As title says,
it would be nice if the best F1 racing game ever ,will be added to GOG.
Thank you.

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/grand_prix_legends

And yes, it's a fantastic game. As it's not officially FIA/Formula One Management licensed, it's not beyond the realms of possibility to get it here...

Probably never gonna happen, because F1 is one of the most licensed franchises.

Well, my guessing is that it would be valid for the other Papyrus old games like the Nascar series etc, but honestly I am not sure how far it could be valid for a game like Grand Prix Legends, it does simulate the 1967/68 (?) F1 season with pretty old cars. But well, who knows, maybe you are right and the licenses are such draconians.

Anyways whatever it is, just for the record, the publisher was Sierra, this is, Activision in current times.

It would be a nice addition, indeed. It is a very hard and atractive simulator, and it had an important modding tradition, adding new cars, seasons and modernizing the graphics etc.

Well, it has a Ferrari, a Cooper and a Honda (among others) and the Cooper and the Honda had to get changed to fantasy brands, because they couldn't get the licenses for them...so I'm pretty sure they got licenses for everything else.
They also have several original tracks...those are usually also licensed.
And we all know what that means.

True - but they were directly licensed by the tracks, not through FOM. There's a significantly higher chance of those not being expired/being able to re-license them than (for example) getting a FOM licence for Grand Prix 4 to be released here.

A lot will come down to how Papyrus dealt with it at the time. Renaming the teams wouldn't be a problem but losing a track licence would kill any re-release.

Ferrari.

Edit:

Also:

- Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (Mexico/active circuit)
- Kyalami (South-Africa/currently decommissioned for F1)
- Monaco (Monaco/active circuit)
- Monza (Italia/active circuit)
- Mosport (Canada/decommissioned for F1)
- Nürburgring Nordschleife (Germany/currently decommissioned for F1)
- Rouen-Les-Essarts (France/demolished)
- Silverstone (UK/active circuit)
- Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium/active circuit)
- Watkins Glen (USA/decommissioned for F1)
- Zandvoort (Netherlands/active circuit)

That's a lot of independent negotiations, only to re-release an over 20 years old game, that wasn't exactly a topseller, when it was still "hot":

(quote wiki): "The game was a commercial failure; Andy Mahood of PC Gamer US described its sales as "abysmally poor".
In 2003, writer Mark H. Walker reported that "the game sold only a few thousand copies" in the United States, which he attributed to the general unpopularity of Formula One racing in the country.
He noted that its "steep learning curve kept many fans away" in European markets.
GameSpot's Gord Goble attributed its performance to the "combination of treacherous gameplay, sometimes glacial frame rates, and esoteric subject matter".
It ultimately totaled 200,000 sales by 2004."

They're all possible to negotiate with (assuming the licenses weren't in perpetuity when originally licensed). Ferrari would be the hardest, but also the easiest to cut out of the game (just rename it something like Stallion).

As for the tracks, Rouen doesn't need to be licensed as it's no-longer a track. Spa was a street circuit then, so free to use (it only became a "closed" track in the 2000s) - might have to change the name if you can't get a license. Mosport is probably the biggest challenge as it's not commonly used in games, but the rest have been in tonnes of games since.

The challenge will be (as you point out) whether it would make any money. It is punishingly hard, and most people who would play it probably already have a copy. Given it was considered hard in the late 1990s, most of the modern console crowd would probably try one lap and then go into the foetal position clutching an XBox controller!)

Of the 200,000 copies by 2004, I have one. It came with a game guide that went to great pains to say that you would spin out pretty much every time you play it.

GPL is my favourite formula racing game and the remade Spa-Francorchamps '67 track is an absolute work of art, all the textures, objects, elevations and layout accuracy that comes with it is just spectacular. Found an older YT vid showcasing it, some detail is lost due to compression, but you get the idea.

Runner ups would be Grand prix 2 and 4 depicting more modern times and different vibes. They don't make formula games like this anymore. It's just one sterile F1 20XX title after another nowadays.

The game looks amazing but as far as I can tell, it uses quite a few mods on top.

Modern-ish racing games, both formula and other styles, are not made like this anymore but racing is not like it was at that time.

Do you think there's any chance of a situation like the photo attached happen nowadays? Not even in the most amateur racing competitions.

Yes, it's a modded install. The track alone + highres texture pack for it is larger size than the original game itself. That makes the biggest difference. Although individual cars etc are not that huge in size. I use GPL mods that add/ehnance audio/visual side and increase further realism, historical accuracy, etc. I treat SPA'67 for GPL as a kind of a standalone title even, because it's such an outlier.

Hah thanks for the pic of KR, it took me back 20 years to amateur roadracing on natural tracks, 125cc 2-stroke, changing tires on the pavement with simple tools and swapping carburettor jets due to ambient temperature changing way too much. Jolly good times!
You are right, times changed and so did the sport... now everything has to have a standardised format or follow design manual like with any franchise. Drivers/riders are debriefed what to say pretty much by sponsors and their lawyers.

Anyway, I'll try to watch moto3/2/gp this weekend, it's Portugal race after all. Not following them races religiously as I used to, but I try to keep an eye on it at least in case of moto racing, rally, dakar, etc. Can't say I saw much of the F1 in a decade though. But at least I have these old games! ;)

If the word "Formula 1" or "F1" isn't used anywhere, then that shouldn't be a problem of any kind. Real cars are a real problem.
As far as tracks are concerned, again, as long as the real name of the circuit is not being used, that shouldn't be an issue. The track in itself is geographical thing, you can look it up from maps and satellite images, so it's almost impossible to have any copyrights on those. Although probably to be on the safe side, lawyers get some signatures about those things as well.


I really don't recall how much real names and such were in the said game, but I would guess the biggest problem will be the car brands. Those have been the issue in so many other racing/driving games as well.


Anyway, someone really should work on getting some these here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_video_games

They used Ferrari and Lotus. Some no longer existing car manufacturers and the already mentioned Honda and Cooper - for the latter two they didn't get the licenses, therefore they had to use fantasy names.
They also used the real track names.
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Don't get me wrong: I wouldn't mind a re-release of this game (or any other game really).
However, I have a hard time imagining anyone throwing good money after bad money, only to try and sell this 20+ year old game (that shows its age) to a handful of F1 enthusiasts who apparently need to be a tad masochistic (in regard to difficulty levels), to be able to enjoy the experience.

I mean, it's not as if that particular target group wouldn't have half a dozen games already, that serve that purpose - with modern graphics.

You're a man of culture, I see :)

No crazy Turbo/Nitro/DRS/KERS buttons to make races more enjoyable due the extreme boring naure of close rules. Ford vs Ferrari movie show pretty well how teams were dependent on some crazy/visionary and/or mad driver guy in the team.
I actually wrote and deleted pretty much the same in previous post but your version is way more eloquent. Unfortunately is not only on Racing sports. Imagine someone like Rene Higita (football goalkeeper) nowadays instead of the robotic discourse.

Portugal's "Autodromo do Algarve" is an amazing track, been there several times. Let's hope the race goes well and is enjoyable.

I still thing GTLegends would be a good fit for GOG, also both GTR games. DRM free on Steam already, still sold so it shouldn't be very hard to get here.
Only if those games had a RPG tag...

It's a shame that licenses per game are not a permanent agreement, so games like this could be brought back into the marketplace easier. But as it is, I also doubt anyone would see the benefit to jumping through the hoops required for a rerelease.