Test Drive

Test Drive from 1987 by Distinctive Software was one of the first computer games that tried to offer a genuine feel of driving exotic sports cars on public roads. The player could choose between several legendary cars, such as the Ferrari Testarossa, Porsche 911, or Lamborghini Countach, and take them along a winding mountain road, where the main enemy wasn't rival racers but police patrols and heavy traffic that had to be dodged — getting caught by the radar meant a chase and the end of the ride if caught.

On the Commodore 64 the game offers a view from inside the car's cabin with a visible steering wheel and dashboard, which felt unusually authentic at the time, and the individual cars differed from each other in acceleration, top speed, and cornering behavior, so choosing a car had a real impact on driving style. The gearshift lever and the need to shift gears correctly added a simulation dimension to the game that set it apart from purely arcade racers, and a bad downshift could slow the car down at the worst possible moment. The road also changes according to weather and visibility, so fog or darkness can make orientation harder and force the player to slow down even where they could otherwise floor it, while rain reduces the car's grip in corners.

Test Drive became a commercially successful title and kicked off a long series of sequels that later moved to newer platforms and became famous for further entries focused on specific car models. Within the C64 library it represents one of the most ambitious attempts of its time at simulating road driving, and even today it's interesting as proof of how a simple concept of dodging traffic can be built into an atmospheric drive along mountain switchbacks, where it's a joy to watch the landscape around the road gradually change and the tension of an approaching police patrol build with every passing mile.

Why play it: For fans of atmospheric drives along mountain switchbacks, where the tension rises with every mile and every approaching police patrol, it still offers a functional slice of early road-racing simulation.