The game includes a Grand Prix mode, which was designed to be technical and realistic, and an arcade mode, which was aimed towards a broader audience. Formula 1 97 supports two-player racing through a split screen.
Development
Formula 1 97 was developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Psygnosis. It uses the same game engine as the original Formula 1. Psygnosis contacted ITV commentator Murray Walker and arranged a meeting with Bizarre Creations employees. Walker became impressed with development and signed an exclusive agreement with Psygnosis to record English-language commentary for a further two years.
Reception
Formula 1 97 was a best-seller in the UK. In August 1998, the game's PlayStation version received a "Platinum" sales award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland, indicating sales of at least 200,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. IGN gave a rating of 9.0 out of 10 stating the game is a "significant jump" from Formula 1. It also received a rating of 7.9 from GameSpot, saying the game had "sent PlayStation racing into a new era." However, this was the last Formula One game to be made by the Bizarre Creations team, who moved on to create the successful Metropolis Street Racer for the Dreamcast and Project Gotham Racing for the Xbox. Official UK PlayStation Magazine said it was a big improvement in every regard over the previous game, and that the "graphics engine is faster, running at 25 fps, even with a dozen cars on the screen. The increased detail is most apparent in Grand Prix mode. All the cars are now fully deformable, and stray bits of debris stay on the track. Prepare to be stunned."
Legal issues
The game was hit by legal wranglings with the FIA objecting to the use of the FIA logo on the game's packaging. The game was withdrawn from shops six weeks after its release. It was re-released without the offending logo, but the FIA were still unhappy. However, the FIA lost the court case, and the game continued to be sold without the logo. Another problem faced was the use of the name and image of then-Williams-F1-driver Jacques Villeneuve, after he had copyrighted both. The game shows a silhouette for the driver's image. Murray Walker refers to him as "Williams Numberone" or "The Canadian", however on the game menu, they list him as Driverone Williams; this problem is easily sidestepped by the addition of a driver name edit function. The game also has unused voice clips for Jacques Villeneuve, that can be found via hacking methods. This idea proved popular and re-appeared in Formula 1 98, but was not used for any of the following games. The driver name edit function is also used to enter codes to unlock the Aida, Adelaide, Silverstone, a mirrored version of the original game's bonus track, and others, such as raining frogs and the cars having the ability to hover. All alcohol and tobacco sponsors are censored, for example trackside adverts saying Faster instead of Fosters, since such advertisements were illegal in some parts of the U.S.
