The Need for Speed (Video Game)

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Drive the dream.

The one where it all began. And had a collaboration with an automotive magazine.

Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed, commonly shortened as The Need for Speed, is a racing game published by Electronic Arts, developed by its EA Canada subsidiary, initially released on the 3DO in 1994, and ported to MS-DOS in 1995. Another version of the game, The Need for Speed: Special Edition, was released in 1996 for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation and Sega Saturn platforms. The game became the first installment of what would become the Need for Speed video game series, which has influenced several later racing games.

The original 3DO version offers eight sports cars, including several exotic models and Japanese imports, and tasks the player with racing in three realistic point-to-point tracks either with or without an opponent. Subsequent ports of the game normally include an additional ninth car and have more tracks, including closed circuits. Checkpoints, traffic vehicles, and police pursuits commonly appear in the races.

The game was noted for its realism and audio and video commentaries. Electronic Arts collaborated with automotive magazine Road & Track to match vehicle behavior, including the mimicking of the sounds made by the vehicles' gear control levers, hence the full title. The game also contained precise vehicle data with spoken commentary, several magazine-style images of each car's interior and exterior, and short video clips highlighting the vehicles set to music.

The game was also sold in Japan, being released there as Over Drivin' DX, and also had an all-Nissan edition, Nissan Presents: Over Drivin' Skyline Memorial. This would actually start a trend of every Need for Speed game from its classic era being sold as the Over Drivin' series there, with the exception of Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, which weren't released in the country at all.^note

The Need for Speed features examples of:

Baby Talk: One of the opponent's taunts consists of this.
Opponent: Aww, what's wrong? Does the witto wacecow dwiver wanna go home?
Cool Car: Sure, its cars are largely invoked outdated by today's standards, but as the first Need for Speed game it deserves special merit for including Cool Cars from all three main genres of cars, so there's a little something for everybody. Love beautiful exotic cars? The Lamborghini Diablo, Ferrari 512TR and Porsche 911 Carrera (993) are for you. Prefer raw muscle power? Give the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 (C4) and Dodge Viper RT-10 a shot. Enjoy timeless Japanese tuners? Can't go wrong with the Acura NSX, Mazda RX-7 and the Toyota Supra Turbo.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the 3DO port of the first game, when you get arrested, the Opponent will make a comment implying that he expects for you a... less-than-pleasant experience in jail:
Opponent: Assume. The. Position! You just earned yourself a spot in county jail!
Donut Mess with a Cop: Open road tracks disable traffic and cops in multiplayer and tournament modes due to hardware limitations. The manual handwaves this by stating that the cops are all resting in the donut shop.
Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Rather than an arcade racing game, this game was more of a driving simulator made in collaboration with Road & Track magazine. Starting with the second game, the series switched to arcade-style racing and never looked back. The games who came the closest to reverting back to being a sim were ProStreet and the Shift games, who featured sanctioned-track racing.
- The game also had a lot of very dark content, especially concerning the police chases, that later games did not replicate. For starters, the cop who busts you walks up to you with a loaded shotgun and a Slasher Smile. In the 3DO version, the opposing racer will willingly shout profanities at you if you do something extremely idiotic while racing, and if you get ticketed too much, taunts you as having a romantic case with the aforementioned cop, and as if that wasn't enough, he will make Prison Rape jokes if you get arrested. In an unused cutscene, the cop also made one such joke toward you. Unsurprisingly, nearly all of the dark content was removed when the game got ported to the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, MS-DOS and Windows 95, mostly because the main source of the edgy content, the aforementioned opposing racer, got Adapted Out in the non-3DO games (the cop retained his shotgun, however) and since then, until Most Wanted (2005), the series became more light-hearted and focused on radical fun for all ages.^note
Everybody Owns a Ford: The game had a bonus edition available only in Japan that only had Nissan vehicles available to be driven.
In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: The game's full title is Road & Track Presents: The Need for Speed, as EA collaborated with automobile magazine Road & Track to match vehicle behavior and mimicking the sounds made by the vehicles' gears.
Jerkass: The opponent racer in the 3DO version, who would basically berate you for your bad performance and mock you consistently. When you defeat him, he either plays it off as nothing, or say it was an extremely close victory for you and demand a rematch. Three times. When you win all three times, he acts bitter about it, but recovers in a few seconds and mocks you again because he will live forever by being digitally immortalized in the game, while you will die one day.^note
Opponent: I'm a bit bitter. But hey, I'll live. In fact, I'll live forever. Digitally immortalized! You, on the other hand, will die one day.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In contrast, however, if your performance is good enough, the opponent racer in the 3DO version would actually commend you for giving him a challenge, and overall act as if the two of you became Vitriolic Best Buds.
Market-Based Title: The game was released in Japan as Over Drivin'. This would actually start a trend of every Need for Speed game onwards being sold as the Over Drivin' series there (except Porsche Unleashed and Hot Pursuit 2, which weren't released in the country at all) until the release of Underground (which was sold as Need for Speed: Underground J-Tune). This game in particular also had a few Japanese-exclusive editions, including an all-Nissan edition (Nissan Presents: Over Drivin' Skyline Memorial).
The Most Wanted: The first title of the Need for Speed series was also the one to introduce the police to the series, with the racers being chased by the police and having as objetive not just win the races, also avoid to get caught by cops.
Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: One of the Opponent's taunts (after you get arrested) advises you to "Assume. The. Position!"
Shifting Sand Land: The Need for Speed had the Rusty Springs Raceway and Burnt Sienna.
Shout-Out:
- The Coastal course has a half-buried Statue of Liberty on the beach at the finish line. No option to scream "You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you all to hell!", though.
- If you wreck the Lamborgini Diablo in the 3DO version , the Jerkass opponent racer would tell you:
  Opponent: You just turned... a $200,000 car... into a $13 piece of scrap. Way to go, Gomer.
Updated Re-release: The first two Need for Speed games both had "Special Editions" released roughly six months to a year after the originals. The first NFS Special Edition had two new tracks, Windows 95 support, an expanded soundtrack and various updates to the game engine.