Indianapolis 500: The Simulation

About

Indianapolis 500: The Simulation drops you into the driver’s seat of a 1989 IndyCar with a focus on realism over flash. Developed by Papyrus for DOS and Amiga in 1989, it trades arcade thrills for mechanical depth. Adjust suspension, tire pressure, and aerodynamics before each race, with every tweak directly altering handling. The track sticks to the real Indianapolis layout, and the 33-car grid mirrors the actual 1989 starting order. Race in first-person with no power-ups, just raw speed, strategy, and the risk of collisions slowing you down. A separate replay mode lets you review laps, but the lack of third-person views keeps things tightly focused on the ride. The game’s depth comes from its structure. Practice sessions let you test setups without damage, while qualifying demands four clean laps to secure a spot on the grid, mess up, and you start at the back. Three liveried cars (Penske, Lola, March) offer different baselines, but tuning turns underdogs competitive. Crash into other racers during qualifying, and their wrecks block the track, a gritty detail many modern racers skip. Music by Rob Hubbard adds a synth-driven energy. Though its graphics feel dated, fans of methodical racing sims often cite it as a trailblazer, with forums noting its influence on later titles like Rfactor and iRacing.

Storyline

There are also practice and qualifying settings. Practice enables car setups to be altered and tested in real time. Choosing not to participate in the qualifying session results in one starting at the back of the field. The qualifying session requires four laps to be completed, with the mean value of the four lap times determining the qualifying position. No car damage can occur during a Practice session, although other cars may be present on the track and their wreckage remains on the track if the player's car collides with them at any point. Car damage can occur during qualifying sessions. The cars one can drive are a yellow Penske-Chevrolet, a red Lola-Buick, or a blue March-Cosworth, with the Penske having the fastest default setup (but if one sets the car up well, any of the above racecars can compete effectively). Various settings can be changed during Practice from menus associated with Function keys F3–F10. One's own car is always numbered 17. Indy 500's theme music was produced by Rob Hubbard, who at the time was new to Electronic Arts as a music director.