Test Drive 2

Title		Test Drive 2
Game Type	Driving
Company		Accolade 1989
Players		1
Compatibility	OCS
Submission	Paul Branney

Review
Test Drive 2 was the first game I bought when I got my A1200 back in 1993.
The series began on the 8-bit machines, and still continues with Test
Drive 5 on the PSX and the PC. To get it to run, you may have to disable
your accelerator card and choose the OCS chipset in the startup menu.

The game comes with one course, a Porsche 911 and a Ferrari F40, but 4
data disks add California, Europe, more sports cars, and muscle cars - a
theme continued in the current version. I doubt the game is available
anywhere now, but in 1995 even the data disks took months to find.

The game is only 1-player, but you can race against the clock, or against
a computer driver. You even get to choose his car. Racing is done on
civilian roads, but rather than time counting down, you have a number of
lives, with an extra one for each level completed. Points are awarded
based on average speed and difficulty level, with penalties for crashing
or being stopped by the police.

The first thing you will notice after you begin, is the very dated
graphics. They are low-colour, hand-drawn, and scaled-up jerkily as
objects move towards you. One of the good things about the game, is that
each car has its own cockpit design, engine sound, and handling. I think
this must be the first ever game to do this!

The game takes a little getting used to, since the steering wheel turns
slowly and must be manually returned to centre. Sometimes you will crash
when you thought you could scrape through. These aspects are frustrating
for a lot of people, but once mastered can invoke stuborn competition
between friends to try to top the scoreboard.

I would have to say that for me, personally, this is the best 1-player
racing game on the Amiga, along with F1GP - for multi-player I recommend
Xtreme Racing.

Alphabetical list.