Test Drive

The Good
Test Drive what what the PC gaming community needed in 1987--a racing game that was both "serious" enough to be passed off as a simulation (barely), and "fun" enough to breathe some life into computer racing games. Racing games up to that point had been arcade toys, and not seriously considered.

A smattering of things I liked about the game: You can choose from a selection of 5 cars, all equally capable of blowing the police away. The "cutscene" graphics have very nicely-drawn side profiles of each car. The music over the PC speaker is pretty good. The transitional "dissolve" effect from one screen to the next is really neat, considering it's CGA.

The Bad
The scenery is extremely monotonous and boring--you're climbing up the side of a cliff for the entire game. It looks great initially, but a change in scenery would've been nice; roadsigns are sparse, and there's no underpass or tunnels to go through.

Another small gripe is that Test Drive is single-player only. You can't race a friend, even if sitting at the same PC.

(For the record, they did improve the scenery and 2-player options in Test Drive 2.)

The only real gripe I have with Test Drive (and all Distinctive Software, Inc. racing titles) is the controls. They all use an eight-way directional control, much like an arcade game. It's not quite as bad as a gamepad--your hard-left and hard-right motions aren't directly interpreted, but rather are applied to the wheel's overall position. Even so, it's very hard to drive a simulated car when you have pseudo-arcade controls to work with. I found myself constantly under- or over-steering. As a keyboard control mechanism, this is expected; for an analog joystick, it's completely unacceptable.

The Bottom Line
Test Drive spawned a sequel that adds scenery changes and 2-player options. First play Test Drive for a couple of minutes, then find the sequel and play that instead.

The Good
Test Drive was one of the first games to move the scope away from common sports/competition-themed arcade racing, introducing a street-driving simulation with a realistic background. The game features five sports cars, complete with accurate in-game dashboards and real-world specifications, presented in a nicely animated selection menu. While driving along the winding mountain road, the cars behave according to their specs, but realism doesn't end here: There is plenty of traffic on the road, requiring risky overtake maneuvers if you want to maintain decent speed. Police have set up radar traps and will chase after you if you don't care about speed limits. Evading police pursuit is one of the funniest aspects of the game.

The Bad
Unfortunately there is not much scenery to write home about. Each stage looks exactly the same, a rocky cliff on the right side of the road, and a deep chasm on the left. No houses, no trees, just a few traffic signs now and then. After a while you begin to wonder where all the traffic is supposed to come from, since this seems to be the most desolate road in the world! While the graphics and presentation are pretty and sound is adequate, the steering is somewhat difficult to control. The keyboard input routine doesn't seem to detect multiple keypresses at once and will crash the game if a keyboard language driver is loaded. Control via joystick is a bit better, but makes you drive like a drunk because the steering wheel is not self-centering.

The Bottom Line
Test Drive introduced a new style of racing game. Attention to detail and the possibility to drive five most famous cars of the era on a simulated public road promise a very interesting game, but the monotonous scenery makes you fall asleep at the wheel.

The Good
I was amazed when I started loading this game and heard it playing music while loading. This was nothing compared the game itself. Sure you couldn’t upgrade your car, but this was the 80’s. You could pick your favorite car and out run the police, or at least try to. This game set the racing sim benchmark for years to come.

The Bad
Nothing.

The Bottom Line
The first real racing sim.

The Good
Accolade hit pay dirt with this game. The forefather of the Test Drive series, and a few sub-species (Test Drive Off Road), this legend introduced the in-dash perspective to DOS gamers. A choice of the hottest cars at the time, a beat-the-clock ordeal, and plenty of traffic and cops to dodge, this game was a favorite of mine when I had my 386.

The Bad
The problem is I no longer own that 386, or most of the games that went with it, save the possibility of Lemmings. Compared to the games of today, you're looking at horrendous CGA or EGA 320x240 graphic modes, drive-you-nuts PC speaker audio, and a linear plot that after about two hours of playing, gets real boring next to the possibility of playing GTAIII.

The Bottom Line
If you're a classic nostalgia gamer, or you still have your 386, Test Drive is great. The rest of us can find a better DOS (or Windows) alternative.

The Good
It's all relative, you know? It was either Test Drive or Poll Position for another 3 to 4 years. Besides, it's fun running away from cops.

The Bad
Almost everything about this game is cheezy compared to today's standards. But even back in the 80s, the sound in this game was just "too much."

The Bottom Line
Gaming has come a long, long, long way since the late 80s.

The Good
Sure its old. Over 10 years old. And even if it doesnt live up to todays games, it was actually fun to play. GFX im not going to talk about because it was a long time ago. Not gonna talk about sound either, but playing the game was very fun. Swerving at the cliffs, avoiding the police, trying to get out of the of cars, and some times, just for fun, driving at normal speed was a very refreshing experience.

The Bad
GFX, Sound (come on, it was 15 years ago, give it a break)

The Bottom Line
It is a game that proves that crappy graphics and bad sound cant make it a good game.

My Rating (Solid 5 / 5 )

The Good
What I like: Pretty much nothing, except maybe the game is fun to play for a few minutes. And I guess if I was writing this review in the 80's, I would be saying how wonderful everything was!

The Bad
What's bad about this game. Pretty much everything! There are about only 2 cars, the scenery this the same throughout the game, there are few levels, and when I think of the games we have now, I remember this game, play it, and have a laugh at the graphics.

The Bottom Line
One Word- OK. That's pretty much the summary for this game. For heaven's sake, if you insist on playing this game, no matter how many broken files you find on the net, DON'T buy this from a used game store. It's not worth a dollar!

The Good
Hmm -- well, the car selection is really, really cool, and I did play the game quite often on the 8088.

The Bad
The controls are sheer horror, the graphics are just crap (besides the car selection), the music/sfx (or lack thereof) doesn't add much to the general atmosphere either.

The Bottom Line
Crap. Crap crap crap crap crap. And a bit more crap. Stay the hell away from this one.