This is so cool! I had this as a super-young kid! I was a little too young to know what a good game was, but it entertained me and held my attention, even the animated menus showing how the axles turned and how the air flowed. I didn't understand it all, but it made an impression. There was also a Buick simulator. I'm not sure how our family acquired them. If there were 7-ish versions, they must've been able to justify their creation. If 2, 3, and 5 didn't result in an increase in sales, why go up to 7? Why would Buick copy them? That feedback form must have been what they used to justify their creation and show that they were reaching people.
As with any marketing campaign, the idea is you measure how much you're spending on that campaign versus how much money you're making from customers as a direct result, and use that metric to decide whether to continue it or shut it down. Clearly, the whole Ford Simulator thing was making Ford way more money than it was costing to make/promote/distribute the software. ;)
We got sent it as part of a shareware/PD subscription service my parents had in the 80s, where they would pick software for us and send us, but if we wanted to register it we would have to read the registration info documents on the disk. Ford Simulator was sent us as PD in that way IIRC.
Interesting... I didn't check shareware subscription services in my research because there's hardly any information about any of them anymore... I can't imagine that was the only way the Ford Simulator was distributed though, especially since I've seen photos of the proper disks and inserts and such, one of which for Ford Simulator II thanked customers for "purchasing" it. :B
@@Pixelmusement Oh. I definitely don't think it was the only way. Could also be it was distributed like this here because it focused on models and prices that were not relevant to scandinavians...
I have a heavy suspicion that the early Ford Simulators were used at Ford dealerships to "wow" customers with the (then) new technology, as a salesman uses the program to help sell a car (& the program if the customer was interested). As PCs became more common place they moved to sell directly to consumers
Maybe, but I'm 99% certain the early ones were sold to potential customers because I've seen the package Ford Simulator II comes in as well as some of the supplemental material which explicitly thanks the user for "purchasing" it. :P
Hey Gemini, your content is fantastic! If I’m not mistaken, you tend to create episodes only for games you own in physical format. Have you ever thought about bending that rule for the benefit of the channel?
Physical or digital, but for ADG always legitimate copies in order to describe certain aspects appropriately, as less-than-legit copies may not function properly and thus give the wrong impression of how the game is supposed to run. In fact, you can see the results of very slightly bending that rule in my Captain Comic II episode: ua-cam.com/video/D5vRBGL8VMo/v-deo.html
@@Pixelmusement Thank you for your reply! I was concerned after watching the episode of "Quarantine," where you mentioned how difficult it is to get physical copies of that game. It made me wonder if some great games were never reviewed on the channel because of similar challenges.
MANY actually. I've been doing this for quite awhile now though and every so often I'll find something on my own or a fan of the show will send something in, and beyond that, I can only cover so much material being just one guy so it all works out well enough! :)
@@Pixelmusement It's basically a 'roster update' from Ford Sim 3 1.0 as we would call it now, but it's the only time they did an updated re-release, and they did go directly to Ford 5 after. If it was ever confirmed I don't know where to find it either, though.
Oh dang; I've never seen the first one of these before. Had a shareware cd with Ford Simulator 2 on it, though. While that one added traffic and such to avoid, it dropped the vehicle selection and (IIRC) the variety of play modes
For whatever reason, my left arm was hurting all day.. but started to subside as I watched this video. Gaming videos have healing properties confirmed! (Or its a coincidence but... let's embrace the clickbait)
I typically use DOSBox's internal recording capabilities to capture a pixel-perfect, lossless stream, then convert that to the correct aspect ratio in a 1080p stream using a combination of VirtualDub and FFMPEG. However, if a game is VERY demanding on CPU power, or features audio which ONLY works through MIDI, I will use external capture software and typically use OBS for that, as even though it's streaming software it works surprisingly well for game capture, though the resulting footage needs to be recompressed following to function properly in my editing software. :P
It is interesting as a part of history. I saw Ford Simulator 2 on LGR, and this first one is better then the second: ua-cam.com/video/Ff-P-Gwe8C8/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
This is so cool! I had this as a super-young kid! I was a little too young to know what a good game was, but it entertained me and held my attention, even the animated menus showing how the axles turned and how the air flowed. I didn't understand it all, but it made an impression. There was also a Buick simulator. I'm not sure how our family acquired them. If there were 7-ish versions, they must've been able to justify their creation. If 2, 3, and 5 didn't result in an increase in sales, why go up to 7? Why would Buick copy them? That feedback form must have been what they used to justify their creation and show that they were reaching people.
As with any marketing campaign, the idea is you measure how much you're spending on that campaign versus how much money you're making from customers as a direct result, and use that metric to decide whether to continue it or shut it down. Clearly, the whole Ford Simulator thing was making Ford way more money than it was costing to make/promote/distribute the software. ;)
We got sent it as part of a shareware/PD subscription service my parents had in the 80s, where they would pick software for us and send us, but if we wanted to register it we would have to read the registration info documents on the disk. Ford Simulator was sent us as PD in that way IIRC.
Interesting... I didn't check shareware subscription services in my research because there's hardly any information about any of them anymore... I can't imagine that was the only way the Ford Simulator was distributed though, especially since I've seen photos of the proper disks and inserts and such, one of which for Ford Simulator II thanked customers for "purchasing" it. :B
@@Pixelmusement Oh. I definitely don't think it was the only way. Could also be it was distributed like this here because it focused on models and prices that were not relevant to scandinavians...
I got this game in a box of shareware floppies an uncle gave me, when my family bought his Tandy 1000. Good times.
One would think ford would just had worked with Accolade to just tweak its test drive game to have ford cars.
I have a heavy suspicion that the early Ford Simulators were used at Ford dealerships to "wow" customers with the (then) new technology, as a salesman uses the program to help sell a car (& the program if the customer was interested).
As PCs became more common place they moved to sell directly to consumers
Maybe, but I'm 99% certain the early ones were sold to potential customers because I've seen the package Ford Simulator II comes in as well as some of the supplemental material which explicitly thanks the user for "purchasing" it. :P
An F-150 retailing for 10 grand. Oh, to go back to prices like that.
Inflation go brr
Hey Gemini, your content is fantastic! If I’m not mistaken, you tend to create episodes only for games you own in physical format. Have you ever thought about bending that rule for the benefit of the channel?
Physical or digital, but for ADG always legitimate copies in order to describe certain aspects appropriately, as less-than-legit copies may not function properly and thus give the wrong impression of how the game is supposed to run. In fact, you can see the results of very slightly bending that rule in my Captain Comic II episode: ua-cam.com/video/D5vRBGL8VMo/v-deo.html
@@Pixelmusement Thank you for your reply! I was concerned after watching the episode of "Quarantine," where you mentioned how difficult it is to get physical copies of that game. It made me wonder if some great games were never reviewed on the channel because of similar challenges.
MANY actually. I've been doing this for quite awhile now though and every so often I'll find something on my own or a fan of the show will send something in, and beyond that, I can only cover so much material being just one guy so it all works out well enough! :)
Ford Simulator 3 version 1.1 from 1993 is the 'missing' Ford 4 game.
Is it THAT big of a jump from 1.0 to justify that though? Also, any sources you know of online to confirm that? :o
@@Pixelmusement It's basically a 'roster update' from Ford Sim 3 1.0 as we would call it now, but it's the only time they did an updated re-release, and they did go directly to Ford 5 after. If it was ever confirmed I don't know where to find it either, though.
Well, I can at least add some details about that to the video description in that it MAY explain the missing 4th iteration! :B
Both Ford Simulator and Leisure Suit Larry part four are missing!!!
The Festiva! My high school had one as a "Security" vehicle. It basically sat in the back of the field behind the parking lot.
I love how the steering wheel has a Ford emblem but the dash has a Mercury emblem.
only in some cars
I loved this as a kid.
It's basically a glorified showroom more than a game. But the driving portion is pretty neat for something that is a glorified car catalog.
Oh dang; I've never seen the first one of these before. Had a shareware cd with Ford Simulator 2 on it, though. While that one added traffic and such to avoid, it dropped the vehicle selection and (IIRC) the variety of play modes
For whatever reason, my left arm was hurting all day.. but started to subside as I watched this video.
Gaming videos have healing properties confirmed! (Or its a coincidence but... let's embrace the clickbait)
You go into great detail. Well done.
How do you screen-record your games ? What software ?
If I recall correctly he uses the DOSbox video capture feature for that.
I typically use DOSBox's internal recording capabilities to capture a pixel-perfect, lossless stream, then convert that to the correct aspect ratio in a 1080p stream using a combination of VirtualDub and FFMPEG. However, if a game is VERY demanding on CPU power, or features audio which ONLY works through MIDI, I will use external capture software and typically use OBS for that, as even though it's streaming software it works surprisingly well for game capture, though the resulting footage needs to be recompressed following to function properly in my editing software. :P
@@Pixelmusement Good explanation. A lot of work. Thanks.
It is interesting as a part of history. I saw Ford Simulator 2 on LGR, and this first one is better then the second: ua-cam.com/video/Ff-P-Gwe8C8/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
I remember this game. I had it.
Why why why would you put the same dashboard in every car? It completely defeats the point!
I played one of these on a shareware collection CD, don't know which one