't know if it's rubberbanding, or that the cars I'm up against happen to be equally balanced in terms of specs, or that the AI is at this stage of the series just a little bit robotic or something, but there was a sense that the arcade mode was too arcadey. It's like it's giving you a thrilling race to sucker you into buying the rest of the game.
If the race itself didn't, then the replay afterwards might have.
Further Fun Times
As if it wasn't obvious by now that Gran Turismo is all about the cars, the replays that automatically start playing after each race aim to show off the models in all their glory. Everything shines. There's even a car wash in the simulation mode to make sure your car shines, but I'm jumping ahead of myself there.
The models of these cars are more or less just as I remembered them being - distinct, yet alike. Sleek, yet blocky. Pushing the PlayStation hard, yet holding something back, or limited somehow.
There is some difference between playing it on original hardware versus these screenshots from emulation, but no matter how you play Gran Turismo, you can still see the years of effort that went into modelling these cars. The attention to detail, the technical specifications, the blurb and presentation of them. Gran Turismo wants you to care about its cars as much as it clearly does.
Further Frustrations
Unfortunately, the game couldn't have it all. It had the cars and it had the driving, but there's one glaring omission that had to be cut for one reason or another - if it was even on the table to begin with - and that's the lack of damage or even any real consequences for your perilous driving.
While the sensitivity of my analogue sticks wasn't right for emulation, it was pretty damn good on the original hardware, which is obvious when Gran Turismo was one title to really show what analogue control was capable of. The driving, while worse on emulation, was good enough to get me around the track in suitable times, if not in winning positions.
That driving was however aided by the problem of driving bumper cars.
The early Gran Turismo titles were notorious for allowing you to use the other cars to manoeuvre yourself around the track. If you didn't slam on the brakes in time, no worries - just drive into the side of the front-runners. Nudge them off the track so you can make the turn. Nudge them into the walls so you can get a better line. Heck, nudge the walls directly if you have to.
The racing was so fast paced that you could get away with it all. When the driving was clean, Gran Turismo was awesome. When it was dirty, it reduced it to simply the greatest looking arcade racer there was, and it was on a home console.
So that was the arcade mode done. I wasn't going to sit around for too long - just enough to remember how a race felt before moving to where the meat of the game could be found...
Further Fun Times
Did I mention that Gran Turismo took itself seriously? Because it takes itself very seriously. It wants you to enjoy the cars, from the outside and inside, and even though it allows you to drive carelessly into everyone who gets in your way between now and the finish line, it really wants you to work your way up from a humble beginner, and I do mean 'work'.
What game requires you to pass a driving test before playing? Other than Driver, obviously (I hope that's not on the list because that'll be a length- oh shit it is).
There are three tests to take, but you can take them when you're ready to, with the easiest being the B License, and after a week or two of in-game time, you'll have passed it and be allowed to race in a few competitions - assuming you've bought a car.
10,000 Credits may seem like both a large and small amount of money, but it's the amount you start with and you better make the most of it until you win a few races and make that money back with good results and plenty of victories.
I'm yet to check to see if I was right, but I vaguely remember a guide saying that this Toyota Corolla Levin was a good purchase. Cheap, and with options to tune and upgrade as and when the need would arise and the money would allow.
You'll note that it's a used car because Gran Turismo wants to make you work, remember? All the good stuff is stuck behind numbers that are beyond your reach right now.
So, off I go with my Levin into the Sunday Leagues, a staple of Gran Turismo, ready to hang with all the boy racers looking for a quick return on their investments. What will I spend my winnings on? A quick upgrade? Some tyres? Will I save it for a better car? A newer car?
After three races of varying success, I finished on top with 22 points and... what's this?
A Demio A-Spec! Wonderful!
Final Word
Before getting consumed by the grind once more, I ended my time with Gran Turismo on that high note.
I wouldn't say I loved my time going back the series' beginning, but I'm very glad to have done so. The skills you learn from the games - the skills they teach you, and prompt you to exercise, even going so far as to test you on for an in-game license - are almost directly translatable back into the first game.
Alright, I'm a little sloppy with them, knowing I can bounce off everything in sight, but having driving lines and braking zones get hammered into my head, along with the notion that what looks slow and steady is what gets the best lap times, means my time with Gran Turismo twenty years after its release is a lot closer to what it was aiming to achieve back then than what it managed to achieve, certainly with me, a mere child who wanted to go fast and get first place.
Of the two PlayStation titles, Gran Turismo 2 is the bigger and better game, of course it is, but it wouldn't be a game at all were it not for the years of dedication put into successfully developing Gran Turismo.
It's not perfect, but it's a joy to go back to and see how far we've come.
Fun Facts
Then designer, now professional driver, always father of Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi, estimated that he was only home for four days a year while developing the game, and knew it was winter only because the workplace would get colder. Labour of love, this developing lark...
Gran Turismo, developed by Polyphony Digital, first released in 1997.
Version played: PlayStation, 1998, also via emulation and childhood memories.
Version watched: PlayStation, 1998 (meesbaker)