We're sad to announce that the TDU1 servers will be permanently shut down

[TurboDuck]

Date: 09-04-2012 6:17 PM

 

We’re sad to announce that the TDU1 servers will be permanently shut down at the end of this month. For those playing, this will be your last month to play as the server will be closing on 9/29. Thank you for playing and we encourage you to check out TDU2 Forza Horizon!

 

Check out the posting for yourself

[T1M]

"we encourage you to check out TDU2!"

 

Riiight :hmmm:

[superhyper]

Words can't describe the amount of rage at the moment. "We're shutting down TDU1 server so you guys should check out TDU2". NO. NO NO NO NO!!!

 

[The Compensator]

:wtf: Why Atari/Eden, why?!

[calster17]

It'll be a sad day.

 

I remember when I first played TDU on the PSP in early 2007, loved it despite it's limitations. I Loved it so much I got it for the PC, and played a few months with a outdated graphics card(very jittery, but managed) until I saved up to get a new one that could run it. So many memory's.

 

The game shaped how I view driving today, sure I liked cars and blasting down at 200mph and being the fastest, but TDU changed my ways. Seeing just a simple drive as fun, relaxing and enjoyable. For someone who was't old enough to drive it was paradise. The Island, the cars, the community ingame and on the Atari forums(which many of you's, including me, are now here).

 

I sadly had problems with my PC in 2008, and added internet problems diddent help. Since I could't play it for a good 6 months and having lost my save file, i could't be bothered to play, spending all my gaming on the PS3. Thankfully I re-installed TDU and played it every so often, to relive the drives. Then last year when I got my xbox 360, I set about getting a copy of TDU for it, even invested in some of the DLC. Been jumping on it once a week or so when I can to do a few miles.

 

 

It'll be a sad day. A game that changed my thoughts on driving and cars. :o

[iLLGT3]

I've always feared this day would come. It's such a shame they have to do this. It would be nice if they would hand over/sell the server version of the game so we as a community can keep it alive. Who knows, it could result in more sales for them. Can't really see a bad outcome.

 

I guess all good things must come to an end. :cry:

[Andreas¹]

I can't even imagine this because it's so sad. I know I haven't played TDU1 in a long time, but this game has changed my life so radically and left me with so many memories.

 

I still remember the day I bought it. Installed it (the damn music!) and played it for the first time, trying to figure out the controls in my Audi TT and being stunned by a concept of gaming I had never seen before. I signed up on the Atari forums just a day or two after. I got hooked straight away by the atmosphere that was created by all the friendly people that was on there, it was amazing. I still remember the days of posting and playing games on that forum. I then applied and joined Fair Not Square and I still recall the night I had my first ever online cruise as if it was yesterday. Let's just say that the TDU servers were not friendly towards me, out of the 8 people in the session I could communicate with one while the others were stuttering around us. :lol:

 

I saw the link in Diablo's sig to this place every day, and it still took me 6 months to sign up on here, and when I finally did, I managed to spell my username wrong. Heh. :fp: This forum has really been my second home ever since. I still think about what would have happened in my life if I had not bought TDU that day 5 years ago. To me it's a scary thought really.

 

I guess I knew this day would come but that doesn't make this any easier. I'm not as against TDU2 as most people here but even I can't acknowledge it as a worthy successor to this frankly epic game.

 

Thank you, everyone who I played this game with who helped make these 5 years as amazing as they have truly been. I will always be keeping the photos I have of our cruises.

 

Thank you TDU, and rest in piece.

[iNotACactus]

I encourage Atari to go die slowly. That's the last purchase from them I ever make, and I hope others do the same.

[T1M]

Well, thats the Test Drive name officially dead.

 

I remember the days of playing the PS2 version and acting like an utter n00b on the Atari forums. but that didn't stop me from meeting some awesome people and eventually joining this place, only to meet more awesome people. I really miss those times, I miss cruising with the guys on the Xbox and attempting to cruise with people on PC. I suppose it's the end of an era, and I will miss it dearly. But I'm sure there's still some fun to be had offline. I just hope Horizon will fill the hole for a bit.

 

(I kept mine short but maybe I should turn it into a novel :hmmm: )

[iNotACactus]

I would wish they just give up and quit pretending to properly have anything to do with games, they're incapable of making games and supporting them so why waste their time and investors' money? It's truly sad, a former great gaming icon reduced to making lackluster vaporware with the worst customer service ever. The former Atari will never come back, and this monstrosity should no longer be associated with it.

[superhyper]

e: Holy cow, that was even longer than I thought :eek:

 

People say that when you die, your life will flash before your eyes. Now as TDU is about to die, all the memories linked to it are just flooding into my head and I seriously don't know what to feel.

 

Atari's promise to listen to their community was bullcrap. It always was. If they opened their eyes they'd see how big of a failure TDU2 really is when compared to TDU1.

 

(I might have told this story in different forms for a few times already but now it's the best time for it. I'm not forcing you to read it but I'm just feeling too emotional right now so I have to write this)

 

Being 12 years old back in February 2007. We went to see my grandparents to the city. I had been waiting for it as, for the first time ever, I was properly waiting for a game. I had been looking at Test Drive Unlimited related news ever since the first screenshots were released. Back then, I never knew what it would mean to me in the end. I had even found out the release date for the PC version. On that very day we went shopping. I headed straight to the games section. I was eager, I was looking under every nook and cranny to find what I was looking for. Little by little it hit me, the game wasn't there yet. I was down. I told my mom that I didn't find the game so we should just leave. She looked around for just a bit and moments later she was holding a PC copy of TDU. "Isn't this it?". Little did I know that it was a start of an era for me.

 

Oh the joy. Opened the case straight away when we were heading back to the grandparents' house. The map absolutely blew my pants off. I read the instruction manual 9001 times, forwards, backwards, upside down and inside out. I was walking in circles, wanting to go home so that I could play it. I had read reviews, interviews and so on so I knew something about the game as well. I made plans on what cars I would buy and where I would go first (though these were later ruined by the fact that you had a limited selection of starter cars :lol:)

 

Back home I pretty much ran straight to my PC to install it. The installation music was something that stuck into my head quite deep. I played it for hours, long into the evening. It was INCREDIBLE. Totally worth all the hype. I remember choosing the Pontiac GTO out of all the starting rental cars because it was the cheapest and I wanted a good starter car! (got an Audi TT btw!) The car I fell in love with was the Gallardo Spyder (still one of, if not the very favourite car of mine in the game!) and it was the first car that I got a thousand KMs on. I played through most of the races and stuff in my offline profile as I didn't feel the need to play with other people back then (silly me!). Then someone came up with the way to modify an offline save for online use. I decided that I should probably do the same and boy, I was right. I met incredible people online. Cruising with even random people was the best thing to ever happen in a game.

 

Continuing my socialization, I registered on the Atari forums (where I don't sadly have that many good memories unlike many of you do). I did, though, see a link to a place called TDU-Central in a certain (probably drunk) scotmans signature. I registered here as well but wasn't too active at first (mostly because my graphics card failed on me due to too much TDU on a low-end PC. Solution = new graphics card). Later on I realized that this place was filled with awesome people and started posting more and more.

 

Later on I got TDU for PSP & X360 as well. PC is still #1 for me.

 

I'm not lying, I'm sobbing here

 

If it wasn't for this one game. - One damn game. One damn great game. Great is an understatement. Unbeliavable game. - we wouldn't be all here. This game brought people together and all you guys here, I've made unbeliavably good friends here (mainly pointing at Tim and Andai here - you guys are incredible). I used to be a shy guy, never talking to anyone. Hell, starting a conversation with a random was impossible before this game. It has changed my life - it has changed ME more than many things that aren't even remotely related to gaming.

 

Today was a good day. Nothing too negative about it, smiling and surfing on the net and then I saw it. "TDU1 servers will be permanently shut down". Instantly I felt empty. I didn't know how to react. I was filled with rage and sadness. All the stuff I wrote above just started messing with my brain and I still don't know how to feel.

 

Let's make this month, the very last month of TDU1 last. Let's make it one hell of a month we won't forget.

 

I want to thank you all. A moment of silence for me now, to mark the end of an era. Rest in Peace TDU.

 

Santtu out :bye:

 

Oh right - 1 more thing worth mentioning. The save I currently have and use on my PC version is the very save I first created over 5 and a half years ago - TDU was also the game that taught me to backup stuff.

[The Compensator]

I have exactly the same feelings and memories as well as you, Andai. I really, really can't imagine my life without TDU and these forums. It's shame that I've never played online with you guys, because it seems that TDUCk cruises were fun... :(

 

I have already posted my 'TDU story" in another thread I think. It's not as long as Santtu's or Andai's, though. :lol:

[T1M]

It certainly is incredible, actually made me emotional reading it. :lol:

 

The image of cruising across Hawaii with friends in a Ferrari F40... just... wow. I don't want it to go. :(

 

We need to organize some sort of real life cruise one day :hmmm:

[TDUFREAK500]

I wish that I was able to connect to the servers all those years ago but due to my stupidity of installing a illegal megapack I coudlnt, and the one time I ever did go on a cruise m internet was so slow I couldnt see anyone :( Ryzza you need to organise a few weekend cruises for me LOL. I may not have all the epic memories you do but it will be a shame to see the server shut down, it will be one less game for me to play with friends and it will surely kill off TDU :(

[paradox8831]

I can't believe how retarded Atari is... bunch of idiots who doesn't see that TDU2 is one big fail and that the people still prefer TDU1.

And now they're shutting down the servers, just great, I can't even imagine that I'll never play TDU with my friends again.

 

It's still my #1 PC racing game

Say what you want, but I will never buy that piece of crap TDU2, especially after this great and happy news. And well, my save is over 4 years old.

 

Of course I can't forget that TDU brought me to this awesome forum, with great people and all the stuff, maybe I'm not so much active at forum and not really good at

English, but I really got use to TDU:C and I think it's the best forum I'm registered at.

 

Really sad info...

Masterpiece game, thanks TDU.

 

And Atari, burn in hell :mad:

[ScoobSTi]

And Atari, burn in hell :mad:

 

This.

[Eudemon]

Looks like I have a new deadline. :susp: :warnsaw:

[pascallll]

Didn't they already announce that the TDU1 servers will be shut down one day? If I remember correctly, it was even before the release of TDU2, so not many people bothered. :hmmm:

 

TDU was actually the first game I ever bought, and I will remain playing it offline from time to time, but it just doesn't have the magic of cruising online.

What a sad day it will be... :gmc:

[Eudemon]

TDU1 is actually 6 tomorrow on Xbox 360 for North America and the 8th for Europe and PAL regions.

[iNotACactus]

I remember Atari saying that they had no plans or intentions to do exactly that around TDU2's release. Just like everything else involving that terrible game, it was a lie.

[Narwhal]

Damn...I knew that this is going to happen at some point but I was secretly hoping that Atari forgot to do it...

Well,because of this game I am here.This is the first forum that I visited and later registered on it.Before this place I didn't even knew what forum is.Heck,I even registered myself here before I got internet at my home.I remember the first time when I got my hands on TDU disc like it was yesterday.I thought that the game is crap and that NFS rulez (precisely).Boy I was wrong!At the beginning I went for SLK as my rent-a-car since I thought that it was fastest and that I need speed for racing,of course I didn't know that I couldn't keep it.Than I went for Alfa GT because you could actually modify it.As you might predict I lost couple of races on beginning due to lack of grip and lack of skill :lol:.

Than I discovered that you can actually drive a car in free roam!However I quickly got bored with low quality sounds and models and that's how I ended up here.It was amazing when I finally downloaded SLR car and sound mod.Big McMerc finally looked like the real deal!Needless to say that some of you helped me with installing mods and sent me link so I could buy my Megacarpack when I got internet here.Quickly after discovery about mods I made online account and met some awesome people.I still remember that one guy gave me his Ford GT because my TT couldn't keep up with the group!I really really 'lost' a lot of time online doing drifts,drags,taking pics or just some casual cruising with friends or random people.Sadly,recently I lost that little free time that I had for playing PC games and uninstalled it when I got TDU2 (when I remember that I pre-ordered that crap...) and never installed it again...Also TDUCk is the reason why I am car spotting today,and if there wasn't for TDU I wouldn't even think about that...

Thank you TDU,you will be missed!

[Mb]

Such a shame. Although i haven't played the game in ages, it's sad to read.

I've made tons of new friends while playing and it's still one of the best games i ever played. So much memories and good times!

 

I'll just leave this here are a great memory on the TDUCK Club!

[Ryzza5]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

and breathe

 

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :(

 

 

TDU1 made me buy a new gaming PC and Logitech G25 and TrackIR and ButtKicker a real life car GPS (TomTom when they were new and expensive) and made me create a YouTube account and made me join Internet forums for the first time and now it's gone :(

 

 

Knew it would have to happen soon though, last few times I've been in there there's only been 8-50 people online total (PC). Doesn't justify the server costs. Need to organise some cruises now.

 

 

Also, fixed the first post

[humgoo]

I am sorry but TDU2 sucks, I won't be playing it. At least I can turn off the AI robot cars with the blue names in TDU1 offline mode. I should be fine but I will miss the community.

 

It's been an interesting saga these past years watching Atari completely fail.

[Camel]

Dear Atari,

 

Screw you!