[16] Driven to Success

 Like most red-blooded American boys, I wanted to drive from an early age.  Perhaps my desire started with being jealous of a neighbor when I was in Kindergarten.  Walking with Mom down the street to a public park, we passed some slightly older neighborhood kids driving around their driveway and the street in what is now an iconic 1980s toy.

"I love my Power Wheels.  It's so rad."

My desire never changed after that.  So, even though I wasn't tall enough to reach the pedals, I practiced driving electronically.  Well, as soon as the computer industry caught up, that is.

The earliest I can remember is the arcades.   There were some racing games that I pumped some quarters into, at the local arcade where I moved for second grade.

By the time I visited, it was 10 years later and the arcade moved across the street.

Of course, I wished my name was Alistair and this guy was running the place.

Games like SEGA's OutRun had just come out, and had a prominent position in the arcade. (Play Online)

But I preferred the top down games like Spy Hunter.  (Play online)

Of course, I never got quite enough quarters from mom & dad, and my grades weren't quite good enough to always get me a lot of free games.  Back in the heyday of video arcades, one of the ways they would sucker the parents to bring the kids in was as a reward.  Bring your report card -- and for each letter A grade, you'll get a free quarter or token to play a game.  Of course, your parents probably weren't going to drive you there just to play three or four games, so they would add a few dollars of their own.  Brilliant marketing of the 1980s.  Pizza Hut did the same thing with the Book-It program.  They gave out coupons to schoolkids for free personal pan pizzas, but since mom & dad were probably taking you there, they'd buy something for themselves.  And some of these arcade games would be in the back room of the restaurant waiting for us.

The ice cream stand I frequented as a kid had a game room in the back yard.  There was a dining area built on the remains of an old house or swimming pool base, and a shed attached that had video games.  My favorite at Candy Cone?  Being a cop and eating donuts.

APB.  (Play online)

But, by that time, we could finally do a little bit on that computer I had at home.

The first game I probably drove in is hated by many for the driving sections.  That would be Police Quest, and the top-down driving that was only tolerable if you set the speed to the slowest setting.

Somehow, I got my hands on Test Drive 3 from Accolade.  The only way, I think, was that someone at Grandpa's office had it, and he copied it.  It was the first of the series I would play, and although the music was obnoxious, I was addicted.

Watch out for the cow. (Play online)

I think I've mentioned this here before, but I've always preferred the keyboard to control over things like joysticks or mice.  I owned a joystick early on, but almost never used it.  When it was destroyed by accident (while at dinner, my desk lamp fell on it, the bulb melting the plastic casing) I never replaced it, and have never owned a joystick since.

Around the same time, I won a corporate-sponsored contest at school, and won a trip for myself and some classmates to the then-operating Boston Computer Museum.  They had an arcade cabinet with a better-programmed driving simulation, from Atari.  Later released as the game Hard Drivin', it used more impressive 3D modeling and dedicated chips to do the same thing as Test Drive, only better.

Screenshot from the later Hard Drivin' release.  (Gameplay video)

Well, that was 8th grade. In just two more years, I'd get my license and start driving a real car.  So my car game playing more or less dropped off at this point.  It wasn't until after I went to college, and spent the first year there without my car, that driving games came back to me.

I am in a solid minority of gamers who prefer games 1 and 2 over all the sequels that continue to be made of this series.

The first two entries in the Grand Theft Auto series brought me back to playing APB in the arcades, although this time, I wasn't a good guy getting litterbugs and eating donuts, but rather, I scored by littering the streets with carcasses of innocent bystanders.  I've played and enjoyed the sequels, but after Vice City they aren't as fun to me anymore, because you can't use solely your keyboard for control, you HAVE to use a mouse as well.

Just like Test Drive 3, but with a twist.

Need for Speed: High Stakes was the first game I played in the series, and the first game that allowed you to choose sides -- either run from the police, or play as them, chasing other racers down, using roadblocks and spike strips to damage their cars.

Before this time, I would have killed for a steering wheel/pedal accessory kit for my system, but they were prohibitably expensive and worked with only selected games back then.  Now, a USB setup could be easily adapted to most games, and for a fraction of the 1992 price. 

I don't think driving games are quite the rage anymore, but I may be wrong -- after all, I haven't owned a game system since the Intellivision (I promise a blog entry about that soon enough).