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>>12427671
I used to play Test Drive 2 as a kid on the family's Mac computer. It was fun racing in traffic, but really difficult, the slightest nudge against a wall could crash the car.

>>12427671
they couldn't adapt to how Gran Turismo changed the idea of what a racing game could be on a console. Meanwhile their contemporary NFS shifted focus to import tuner culture to tap into the F&F fad. TD got left behind because they couldn't figure out what niche to go towards. TDU was an interesting experiment but TDU2 shipped utterly broken and Forza Horizon launched not long after and that was that.

>>12428014
Wrong. The OP talks about the PS1 era of Test Drive.

80s games Test Drive and Test Drive II were beloved classics made by Distinctive Software and published by Accolade. After Distinctive and Accolade falling out over the rights to the game code, Accolade made the third TD game themselves which was okay but nowhere near the classic TD2 was. Meanwhile Distinctive was sold out to EA and made a couple of racing sims for them before using their know how and EA money to create another remake of Test Drive for 3DO console which was called The Need for Speed and became a huge hit.

Accolade was struggling at that point but under a new CEO they saw the market in 5th gen consoles and contracted a british dev Pitbull Syndicate to make a Need for Speed rival for them using a once well regarded Test Drive name. Test Drive 4, 5 and 6 were basically "Need for Speed" at home, it had nothing to do with Gran Turismo. And Need for Speed wasn't about import scene and F&F too, it was about exotic cars, scenic locations and cop chases.

>>12428076
all those words to explain how you didn't read what I wrote.
OP asked why TD doesn't exist NOW. I explained why the series basically didn't survive past Y2K. I also explained how NFS did manage to survive. what the original intent for TD back in the 80s was is irrelevant.

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>>12427671
The early DSI games were kinda wonky and later Pitbull games were just slop.
Test Drive 3 from Accolade is the only good one. TD3 and DSI's Stunts both have Hard Drivin' mechanics and both came out in 1990 and both companies back-stabbed each other. What a coincidence. I'm pretty sure they got their hands on Hard Drivin' engine, since it went through so many hands with all the ports to different systems.
Accolade's Grand Prix Unlimited (1992), pretty much the same engine, with replays and track editor. Should have milked it more.

>>12428085
That's the reason though, NFS was a much more consistent brand with a better development team behind it. Test Drive was just a publisher (Accolade, then Infogrames, then Atari) trying to exploit the name and subcontracting different studios to make totally different games. Nobody looked forward to a new TD game because 1) previous ones were mid and 2) you didn't know what to expect from them.

>>12428118
that is what I said. the games couldn't adapt to the changing expectation of gamers.

>>12428076
>Meanwhile Distinctive was sold out to EA and made a couple of racing sims for them before using their know how and EA money to create another remake of Test Drive for 3DO console which was called The Need for Speed
Neat, I didn't know that but that explains a lot. I remember thinking Need for Speed 1 and 2 felt a lot like modern (at the time) versions of Test Drive 2 with the traffic and police chases and all.

>>12427671
Because they were just a worse version of Need for Speed games

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TD went to shit when it went 3D. The 2D games are great though. TDU 1&2 are better than what came before but are still pretty rough.

I am not discussing this series with this board, not with my experience in the past.