DRIVER 20th Anniversary Retrospective | minimme

Join me and relive the wonders of this Hollywood fueled PS1 classic and the films that inspired it :)
Support the channel on Patreon! / minimme
Check out Driver Madness, the coolest Driver community on the world wide web! drivermadness.n...
Driv3r GBA video: • Driver 3's weird GBA p...
Check out my Twitter: / minimme
Check out my 2nd channel: / micromme
Check out my cool web 1.0 website + discord server: www.minimme.com/
Music credits (in order of appearance):
San Francisco Day - Driver Soundtrack
Las Vegas Day - Driver 2 Soundtrack
Ocean - DeeTunez
Free Beat 2014 - DeeTunez
New York Night - Driver Soundtrack
Back in Town - Silent Partner
Video Credits:
The Golden Bolt's Spyro footage from our graphically impressive PS1 video, part 2: • 5 more graphically imp...
PC Longplay [903] Driver: San Francisco (part 1 of 4)
by World of Longplays (longplays.org, / cubex55 )
Played by: mihaibest
• PC Longplay [903] Driv...
PSX Longplay [362] Grand Theft Auto - (Part 1 of 3)
by World of Longplays (longplays.org, / cubex55 )
Played by: Mad-Matt
• PSX Longplay [348] Gra...
PC Longplay [847] Grand Theft Auto III (part 1 of 3)
by World of Longplays (longplays.org, / cubex55 )
Played by: krysztal
• PC Longplay [847] Gran...
PSX Longplay [256] Destruction Derby
by World of Longplays (longplays.org, / cubex55 )
Played by: Mad-Matt
• PSX Longplay [243] Des...
PSX Longplay [157] Driver 2
by World of Longplays (longplays.org, / cubex55 )
Played by: Stoneworld
• PSX Longplay [151] Dri...
JuicyJuice from the Driver Madness community recorded PC footage for me and I am very thankful. His channel can be found here: / @juicyjuice5083
And finally, thankyou to legendary Driver KZbinr Olanov for letting me
use the Driver Syndicate trailer footage, which can be seen here • The Driver Syndicate T...
Bullitt, 1968. dir. Peter Yates. Warner Bros.
The Driver, 1978. dir. Walter Hill. EMI Films.
Starsky & Hutch, 1975-1979. Sony Pictures Television.
Other references:
en.wikipedia.o... (yes a wikipedia reference, I know haha. Retrieved November 2019.)

[@DMGaina]

The sinister black cars are not the secret service, they are Castaldi's men, trying to kill the President.

[@edu_moonwalker]

How could I know this? Is it from cutscenes? From the manual? 'Cause the game didn't help me for not having subtitles, at the time I played it, I was 10~15 years old and I was still learning english.

[@edu_moonwalker]

I always thought they were FBI cars smashing into Tanner's car for knowing the President was inside with him.

[@milolovedx7]

Oh man thanks for the info, I searched this answer for years !!!

[@djharry2821]

I always knew they were the gangsters you were undercover with too. I don't remember how you find that out though. I swear there's a cutscene at some point before the mission where you're in a meeting and they say that they're going to kidnap the president. Maybe I read it in a magazine because I also remember having a copy of Official UK PlayStation Magazine which had a Driver strategy guide in it.

[@benconway9010]

ah I was the same I always thought the black cars as well as the police were chasing mu to stop me kidnapping the president that mission was utterly impossible

[@ICEMANZIDANE]

i played this game for 6 years straight. And most of the time i was driving around, parking like i would do in real life, stopping at red lights etc. This game was soooo good.

[@deathrager2404]

dude we had a broken memory card, we couldnt save. it was fucking retarded. we finally ended up buying one but still... dear lord. whenever we were at the last city we had to go to bed. feelsbadman

[@FeelingShred]

it's crazy for me to think about how the single genre I played the most as a kid growing up was racing games, and now as an adult I am terrified of driving and could never really do it xDDD

[@eee11112]

@@deathrager2404 I remember playing Driver 2 with my cousin all day long, and when we finally got to the second disc, we realized that we didn't have a memory card, either, so we had to leave the PlayStation turned on and beg my aunt to run us out to Walmart at like 2:00 a.m. to get one. Ah, the good old days.

[@HenriqueRJchiki]

cringe roleplayer

[@toph_toff974]

@HenriqueRJchiki You're a speedrunner your right to have opinions has been revoked long ago.

[@jimkid1392]

This game is 20 years old? Dammit. I'm really starting to hate this aging crap.

[@xzzyyy4686]

Literally the first videogame I ever bought or played or remembered 24 now... Fuck

[@MonkeyWrenching]

Remember when they final let us get out of the car? Talk about feeling borderline Jurassic.

[@ahatch3086]

Monkey Wrenching I was so psyched about that feature on Driver 2.

[@Hamisxa]

Ok Boomer

[@alenko4763]

Ehh I don't see it like that, for me it's nice getting older because we keep getting cooler and cooler games/tech and I get more and more freedom to buy all this shit lol

[@Dirvinator]

Finally, a review of Driver that isn't just a bad joke video of them failing the tutorial for 20 minutes.

[@allistergraham6704]

Failing the tutorial all of my childhood

[@Anex952]

"Maybe I"ll give ya a call if I need a ride to the grocery store"

[@coleredmond8459]

It's not even that bad. I think youtubers are just blowing it out of proportion.

[@isaacster5027]

On goddd

[@Blueflag04]

There is a 20 minute video?

[@humzaishtiaq5336]

This game was EPIC - countless childhood hours spent on this bad boy

[@ZeitGeist_TV]

Same here, I'm 33 now and this was by far one of my favorite games as a kid.

[@thepurdychannel8866]

I loved that game along with halo and serious sam

[@lb-in2sx]

The days wasted playing this bad boy, I have no regrets

[@Diddley_Squat]

I'm 34. This is the first game I ever stayed up all night playing.

[@Lonewolf23-26]

Yeah I loved the demo derby game and got this game loved both of them!

[@MiguelRPD]

I couldnt beat the training mission because I didnt know what a slalom was. Years and years later I randomly decided to read the manual and to my surprise, it told me how to accomplish it. Then I was finally able to continue the game. It was amazing. Felt like a Christmas gift to myself.

[@polygonvvitch]

I remember I only knew it because Gran Turismo 2's licenses had a Slalom test and that game showed you what each test involved.

[@crisfrey2753]

The motel scenes where you choose the missions are such a genius concept that I don't understand why other games including the rest of the Driver games never did that. They really make you feel like you are actually staying in those cities and living there while doing these jobs. My dad and I absolutely love Driver 1 and I remember when he was almost more excited than me when he bought it back in 2000 or so. It's definitely a hard game but also one that managed to keep me interested all the way to the end (unlike Driver 2). I'm proud that I finished it. Another thing I love about this game is the crazy time period setting. I remember reading some interview where the devs point out that it is indeed present day even though everyone drives old cars. Oh and you are right that Drive is so much like The Driver. I like how the game Driver took a crash sound effect straight from the old movie, it was amusing to hear it and realize it when watching it.

[@jeffschleg9665]

"I unironically like Driver 3" - Minimme

[@C.I...]

That makes two of us!

[@spaceman022]

@@C.I... Make that three

[@C.I...]

@@spaceman022 Honestly I wonder sometimes different the gaming world would be had they actually finished it. I personally would have played it less, since the glitches keep me coming back and I haven't played Parallel Lines since the demo I found boring, but maybe the public would still talk about the series more.

[@dakotajensen181]

Yo 25yo white cis male here, i love that poopchute of a game. even as a die hard gta fanboy, I never knew it was supposed to be a vice city killer until like a few years back

[@DmitriyK12]

@@spaceman022 I don't get why so many people dislike/hate Driver III, Parallel Lines, etc.; I enjoyed playing all the entries except Renegade. I didn't get a chance to try that version of Driver. Even Speedboat Paradise was decent, while it lasted... Google play store removed it from the market.

[@toypop96]

Driver is the one game I can play through the entire story mode in one sitting every so often and it never gets dull. One of the defining games of my childhood.

[@Nat-jf2ge]

I like how weighty the cars felt when you slid them around corners and the director mode was cool. Also it had a dedicated burnout button.

[@SMonkeyRacing]

They got the physics feel right into the perfect realm of fun and realistic.The cars felt heavy but the suspension was a bit extra floaty which made it so fun to slide them around and take huge jumps. The cars acted like real cars would in how gravity interacted with their weight, but the extra forgiving suspension gave you some extra leeway with small obstacles. The suspension was floaty enough that you could use sidewalks as apex curbs and it would just bump up over them and not grab the tire and fling you backwards arbitrarily. I loved just seeing how big I could jump off one of those bridges in the early area in Miami with 100 cops behind me running into each other, other cars, buildings, flying through the air, polygonal body parts perpetually hanging in the sky. This is still the most fun handling open world arcade driving game for me. This is one of the few games where I would buy a well made remake with updated graphics and nothing else touched at all. Its a pity that the series petered out after san francisco, which kept the same handling and is absolutely excellent. I'd just love to go back to these familiar maps again and battle it out with the police cars. Contrast this with the direction NFS has gone, with the (frankly) terrible and arbitrary drift initiation where it then feels like it locks you onto rails, and the finicky turning radius where it never communicates to you how much grip you've got left. They're still fun(ish) for an arcade racer and they look pretty fantastic, but driver kept some semblance of predictable physics realism that is a lot more gratifying to my eye for a non-sim pick up and play driving game. I won't even get into the replay mode, which sucked so much of my childhood happily away with my friends, trying to make cool short movies, because this is already too long. tl:dr: Bring back driver, please. With the original physics system intact.

[@retrogameon]

Driver 4ever. I grew up on this series. No matter how much it sucks at times, it will always have a special place in my heart. Great video man.

[@topsdaily_productions]

Have you played Cop The Recruit

[@chirkolo]

That would be great name for a sequel...Driver 4ever!

[@trumpjongun8831]

Driver 1 and 2 were awesome games. Enjoyed playing them on Ps1 especially with my same age cousins when we were 6-8 years old. Now im 27, time flies... I liked the Driv3r too.

[@trippen4391]

Lmao shit bro I’m 25… you must be 30 by now bro 😭😭 shut time really does fly…..

[@michaelwesten4624]

man you old as sh*t

[@JuanGamer0202]

I love the driver games cuz its one of the only car related games with simple UI, the game doesnt treat you like a baby, no intrusive menu desing, no microtransactions, you unlock content by playing it. And most important of it all, you wanna play freeroam, the game simply drops you into gameplay with a header "just drive" and refuses to elaborate any further, you're left with your imagination.

[@myztklk3v]

"maybe i'll give you a call when I need a ride to the grocery store" is a line I heard wayyyyy to many times, but man the feeling I got from beating the first level after probably days of trying.

[@Streetw1s3r]

Driver is probably one of my all time favourite game franchises ever. I spent so many hours as a kid playing the originals on the PS1, then DRIV3R came out and I loved that so much that I rented it from Blockbuster twice before I bought it, even Parallel Lines was amazing (probably my favourite, especially in the 70s era) and extremely underrated, one of my old friends who was also a big Driver fan didn't even know Parallel Lines existed until I told him about it years later. The majority of my youth was spent playing Driver games and I still play them as an adult. I love all of them.

[@brushstroke2720]

"I unironically like Driver 3" Glad to hear that other people like this game too, I got it originally on my Xbox and still have it to this day. I also recently bought a copy of Driver 3 for my PC and its so much fun to play for the nostalgia sake and dont regret it at all lol.

[@Mister_Superfly]

I loved Driver 3, also even Driver: Parallel Lines with the feel of being in within the periods of 1978 and 2006 in New York.

[@brushstroke2720]

@@Mister_Superfly the dual time period was so cool. Especially with the ability to switch between the two

[@SAVANTI711]

It's underrated as Hell. The soundtrack is one of the best game soundtracks ever made. And the story and script is so damn good

[@brushstroke2720]

@@SAVANTI711 The menu music for Driver 3 had a really chill vibe to it imo

[@SAVANTI711]

@@brushstroke2720 Not at all .. Best way to describe it is early 2000's Indie Cinematic Rock

[@alessandrocwilliam]

You have no idea of how much is Driver important for me. Thanks for this amazing video. May Tanner bless you.

[@BD12]

Best bit is the President's voice in the finale level. "Where we goin' son?"

[@gamtax]

*Got hit hard by police* "Nice drivin', son."

[@bradbrown8759]

The replay mode was amazing. The last level of the potus in the limo run! I watched the replay a hundred times. The impossible misses were legend.

[@Mannimarco_King_of_Worms]

Any Parallel Lines fans here? Such a great, but underrated game

[@thegamingprozone1941]

On ps2 yeah

[@leyork4772]

Охуенная игра. Одна из любимых.

[@Slosten]

I always feel like the only person in the world that actually likes Parallel Lines, so I'm really happy to see this comment. I abhor Driver 3 (especially after streaming the full game on PC so my friends could watch me suffer), but I love all the other games in the series, and I feel like PL was just ignored by everyone. Even 3, as much as I hate it, has a dedicated fan base that will always show up in Driver discussions to defend it, but no one ever brings up PL. The shooting segments were terrible, I won't defend those, but the driving in that game was so incredibly good and to this day it still holds its own against any modern arcade driving games. The story was cliche but still done well, and the time period aspect still feels extremely unique. It's an underrated gem in my opinion and I can't wait for minimme to give it a retrospective (assuming he's doing the whole series).

[@Blueflag04]

I love that game, but that mission where you have to lure the cops to the hideout is brutal

[@PointReflex]

@@Slosten The thing I loved the most of Parallel Lines is the first plot twist in wich we see a time transition and the main character counting years, months, hours, minutes and seconds. :D

[@thexspikes]

One of my fav things bout driver was nailing that tutorial mission, never knew it was so hated till seeing peoples reviews years + later..

[@TheSektorz]

I fondly remember playing Driver 1. It did great police car chasings long before GTA III

[@Jak-it]

Anyone remember being able to sit on random chairs throughout the city's I found out one day by accident in little havanna and thought it was the coolest thing ever in driver 2 lmfao

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

You can do what now? OMG I got to try that!

[@Jak-it]

@@scottthewaterwarrior for ps it's the triangle button whilst standing behind the chair

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

@@Jak-it Figured it would be the get in car/hit switch button, just didn't realize you could do it with benches. I remember messing with the AI sitting on benches in Driv3r. It wasn't every bench, but if you shot someone sitting a bench in the head they would teleport 10-15 above it, do the death animation, then fall. Same goes for people in water.

[@Jak-it]

@@scottthewaterwarrior idk about benches but those little seats infront of what look to be restaurants

[@Jak-it]

@@scottthewaterwarrior didn't play too much of driver3 only a handful of times but driver 2 my shit when I was younger along with the Italian job

[@ItsTeeohh]

Admittedly, never played a Driver game, but those rain physics are pretty... *graphically impressive* aren't they, Peter?

[@minimme]

Well said my friend

[@JakeGreen86]

Remember that red car you had to drive miles without damaging it. Was a nightmare. When I was a kid

[@worldsedge4991]

Thanks for the flashback. My experience with the Driver series is a little different. I was a game designer/artist for the Gameboy Advance version of Driver 2. Now, a “3D” driving game was WAY beyond the capabilities of the Advance. My partner Joe engineered a ray-casting renderer which just barely pulled it off, with a lot of caveats (square grid city map, 16 colors for all building textures, buildings were only one plane like paper facades). So it’s a bit more similar to Driver, with orthogonal streets and so forth. But we worked FOREVER on getting the car physics to feel just right...

[@Maz2bi]

I salute you!

[@worldsedge4991]

@@Maz2bi Haha! Thanks! I hope you enjoyed it.

[@jeremyfoster4016]

Driver 2 was the first video-game I ever played. For close to 13 years I never came across another person anywhere who had seemed to have played or experienced it (not in Aus at least). This led me to KZbin in 2013-14 looking for videos on it and - aside from speed runs - there was little in the way of quality content. The "Driver" series has forever felt like 'my' series, and seeing how loved and successful it was and how much of a dedicated fan following it actually has is just the most awesome thing ever for me. I can't wait to check out the discord.

[@Punttipate62]

I share the same experience as you, but "my" game was driver 3.

[@michaellorah9051]

Same. I have played evey major game in the series. Loved em all.

[@Octave_Rolland]

A vastly underrated franchise with a tragic and beautiful history. Very well-researched work there mate, thanks a bunch and my best regards !

[@rexmundi3108]

I spent most of my time free driving and editing video scenes, The feel of that car has yet to be beaten.

[@justinandout]

Thanks for this video, such a good memory. I'm proud to be the lead programmer of the team who ported Driver onto the iPhone. What a time it was!

[@01Zipang]

The Driver Instruction manual actually had a mini-guide for the Parking garage.

[@imembridibuddha]

The game itself had a replay cutscene of the garage mission done properly to watch as well.

[@JL-cn1qi]

Guessing alot of us, me including missed that one.. Whent back to the menu's quite a few times thinking we must be doing something wrong here. Why won't it let us play. Till the glorious day we passed it, think some jumping up and down was involved after that. But boy'o, was it worth the sweat.

[@nexus_062]

A lot of people rented the game, and wouldn't have had access to the manual, disc only.

[@stevesan]

definitely some of the most fun i've had with a driving game.

[@TheJrr71]

Loved this game on PS1! Used to have a few friends round, each taking a turn on Survivor, if you lasted less than 60 seconds (which happened a lot 🤣) you got another go. If you made it past five minutes (a rare event) you could do a replay edit and get to really show off your "skills". Deep nostalgia feels. Great video.

[@daniel.holbrook]

idk why I unironically find those taillight reflections on the road impressive

[@AchiragChiragg]

Me too. For a 20 year old game that's impressive as all hell

[@zoominnboomin]

Soon as I read this comment he said "taillights on the road" lol weirdly its happened more than a handful of times on youtube.

[@primtones]

The developer was called Reflections, so...

[@VexAcer]

Because the effect is unironically actually really fucking good, especially for PS1. Like the effect is obviously faked (as in not a modern real time reflection), but their implementation of it is super good. It also has some great attention to detail to it. Like how busted out head/taillights will no longer cast a reflection on the ground.

[@ReodorF1]

I remember i got Driver 1 when i was a kid and felt like a pro driver then my dad watched me play the game and asked me if it was a drunk driving simulator lol i loved this game

[@cloudstrife1983]

Series is 20. And almost 10 years since the last game. Thats quite sad.

[@ThatTonnatoTenrec]

So the series is, sadly only 10, until... actually wasn't there some boat spin off that wasn't even about driver?

[@Blueflag04]

@@ThatTonnatoTenrec yeah.... a mobile spin off

[@RacerBest]

@@ThatTonnatoTenrec the last game of the series was a mobile game called Driver: Speedboat Paradise.... what were they thinking....

[@chocov1233]

Givin' me F-ZERO vibes.

[@Charles_Anthony]

They made a terrible PS3 game where you're a ghost or in a coma or something...

[@callmecamo]

My dad bought me this game in 2000, was one of the only games I was allowed to play, the others were dirt track racing, Hot rod garage to glory and hot wheels world race. I haven't played the game in almost 20 years but I still remembered that section of road in Miami with water on both sides and the 90 turn. good times.

[@NovaPrima]

I still vaguely remember the TV ad for this game: 'Don't be a square... be a driver', but the phrase doesn't turn up a thing on Google. Maybe I dreamt it.

[@HeavyMetalDriver]

This series is what my channel is focused on. Somewhat. I do play other games to, but Driver is what I do the most, Driver is one of the greatest games ever in my opinion. It has such a wonderful feel, cool tunes and is just so memorable. I love Reflections! Driver 2 was the first video game I ever touched, and I just thought it was great. Kind of sad we haven't heard anything new for a long time now. Back when Driver San Francisco came out, I was obsessed. I had no PS3 or anything at the time, so I didn't play until years later. I had Driver on IOS as well. I had an iPod Touch 3rd generation, years ago. About 1 year ago, I had an iPod Touch 4th, and I had IOS Driver on it. I would never have deleted it if I where to know 1 year later, it was going to disappear. It was actually very good. I did manage to complete it at least. Definitely a video game I will never stop playing. It's a classic. Awesome video, I sure am interested in seeing the next one.

[@shitbeans3004]

Blah blah blah

[@milolovedx7]

Martin Edmondson was a genius, thank you for marking the lives and childhood of many with the Driver series.

[@mrmanchicken5062]

I remember when i was 7, me and my dad would take turns trying to beat Presidents Run and it took us about 3 hours. Im replaying the game 6 years later and im scarred to get to this level 😂

[@TaccRaccoon]

Driver was my childhood I think it was the first game I ever played actually Also I only recently found out Survival mode is fun on San Francisco because of how broken the physics can get

[@SAVANTI711]

Same.. First game I ever played.

[@nopebaker4789]

Your car would fly from the onslaught of cars ramming into you

[@SmallBlogV8]

*WAETCH THEH THREARDS MEARN!* My dad and I had this on PC and I remember being *obsessed* with it. But I never got near the final mission and mostly mucked about in Free Run. The game's intro, however, was and is outstanding.

[@BobV97]

*I effing love the Driver series. Period. So much nostalgia! I was playing Driver in my earliest days of gaming, I'm only 2 years older than the first game - still love to revisit it to this day. Also Frogger lmao.*

[@devious187]

Driver was awesome for the time, and I firmly believe there would be no GTAIII without this game showing them the possibilities of 3D driving in a city environment, so regardless of whether you like the game of not it should be acknowledged as one of the most important games of its era.

[@EduFirenze]

I think the timing was the thing that did driver in. Not long after driver was released the ps2 came along with a full open world in Gta3. Still love Driver and the atmosphere it created.

[@stover77]

The replay editor was amazingly ahead of it's time! I would spend hours making "film worthy" car chase replays. I still have them saved on a memory card somewhere.

[@michaelhall736]

I remember in the first game every time you hit something in the first mission the gangster would always "you crazy?!".

[@EvanSchatz]

"Get us outta here!"

[@JakobKlys]

This is so nostalgic to me. My grandpa bought the best pc that was available at the time, and also this game. played it every time we were visiting. Great memories!

[@flutterdrive4286]

-minimme mentions Driver San Fransisco Nick Robinson: (DEEP HEAVY BREATHING)

[@badwrongfun5541]

Yeah, Nick tends to do that what with all the creeping on women.

[@AntonioPeaches]

@@badwrongfun5541 lol still trying to cancel him huh?

[@flutterdrive4286]

@@badwrongfun5541 was*

[@Blueflag04]

@@badwrongfun5541 wait what.... He really do that?

[@namedidii]

@@tadpolegaming4510 knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/nick-robinson

[@solidwisdom8749]

This game was best driving game back in the day. I remember playing it the first time and was really impressed how it was open world and 3d. Definitely a classic

[@Olanov]

This was fantastic! I hope in the future we'll see more things Driver, too. 👀

[@MaD707MaN]

Driver San Francisco is one of my favorite games ever. Haven't really come across a game that innovative, and as fun to play online.

[@ManDudeMcHumanGuy]

My main memory of Driver is playing the "survival" mode. I must have used a game shark for moon gravity or something because i remember being able to get cars to go flying way up in the air. Then afterwords i would watch them in some sort of replay mode. Edit: after reading some comments, I may not have cheated, apparently the San Francisco level has buggy physics, and i remember there being a big hill.

[@hindenpeter2.04]

Nob Hill is real as far as i know

[@stephenkeller4694]

Yes! I used to head towards the first Hill in San Francisco survival mode and watch the replay of me and the cop cars flying down the hill completely out of control

[@skierpage]

San Francisco survival mode is fantastic. The cop cars are insanely aggressive, every policeman maxxed out on testosterone, adrenaline, Red Bull, caffeine, and donuts, and they go flying by default, much more so than in regular S.F. driving. I learned how to pull out of the starting square, go down the hill, immediately stop, and watch the cop cars go flying overhead. GOOD TIMES!! I played it over and over, managing to get down that hill, turn left and another block or so before running out of health or time. I so wanted a hack or crack that would give you infinite health in Survival Mode. It's still the most over-the-top crunchy brainless action mode in any driving game. (Carmageddon came close but only after you ground out enough victories to get a tougher car like Don Dumpster or Screwie Louie.)

[@_ASTYuu_]

If you touch the underside of any car in the game, it would send the 2 cars flying off. This glitch however only exists on the PS1 version. (Which makes it the best version imo cause it's hilarious)

[@calebbaugh9579]

This is my favorite driving game series of all time. I love the first 3 Driver's and spent many hours on each one.

[@MidnightClubStillCancelledSoz]

I miss the Driver series...

[@Pitkde]

Loved everything in this game, graphics were awesome at the time, handling was pure gold, the sounds of v8 engines and tyres screeching, the music, the atmosphere. Definitely one of the best games on ps1. Not a huge fan of remakes, but a proper remake of this would be an instabuy for me.

[@choo_choo_]

Honestly, the best thing to come from these games is the Stuntman games. God I wish they'd make a 3rd one of those. Stuntman is that perfect blend of precise driving, and over the top action that scratches an itch like no other game has. It's super neat to see all the little seeds that make up the Stuntman games present in the first Driver game. It's like that first mission got taken to the extreme.

[@dub2536]

I played this game the month it was released and was blown away by the realistic physics and movement of the car driven. The realistic style of driving was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I consider your video excellent and you covered all the important things. Hat's off to you!

[@jaysoosbeans]

It's interesting that you mentioned Starsky and Hutch as it also has a game of its own. It's also pretty corny but it's to its benefit.

[@tkellner]

Played that one through multiple times! Quite fantastic actually

[@jaysoosbeans]

@@tkellner Fun fact. In the mid 2000's Nestlé launched a pretty long lasting promotion. (About two years, I think) here in Portugal. Kids cereal always had a PC game included. If I recall there were three games that one could get. Ford Racing, Crazy Taxi and Starsky and Hutch. For some reason Starsky and Hutch was unusually rare to get.

[@imembridibuddha]

My heart exploded the moment I've realized Starsky & Hutch 2 was cancelled. F.F.S.

[@tkellner]

@@jaysoosbeans Yeah! Here in Slovakia ran something pretty simillar,i think we got CrazyTaxi too,but this gem surely wasn't offered..

[@zaink7037]

@@tkellner same was a good game

[@jamesb1221222]

There were 2 glitches I remember finding back in the day. There was a corner in the LAX airport you could use to get out of the map if you hit it at the correct angle and speed. You could then go up a hill and drive on top of the map too, it was hilarious because your car was floating, but the wheels were still on the ground in the map. The second glitch was flipping an NPC car on it's side and ramming the roof with one of the front corners of your car. That sent you flying. Sometimes into space. I loved this game, and I loved Driver 2 as well with it's hidden vehicles and all. Good series.

[@WH250398]

0:30 "now please allow me to boot up this ps1 without a videocable"

[@FierceFlame9001]

+1 Cinema Sin

[@bigpurpleflower2185]

B-Roll footage bay-bee

[@MJPamuru20]

It’s also the real driver disc from the non platinum game even though the case displayed is the platinum version 😂

[@xiICEMANix]

And a controller

[@wackoyacko4541]

xiICEMANix and memory card

[@batin1014]

Thank you for your complete and comprehensive training.

[@101Volts]

7:26 "The smallest traffic infringement will sent them (the police) on their brutal tirade." Truth. I was free roaming once, was stopped at a traffic light and someone crashed into ME and I got the police car's wrath.

[@MrAdams-zg6gv]

I absolutely LOVED THIS GAME!! Playing it ALL DAY as a kid. They definitely need to make another one on these nextgen machines!

[@captaindreadnought212]

underrated gem in this series, parallel lines

[@santimaci]

Captain Dreadnought pretty enjoyable game

[@RPKGameVids]

I love Parallel Lines!

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

Something just felt off with the vehicle physics in Driver PL. At high speeds cars tried to wiggle all over the place, but otherwise the cars drove like they were on rails, or at least compared to the previous 3 games. Map felt pretty boring too, big, but rather samey in its road layout.

[@Blueflag04]

I enjoy playing that

[@rolandthompson8771]

This channel inspired me to go play and beat Driver (PC) after having touched it for a bit years and years ago. Something I'm really surprised nobody talks about is that Driver 1 is a lot more akin to a stealth game in a car than any other driving game. Cops have explicit vision cones, and you have the ability to "sneak" past them by either staying out of sight or by not driving dangerously in front of them. If you pull heat, your only option is to break line of sight either by speeding away as fast as you can, diving into alleyways, or exploiting their AI to crash into other cars or obstacles: anything aggressive and you'll only make things worse for yourself, upping the chaos until you're basically forced to let Jesus take the wheel. A typical mission would start with me staring at the full map to figure out the fastest route to the location, and then start carefully trying to thread the needle between driving fast and not taking unnecessary risk. My eyes would be constantly flicking around between the minimap to see where cops are and the road itself to make sure I don't accidentally crash or do something suspicious. When I had no choice but to pass by a cop, I was always ready to hit the cruise control to leisure roll by, gunning the gas the second I was out of range to make up for lost time. But if the timer was too tight or if the mission seemed like cops were inevitable, I took calculated risks in accepting a little heat so I could keep driving fast with my jaw clenched, knowing every single bump would lower my health and increase the felony meter, and thus the resulting chaos of cop cars. It's kind of a double unicorn: there not only aren't really any driving games like it, but there aren't even really any stealth games about handling escalating chaos like it (except a highly slept on indie game called The Marvelous Miss Take). It really is a stroke of genius.

[@38.peemapontasanaset17]

I’ve always thought that it is neat that you have to think like an actual wheelman while playing it.

[@rolandthompson8771]

@@38.peemapontasanaset17 That's an interesting point. You're not exactly racing, but you're not exactly free to do whatever; you're not exactly being a safe driver, but you're not exactly being reckless. You're just relentlessly committed to getting from point A to B in as efficient a manner as possible, constantly calculating and recalculating the best ratio of speed to safety. I'm no getaway driver myself and I haven't watched The Driver or Drive or other wheelman movies, so I don't really know what a wheelman thinks like, but it makes sense.

[@klizzard5166]

You also wouldnt get the cops on u if u drove legally ie not speeding or running red lights following the roads

[@jonathank5841]

Sublime video, Minimme. I wasn't aware of Driver Sindicate's existance!

[@minimme]

thankyou!

[@Furious321]

12:45 - I distinctly recall the Replay Editor having this terrible bug where your car would drive off in different directions than where you'd actually gone in the original playthrough. I remember thinking as a kid "Who the hell is this? I took a left at that intersection and now it's going straight!" And does anyone else remember the physics shenanigans of trying get other cars to end up on their side so you could slowly bump into the exposed chassis and send yourself flying into the air?

[@Impactjunky]

Good review! I'm surprised and impressed you actually knew about the movie this game was based on. I'm a total gearhead and have been since I was a kid and the Driver games were a HUGE part of that gearhead childhood. In fact they had such an effect on me that my daily driver is a 68 Plymouth Roadrunner and I have the soundtrack from Driver one and two in my phone so I can hear that sweet funky car chase music while I rumble down the road in one of the baddest muscle cars of all time! If you are a true old school Driver fan then there's nothing quite like cruising in a real muscle car with one of the "take a ride" themes playing in the background! Interestingly though I had no idea Driver was based on a movie until one day an old timer friend of mine who runs a junkyard that I frequent handed me a movie to borrow that he thought I might like. Needless to say after I got home and watched it I was shocked to see where so much of the inspiration for the first Driver game came from. Also as someone that has actually driven several different classic muscle cars I can't agree with you more about the driving physics, Driver was lightyears ahead of it's time as far as physics and audio goes. GTAIV had highly realistic physics too but then GTAV came out and it was so horribly arcadey! I was furious that they would work backwards in terms of realism like that and as a result I actually ended up getting into modding and making some good handling mods for GTAV that try to recapture the ultra realistic driving physics of the Driver series and GTAIV. Great job on the vid though! Like someone else said it was refreshing to see a review of this game by someone competent enough to actually make it through the first mission.

[@_Braised]

Amazing video- glad that you didn't forget the revolutionary replay editor like so many others do. People also tend to forget that the game will play the car park level FOR you, displaying what buttons were pressed and when, to make it painfully obvious how to beat it. But then most didn't bother to actually explore the menus now did they.

[@xplsv13]

When the first driver game had more traffic that nfs heat.

[@TOMMYDiG1TAL]

Wild lol

[@Blueflag04]

Or Payback

[@Gorecatto]

@@Blueflag04 payback actually had some ok traffic

[@Spac8]

Thank you so much for doing this. You're bang on with all of it, right down to pointing out that a lot of modern open world games could learn a lesson from Driver. Can't wait for the Driver 2 retrospective. I have a complete fascination with the whole series tbh. Many fond memories. Even on Driver 3. Haha.

[@chaaseisstupid2036]

This looks like fun to try out for the georgeous ps1 graphics alone

[@Charles_Anthony]

It was definitely ahead of it's time. The problem is they never improved upon the graphics until Driver Parallel Lines.

[@EchoFaustMusic]

Favorite game on the ps1 by far. Still believe that the vehicle physics and handling are some of the best on the console, and of all time almost. Really gives that feel of throwing a big weighty 70s boat through city streets. Love how realistic the suspension is on those things (which aren't great by any modern means. Live axles, big soft springs. Basically a couch with an engine)

[@davidhale9730]

'Driver' - with one of the most iconic, instantly recognisable, beautifully understated front covers in the entire PS1 game library. And then there's the cover from the US release... 😞

[@CharlieFoxtrot]

I prefer the US cover honestly, I'm pretty sure it's a reference to a movie

[@pedrochevez2090]

Driver played near flawlessly. It has it's own strategic structure which demands you to think about which turns to take, how fast to go, how to weave in/out of traffic, which upcoming police presence can be sped thru and which to avoid, etc. It is much like Pacman, surprisingly. It is no wonder I consider it one of my favorite games of all time.

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

Finally, someone else who realised that first level wasn't a tutorial! The tutorial is located under training in the menu! This is why as a kid I was often better then my friends at games I didn't own: I would actually read the manuals!

[@green97probe]

I've been playing Driver since 1999, and just learned that recently.

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

@@green97probe I guess you never read game manuals as a kid then? That's OK, even most adults probably don't, I was just a weird child.

[@green97probe]

@@scottthewaterwarrior I usually did, but with Driver, I was so excited that I just jumped right into it.

[@kevinvandeford5562]

This video showed up in my recommended and I was such a driver fan and when I watched and seen how well you covered it and also was a fan I had to sub , great vid

[@thescopedogable]

20 FUNKING YEARS!!!!! JESUS CHRIST WERE DID MY LIFE GO

[@WretchedHero]

I saw this game at a friends place. After that day I rushed to the game store and had to buy it. Everything changed after that. Great game!

[@mcsmash4905]

Damn i remember having to first use 1 cd to start then game and then take that cd out while the game was still running and then put another cd in the ps1 to start playing the game itself , fun times

[@NickVisel]

I spent so many hours messing with the cinematic mode... so good!

[@compreturns3352]

The thumbnail is my sleep paralysis demon

[@kaleidoscopeon]

comp returns please explain

[@thecreepycuck6036]

comp returns his overall thumbnail choices are pure horror. i think he likes to wear peoples faces after cutting them off.

[@trogg3rdmmxplaya467]

Saaame

[@DamienAlexander]

I remember me and my friend were huge fans, my friend made a notepad with all the missions written by hand, and how long time you were given. Crazy to remember.

[@DanTheMan2150AD]

Played this game to completion a while ago now... I remember the 2 hardest missions are the first and last.

[@karlnuttall2227]

Driver and destruction derby , very fond memories. They where some of my favourite driving games I've ever played . Thanks man !

[@williamlowery6487]

Driver: San Francisco is the best of the series. You should take a look at...the Wii version.

[@gigatronusprime]

Nick robinson : *heavy breathing*

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

I was genuinely surprised by the Wii version. It's not just a shoddy port of the other versions of Driver SF, it is a whole different game! One made for much inferior hardware at a drastically smaller budget, but it still feels like the dev team put real care and effort into it.

[@williamlowery6487]

@@scottthewaterwarrior Jokes aside, I legitimately do like what they did with the Wii version. They made it its own unique product instead of just doing a low-res version of the 360 counterpart. Its not perfect, but it is fun for what it is.

[@SAVANTI711]

Nah 1 .. But I personally love Driv3r

[@ThatTonnatoTenrec]

That was like, more Driver 3? That whole thing reminds me what was done to entire Need For Speed, hell that had changes even as far as the MW 2012 port to mobile, jesus.

[@kieranmcelhill1899]

Loved Driver one. It was the only driving game I was actually good at. So much love for that game

[@Cinnamorollstan]

"And what went wrong" In case the accompanying footage didn't make it clear, the answer is the framerate.

[@minimme]

It’s kinda sad that Driver 2 never got ported to anything

[@martinweizenacker7129]

Yeah, the frame rate is a big issue with Driver 2. But if you play it on an emulator, you can overclock the emulated PS1 CPU and thereby drastically improve the frame rate to a steady 30 fps! Watch this comparison: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZ3CnWh7rs-No7s

[@Charles_Anthony]

I can careless about the framerate. I bought last year, played it with my younger brother and had a blast. Edit: first video I ever put onto youtube. XD

[@C.I...]

@@minimme A bloke called Soapy is porting it to PC as we speak. Pretty cool.

[@sables5663]

@@minimme driver 2 is on gba as well

[@davidnavratil5349]

I'm surprised the game sold well with that tutorial that made you pull out your hair and the last mission that made you want to jump out of the window.

[@vixslayer4110]

Video: Uploaded 38 seconds ago. KZbin comments: posted 9 hours ago. Hmmm....

[@izzieb]

Become a patron.

[@eliphas_vlka]

Time travelers i think

[@andycole366]

Those 90 degree turns on the freeways make me laugh looking back at them now🙄 oh the memories.

[@Mrosen7542]

"Maybe I'll give you a call when I need a ride to the grocery store."

[@brandonmorel2658]

The second you mentioned "Blues Brothers" a picture in my mind of a driving game of the Blues Brothers would be awesome.

[@Ruftinator]

I remember playing Driver Parallel Lines and walking away from it knowing i’ve improved my skill of roaring through pretty packed traffic in video games. It’s stuff like that why i like the game so much (even though it clearly is quite dated by todays standards).

[@Sh4un1r1k]

The amount of cars on screen in Pararell Lines was very impressive. Reflections always managed to pull off technical feats for the hardware.

[@triple-oe4hw]

The soundtrack was absolutely good too

[@churibman]

I loved how in the destruction derby part I was wowed that they had an animated crowd, but it was only PS1 texture warping XD

[@PSXDRIVERPLAYERBSTH]

First shows a Platinum case but a bit later puts the disc of Driver from the 2 GAMES set to a PS1. Hmm interesting continuity Also I'll say that the first mission is somewhat easy, with a couple of moves that might give troubles. But luckily there's that replay and the manual detailing that out for the player. (Japanese version of Driver didn't even care if you did well or not, it did let you advance anyway.) And finally, I actually liked playing the Undercover thing over and over again, occasionally changing to mini-games and Take a Ride.

[@christianrivera2156]

Ahhh...so many memories...I was 12 or 13...I sat for hours playing this incredible game...this is before gta3...so nothing like this was released at the time...my God...just a flood of memories of getting chased by cops...and the closed in roads...I miss my childhood...lol

[@Camp_Dogs]

I barely remember this game as a kid, until I watched this video I completely forgot about the damage and felony bars, the arrow over the car, the smoke off the wheels whenever you turn and the crap visibility haha what a great trip down memory lane

[@jonbourgoin182]

0:44 I didn’t know a racing game outsold FFVII, MGS, and RE2. Wow.

[@aboriginalmang]

Driver would probably beat a big chunk of them if wikipedia included european sales in the statistics too (3.2 million us sales only)

[@Tokyoracer247]

Jon Bourgoin And it basically did it twice.

[@Blueflag04]

Gran Turismo did