Dear all,
First of all, happy new year, and the best wishes for 2018.
My apologies if this has already been posted, but I could not really find a thread which covers my problem.
To get to my question: I»ve been a fan of the game GP2 ever since it was first released and I’ve played it for many years now; I am actually quite surprised that there are still so many fans like me. I still have the original CD that I bought over twenty years ago, and it still functions in combination with Dosbox. I have even managed to install my favourite carset — Pieter’s 1994 Senna carset, with the red/white Larrousses — by using GP2 Edit (v 1.86) and am quite proud of myself that I’ve been able to do so. (I used to have «GPX» cds that installed these carsets… not sure if they are known outside the Netherlands.)
However, the one mod that I cannot seem to install is the GP2 No CD patch, as Windows 10 «cannot open this app». As such, I cannot patch it to the programme folder, resulting in me needing the CD to start the game time and time again. Thus, I am unable to replace boring tracks (such as Magny Cours) with wonderful tracks, which I would love to do of course! Has anyone else experienced this problem, and if so… what can I do to open the patch without needing to install, say, Windows 8 or XP?
Thank you!
Overduidelijk misschien.
Tutorial — Grand Prix 2 With Windows 10, Racing Wheel And Pedals
A tutorial on how to get GP2 working with modern sim racing equipment. I can tell you, it’s awesome to play with a good wheel!
God I love this game! Played it for hundreds of hours in the 90’s and now I’ve found it again! Getting it to work with Windows 10 and DOSBox was easy, but I knew it should also be possible to get it to work with wheel and pedals. So I put the time and effort into it and got a good result.
On my YouTube channel we are soon starting a hardcore season of GP2. Once that series starts, I know I’ll get a lot of questions of how did I manage to make this very old game to work with a modern PC and a modern racing wheel. So, it’s time to share:
You can watch the tutorial video, or if you prefer, read the instructions in this blog:
DOSBox?
First of all, we use DOSBox to run the game, but not the conventional one! Use DOSBox ECE instead. It’s like the normal DOSBox, but it runs the game with the correct speed whereas the normal DOSBox runs it way too fast. Lowering cycles does not help with this issue so you should use DOSBox ECE.
The game is difficult enough, you really don’t need to add any extra difficulty by running it too fast. If nothing else you’ll get murdered in the middle of 25 AI death machines. On steroids.
Make sure you have following Joystick settings on config file located at C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Local\DOSBox
joysticktype = auto
timed = true (if calibration is jittery you should change this to false)
autofire = false
swap34 = false
buttonwrap = false
circularinput = false
deadzone = 0
Note that on the tutorial video I talk about DOSBox SVN Daum. Forget about it, it’s old information.
Wheel Settings in Windows
Next we’ll check out the racing wheel settings in Windows. I have Thrustmaster T500 RS but similar settings should apply to other racing wheels.
In Thrustmaster control panel I have set the wheel rotation to 300 degrees. This feels good and natural to me but you can adjust it according to your taste. Pedal axes can and should be separated:
Auto-center settings must come from wheel, not from the game since the game does not have force feedback. Otherwise you get no resistance from the wheel and you can’t tell how much you should turn it. The centering force of the wheel I have set to 100%.
Running the Game
Now I’m not going to teach you how to use DOSBox for there are many great tutorials out there if you’re a noob. However, these are the joystick settings in the config file:
C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Local\DOSBox
joysticktype = auto
timed = true (if calibration is jittery you should change this to false)
autofire = false
swap34 = false
buttonwrap = false
circularinput = false
deadzone = 0
DOSBox should recognize your wheel automatically when you start it and it should be usable in game.
Also make sure you have aspect correction on and find the best screen settings for your monitor. I myself run GP2 in full-screen mode. (alt+enter)
So let’s start the game!
These are the control settings in game, copy these, calibrate your wheel and pedals and try it out!
The only problem is that the steering is very sensitive in high speeds in straight line. So you can add low sensitivity zone if you like. I personally don’t like low sensitivity zones or deadzones with racing games that have no force feedback. Without FF you have no way of feeling when the deadzone ends and steering ”bytes” and you easily end up spinning the car in corner entry. Also I don’t like speed-sensitive steering cause it makes the steering inconsistent. So I’ll rather be a bit scared in straights :O
And that’s it, you’re good to go! In my opinion this game is a lot of fun to drive with wheel and pedals and the driving feels as it should feel. It’s hard and you have to keep your focus, but that’s how it is, it’s Formula One! Physics are obviously not as detailed and fine-tuned as in modern sims, but they make sense and they feel right.
If you want to follow my full season with full-length races without any drivint assists, full damage and hardest difficulty, go and subscribe my channel! Races are streamed live and are of course you can also watch them afterwards in YouTube.
Hopefully you found this helpful. I’ll be glad to answer any questions!
TED MEAT
Terve! first of all THANK YOU REALLY MUCH for your blogs and videos, it’s like jumping back in time and I go crazy with your «aaaaaaaaaaand» introducing a new video 
Your dedication and love for the GP series made me willing to play them again, GP2 especially (which I haven’t played that much to be honest) with my super ol… ahmmm.. vintage wheel: a Logitech formula force GP. I have a problem, I’m not sure maybe you can help me? I’m able to make the wheel steering working on DosBOX ECE (the version you suggested) but I’m struggle to make my pedals working properly: basically if I’m able to set my breaks I can’t set throttle and viceversa. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you really really much anyway, I’ll look forward for your next video (but comes first! :D)
Thanks for doing some grave digging and play these games. I’ve spent hundred (if not thousands) of hours playing the GP series and GP2 had been a marvel for me when it got out.
I’m following your tutorial and reinstalled the game, sadly I haven’t been able to correctly calibrate my wheel (G27), I have sort of a dead zone in the middle that make it unusable. (3O° around the middle, GP2 doesn’t see any movement). And GP2 cannot see the shift paddles as it can only use the first two buttons of a peripheral.
Too bad, your videos really made me want to do a full season. I consoled myself by reading the manual… 
Hi Ted,
Happy to see you driving all the oldscool racinggames i played in the passed as well!
I tried to get GP2 working on my windows 10 laptop with DOSbox etc. The game is running, but the speed is terrible. I have to turn the graphics very low and then still everything is really struggling. Do you have some tips for me? The laptop i have is a:
— HP Z-book with windows 10 pro.
— Processor Intel Core i7-9850H CPU @ 2.60 GHz 2.59 GHz
— 64 bits / x64-processor
— Videocard/video adapters:
— Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 (standard?)
— NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000
Thanks for you’re help
I don’t do youtube comments but good luck to yourself and Friedrich Bang for the rest of the 1998 season
Im sorry if this comment is a tad irrelevant, but i cant seem to even be able to set up the damned arrow keys for steering inputs. yes I’ve tried to keymap them to no avail. It seems to be clashing with camera controls. With no other guides on the internet I am left with asking experienced players such as yourself for help… any advice would be appreciated. Maybe one day ill even get the wheel. Thanks
Hey Ted, great blog and series. I heard you saying that you use GP2edit to simulate the performance of your Jordan. What settings did you change and do you need to run GP2 from GP2edit.exe or is this not necessary?
Hey Jacopo Nono! Indeed I missed your post on gp2 forum since I haven’t been there for a while. I’m running on automatic cycles and I’m afraid it’s more or less luck if the timed = true works or not. What racing wheel are you using? Try to replace the dosbox ece config file with mine, see if that works better. You can download it here: https://www.tedmeat.com/uploads/blog_images/dosbox-ECE.conf
Ted- I am running dosbox ece, and I’m trying to get the timed=true setting to work. I’m tired of playing gp2 where the gentle curves on straight aways are difficult to follow because the steering resolution is only 0-45 or so with timed = false.
I know I saw you post on the gp2 forum, that you are now using ECE and have excellent control resolution with your steering wheel. Mine is SUPER JITTERY when I switch it to timed = true, but I do get much more resolution. What CYCLES value are you running at? I was running with cycles = auto and this JITTERYNESS with the timed = true setting is much worse then. If I lower my cycles the game runs super slow but I do not have the jittery problem with timed = true. I also asked about this on the gp2 forum, but you must have not seen my post.
Hi, I have problem with my fanatec csl ps4 wheel when calibrating. Red dot is restless and I can’t get it to settle down. I have tried almost everything. Nothing helps. I have windows10. Any ideas how to make it work so that I could play with wheel and pedals. Problem is only the calibrating. Thanks! awesome videos!!
Hi Mauro and sorry about the late answer!
Have you tried increasing CPU Cycles in DOSBox? You can do this by hitting CTRL-F12 (and lower it by hitting CTRL-F11)
It always worked very well. Since last week it slowed down tremendously: I don’t understand why.
Forgive my poor English.
I’d like contact you pleae. I have same questions about dosbox and gp2. Best Regards
Posting this here because I can’t seem to register on grandprix2.de.
Want to revisit a classic using some mods but I have an issue installing tracks. Any time I try to do so using Fragata’s Track Manager it throws me an error saying that it couldn’t read or extract anything from any of the zip files. So I thought I’d try and do it manually but the EXE that uncompresses the JAM files doesn’t work under Windows 10 (used to under my old Windows 7 machine, this one doesn’t seem to like any DOS programs). Ideally I’d like Fragata’s manager to work but I’m stumped as to what’s causing it or how to fix it but I’m happy enough even just do to it manually. Anyone got any ideas?
Jeez Fragata Track Manager, what a blast from the past. I have not had any luck with Fragatas Track Manager for years. I think the last os i had it running well was in windows 2000 maybe xp but definitely not any newer. It just doesnt seem to run. Regarding the installing of the tracks. I install them into the gamejams folder with their correct folder name and extract the contents of the zip there and then point my dosbox to that location and run the jad2jam or convert exe to convert to jams.
__________________________________________________________________________
I´ve never used Fragata Track Manager so can´t help with that. About doing it manually, there is a convert.exe that works also on windows 10, so you don´t need to search every time through the folders with DOSBOX. If you want I could send it on yr mailbox.
The GP2 website now works again and you can try to register again.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2019 02:03AM by eky78.
Grand Prix II, also known as Formula One Grand Prix 2, is the second Formula 1 racing game in the series created by Geoff Crammond. It was published by MicroProse in 1995 for MS-DOS.
This installment was officially licensed and was based on the 1994 Formula 1 race season. This game set the standard for racing games for years, as it took the realism of racing sims to a whole new level. Featuring SVGA Graphics with 3D mapped tracks that were incredibly true to life, you can race every circuit from Monte Carlo to Australia. In GP2, the physics are as accurate as possible and allow for vehicles to become airborne during a race. The cars will also show wear and tear and will smoke or catch fire. Grand Prix II was the first game to feature visible car failure animations. The game also features multiple camera angles to choose from, though the first person from the cockpit is primary.
There are five difficulty levels and seven driving aids for the player to choose from that help with everything from steering to braking. There is also a setup menu that allows for the customization of vehicles. GP2 also features a ‘quick race’ option to skip the qualifying laps altogether and go right into a race.
Honestly, I could go on, but this title needs to be experienced firsthand.
If you liked Formula 1 Grand Prix you can’t miss this one. This is one racer that has stood the test of time, and any fan of the genre needs to check it out.
Read Full Description
A worthy successor to Geoff Crammond’s classic World Circuit (a.k.a. F1 Grand Prix, Grand Prix 2 is a rare sequel that manages to surpass its predecessor in every respect.
Racing game guru Ben Chiu said it all in his thorough review for Strategy Plus: «Thanks to a licensing agreement with the Federation Internationionale de l’Automobile (FIA — F1’s governing body), MicroProse’s follow-up to the immensely popular World Circuit now gives you the privilege to race against Formula 1 superstars like Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, Gerhard Berger, Jean Alesi, and Mikka Hakkinen (on a computer of course, but in reality, the closest the vast majority of us F1 fans will ever get).
The simulation pits you against a re- creation of the 1994 F1 season. Rather than having to rewrite the drivers and team names and drive generic, plain colored cars as you did in the previous title, here the software accurately (and beautifully) reproduces all of the F1 sponsors, cars, and drivers, right down to their helmets. The design also depicts the rule changes such as the banning of traction control and the addition of downforce reducing planks implemented around the time of the Ayrton Senna tragedy.
When you first start driving laps, the car modeling in the design isn’t readily apparent. This is mainly because you are only given a generic car setup to start with, and naturally, how it feels is highly dependent on your setup. However, make no mistake about it, working on your car here actually does something useful, and is ultimately the only way to go fast. The attention to the real world racing detail is unparalleled; more than that ? it’s awesome. In addition to having control over the usual brake bias, gear ratios, wings, and sway bars, in this incarnation you can adjust packers, springs and damper (shocks) valving! This means you have control over both bump and rebound velocity sensitive dampening. If you have no idea what this means, don’t worry; you have the option of learning and adjusting things in levels, so you can leave them alone until you’re ready. When you want to delve into the next steps, the included manual does a very good job of explaining F1 car dynamics; there’s also a data recorder that charts your car’s performance, to help you along. While this is all cutting edge, state of the art stuff, it’s unusual that one of the simplest auto racing setup tricks hasn’t been included: taking tire temps.
The enhancements to Grand Prix 2 don’t stop there. There are really too many to list, but here are a few of my favorites: you can leave the ground if you touch wheels with another car or launch it over a curb; if you cut the track, you will be black flagged and forced to slow down; the gravel trap run-off areas kick up gravel when you drive into them, and you can hear the gravel hit your car; the sounds are also very realistic, and add favorably to the immersion effect; and you can «smoke» your tires and watch it in the rear view mirrors. Best of all, you now have more pit strategy considerations and mechanical failures to deal with.
All of the above add greatly to the simulation, both for feel and gameplay. Unfortunately, no sim is perfect, and this one also has a down side. While the rather silly but sometimes handy two player-single machine «round robin» mode found in World Circuit also returns, so do the multi-player modem and serial modes. However, modem play is rather sluggish even with all graphic details turned off (it’s highly affected by the slowest machine, something technically referred to as «frame lock»). We haven’t tried serial connection (yet!), but it should work better. Finally, the menu structure is a bit chaotic, but it was just about the same in World Circuit; we all learned to live with it.
To sum up, Grand Prix 2 sets a new standard, just like its predecessor, but in a very flashy package. Although the graphic enhancements are the most noticeable surface changes, there is a lot more meat to this simulation if you want it. If you’re into racing sims, you’ll be playing this one for years. If you like IndyCar Racing 2, you’ll also like Grand Prix 2; if you liked World Circuit, you’ll love Grand Prix 2! Unless you hate driving, or don’t have fairly good hardware or controllers, you’ll be sorry if you miss this one. Except for the modem play, Grand Prix 2 blows the doors off anything else on the track.»
An over-qualified addition into our Hall of Belated Fame, and a must-have for racing fans everywhere.
Review By HOTUD