Simulation Video Games Bucket List

Transport Tycoon Deluxe rebuilt as open source and still patched: bigger maps, better trains, no bankruptcy screen.

Thirty-two hills and a World Cup, the whole flight steered with one mouse gesture; the DOS game every Polish computer ran through Malyszomania.

The first with damage modelling and licensed circuits in 3D, six years in development.

Over six hundred cars and a rally discipline, split across two discs for arcade and simulation.

Built around the FIA online championships, with a sportsmanship rating that decides who you race.

The last on the PlayStation 3, with the Moon rover and a course maker built from real terrain data.

The parks go 3D and you can ride your own coaster from the front seat, at night, with fireworks.

Into early access in February 2023 and left there: the studio was shut down in 2024 and the last patch landed that June.

A damage model that scratches the paint before it bends the panels, and a career that promotes you between championships.

Your Stage: a pair of sliders generate a rally stage nobody has ever driven, then the co-driver reads its notes.

The first of the run without the official WRC licence, so every car carries an invented livery.

The first Colin McRae on the Xbox, rebuilt for the PlayStation 2 generation around a Ford Focus.

The simulation line continued, with stages that rut and break up as each car in the field runs them.

Fly for the Rebellion in 1993, managing shields and laser power by keyboard; the sim TIE Fighter answers.

Road & Track supplied the car data and the police arrive out of oncoming traffic; the 1994 original, on 3DO first.

An arcade mode that finally puts a rival on the stage beside you, over the championship the first game shipped with.

The 1989 original: lay down three kinds of zone, watch the traffic, then send a monster through it.

Geoff Crammond simulates the 1994 Formula One season down to the setup sheet and the tyre wear.

The Top Gear test track, a Nurburgring lap and the car list Xbox built its simulator on.

Soft-body physics where a car deforms panel by panel; a crash sandbox rather than a championship.

Fifty years of one manufacturer in an evolution mode that starts in 1950; the most careful game in the series.

The PlayStation 2 launch showcase: licence tests, replay cameras and 150 cars running at sixty frames.

Le Mans, drift and demolition in one career, with a flashback button that rewinds a crash.

Regions, terraforming and a traffic simulation people still argue with.

One car, one stage, no assists and a rally school to teach the handbrake; still patched by its community.

Laser-scanned circuits and a physics model the modding scene has been building on for a decade.