Over the years I have collected various articles and media that give us an insight what was going on during GPL's development and very early days of release. I thought I would share a few items below.



4th April 1997 -- First preview article about GPL
September 1997 -- First trailer video release on a NASCAR Racing 2 expansion pack CD-ROM
January 1998 -- First gameplay video released featuring Matt Sentell and Dave Kaemmer racing online at Monza
February 1998 -- Alison Hine's first preview of GPL based on early beta testing
6th April 1998 -- GPL demo 0.0.0.5 released
Pre-June 1998 - Early interview with Mike Lescault about GPL's physics/game engine
18th July 1998 -- Alison Hine's second preview of GPL
28th August 1998 -- GPL demo updated to include Monza circuit
Early-September 1998 -- Buggy beta version 0.2.0.0 starts circulating on newsgroups. Many players mistake it for the final version of the game.
30th September 1998 -- Official date the GPL arrived on the shelves in the USA.
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Was anyone here around during those times?

I entered the scene just over a year after all of this when I received my first home PC and internet connection. I totally filled up my 8GB hard drive with files from sites like the US Pits and The Fast Lane.com before a virus came along and wiped it all out. After I reinstalled Windows I asked my mother to buy me a 16MB Voodoo3 2000 graphics card so I could play GPL in 3dfx mode. I seem to remember it cost about £90 and I installed it myself. I guess I must have only been 13 or so and it was long before YouTube so no video tutorials available. (Fast forward many years later and that became my day job, so I probably have GPL to thank for my career in IT!)

After that my story is pretty standard. Downloading cars from GPLEA and installing with GPLAIM. Grabbing circuits from wherever I could find them (probably from GPL++ before Magnus created the GPLTD?). Spending hours a night browsing RaceSimCentral forums. Those days were pure gold.

I'm missing GEM+ covers for the following circuits, does anyone have them in JPG form?

dalsland
dquad
76ibla
lmarques
nepli36
pukekohe
rouenwin
RSCarena ---> 6-in-1 package version
skytest
spa ---> Original Papy version
west1967

Here is a sample of the kind of image I am looking for:

Recognise anyone....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ykt9Lae9M

TTFN
John.

This has been shared already, but in case you missed it, a backup site has been created which contains most of the critical patches/utilities/addons, including the entire GPL Track Database.
It is necessary to sign up to download, but no admin approval is required for activation. I am not sure if/when SRMZ will come back online, but I hope you find it useful under these circumstances:

URL: https://gpladdons.the-fastlane.co.uk/

 enjoy !

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Those who race on-line stopping by here to check what''s new with srmz might find it interesting while waiting to visit the shadowworld home page and click on the sidebar page link to "our history" to learn who and what iGOR relies on for its form and function.

http://www.shadowworld.net/

All the best,
JW

GPLRACER Shop

[ENGLISH]

Hello RACER!

The time has finally come.
GPLRACER has its own shop!

https://gplracer.myspreadshop.de/

You can choose from a variety of products that are customisable.
The customisation possibilities are almost inexhaustible.


To make it easier for you to create your own shirt, hoodie, mug, backpack, bag etc., here is some help:
https://thracing.de/thr-shop-help/


And to give you a little incentive to visit the shop, we are happy to offer a 15% discount for the first two weeks.


Many thanks to pitman (Frank) from the THR Community for setting up our shop!
A big thank you also goes to Kauli and Uli who created our new GPLRACER logo!


Happy Shoping!

Greetings
Stefan

----------------------------------------------------------------


[GERMAN]

Hallo RACER!

Es ist endlich so weit.
GPLRACER hat einen eigenen Shop!

https://gplracer.myspreadshop.de/

Ihr könnt aus einer Vielzahl von Produkten auswählen, die individuell anpassbar sind.
Die Anpassungsmöglichkeiten sind nahezu unerschöpflich.


Um dir die Erstellung deines eigenen Shirts, Hoodies, Tasse, Ruckssack, Tasche etc. zu erleichtern, gibt es hier eine Hilfe:
https://thracing.de/thr-shop-help/


Und um euch einen kleinen Anreiz zu geben, den Shop zu besuchen, freuen wir uns, für die ersten zwei Wochen einen Rabatt von 15% anbieten zu können.


Herzlichen Dank an pitman (Frank) von der THR Community für das Aufsetzen unseres Shops!
Ein herzliches Dankeschön geht auch an Kauli und Uli die unser neues GPLRACER Logo kreiert haben!


Happy Shoping!

Gruße
Stefan

Here is an update to correct a few issues I just realized were left in the public release of my Riverside 1966 - folder: riside66 -.
A few clippings and texture remapping plus I got rid of a few 0 thickness walls that could be cause of CTD online.
I will post this over at SRMZ when it will be up again but, for now, let's use this alternative site - thank you Stefan and Kauli! -

PS the file is a .7z file but I added the extension .zip to be able to upload here

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  riside66_UPD_0421.7z.zip (Size: 977,38 KB / Downloads: 8)

Hi
I was also registered with SRMZ and lost my password. Numerous attempts to reset my password but the page just keeps saying I've entered the code incorrectly. I have tried to email them direct at srmz@srmz.net but they just bounce back. Could you please help. I don't remember the user name but it was with the same email address I used to register here. Thanks.
Regards
Paul

first thank you to admit me its my first post . but the main reason is that i come back to gpl after 10 years sabatic , and i try for days to register at SRMZ  without success , and as you probably all know many files can only be found there ,what can i do , i fill everything i enter the "non robot numbers" it never work