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An original Matica game

Original F1 Racing

Play our classic Formula 1 racing game, choose your car, select a track and you're ready to race.

Go to gameAbout the game
Original F1 Racing artwork
Original F1 Racing

A little internet history

When games arrived in the browser.

1995
Java applets helped turn web pages into places you could play, with games running inside the browser.
The plug-in era ends
Browsers gradually stopped supporting Java plug-ins. Java 11 removed the browser deployment tools; the Java language itself continues.
Today
This original game runs through our browser emulator. You don’t need to install the old Java plug-in.

Our part in that early web

Our Java games began on Smilie.com in the 1990s, before Matica followed. A surviving Smilie archive from 1 June 1997 refers to Mirkin’s Darts; Matica appears in the archive from 11 November 1998.

These games are part of that first wave of web play. We’re keeping them accessible, along with their original pages and history.

Read more: Java’s early tutorial history · Oracle’s applet deployment notes

Restored from the preserved Smilie Formula Racing copy. Use Left/Right to steer, Up or Space to accelerate, Down or Z to brake, and P to pause. Sound and saved lap times are still being restored.