Salutations!

BlakeBelladonna · May 26, 2019

Hello all. Been lurking for ages and decided to finally make an account. Short story;

When I was a kid I bought an original Xbox at a thrift store for $25. It came with one controller and four games. Project Gotham Racing, NFS Underground 2, Midnight Club 2, and Test Drive (Called TD Overdrive: Brotherhood of Speed for everyone outside NA. . Over time I collected more games; Midnight Club 3, MC3: Dub and Remix, 4x4 Offroad, PGR2, a couple of rally games, and probably a dozen or more others. By the time the HD era arrived and the Xbox 360 came out my OG Xbox was starting to show it's age and use. I actually had to gently punch the top to get it to read games sometimes! So I had moved to PC gaming with titles like GT Legends, Colin McRae, and more. Then my childhood friend made me an offer I couldn't refuse. My $400 Fujitsu Business laptop for a lightly used Xbox 360. It came with 4 controllers, 50+ games, and the HD AV cables.

One of those many games was Test Drive Unlimited. After making a gamertag and convincing my parents that it was totally a good idea to pay for Live for me, the first game I tried was TDU. Over the years between then and now I played many games of every genre, but the only game that doesn't say The Elder Scrolls on it that I clearly remember starting it up for the first time is TDU. The graphics, the physics (remember, first X360 racing game), the sounds, and the massive for the time map. TDU is what really made me love cars. And, I made some online friends that turned into IRL friends that I still have. There has been a million racing games before and since TDU, and half of them are better racing games. But aside from NFSU2, none of them have the magic. None have had me spending hours figuring out how to make them run on a modern system.

So thanks. Thank you Turboduck for still being around all these years. Thank you Speeder and Milli for your efforts, PP and Platinum are why I found this again. Also thank you to all the great people I've met in the last month on the game. Amazing to see how far a community will go to keep a game alive when it deserves it. Okay I'm done. See you on the streets.

Edited May 26, 2019 by BlakeBelladonna

Eudemon · May 27, 2019

Welcome, the cat girl guy lol :39:

We will be around for many years to come

PS can't wait for the new elder scroll game

Ryzza5 · May 27, 2019

Welcome Blake, I enjoyed reading your story as it reminded me of the first time I played too. Great to have you here with us.

TDU1 still has a massive map if you compare it to Forza Horizon and recent Need for Speed games. It wasn't just the size too, but the detail of numerous residential streets. Even if we rarely drove on them, it still added to the realism. I remember getting into a free-ride police chase in single player mode the first time I played, and thought I could lose them by driving off-road tbetween the trees, which didn't work. I remember eventually evading them and then wondering 'where the heck am I now?'

BlakeBelladonna · May 27, 2019

6 hours ago, Diablo/Eudemon said:

Welcome, the cat girl guy lol

We will be around for many years to come

PS can't wait for the new elder scroll game

It's not all cat girls, it's one specific cat girl. And not cause shes cat girl. *ALSO* bite me.

In all seriousness tho, I'm reserved about the new TES. BethSoft managed to mess up Fallout 4 a bit, and F76 is a spectacular fail. Hopefully that doesn't bleed into TES.

Edited May 27, 2019 by BlakeBelladonna

Milli · May 27, 2019

And yeah, it's always nice to read how people got to know TDU, and their stories. Thanks for joining in, and don't forget to leave your teeth over the shelf, so the squirrel mafia won't attack you.

BlakeBelladonna · May 27, 2019

Uh, what??? I realize that's a joke but I don't get it at all!

Milli · May 27, 2019

1 minute ago, BlakeBelladonna said:

Uh, what??? I realize that's a joke but I don't get it at all!

Just... do it.

iZ GunDaM · May 27, 2019

Yo Blake, great to see you here on Turboduck!

I gotta tell you, this game has struck an excellent cord with me, too. Infact, I've always said this, but I love this game so much, I'd even be willing to organize some road trips/cruises and shoot the stuff with you and other members of this site, which includes you.

Edited May 27, 2019 by iZ GunDaM

Ztryka531 · May 27, 2019

Yo Blake, welcome, I enjoyed reading your story, it was like me, my childhood during the year 2000s, but replace the xbox part with the PC, since I am a PC player since the beginning of my gaming life (I only do consoles cuz of my brother or my cousins).

Ever since I play games like NFS series, GTA series, Driver: Parallel Lines, etc etc. those maps looked very small

Unfortunately, I haven't heard about Test Drive Unlimited, ever. It was only this year I recognize it and enjoyed the game much longer than the other games I played, especially when I do not use cheats, it feels satisfactory to buy a car and house with hard-earned money.

People were so right that TDU has this magic that no other driving games can achieve during its time, even games today like the Horizon series.

I will look forward with a TDU roadtrip session with you, Blake, see you on O'ahu!

Ryzza5 · May 28, 2019

10 hours ago, Milli said:

don't forget to leave your teeth over the shelf, so the squirrel mafia won't attack you.

I don't think the Terms of Use include any references to new users' teeth any more so that joke no longer works.

@BlakeBelladonna when older members registered they agreed to terms/rules which included a line that 'we now own your teeth' as a joke - because no-one reads that when registering.