Grand Prix Simulator II
A sequel to Grand Prix Simulator that develops the original game's top-down circuit racing for 8-bit home computers.
Image credits and source
Original cover / promotional artwork
Credit: Codemasters — artwork belongs to its respective rights holders
Source: The Oliver Twins archive
Game at a glance
- Status
- Classic
- Released
- 1989
- Platforms
- Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64
- Genres
- Racing
- Developer
- The Oliver Twins (original development)
- Publisher
- Codemasters
Development and publication
Development: The Oliver Twins (original development). Publication: Codemasters.
The named development credit refers to the original or specifically identified version. Other ports and later re-releases may have different development teams.
Making the game
One of our best selling games had been the original Grand Prix Simulator and having written a much cleaner code base for Jet Ski Simulator we felt we could produce a much better version of GPS both on Amstrad and Spectrum.
Development was very smooth taking a little under 2 months in the autumn of ‘88 and game was released a few months later.
Whilst we were very happy with the quality of the new game, sales nowhere near matched the original. That was perfectly timed for the market and we’re sure the controversy surrounding Activision's claim that we had copied Super Sprint clearly boosted sales too. It just goes to show that it's not always about quality, it's also about timing and luck.
Original documents
Archived Grand Prix Simulator II document 1 (PDF)
Archived Grand Prix Simulator II document 2 (PDF)