About
Race Driver: GRID is a 2008 racing game developed and published by Codemasters, and the first entry in the GRID sub-series of the long-running TOCA Race Driver line. It was the first Codemasters title built on their EGO engine and spans disciplines from touring cars and muscle cars to Le Mans-style endurance and drift events, with a damage model and a Flashback rewind feature.
It was well received, winning a BAFTA in the Sports category and earning a Racing Game of the Year nomination at the Interactive Achievement Awards. The game was delisted from sale in late 2016; its single-player career remains fully playable while the original online multiplayer servers are no longer active.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- grid.exe
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- GE-Proton
- Winetricks
- —
- ProtonDB
- ProtonDB Gold runs perfectly after tweaks
⚙ Setup notes
Game: Codemasters' 2008 racer (the first GRID, Steam appid 12750), delisted end of 2016.
DRM: This title does NOT use GFWL, so no GFWL service is needed for single-player. The original retail/Steam build shipped with SecuROM; on the delisted Steam copy this is handled by Steam's own wrapper. If you run an offline DVD/disc copy instead, prefer the v1.3-patched build (the publisher's own update that removed the disc-DRM layer).
Proton: Runs well under Proton — use a recent GE-Proton or proton_experimental.
Fix: On modern multi-core CPUs the engine can crash or stutter; a community 6/8-thread CPU fix (and matching resolution fix) resolves this.
Display: Widescreen/FOV can be corrected with the PCGamingWiki FOV utility.
Controller: Gamepad works (partial native controller support); the Steam Deck controls map cleanly with the default Steam Input gamepad profile.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: Delisted commercial game (appid 12750).
DRM: No GFWL service is involved. The retail/Steam build used SecuROM disc-DRM; the Steam copy launches through Steam's wrapper, so no extra shim is required for single-player.
Fix: On 6+ core / high-thread-count CPUs (incl. the Deck) apply the community 6/8-thread CPU fix plus the resolution fix to avoid crashes/stutter; use the FOV utility for correct 16:10 widescreen.
Controller: Controller support is partial-native and the default Steam Input gamepad layout covers the rest, so input works on Deck.
Links: deckport links nothing.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options, Proton version)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.