LGR - Ford Simulator II - DOS PC Game Review

Adware has been around for ages and it wasn't always malicious, and Ford Simulator 2 is one of the most intriguing and classic examples of games made simply to advertise. It may not be Forza 3 but it's worth a look. Check out the CGA game FordSim2 in this review of:
Ford Simulator v2 for MS-DOS
Made using DosBox, unfortunately. Couldn't get the video out on my old machine to input to my capture device. So goes technology.

[@luissolis5652]

Would it be strange to say I love your videos and at night they put me to sleep . And I mean this in a positive way love your stuff man . After a long day they seem to take my mind off things.

[@gameroo713]

Same dude.

[@excrono]

Very easy to drift off in the middle of one video, and wake up after two more have played in the DOS playlist... when I'm sleepy that is. When I'm fully awake the content never is boring enough to put me to sleep.

[@over2seeyer]

lol i tought i was weird for doing it

[@jadunandanadas3089]

same!

[@alexander33221]

You're not strange at all, I feel the same way ^^

[@ImSquiggs]

Those car images in the showroom look surprisingly good.

[@Monacomaverick]

I had a '92 Mercury Cougar that had the same steering wheel and analog gauge cluster. The trans went, then the master cylinder, and it ultimately turned into a Flintstone mobile after being left outside for four PA winters. It was a damn nice car though and I wouldn't mind having it back. The car in the game is a Thunderbird Super Coupe, which I also have a soft spot for.

[@konyac-entertainment]

car enthusiast seeing this in 2022. This is great as a snapshot of automotive history. While Gran turismo would have a wide spread of vehicles, this showcases EVERYTHING ford had at the time. Fast or not

[@erniemiller1953]

SC is indeed the Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe. It had a supercharged V6. It put out 225 hp, quite a bit for the time as we were still gun shy about making cars that had rip-your-face-off acceleration. Unfortunately, being a Thunderbird, after the engineers design a really nice speedster to recall the days of the 57 Tbird, marketing weighed it down with "conveniences" that were not wanted by anyone who wanted a Tbird. That caused its performance to droop. 61 mph in a quarter mile is about the best it could do. So, most people at the time opted for a Mustang, instead. Ford as a result of this mistake cancelled the Thunderbird. ..a line that outlasted any other model. And, because marketing people are easy at selling (themselves) and engineers aren't, Ford canned the entire engineering team who worked on it.

[@umbrellacorp.]

Wow, incredible, this video was uploaded 11 years ago. 🤯 This is a Classic video Clint (LGR) Stay Awesome. 😎👍

[@elbryan42]

Watching a classic LGR. :) I actually had the first Ford Simulator. Came on a single, blue 3.5" diskette. Good times.

[@AMacProOwner]

How can 2009 be 7 years ago?...Time passes insanely quick..

[@LGR]

Tell me about it...

[@pablosorbara2280]

almost 10 now...

[@tahustvedt]

I'm watching this in the future. Vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2016.

[@kidwolf0015]

It's 11 now...

[@Triveom]

Try 11 haha

[@dariengoheen747]

I would love to mention the fact that you went from one of the "I drink beer and play games, I'm cool." youtubers to now where you just focus on what is on hand with class.

[@excrono]

Just a few videos away from clearing your DOS playlist, its been one hell of an insightful and entertaining experience so far. Good to see you are (and hopefully still) a BoC fan as well.

[@LGR]

Quite an achievement! And you bet I am.

[@Osprey850]

I love how it looks like you filmed the opening in 1989. That's a great touch of authenticity.👍

[@yanholing]

I find your videos not only to be entertaining, but also very educational. I actually learn a lot about computers and video games and their respective histories, and in general I don't even really care about those things! Thank you for providing such great entertainment with a humorous approach.

[@Stray_Spectre]

9 speakers would be nice, but I sure wouldn't use them to listen to the soundtrack from Crazy Bus.

[@Tairygreen]

Legitimately funny comment. Well done haha

[@AncientGamer1]

My hat's off to you for the Boards of Canada t-shirt

[@oguzeroglu4413]

I was looking for this comment.

[@hi-friaudioman]

AncientGamer1 hell yeah, as soon as I saw that shirt I crapped myself. It's not everyday you see someone wearing such a sweet shirt.

[@NordiusOfficial]

Oğuz Eroğlu Literally same!

[@davidsmall6322]

Thanks for posting this video. Had the game. Forgot about it. Have to forget about it again.

[@fountaincap]

Hey Clint, listened to this review with headphones and, for the first time, noticed the 80s-sounding music in the background. Do you know the name? I already tried Darude - Sandstorm. It's not that.

[@jacobson084]

+fountainhead Sounds like some 80s space synth. Could be Laserdance :)

[@TheMrsteakman]

Vaxeen 4 U?

[@mockier]

Had this in Australia on my Amstrad when I was a kid. Surprisingly enjoyable, and completely accurate simulation of driving a Ford. It's ok and will get you from a to b, but it's no Farrari

[@Daeymien]

Slight correction: You didn't necessarily have to physically go to a dealership to get a copy. I electronically responded to something from Ford back in the Prodigy days and was then apparently put on some mailing list as I had a copy of each new release of it mailed directly to me.

[@Osprey850]

I was on that mailing list, too. I have a memory of getting it in the mail and being excited.

[@Jorendo]

We once had this cd rom with a ton of games on it. Demo's, shareware, full versions...it was hard to tell as it didn't explain a darn thing. It was all legal and on it was one of those Ford racing games too. I'm not sure what version it was but you where given a map and had to meet up with friends at a lake. That was all you could do, though there where multiple roads leading to it. You started at the retailer and drove to the lake. Events happened on the way like someone having a broken down car and you could choose if you wanted to stop and help or cruise on. Pretty nifty back then.

[@MimonJesus67]

I wonder what Clint thinks of these old videos nowadays.

[@akuyume7]

Boards of Canada! Nice shirt!

[@jeiku5041]

I loved the 80's and 90's car designs. they weren't all stubby and fat like they are now.

[@LGR]

Oh yeah, I've really come to appreciate them over the past several years. I've even bought a few since this video :)

[@leshpar]

One of my favorite racing games when it was new was Beetle Adventure Racing. It really was just an overglorified ad for the new beetle by VW too. (for N64)

[@travis1240]

Played it back in the day (and its predecessor). It was free.

[@weirdotzero7065]

Ford Simulator? More like "Al Bundy's Dodge Simulator".

[@ACanOfBakedBeans]

FORD is an acronym for FOUND ON ROAD DEAD Unless you're talking about classic Mustangs Mustangs are cool.

[@JuiceThe511]

I had an '89 Thunderbird SC - I once had it up to 120 on the highway before I started wetting my pants and backing off. It most certainly went over 100 mph. I think the speedo went to 120 or 140... I loved that car and miss it sorely.

[@AQWBlaZer91]

A car simulator before Gran Turismo on the PS1. That's something to know about.

[@jboyd4437]

I got one of these in the fall of 1990...it was on one 3.5" disk. I didn't have a computer at home, so I took it in to substitute teach at school and let the kids play with it there. I did buy a new car in 1990, but it was Jeep Cherokee, instead of a Ford..

[@riversart2030]

OMG I had this game when I was a kid and totally forgot about it until now. So much nostalgia!!

[@roadkill_52]

Yeah, thanks for reply me! Man, I really love your channel because I played DOS games as a child but in Brazil no one else knows it (only FPS like Doom\Duke Nukem or 16-bits consoles were well-known in 90', for example). For me It's a looooonely taste... but very pleasurable too!

[@mitch9521]

My 1989 Lincoln Towncar has the JBL system, It thumps pretty good for a 25 year old system

[@OnTheRocks71]

Yeah, early Ford JBL systems were awesome. My 93 SHO had one and it was pretty dang slick. A lot better than many factory radios I've heard today.

[@AlyxxTheRat]

Late 80's italo disco in the background. Laser Dance?

[@estebanfelix1144]

It was Macrocosm - Asian Adventure is played

[@RocketVet]

I had this on my Tandy 1000. I had a lot of fun with it when I was little - actually really enjoyed looking at the showroom cars and reading all the specs (I like cars). I played this with a joystick.

[@8mmman1990]

I had the one with the Ford logo opening up with a sweeping wiper blade 😂

[@downsouth420]

I always got a kick out of these. Many of them let you choose which model to drive, yet they are all exactly the same, even vehicles that shouldn’t be able to reach 100 mph, like the Ranger, yet still do. In the first Ford Simulator, you can build your car and print out the window sticker you could take to the dealership to order the exact one you want. You could even calculate your car payments and everything. A lot of that was taken out future games.

[@XaneMyers]

1:42 "Is that really 3D?" Of course I'd wonder that...

[@Bluehawk2008]

This game taught me about product placement.

[@HissinSpit]

I have thought about getting Destruction Derby before. Thanks for the suggestions.

[@jasonmoore1900]

yea my uncle had an 87 chrysler lebaron that came with a cd player.

[@JKWesser]

You bet I heard of this before, one of my first -if not the first- PC game I had was a compilation of DOS games and a few demos. This one was included on it, though I usually preferred to play Stunts. Oh the nostalgia...

[@recklesssquirel5962]

Not gunna lie, that intro was cool.

[@matrixmirage2148]

"crystal clear sound" **beep** **boop** **beep**

[@SoilentGr33n]

You have a lot of games that I played on your channel. I'm back here again after 2 years. Ford Sim is a good example of those kinds of 80's oddball shit. I ended up playing a lot of these weird fuckin games because I would scour people's computers and floppies when we were bored at fiends places, family gatherings, or like when I was being babysat somewhere else instead of at home and so on just to see what was on there, and sometimes I'd find some games. Kingdom of Kroz, ford sim, blockout, ascii games, I found indiana jones once the one where you jump around on a train. Some remake of Asteroids my father didn't even know he had. He also had a super basic miniputt game. I see them pop up on youtube nowadays

[@Damocles178]

That was interesting; didn't think they made this sort of thing back then. Kinda strange making you only drive one car though. Seeing the case for the disc's brought back a lot of memories too; I mind some of them had a key so you could lock them. Though at 4:16; I was reminded of the infamous Crazy bus theme; I had to stop my speakers from trying to self destruct but on the plus side I totally dig the main theme when the game starts. Oh and yeah those trucks look like Tea bags lol.:D

[@gabrielevitale9969]

hey Clint, may I ask the name of the song?

[@LoganHunter82]

I'd like to know that, too :)

[@alextirrellRI]

We had the Macintosh version of this on our Mac Classic when I was a kid. It was basically the same except in black and white and some of the sounds and music were better.

[@shorty1k]

Holy smokes! I forgot about this one! My buddy Justin used to have this one on some old disks.

[@travosk216]

Shit, do you know how old this comment is?

[@JavierBonilla78]

Ford racing games are great I have a bunch of those. Nice video =D

[@RodMerida]

Hello. I wanted to ask something to you. I never had 5 1/4" floppies. When I started with PCs at the beggining of 90s, 3 1/2" floppies were completely generalized, and 5 1/4" floppies weren't of wide use anymore. Everybody I knew who had a PC used these discs. So these were the ones I grew up with. That's why I'm courious.I wanted to ask to you about this medium: Isn't it very fragile, without a metal protection on the header? It looks like it can get poweder into it or get scratched and screw

[@RodMerida]

Now you mention it, reciently I was backing up my old 3 1/2 discs, and most of them read just fine without any error. Some fo them shows some isolated error in some sector, and a couple or three of them have got just completely unreadable.When I open the metal and look at these ones they seem to be okay: no scratch, not dirty...but when trying to reformat them they says: "0 track wrong, useless disc"...Is that related what you're mentioning with? Any idea how to solve this and make disc usable?

[@jedkleppen]

Late to the party here, but I've been looking all over to find more information about this game. I actually have 2 working copies of the original Ford Simulator II on the all white disks. I'm trying to track down how they were distributed. I think it was with a magazine (Car & Driver or Hot Rod?), right? The multitude of knock-off versions handed out at the dealerships were always the black disks...Anybody remember the white disks though?

[@letssaylalala]

This looks very much like Accolade Grand Prix from the 90s IIRC...? I wonder if this is the base for Accolade's game. I had a lot of fun with the Grand Prix.

[@mattjazzml]

Loved this game. We played it on our 286.

[@ralgha]

5 1/4" floppies were stored in sleeves which generally offered excellent protection as long as you didn't try to cram too many into one sleeve. And there were wonderful plastic storage devices you could get cheap to hold like 50 floppies and flip through them to find the one you wanted. I did destroy several of these floppies by leaving them on top of a radiator or in the car, but 3 1/2" ones wouldn't have fared much better.

[@TomeeDee86]

oh gosh, this one was on large discs.... :o cool..... real classic!!

[@evilwarcow]

The sound that it makes when driving sounds like the amp that Marty McFly was using before he blew it out.

[@RodMerida]

Do these discs still read after so many years? I always heard due to this fragility and lack of metal protection, these 5 1/4" floppies used to have a lot of read errors. You could say that it's true?

[@hi-friaudioman]

Oh damn! Boards of Canada! Hell yeah dude! If you like 'em you should check out royksopp, plaid, trentmoller, aphex twin, square pusher, the flashbulb... Etc. I know this is an old video but I Love that shirt!

[@VicTheVicar]

Awesome! I had Ford 1, and you could drive all the cars, and I can't remember any speed limit, but the steering was hopeless!

[@AFnord]

One actually good game like this is "Volvo the game" released by SimBin. It's basically a small slice of Race 07, but with only one track and all the cars being Volvo cars.

[@ricardomaggiore5518]

I used to play with the ford simulator I i think.. It had the ford escort xr3 and ford sierra.. These are cars from the 80s

[@Milksteak177]

I liked as soon as I saw the oldschool BoC shirt. Also i saw someone else already mentioned it but im still going to leave this comment because this is america damnit!

[@Cathrac]

Its fucking 12 years now!

[@alptigin5438]

The cityscapes in this game lead me to believe it was developed in Seattle.

[@rogerjuaquinpalacio1566]

Came from your recent videos ford simulator 7.0

[@MegaDieseldriver]

Some time has passed since you made this review. I may have agreed with you im 2009 about that era of cars and the digital showroom. Now i really appreicate the late 80'e and early 90's cars and that pixel art digital showroom oozes with retro coolness. Agree?

[@darkinertia2]

whoa whoa whoa, early 90s cars were some of the best looking cars! i love the boxy look way more than the rounded shit theyre doing nowadays

[@StephanS]

I had Ford Simulator III on the PC... very special but not that bad. Oh.. and today im driving a 96 Ford ;)

[@gnardawgyt]

Nice BoC shirt!

[@ryanisagamer1106]

he phreakindee, can i ask your opinion? if you lose your copy of a game, but you did legally own it and bought it, is it right to download a copy?

[@YuckyAppleTree]

is it bad that I still remember these openings as reading as the most recent ones?

[@buff985]

There was ford simulator 5 which was actually pretty awesome with police and other things to worry about.

[@kevinschram7667]

LGR, bring back this intro song. It was awesome.

[@KILLASAURUSFLEX]

I have a Probe GT and Taurus SHO, which makes me want to get this.

[@WhiskeyRichard.]

The 1991 Thunderbird SC could accelerate from 0-6 in 9.2 seconds. That's a time

[@leshpar]

0 to 6 I agree on, but 0 to 60 probably took like 30 mins, lol.

[@exxusdrugstore300]

For the times it was alright, now it's economy car levels. For the record I've heard they were really nice cars.

[@OnTheRocks71]

The SC should hit 60 in about 7.5 seconds. Before being updated it still had 215-ish HP and a boat load of torque (nearly 300ft lbs) so it moved pretty well in it's day. They were pretty advanced for their day. Supercharged, 4 wheel independent suspension, electronically adjustable shocks...

[@TechnocratiK]

I mistakenly thought this was a review for Ford Simulator III - that's right, the sequel to Ford Simulator II - which I played as a kid more than I'd like to admit. The best part of it was that they added a 'plot': you had to take a car (you had a choice now) on a demo drive to Lake Wakatonka, where fun and sport await you. Plus the maps you had to follow, gas stops, cops to avoid, limited amount of damage your car could take (three strikes)... probably a far worse game than I remember.

[@calebhoward6318]

I have the second floppy disk for this game but not the first so I can't play it. Do you know any places online where I can download it? (I know you have it on floppy not online but whatever)

[@12587drago]

Woaaah what an intro :D

[@jasonmoore1900]

When did ford start offering cd players? I know that chrysler was offering them in 1987.

[@WheelcraftBicycles]

Do you remember chex quest. It was a doom clone only with chex and slime creatures. It was free in a box of cereal. It is a great piece of ad-gaming,

[@miskone1044]

lol omg I used to play this all the time as a kid!

[@11dmills]

I drive a 1990 mustang so it's funny to see it in a video game like this

[@GenerationKill001]

This game came free in a computer I bought in 1991.

[@KaitenKenbu]

Thunderbird super coupe, very dope.

[@biggshasty]

Hadn't seen that one, but I had a later VGA version from 93 or 94 I think. How many of these were there???

[@TheAustinmetro]

+Lazy Game Reviews Ford Simulator 1 - 1988 Ford Simulator 2 - 1989 (with Merkur Scorpio) Ford Simulator 2 - 1990 (with Lincoln Town Car) Ford Simulator 3 - 1992 Ford Simulator 5.0 - 1994 ultra rare Ford Simulator 6 - 1995 I am one of the very few owners of the Ford sim 6. Only thing that is different from 5.0 is showroom cars (there is a Ford Contour for instance) and much nicer buyers guide with lot of animations in it, driving part is same as 5.0.

[@ClaireAgincourt]

this reminded me of a street racing sim i played that wouldve been about this same time. i dont remember it having colors but there were lots of muscle cars and you could customize your car by finding better parts and engines in the newspaper. you raced the computer and won money which is how you purchased the better parts. cant remember what the title was tho.

[@nielsengelen7880]

I miss that old intro :(

[@daGangsta232]

i have the first ford simulator! do you know if its rare?

[@honkhonkler7732]

Hey bro. Don't diss the Ford Probe lol XD

[@RichardM-kv4uu]

Those car graphics aren't bad for the time this came out!

[@undefinition1]

God, I can't believe this game has come back from my past to haunt me! I got this disk back around 1990 or so. What a terrible "game." It was a bunch of boring text, bad graphics of cars, and you drive some car that says, "SC," and won't go over 100 mph. And I was so pathetic that I'd put the game in from time to time, hoping it would have magically become more fun. Excellent review, by the way.

[@predcon1]

You sound like my dad. "I'd ride in a Ford to get gas for my Dodge", he'd say, "and not one foot farther!".

[@dickkickem]

You got to admit though, 90s Ford trucks (especially the diesels) were sexy. :^) Also where can I find a copy of this game? Been searching for months on eBay and couldn't find any of the Ford Simulators.

[@CharlieFoxtrot]

Ford Racing 2 on PS2 was awesome

[@carlosrootsbassman]

I used to play the original Ford Simulator - I think you could pick between 5 cars for that one. Same tracks and physics. No "obstacles" though. My dad was hardcore DOS and so I couldn't get any of the cooler windows shareware programs. Just the crappy DOS ones. Like this one. Wah wah.

[@MarcusMajorTheDriftKing]

Than came along Mustang: The Legend Lives by 2K Games for the PS2, stupid piece of crap the game was!

[@roadkill_52]

Oh, I don't know if I got it but you really doesn't like these CGA graphics period? For me its so classy! I love these weird feeling with colors that do not represent the "real life" indeed. Its like a dream or a unique art aesthetic. I REALLY love so much! PS: I don't speak a good english, please ignore some grammar shit! :-)

[@Cool-Spot]

Dang, my grandparents have an 06 chevy impala and it came with a cassette player. It must have been frikin' expensive to have a cd player in your car in 1989.

[@themagicboy6548]

Can you review Car builder for dos?

[@Princesskyloren]

dope intro

[@JoshBrinson]

It was actually brilliant marketing on Fords part.