The Duel: Test Drive II is a car racing / simulator game initially released for the 16bit Amiga and Atari ST and later ported to the 8bit Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX and MSX systems.
Review
STORY / GAMEPLAY In The Duel: Test Drive II your goal is to finish first in a 1-on-1 super cars race and evade the police that initiates an APB every time you exceed speed limits. The game made its debut on the 16bit Amiga and Atari ST home computers. The Duel is the sequel to the first Test Drive and has more features based on its overall design. The game is played through the car's dashboard view. The main sports cars featured is the Ferrari F40 and the Porsche 959. The background is no longer the old brownish rocky cliff and the scenery presents a variety of different environments like forests and mountains. There are also lots of hazards throughout the races that you need to avoid otherwise you'll be making some serious damage to your car. Apart from racing against the computer, you also have the option to race against time. This time-trial helps you do a little practice with the car's controls before you race against the AI opponent. When racing, you not only have to beat the other super car but you must also race as fast as you to escape the police and reach to the next gas station; your car is equipped with a radar that can alert you every time a police car is near. The game is quite addictive and well presented and if you master its controls you will be playing it for hours!
GRAPHICS / SOUND The CPC version has reasonable graphics but comparably fewer details to the Commodore version. Although it features nice colors, the car's interior design is not that detailed! Also the CPC version fails to include a few other details at the backgrounds (i.e. road signposts, mountain landscapes etc). The game's sound is basic featuring some chunky engine and car crashing effects.
CPU: ZiLOG Z80 4MHZ MEMORY: 64 KB or 128 KB of RAM depending on the model (capable of being expanded to 512k using memory extension boards) GRAPHICS: Motorola 6845 address generator, Mode 0: 160x200 / 16 colors, Mode 1: 320x200 / 4 colors, Mode 2: 640x200 / 2 colors, A colour palette of 27 colors was supported SOUND: The CPC used the General Instrument AY-3-8912 sound chip, providing 3 channels Mono Sound (via internal speaker) but capable to offer Stereo Sound provided through a 3.5 mm headphones jack (with pretty impressive outcome!). Also, it is possible to play back digital sound samples at a resolution of approximately 5bit. This technique is very processor-intensive though.