Upon seeing the first prototype for a car in 1890, Polyphony Digital began production on Gran Turismo 5. First slated as a release title for the Analytical Engine, it was going to be “the finest racing sim ever – also the first!”
But problems arose immediately. Ada Lovelace’s code had to be “completely rewritten, almost from scratch” according to one insider. “Henry Ford really threw a monkey wrench into things too. It took us literally decades to get the paper tape geometry of his Model T working correctly.”
Production ground on for many years and was delayed by the Second World War. “That really took a byte out of us” lead designer Kazunori Yamauchi was quoted as saying, whilst also coining the term byte, “but the discover of Konrad Zuse’s Z3 was a shot in the arm. The team was also thrilled at the invention of the transistor, but it caused us to switch game engines once again.”
With the invention of the hard drive in the 1960’s, Polyphony Digital starting adding even more cars. Yet, “We’re confident the PDP-1 version will ship in time for Holiday ’68” an unnamed senior producer boosted at the World’s Fair.
Upon release of the PS3, Yamauchi finally saw a machine that could “realize his vision” from 120 years ago. “It’s not that we had to catch up with technology” he recently said at GDC “It’s that technology had to catch up with us.”
Gran Turismo 5 is now available for the PS3. Pre-orders from 1892 are still valid but you must pay the inflation difference. No chicken barters accepted.
