Test Drive II - The Duel

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Test Drive II is one of the best driving games (in first-person perspective) the 16bit could in the late 80s. Your main goal is to beat the opponent by choosing one supercar, either the Porsche 959 or the Ferrari F40. You must reach the next checkpoint marking better times than your opponent while you must also be careful of the incoming traffic and the police patrols. You get five lives to complete the selected track. Crash, run out of gas or blow your engine up and you lose a life and also receive a time penalty. Accolade have also created various mission disks, with more cars and more levels, to enrich the game.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The Apple Macintosh visuals look great but unfortunately limited to a black & white screen. As in all the other versions, the perspective is from inside the car which is presented with impressive details that prompt to reality. All indications, from gear shifting to torque changing are shown in a realistic way. The surroundings look nice, with cars on or opposite your way, trees, mountains etc. The game's scrolling is decent, especially when running on a 16Mhz Macintosh (i.e. the SE/30 which is based on a 68030/16Mhz Motorola CPU). In terms of sound, the Macintosh version does offer the original sampled ambient and engine sounds (found also on the Amiga and the Atari ST) but performed via the computer's internal speaker. The (great) original intro tune is also available on the MAC's version.