Test Drive II Enhanced — SDL3

An enhanced version of the EGA Test Drive II: The Duel (1989) by Accolade / Distinctive Software, running natively on SDL3. The game itself is the faithful C reimplementation of TD2EGA.EXE. The view is redrawn at a higher resolution with smooth 60 fps motion and a longer draw distance, from the original data only (see ENHANCED.md). It is not an emulator - the original data is not redistributed, and you need to get it yourself (Test Drive II: The Collection, with the Supercars / Muscle Cars and California / European Challenge add-ons, is supported).

Requirements

• Your game files in a folder (by default Game under the working directory). The game needs TD2EGA.EXE, CARS.DAT, SCENES.DAT, SONGS.BIN, VOICES.BIN, the *.PES archives, the car *.BIN / *.SS files and the scenery *.DAT / *.SGN / *.FNT files. select.dat and the *hisc.dat high-score files are written to the same folder.
• CMake 3.24+, a C11 compiler and SDL 3. Otherwise, use a precompiled release, also available on Github.com/kylofon.

Build

Only do this if you want to compile it yourself, otherwise use a precompiled release.

From the repository root, in Git Bash or an MSYS2 MinGW64 shell:

export PATH="/c/msys64/mingw64/bin:$PATH"
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=gcc -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build

A Makefile wraps the same commands: make build, make check, make run, make clean, and make syntax to compile-check the sources without linking. make help lists every target.

Add -DTD2_LAUNCHER=ON to the first command to also build TD2 Enhanced.exe, the game's launcher, and -DTD2_VIEWER_LAUNCHER=ON for TD2 Map Viewer.exe, the launcher of the map viewer (both need wxWidgets 3.2; see launcher/README.md and viewer-launcher/README.md).

Run

./build/testdrive2-enhanced.exe --game-dir Game

Option	Meaning
--game-dir DIR	Folder with the original game files (default Game)
--scale N	Initial window size as a multiple of 320×240 (default 3)
--res-scale N	Output resolution as a multiple of 320×200 (default 4 = 1280×800, range 1–8; lower it on slower CPUs)
--draw-distance N	Road units drawn ahead (default 180, range 60–240; the original draws 60)
--show-position on|off	on: the track position in the top left corner of the road view (off by default, F9 toggles it)
--valley on|off	off (default, a test): the sky continues below the cliffs beside the road, as in the original; on: a valley floor far below
--sprite-detail max|auto	max (default, a test): cars and roadside objects always use their most detailed sprite, scaled to their true size at every distance; auto: the sprite size chosen by distance
--enhanced-road on|off	on (default): the road and its shoulders in lighter and darker bands every two road units, so the speed shows; off: the original's plain road
--enhanced-sides on|off	on (default): the ground beside the road (grass, sand, earth) banded with the road, as in Out Run; off: plain
--mix-cars on|off	on: some of the traffic is the other sceneries' cars (the Beetle and the grey Saab in California and the Master Scenery, the Mercedes in Europe); at least one of each of the scenery's own cars stays on every stage. off (default): as in the original
--start STAGE|default	Straight into a race on that stage (e.g. CCC0, TDS21, EC_5; default: the first stage of the scenery last chosen in the game), without the intro, the menus and the difficulty screen; after the race the game goes on as usual
--race clock|opponent	With --start: race against the clock (default) or the opponent
--car CODE, --opponent CODE	Your car / the opponent's car by its code in CARS.DAT (e.g. F40, P959), as if chosen in the menu
--frame-rate FPS	Drawing rate while driving (default 60, 0 = unpaced)
--sim-ticks N	Game speed: timer ticks per simulation step (default 7; the original: 10; 3–20). Fewer is faster: every car, the traffic and the police; the race clock stays in real seconds
--classic	Original road renderer at the original 15 fps, for comparison
--check	Verify that TD2EGA.EXE loads, then exit without opening a window
--viewer STAGE	Map viewer instead of the game: fly along a stage (see below), e.g. CCC0, TDS21, EC_5
--viewer-start UNIT	The road unit the map viewer starts at (default 0)

Alt+Enter toggles fullscreen. A connected gamepad acts as the joystick (Ctrl-J to calibrate / enable).

TD2 Enhanced.exe (the launcher, see launcher/README.md) sets all of this in a window: the game folder, a race started at once on a chosen stage and car, and the options.

Reporting a place on the track: press F9 (or start with --show-position on) and the top left corner of the road view shows e.g. CCC0 790 X160: the scenery and stage (CCC0), the road unit (790) and the car's lateral position. Quote it (or take a screenshot) when reporting a problem; the same place can be driven again with TD2_ENH_STAGE=CCC0 TD2_ENH_START=790 (the attract mode starts there).

Map viewer

--viewer STAGE shows a stage without playing it. STAGE is the scenery code from SCENES.DAT and the stage digit, as the position readout shows them: CCC0..CCC6 (California Challenge), TDS20..TDS25 (the original game's scenery), EC_0..EC_5 (European Challenge).

./build/testdrive2-enhanced.exe --game-dir Game --viewer CCC0 --viewer-start 2200

Key	Action
Up / Down	Forward / back along the road (15 units a second)
Left / Right	To the sides (600 lateral units a second; the road's half-width is about 400), also far beyond the road
Shift	With the arrows: ten times as fast
Page Up / Page Down	100 road units on / back
Home / End	Back to the start (unit and lateral) / the end of the stage
F9	Position readout on / off (on by default)
Alt+Enter	Full screen
Esc	Close the viewer

Controls (from the original)

• Arrow keys / numeric keypad: steer, accelerate, brake; shifting as in the original.
• Esc: quit the current drive or menu.
• Ctrl-P pause, Ctrl-X exit to DOS, Ctrl-S sound, Ctrl-Q music, Ctrl-K keyboard, Ctrl-J joystick.

Changes from original

Road view

• Resolution: the road is drawn at 4× the original resolution by default, with smoothed edges, in the original 16 colours. The cockpit, mirror and sprites keep their original pixel art, scaled up.
• Smooth motion: 60 fps instead of about 15. The road, the scenery and the other cars move continuously instead of one road unit at a time. Steering and bends turn the view evenly (the original turned it in whole-degree steps); the view follows your steering about 0.14–0.18 s behind (bends follow the road with no delay at all).
• Draw distance: 180 road units instead of 60 (--draw-distance). Road signs, traffic, the opponent and the police are drawn that far; roadside scenery and text signs appear 120 units ahead instead of 44 (the simulation places them 120 units ahead instead of 70, so the random scenery differs from the original's). Distant objects fade in.
• Enhanced road and sides: the road and its shoulders alternate between a lighter and a darker shade every two road units, as in Test Drive Enhanced, and the ground beside the road with them, as in Out Run, so the speed shows (--enhanced-road, --enhanced-sides).
• Mixed traffic (--mix-cars on): the Beetle and the grey Saab from Europe also drive in California and the Master Scenery, and the Mercedes in Europe, in place of some of the scenery's own cars.
• Rear-view mirror: drawn by the same renderer.
• Objects: signs, poles, scenery and cars change size smoothly with distance, matching the original's sizes where it drew them, and switch between the original's size variants. Cars are placed at their exact position on the road instead of the nearest road unit.
• Cliffs and tunnels: beyond the original's 60 units, rock faces and tunnel entrances are drawn as a rock mass of their own that grows into the original's wall and portal without a step, and a second tunnel in view is drawn behind the first.
• Falling off the road: the view scrolls up smoothly at the output resolution, with the original's sky, cliff and water fills below it; the mirror keeps its original image.
• Kept from the original: the mirror, dashboard, speeding ticket, messages and prompts (exactly as the original draws them, with no enhanced pixels inside), windscreen cracks, engine smoke, crash flash and GAME OVER.
• Timing: the gear-gate close delay keeps the original 15 fps timing.

Game (from the faithful port)

• Removed: copy protection and all disk handling (disk prompts, DISKID.DAT, Play Disk creation; the Install menu icon does nothing), and the CGA / Tandy / Hercules modes.
• Joystick: a gamepad replaces the analogue PC joystick.

Layout

• ENGINE.md — architecture and the rules the new engine follows.
• ENHANCED.md — design of the enhanced renderer.
• src/enhanced/ — the enhanced renderer.
• src/mem.* emulates the real-mode address space the game ran in; src/host.* wraps SDL3.
• src/platform/ — EGA graphics, resources, timer, sound, input and prompts.
• src/game/ — game flow, scene rendering and simulation.
• launcher/ — TD2 Enhanced, the game's launcher (wxWidgets).
• viewer-launcher/ — TD2 Map Viewer, the map viewer's launcher (wxWidgets).

Reverse-engineering tools, specs and file formats are in the Test Drive II reverse-engineering repository.

License

MIT, see LICENSE. Test Drive II and its data belong to their respective owners.

Support

https://buymeacoffee.com/krzysztofkania