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Test Drive is a series of racing video games that were originally published by Accolade until they were bought by Infogrames, which later turned into Atari. The first game was released in 1987 and has since been followed by several sequels and spin-offs, the latest of which was released in 2024 and is the first by Nacon after purchasing the franchise from Atari.
In Test Drive, the player typically uses one of several exotic performance cars to race to a finish line against opponents or in a time limit, while avoiding traffic and police. [1]
Test Drive Unlimited includes an open world environment and allows for the purchase of houses, cars and character customisation.
In 1987, Accolade published Test Drive as a computer game worldwide, while Electronic Arts released the game in the United Kingdom. The quality of the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and DOS ports differ from each other. [2] [3] The Amiga version's detailed visuals and audio realistically depicted the game's racing theme, [2] while its Atari ST counterpart used simplified graphics and sound effects. The Commodore 64 and DOS ports were of similar quality to the Amiga version. The gameplay was kept intact for all platforms. [4]
Test Drive was a commercial success, with sales having surpassed 250,000 copies by November 1989. [5] It received generally positive reviews from video game critics. Computer Gaming World stated in 1987 that Test Drive "offers outstanding graphics and the potential to 'hook' every Pole Position fan". [6] Compute! praised the excellent graphics and sound, but noted that the game only had one course. [2] The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 41⁄2 out of 5 stars. [7]
Test Drive spawned several sequels and spin-offs. Distinctive Software developed its 1989 sequel, The Duel: Test Drive II , using several software libraries. Distinctive (as Unlimited Software, Inc.) used the aforementioned software libraries for an MS-DOS port of Outrun , resulting in the Accolade v. Distinctive lawsuit. Distinctive Software won, so the rights to make the Test Drive games without the source code transferred to Accolade. The court also found that Accolade had failed to demonstrate that the balance of hardships was in its favor. [8] Another sequel, Test Drive III: The Passion , was developed and published by Accolade in 1990. [9]
After a few years of the franchise being in dormancy, In 1997 Accolade reinvented the franchise with brand new titles. The first of these was Test Drive: Off-Road , an off-road truck racing spinoff, [10] and Test Drive 4 , the first video game developed by Pitbull Syndicate. [11]
In 1998, Pitbull Syndicate developed two further Test Drive titles, Test Drive 4X4 (also known as Test Drive Off-Road 2), a sequel to the Test Drive: Off-Road spinoff, and Test Drive 5 ; both games were the two last entries in the series to be published by Accolade. [12] [13]
In April 1999, Accolade was acquired by French video game company Infogrames for a combined sum of US$60 million, US$50 million of which in cash and US$10 million in growth capital, and was renamed Infogrames North America, Inc. [14] [15] The company chief executive officer, Jim Barnett, was named head of Infogrames Entertainment's American distribution subsidiary. [16] As a result, Test Drive 6 was the first game in the series to be published by the newly named Infogrames North America in 1999. [17] An in-house team at Infogrames North America would go onto develop Test Drive Off-Road 3 in 1999, and would also go to develop Test Drive Cycles , which was cancelled in June 2000 with the exception of the Game Boy Color version. [18]
In 2000, due to copyright problems between Infogrames North America and Infogrames Multimedia over the Test Drive trademark, Cryo Interactive picked up publishing rights to Test Drive 6 in Europe for a May 2000 release, [19] while Infogrames Multimedia released Test Drive Off-Road 3 under the name of 4x4 World Trophy in April 2000. Around this time, Infogrames North America released Le Mans 24 Hours and the Dreamcast version of V-Rally 2 under the localised names of Test Drive Le Mans and Test Drive V-Rally respectively. A Nintendo 64 localisation of Michelin Rally Masters: Race of Champions known as Test Drive Rally was also planned, but this was cancelled in February 2000. [20] Fellow Game Boy Color titles included Test Drive Cycles and Test Drive 2001 , an update to the GBC version of Test Drive 6.
In November 2001, the last entry in the Off-Road subseries - Test Drive Off-Road Wide Open , known in Europe simply as Off-Road Wide Open, was released on the PlayStation 2, being developed by Angel Studios. An Xbox port was released a year later with additional content and graphic improvements.
In May 2002, Infogrames released TD Overdrive: The Brotherhood of Speed (released as Test Drive in North America), the last entry in the series to be developed by Pitbull Syndicate [21] and the first one to feature a storyline.
The next game in the series, Test Drive: Eve of Destruction , was developed by Monster Games in 2003, and was released in 2004. The game was released in Europe under the name of Driven to Destruction. [22]
Test Drive Unlimited , developed by Eden Games and released in 2006 and 2007, features an open world modeled after the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Its sequel Test Drive Unlimited 2 was released in 2011 and includes both Oahu and the Spanish island of Ibiza.
A spin-off title called Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends was developed by Slightly Mad Studios and published by Rombax Games under license from Atari, in celebration of the 65th anniversary of Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari, featuring Formula One, sports cars, and rally cars. The game was heavily based upon technology developed for Shift 2: Unleashed, and shares little with the Unlimited series. [23]
In 2016, French publisher Bigben Interactive (later renamed Nacon) acquired the Test Drive intellectual property from Atari, with plans to revive the franchise. [24] In 2018, Bigben acquired French racing game developer Kylotonn, with Roman Vincent, president of Kylotonn suggesting they were working on the next installment of Test Drive. [25]
In April 2020, Nacon filed a trade mark to the Intellectual Property Office for Test Drive Solar Crown, [26] [27] the last two words referring to the Solar Crown in-universe racing competition series featured in Test Drive Unlimited 2. The full title of the next game in the series is Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown . [28] [27] [29] The Kylotonn-developed game would feature a 1:1 recreation of Hong Kong Island and later expanded to Ibiza. [29]
Accolade, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher based in San Jose, California. The company was founded as Accolade in 1984 by Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead, who had previously co-founded Activision in 1979. The company became known for numerous sports game series, including HardBall!, Jack Nicklaus and Test Drive.
Test Drive Unlimited is a 2006 racing video game developed by Eden Games and published by Atari for Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. Atari Melbourne House developed the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable versions. Being the eighteenth entry in the Test Drive series, Unlimited serves as a reboot of the franchise, discarding the continuity of the previous games. The game features over 125 licensed sports cars and motorcycles and the terrain is modeled after the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu that features over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of roads and highways.
Test Drive 4 is a racing game developed by Pitbull Syndicate and published by Accolade for PlayStation and Microsoft Windows in 1997. It offers 14 supercars and muscle cars, and tasks the player with beating computer opponents in tracks set in real life locales. The game's tracks are long courses with rural roads and urban streets, and commonly feature traffic and short corners. The player has to arrive at each checkpoint before the Checkpoint Timer expires, resulting in additional time, and crossing the finish line is required to complete the race. Test Drive 4's commercial success briefly made Test Drive the best selling racing franchise, but the game received mixed reviews. In 1999 the game was republished under the Greatest Hits label after selling 850,000 copies within one year of its release.
Eden Games SA is a French video game developer based in Lyon, France, that mainly focuses on the development of racing video games.
Test Drive Unlimited 2 is a 2011 racing video game developed by Eden Games and published by Atari for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the sequel to the 2006 game Test Drive Unlimited and the nineteenth entry in the Test Drive series and was released on 8 February 2011.
TD Overdrive: The Brotherhood of Speed is a racing video game developed by Pitbull Syndicate and published by Infogrames for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows.
Ever since Pole Position in 1982, Formula One (F1) has always played a part of the racing genre in video games. Early Formula One games were typically arcade racing games, before Formula One Grand Prix (1991) popularized Formula One racing simulations on home computers.
Test Drive is a racing video game developed by Distinctive Software and published by Accolade, released in 1987 for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and DOS, in 1988 for the Apple II, and later ported for the PC-98 in 1989. It is the first game in the Test Drive series.
Kylotonn SARL is a French video game development studio founded in 2006 in Paris. They are best known for their racing games, and were the official developer of the World Rally Championship video game series from 2015 to 2023.
Atari SA, also known under the Atari Group moniker, is a French holding company headquartered in Paris that owns interactive entertainment properties. Atari SA is made up of several video gaming related subsidiaries, including: Atari, Inc., Nightdive Studios, Digital Eclipse and Infogrames, and a blockchain division, Atari X, and additionally owns the websites MobyGames and AtariAge. Through these divisions, the company owns the rights to many video game properties that originated from Accolade, Atari, Inc., Atari Corporation, GT Interactive, M Network, Intellivision and others. It is the sole owner of the Atari brand since 2001, through its subsidiary Atari Interactive Inc. which licenses the brand to other entities in the group.
World Rally Championship is a rally racing video game series. The series is currently developed by Codemasters and published by EA Sports. To date, a total of seventeen main games have been released, with the latest game released on 3 November 2023.
Nacon is a French video game company based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for various platforms. In 2020, Bigben Group was consolidated to form Nacon.
WRC 6, also known as WRC 6 FIA World Rally Championship, is a racing video game based on the 2016 World Rally Championship season. The game was developed by French developer Kylotonn and published in October 2016 by Bigben Interactive for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It is the first WRC video game under Kylotonn banner not to feature Mitsubishi and Subaru Rally Cars and also first under Kylotonn banner not released on seventh generation consoles.
Michelin Rally Masters: Race of Champions, also known as simply Rally Masters, is a racing video game developed by Digital Illusions CE and published by Infogrames in 2000 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation. It is branded after the Race of Champions sporting event, and features 20 licensed rally automobiles.
V-Rally 4 is a racing video game developed by Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch in 2018. The developer had previously worked on the official 2017 WRC game.
V-Rally is a racing video game series originally developed and published by Infogrames. It debuted in 1997 with the release of the eponymous game for the PlayStation console.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is a 2024 racing video game developed by KT Racing and published by Nacon. It is the twenty-first game in the Test Drive series, the first title in the series since 2012's Ferrari Racing Legends, and the third game in the franchise's Unlimited reboot, following 2011's Test Drive Unlimited 2. The game was teased on 3 July 2020 on Twitter and was officially revealed during the Nacon Connect event on 7 July. Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on 12 September 2024, with the release date for the Nintendo Switch version yet to be announced. The game is met with mixed reviews upon release, notably citing optimization issues on PC, needing to be always online and the overall poor gameplay mechanics.
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