PROJECT ARMAGEDDON - JANUARY UPDATE

Its been around a month & a half since EA announced the shutdown of Real Racing 3, since then the last 6 weeks have been a whirlwind of late nights & long days trying to preserve this great game...

And now here at the end of January, I want to provide an update & give everyone an inside look at the current project progress, the success I've had so far, & the hurdles I am still yet to clear with less than 50 days remaining before Armageddon arrives...

The foundation: picking the right emulators

For those unaware, my method of preservation for this project has been through emulation. As not only is it the best way to guarantee compatibility across a multitude of devices, but it also ensures that the important game data remains intact for future use despite the server shutdown.

Now there are two angles of this attack, PC emulation & Android emulation from the device itself. On the PC side there was never a second thought for me to choose anything other than Noxplayer, it has an easy to understand layout & prominently features the option to backup & import other emulation instances. Making it the ideal choice for PC users...

Now on the android device side it's been a lot more of a struggle, there isn't very many apps to pick from & even fewer that have all the right specs & features...

Now after a lot of trial & error, the clear frontrunner is VphoneOS. Not only does it offer both 32 & 64 bit emulation, but also the ability to export files from inside the emulated instance. Which opens up a plethora of possibilities for this game after March 20th...

Now this is a mobile game after all, so its highly likely that if given the choice most people will choose to play RR3 on their mobile devices instead of moving to a much less portable PC or laptop. And while I agree that playing on mobile is the superior way to play RR3 ... my goal from the start has been to insure that this game remains accessible to the maximum amount of people around the globe, I don't want this game to be locked behind expensive software or specific devices. This game & its players deserve better...

The gameplay: What to expect

Enough about the details, let's talk about the actual process! 

Obviously not everyone wants to start with a zero progress file loaded in, but I also understand that a 100% complete game mod with every car fully upgraded isn't very much fun to play either...

So how do I strike a balance? By creating a save file that has enough money to buy a small country with almost every car unlocked, while at the same time making sure that all the cars have no upgrades installed & with the fewest number of races already completed. So expect tons of currency & event choices from the second you open the game!

Where is it: Current progress of the project

So where am I at now? At the moment of typing this message, I am currently at 25% preservation complete (23% to be exact).

Now I want to make it clear that this progress bar is also counting in the fact that I need to backup all 112 versions of RR3 twice, once on PC & again for android.

I started working to get the PC side of this taken care of first thing, that effort is currently up to V7.2.0 & still going slow but strong.

The good news in all of this is that once all of the versions are backed up on PC, the second half of this project will go much quicker with all the groundwork already completed & gone through once before.

I will provide another total project update at the end of February where I hope to have more good news...

The catch: Problems I've already encountered

But getting to this point hasn't been easy, here are some of the issues I've come across so far since starting this preservation journey...

Internet required events - It became clear early on with the introduction of special events like SpeedRush TV & Marquis World Championship to the main line career campaign that progress from a base file would be impossible after March 20th since those events require an internet connection to open & must be completed to continue career progression.

So having those events & cars already owned & purchased in advance is crucial to make the rest of the game playable after the shutdown date..

LTD cars - Limited edition cars were exclusive vehicles only available at certain times in an attempt to create supply & demand. Needless to say that idea didn't go over very well & only 5 examples existed in the entire car library.

Unfortunately when these cars are available an internet connection is required to complete the purchase. Those 5 cars were added to my base save file that carries over from game to game, that way when I install a new version the important content carries over every time...

Internet required to purchase cars - At V6.6.0, EA had the bright idea to make any new car introduced in the latest update to only be bought online. The decision doesn't seem to make any sense other than to make my life miserable but here we are.

Expiring licenses - Both nascar & V8 Supercars in the game suffered from licensing despites & the expiring of said licenses. Because of those licensing problems, anyone who didn't already own those cars in-game would lose access to them forever.

That makes things very complicated for me since the events to win these cars ended years ago.

This is a problem that I currently have under control but is one that I will continue to encounter at every version of the game...

Trouble ahead: the hurdles I need to clear

Here are some things I haven't encountered yet that will be a major problem going forward...

Forced updates - After version 8.6, connecting to the internet will automatically trigger a popup message stating that the player must update their game to the new version. Ultimately making the game unplayable beyond that point.

M$ currency - The M$ is one that I'm not looking forward to dealing with, again my goal is that every version of this game would feature a virtually unlimited amount of money so that the player never needs to connect to the internet again ... well the M$ currency flies in the face of all of that!

Not only is the currency hard capped at an amount too low to buy & upgrade every car that uses it, but its also hard capped at even lower daily level. A hard cap that doesn't reset unless ... that's right! You have an internet connection.

M$ becomes a major factor of RR3 especially in its later years, so finding a fix will be paramount when it arrives at V8.0.0!

More nascar seasons - At my current progress point (V7.2.0), the 2019 nascar season is currently the newest available option, but the nascar series will receive yearly updates all the way until 2023. So theres several more nascar stock cars yet to be added to the game, cars that will already be unavailable by the time I install them so removing them could be very time consuming...

Bumps in the road: Older versions that need attention

Just because ive made to V7.2.0, doesn't mean the ones behind are functioning properly ... here are some versions im currently struggling with...

V1.0.30 - this version seems to be broken in some way, as it doesn't seem to communicate with the server to download the necessary game data ... this is an ongoing investigation

1.0.56 - this would be considered to be the oldest working version of RR3 on android ... if it wasn't for the fact that have major glitches & bugs involved with the game assets & overall functionality of this particular version. Now things seem very hit or miss depending on the device or emulator its running on, I don't want to give up on it just yet ... but it may be a very fickle version to deal with

V1.0.59 - this version suffers from a similar problem to 1.0.30, except for the fact that everytime the data download reaches 100% it fails & automatically resets the download back to 0%

V1.3.0 - this one is very simple, I just cant find it. No matter how hard I've looked this specific version of the game is nowhere to be found! It's very possible that it becomes lost media if any apk file for it isn't found soon...

Conclusion : Thanks for reading this far!

But there you have it, a complete look at the project & the current progress as of January 2026! Again I will send another full length debrief at the end of February with more news & updates...

If you want to help beta test any of the current versions I have backed up, feel free to contact me at any of the social media's linked below!

Thank you all for the support you've given me over the past 6 weeks, you have no idea how much it means to me seeing so many people band together with a common goal.

Thanks again, I'll talk to you all again soon ... and until next time ... keep on gaming!