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Picture of FutureVenturer2
Posted
I just stumbled upon an article at Wikipedia of this game, which can be found here, and I thought it'd be a great idea to share some information about the game.

According to Wikipedia:

quote:
Turbo Esprit is a video game published by Durell Software in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. The game was very detailed and advanced for its time, featuring car indicator lights, pedestrians, traffic lights, and a view of the car's interior controls. It may also be the earliest example of a free-roaming city environment to feature in a computer game. Turbo Esprit was the first free-roaming driving game, and has been cited as a major influence on the later Grand Theft Auto series.

The object of the game is to prevent a gang of drug smugglers completing a delivery of heroin, by tracking down their cars and destroying them, or ramming them into submission. The player takes the role of a special agent driving the titular Lotus Esprit car, who must travel around one of four available cities looking for the criminals. Messages from HQ will flash up periodically giving the location of a target car, which may then be tracked on the map.

Once the target car is found it must be either destroyed with the Esprit's built-in machine gun, or repeatedly rammed until it surrenders. Different cars may need to be dealt with in different ways; for example armoured cars must be rammed as shooting has no effect, whereas "hit cars" are the only other vehicles that can match the Esprit for speed, so ramming them is more difficult.

Pentalites are incurred for hitting scenery or other cars. As with real life, speeding greatly increases risk and the player's car is likely to explode if it crashes into anything while travelling fast.


It certainly sounds like it was an inspiration and influence that both R* North and Ubisoft Reflections took in for the Driver and GTA games.

Also, here's a video on YouTube that shows off its gameplay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHM4M_fX_Y4


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Posts: 249 | Registered: Sun May 04 2008Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Picture of InsaneDriver06
Posted Hide Post
The Dukes of Hazzard is an early driving game for the Colecovision, it was released in 1984 and featured the ability to drive on rural backroads, hit bridge ramps, and enter town, where you could choose which direction you wanted to go when you reached an intersection.


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Next Driver: Interior DASH view, Free Roam TAG MODE chases, Miles of Backroads, Intense Speed-Edge of your seat Action, MAJOR Crash Impacts, day/night cycle, tons of customizable options, lots of stunts, ON FOOT in FPS view/overthe shoulder RE4 style, sportbikes, more car camera views, "Drop a RAMP" Cheat, fun vehicle chases where THE CAR is the Weapon, not a gun...
 
Posts: 848 | Registered: Tue July 25 2006Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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