Formula One video games
Ever since 1983's Pole Position, Formula One has always plays a part of the racing genre in video games. Geoff Crammond's 1991 simulation Grand Prix played an integral role in moving Formula One games from arcade games to being full simulations of the sport.
Early roots and Arcade games
The roots of Formula One games can be traced back to the 70s, when arcade gamer were created: an early eample is Gran Trak 10, a game which depicted F1-like cars going on a race track.
However, the first successful Formula One game in arcade history was Pole Position, by Namco. In Pole Position, the player has to complete a lap in a certain amount of time in order to qualify for a race at the Fuji racetrack. After qualifying, the player had to face other cars in a championship race. The game was very successful and it spawned an official sequel, Pole Position II, and an unofficial one, Final Lap. After the success of Pole Position, many similar games appeared on arcade s(and later ported on PCs): it's the case of TX-1.
During the late 80s, arcades began being dropped in favour of PC games. Late successul arcade games can be considered Super Sprint, which uses the top view instead of the rear view of most games, and its sequel Championship Sprint.
Dawn of the PC era
The first true Formula One racing simulator was Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix (F1GP). Previously, most racing games representing Formula One, such as Accolade's Grand Prix Circuit and Electronic Arts' Ferrari Formula One, had been arcade-style games, but F1GP paid more attention to the physics of the cars, in addition to innovative graphics. The game, released in 1992, was based on the 1991 season. Over the years, the game had sequels Grand Prixs 2, 3, and 4 (based on 1994, 1998, with a 2000 update, and 2001 respectively).
The F1 official license was also held by Ubisoft and later transferred to Electronic Arts, which created seasonal simulations and also F1 Challenge 1999-2002.
A notable place on PC simulation games is held by Papyrus' Grand Prix Legends, which depicted the 1967 Formula One season instead of the then-current season, like all other contemporaries. It recreates in a very accurate way the physics of the car and the feel of driving a real 1967 Formula One racer: for this, even after many years, it's still considered one of the most realistic games ever made. The game still has a vast popularity among video gamers, with many mods and original circuits being produced.
Console gaming
Beginning from the second part of the 80s more and more gamer begain being created for use on personal computers, which could guarantee an easier and less expensive developing. Most of these games featured racetracks, cars and driver names similar to the real ones, but all slighly changed, since they didn't have official licenses from FIA. Examples of this are Super Monaco GP (and his sequel Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II, which featured a license to display only Ayrton Senna's name) or Nigel Mansell's World Championship, but many other less known games had similar features.
The first half of the 90s saw a growing in popularity of Formula One games, and many software houses began acquiring licences and display most real names and cars: it's the case of Formula One by Domark, which featured most real tracks, drivers and teams.
The 3D graphics revolution started by Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix wasn't unnoticed by the console market anyway: some software houses began developing games in such style like Sega with his Virtua Racing, and later Namco with Ace Driver: Victory Lap (which featured futuristic, F1-like cars).
The first 3D game to feature a full license was Formula 1, developed by Bizarre Creations and released on PlayStation, the first game of the successful Formula One series. Despite the game being a mostly arcade game, it was very well received; later the series moved towards a more realistic race approach. Many other Formula One games spawned after this one: it's the case of the EA Sports F1 Series, or Nintendo's F-1 World Grand Prix and F-1 World Grand Prix II.
Modern PC simulators
As the trend towards open source software has increased, developers have realised that many video games users like to add their own features to the games, and many modern PC racing games have become easier to mod. Games such as rFactor, although not primarily a Formula One game, have become somewhat of a development stage. rFactor players can download several mods for various F1 seasons, including "classic" seasons such as 1979 and 1954. The game's makers, Image Space Incorporated, have worked with the BMW Sauber F1 team to introduce a realistic version of both the F1.06 and F1.07.
Most recently, Sony had held an exclusive license to make Formula One games from 2003 until 2007. Before that it was held by Electronic Arts and before that it was Microprose and the Grand Prix series.