World Driver Championship Playthrough (Actual N64 Capture) - Part 1

This is part 1 of my playthrough of World Driver Championship on the Nintendo 64. This is not an emulator. This footage was recorded directly from my Nintendo 64 using an actual World Driver Championship cartridge. I'm using a manual transmission, like always.

Back during the Nintendo 64 era I had a real fondness for racing games since the genre was fairly well represented on the system. However, a large portion of the N64 racing library was made up of arcade racers, and while they were great for pick-up-and-play action, they sometimes lacked depth. So while I enjoyed various arcade racing games, I also kept my eyes out for more realistic or simulation-based titles.

I had received Top Gear Rally back in 1997, which wasn't exactly an arcade racer. Although I certainly enjoyed the game, it was lacking in content and had overly sensitive controls. A couple of years later I noticed that the developer behind Top Gear Rally, Boss Game Studios, had released a game that was being dubbed the Gran Turismo of the Nintendo 64. The game was titled World Driver Championship.

I must have read IGN's review of World Driver Championship a dozen times before I finally purchased the game in late 1999 or early 2000. By then it was only $30 at my local EB Games, so I picked up the game complete in box. When I got home and tried the game, I was not disappointed.

The controls still weren't perfect, but there was way more content than Top Gear Rally, good music, and unbelievable graphics. Boss Game Studios was probably one of the most technically proficient N64 developers, and they really showed it with this game. World Driver Championship remains a stunning achievement in N64 graphics. In fact, all of the menu screens automatically display at a high resolution, and the races themselves are available in an optional letterbox high-resolution format - all without the game utilizing the Expansion Pak.

Since this game was so difficult, I couldn't get any of my friends to play it (we would instead resort to Mario Kart or an arcade racer). But I still played the hell out of it by myself. Before World Driver Championship, I used to play racing games simply by flying around courses at top speed without slowing down. This game, however, forced me to change tactics and learn to use controlled braking and downshifting in order to handle the turns. It was challenging, but also a lot of fun. I would get sucked into each course and just find that perfect rhythm where I got faster with each lap.

If you've seen my prior videos on this game then you already know what to expect. It's time to beat this game like a red-headed stepchild.

In this first part I created a new profile and completed the Novice Cup in the GT2 circuit.

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and the official N64 S-video cable. I used a Toshiba model D-R550 DVD Recorder to standardize the N64's native 240p/480i signal so that the Hauppauge could capture the console's audio/video signal.

I'm using a standard Nintendo 64 controller.