Old School Rally Is The Modern-Day PS1 Racer We’ve Dreamt Of

Modern rally games are a technical marvel. We’ve enjoyed our time playing EA Sports WRC, with its ever-more realistic physics and impressively detailed cars. However, there’s a small part of us that wishes someone would take us back to the PS1 era, the days of Colin McRae Rally and V-Rally. That call has been answered.

This is Old School Rally, and it’s been very, very heavily inspired by the off-road racers from the ‘90s. It only takes a look at the Martini-liveried Lancia Delta and 555 Subaru Impreza to see where that passion comes from.

Details on the game are a little scarce at the moment, largely as development is still in a very early stage. In fact, it wasn’t supposed to be a game at all – with a positive reception to what was intended as a tech demo to push the limits of the PlayStation 1-spec hardware leading to a planned release.

We spoke with developer Sakis Rogkas, who told us it began as a “for fun” project, adding it was “mostly so I can study the PS1 features and limitations and how that translates to modern hardware. It later transformed into something very promising and, with all the positive feedback it received, it evolved into a more polished game with plans for a release on PC and hopefully consoles later.”

Despite being early in development, Rogkas hasn’t been shy to share footage on his X (formerly Twitter) page, @Sakis25. So far, we’ve seen gameplay on snow, tarmac and dirt surfaces.

The latter-most of those is best showcased with what looks like a mishmash of a Nissan Micra and Toyota Corolla taking on a stage that includes jumps and a bridge, complete with a functional HUD and co-driver audio. It’s tingling our nostalgia and, more importantly, the physics look promising.

It’s especially impressive when you consider Rogkas is developing Old School Rally entirely by himself, and intentionally restricting the games’ technical capabilities for a more authentic feel despite PS1 hardware being almost three decades out of date.

Rogkas plans to release Old School Rally to the public later in 2024, but a Steam page is now live where you can add it to your wishlist. We’d recommend keeping an eye on this one.