The Need for Speed was a revolutionary game for its time, whereby the intro integrated real video footage of the supercars of the era doing their stuff on a large piece of tarmac. Seeing such video footage on 2MB or if you were lucky 4MB Diamond graphics card, allowed this footage to be viewed with reasonable resolution albeit with a few glitches in the refresh rate.
All the same it was an awesome feat to show your petrol head mates your new toy on the 14 inch monitor.
The Need for Speed was a revolutionary game for its time, whereby the intro integrated real video footage of the supercars of the era doing their stuff on a large piece of tarmac. Seeing such video footage on 2MB or if you were lucky 4MB Diamond graphics card, allowed this footage to be viewed with reasonable resolution albeit with a few glitches in the refresh rate.
All the same it was an awesome feat to show your petrol head mates your new toy on the 14 inch monitor. That is only where the fun began. The original NFS is an absolutely awesome game, its playability unsurpassed for many years. The tracks are exceptional, the cars top notch and the user interface excellent with both automatic and manual gearshift available,
including handbrake, sound is superb with a good set of speakers, video remarkable particularly with the graphics quality turned right up. Do a handbrakey at top speed or a burnout out of frustration. and watch the burnt rubber stick to the track. When starting out the high scores in the default leaderboard are certainly achievable and inspire the driver to greater heights.
The car selection is supreme, with NSX, Porsche, Corvette, Toyota Supra, Dodge Viper, Ferarri and Lamborghini (maybe I forgot one). From a handling point of view, I most often chose the Dodge Viper as although not always the fastest in a straight line, boy it would hang on around the corners. Of the tracks, I believe the most famous is Vertigo Ridge where in the second last segment of track you are found doing 100+mph at the top of a hill to face an airborne descent. You better hope your line is right or you'll end up on your roof, with a few second delay before you are righted onto your wheels and mobile again.
Not only are you battling for the race record, but the track record is also up for grabs, so even if you find yourself out of the placings, a good lap may register your name in the lap record category. One tip for the enthusiast, if you are good enough to get through the tournament and win all the races, you will unlock the save to disk option and get yourself a bonus fantasy car and a fantasy track option. I'm pretty sure you get as many goes as you like to become number one on each track, but this can be tricky on tracks like the city where the race is broken up into three legs, where finishing position from the previous leg, is starting position for the next leg. What a highly addictive game, it is little wonder the name Need For Speed is still around today. Like racing games? Download this one, it's a beauty.
