Test Drive (1987) PC

Test Drive is one of the oldest racing games to be released on PCs. Although Distinctive Software's 1987 program is typically arcade, it was then proudly called a simulator, as it was one of the few programs to offer a driver's perspective with a dashboard and steering wheel.

The game allows you to choose from five cars (Porsche 911 Turbo, Chevrolet Corvette, Lotus Esprit Turbo, Ferrari Testarossa and Lamborghini Countach) and chase on the mountain tracks. Our opponents in occupying the best possible result are other road users, who must be skillfully evaded, avoiding falling off the trail, which always ends in death. In addition, there is the problem with the police, who conscientiously punish each time they exceed the speed limit. Our car is equipped with a radar, which indicates when a patrol car is approaching. At a critical point, you should therefore adjust the speed to the last passing sign, or maximally speed up and escape. Of course, the latter is not so simple and most often ends up in a crash, signalled by the famous, because repeatedly used in other games of this type, breaking the windshield.

The biggest problem of the program is the tedious car control and boring, monotonous landscape (on one side of the road there is a flat mountain wall, on the other side there is an endless chasm). Graphics is the pinnacle of the time, with nicely crafted dashboards and car drawings on the car selection screen. The game does not support any sound card, all effects and music fly directly from the Speaker's PC, which today's players can lead to a shoemaking passion, although it was the norm at the time.

Last updated on 10 December 2007