GeneRally was first released as a public beta version in 2002, by Finnish students Hannu & Jukka Räbinä. An homage to a childhood favourite, "Slicks 'n' Slide", GeneRally was aimed at being a simple, top-down arcade racing game. As with many independently-developed games of the time, the Räbinäs had no intention of profiting from their work, but simply created a game that they themselves wanted to play.

In only a few short weeks, GeneRally had amassed hundreds of players, with word spreading like wildfire across the various forums and bulletin boards dedicated to racing games and motorsports. The game's simplicity was an incredible draw for players young and old: some were reminded of their childhood memories, while others discovered a new passion for the top-down racing genre.

Undoubtedly, the simple Track Editor that came along with the game was also responsible for its fair share of converts - but not even the Räbinä brothers could predict what would happen over the coming months and years.
After 18 months of updates and new versions, GeneRally arrived at its 8th official release in December 2003. But this was to be its last release for nearly 8 years.