RE: Test Drive III: Time For Tea?

[Mr Happy]

Neith said:

Never played this, I was far too invested in Lotus turbo challenge and the Jaguar XJ220 game for the Amiga. Moved onto Super Hang-on (Mega Drive) and then finally Gran Turismo. Still love playing Lotus Turbo Challenge though, brilliant retro game. The only Test Drive I've played is 4 so i'll check this out

I still to this day want an Esprit Turbo thanks to Lotus Turbo Challenge II!

The music is etched on my memory!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQSsq7HCNHw

Halcyon days!

Edited by Mr Happy on Monday 26th January 18:03

[Monteverdi Hai]

I always remember this on the ZX Spectrum 48K.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAjLL53g2U8


Countless others including Deathchase and all the new ones at the local 'stardust'.

It was all about the driving games for me.

[pigeonskirt]

Mr Happy said:

I still to this day want an Esprit Turbo thanks to Lotus Turbo Challenge II!

The music is etched on my memory!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQSsq7HCNHw

Halcyon days!

Edited by Mr Happy on Monday 26th January 18:03

Pea soup!

[OllieC]

all about indycar racing and F1GP for me

[bobberz]

Test Drive 4 (on PC) was one of the first racing games I ever played. In fact, I still have it to this day! It introduced me to TVR (which was completely unknown to a kid growing up in the US in the '90s) which eventually led me to this very forum!

It's also responsible for my fantasy of driving flat-out down that crazy hill in San Francisco!

[bobberz]

pigeonskirt said:

Mr Happy said:

I still to this day want an Esprit Turbo thanks to Lotus Turbo Challenge II!

The music is etched on my memory!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQSsq7HCNHw

Halcyon days!

Edited by Mr Happy on Monday 26th January 18:03

Pea soup!

Growing up a decade later, this has to be my all-time favorite song in a racing game, the ska/punk menu music in Moto Racer 2:

http://youtu.be/XfPot3ISkFQ?list=FLkOcgwIL2hDuM-u7...

[Gecko1978]

Oh my god so many hours of my life wasted playing such classics as:

Super Monaco GP
Grand Prix Driver (sega master system)
Outrun
super hang on (bikes not cars)
Road Rash
GT (1st game)
Need for speed 2 (with F550 on front cover)
Carmagedon (1st edition with real red blood)
the 1st GTA where you had top down graphics and a car called the Cossie


From the master system to mega drive SNES, N64, PC, PS1, 2, 3, all have had good driving games and as a student in the 90's there were loads of consolos about Atari Jaguar, Amiga 32 bit, Sega Saturn (vanishing point was good)

I dread to think how many hours i have spent on Gran Tourismo games building the perfect car to do the nurburg ring etc.

One day I will get a full on driving seat wheels and pedals and try an endurance race at the ring ....maybe GT7 on PS4 will be the ticket.

[LittleEnus]

alpha channel said:

Nigel Mainsail? Aaaahh Super Cars 2,

Yes absolute classic.

Never played TD3 but 1 & 2 loads!!

[ambuletz]

I'm shocked that no one has mentioned Metropolish Street Racer on the Dreamcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwTTYohb-is

[loudlashadjuster]

My formative racing games

Night Driver (VCS, none of yer Johnny-come-lately 2600 for me )
Pole Position (VCS)
Sprint/Super Sprint (arcade)
Revs + 4 Tracks (BBC, floppy of course)
Stunt Car Racer (Amiga)
Hard Drivin'/Race Drivin (arcade)
Microprose Formula One Grand Prix (Amiga)
Super Monaco GP (Megadrive)
Need For Speed (3DO)
GT1 & 2 (PS)

I always thought stuff like Test Drive was, well, crap.

Edited by loudlashadjuster on Monday 26th January 21:48

[irish boy]

I had this on my Amiga, I got the batman pack in 1990, literally the best thing ever at 12!

Stunt car racer or lemmings were the best 2 games.

Edit it was test drive 2 I had, the f40 vs the 959. Still remember the noise!

Edited by irish boy on Monday 26th January 21:49

[Ali_T]

No mention for the 3DO version of Need For Speed? That was just amazing for its day, and superior in every way to the PlayStation version.

[J4CKO]

A few from my past, in no particular order



How About, RVF Honda, on the Amiga, that was good fun,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDfIYB-i418


Indianpolis 500 was one of the first that gave some impression of suspension

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqGw7loyK7c


Also, Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qATaCWHLAxw


Stunt car racer, epic and imaginative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hpdj4mAxxM


Viper Racing, pretty forgettable but some amazing (for the time) damage modelling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqBUbu1yyvY


Porsche Challenge from the early PS1 days, many happy memories of this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFA324I_1ws


Need for Speed Porsche unleashed from 15 years ago on the PC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hO-EHNuG1A


Supercars on the Amiga, first thing that had some slidy physics even though was only a top down view

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lstd2FhxKH4


Buggy Boy on the Amiga

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9DUjyfIR9E


Super Hang On

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwnxoXDN1mE


Lombard RAC Rally on the Amiga, big disappointment !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyiAlMfJXmo


V Rally on the PS1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqVkMG6RBf4

Driver on the PS1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghdz5p6sgYo


Pitstop 2 on C64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_DHMjcG-yU


Spy Hunter on C64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYb-vAjv1XM


Power Drift in the arcades, loved this,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eisCeK0HX8A


Hard Drivin, I got so excited about this in the eighties, it was a quid a go I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6JC-HCNcio



Motor Mania on the C64, old and obscure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZyJrdV2hxs

[Kolbenkopp]

B.J.W said:

I picked up a copy of Revs for the BBC B from a Jumble Sale for 50p. No instructions - just a tape and loading details. As with Elite, I put my life into Revs, my progress limited by the fact that learning the controls was trial and error as I didn't know what key did what. Finally getting the car down the straight was a triumph, getting it round the first corner without crashing a miracle. Completing my first race in last place felt like I'd won the F1 World Championship; finishing ahead of Miles Behind and other back markers proved that I was improving fast. Ultimately, I was taking on the game in professional mode and winning 20 lap races. The most difficult game to master I've ever played (except docking at Lave without a docking computer)

Brilliant, thanks! Can relate to that a lot (C64 though). I must have spent months on Revs, slowly learning how stuff worked, actually finishing races, then not finishing them last, then winning... Biggest amount of lap time I found? When Dad explained to me that in real racing, people use the brakes before cornering. Before that, I must have spent weeks optimizing my inputs to be ultra-smooth. Only gas, steering, coasting. Why the hell would I want to brake, like at all? Brakes make the car slow . Ah to be young and stupid again... Good times!

Regarding Elite: if you value any form of social interaction, stay away from Elite: Dangerous [1]. I think we oldies are especially susceptible to what Elite did with our infant development. Anyways... Mustn't waste time, back to the shiny new Imperial Clipper i just bought .

RIGHT ON COMMANDER!

[1] https://www.elitedangerous.com/about/the-pilots-fe...

[Zad]

Out Run's Magical Sound Shower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfU5eYAoIVc

Okay, that'll be an earworm then...

[5ohmustang]

I seem to remember you could get add on packs with more cars and tracks for test drive 2.

[Ug_lee]

This looks positively advanced compared to Test Drive 2 on my Spectrum+3. Kind of imagine the article screenshots but in about 4 colours!

Was the first game I ever bought on floppy, cost me about £15 which was A LOT for a game when usually they were all on tape. Remember marveling at only having to wait 30 secs or so for it to load instead of 5mins+ for the tapes and the lottery at the end to see if the game actually started or not.

[AJLintern]

I remember playing TD3 on this old second hand PC my dad bought at an auction in the early 90's. Ran at about 2 fps but still absorbed hours of enjoyment

[The Wookie]

Wasted many childhood years on Lotus III on the Amiga, Nigel Mansell on the SNES, but the turning point game for me was the original Need for Speed.

Proper road like tracks, realistic(ish) traffic, graphics that were recognisably cars, you could even use the horn and handbrake!

It even had a couple of light hearted cop clips for when you got busted!

[RobM77]

J4CKO said:

Also, Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qATaCWHLAxw

This is where it all started for me I'd played loads of driving games like the Test Drive series up until this, but for my 14th or 15th birthday my parents bought me an Amiga 600 with GC's GP on it and I remember playing it for hours each day for months and months. I was a proper geek and completed the championship on full race distance in 'Ace' mode It was during that time that I discovered I liked 'driving' and wanted to drive racing cars when I grew up, and that ended up defining my life Sim wise I also loved Stunt Car Racer and Indy 500 that J4cko mentions. I bought F1 GP 2 as soon as it came out, then GPL, and now I play Assetto Corsa - how things have moved on!!