This may not be the best racing game out there, but it certainly is a classic in its own way.

Grand Prix Circuit is a racing simulator, and one of the first simulators you can play from cockpit view. That was pretty groundbreaking at the time, since 3D was practically non-existent at the time, considering the game was released in 1988 for DOS and 1987 for other platforms (most notably C64) respectively.

The game features three brands of racing cars. Ferrari. McLaren. And Williams. The game also features 5 difficulty settings in which 5 was the hardest, but also the most realistic. In easy you only got to drive fast and make sure you don't crash against your opponents. In the hard mode you must also take care of switching your gears right and come up with a good plan to beat the AI of your opponents who will hinder you like in "real" races, and of course in the hard mode you must take care of your tires and fuel.

The courses you can take on are actually based on REAL racing courses used in the Grand Prix.

• Jacarepaguá Circuit - Brazil

• Circuit de Monaco - Monaco

• Circuit Gilles Villeneuve - Canada

• Detroit street circuit - United States Detroit

• Silverstone - United Kingdom / Great Britain

• Hockenheim - Germany

• Monza - Italy

• Suzuka Japan

The controls are a bit different from modern racing games, but you'll get used to them if you take time. I therefore recommend to try the game first in easy mode and only raise the difficulty when you feel you're up to that. Some AAA developers of later racing games (like Gran Tourismo) were originally inspired by this game.

I already had my own copy for DOS back in the old days, and I can say that except for a few slow downs in the title screen and menus the game itself works perfectly in DOSBox. How well the c64 version works in c64 emulators is unknown to me. What the possibilities are to get this game legally are also not known to me. Fill me in if you know😉