Greetings and welcome to a different kind of thing here on LGR today! Although
it's not entirely different, it still has to do with computer games. But this is
the Texaco 2001 Summer Promotion kit: "Need for Speed," item number who cares and
an 800 number that may or may not work anymore. This is a very nondescript
package because this is something that was just sent to all sorts of vendors
around the country here in the US in 2001. Maybe elsewhere too, I know Texaco is
a pretty international company. But yeah I remember seeing these back then very
briefly. And then I forgot about them until I ran across these packages once
again on eBay some years ago. So, just a tiny bit of context here, even though
there's not a whole lot to go on: this was apparently some sort of partnership
between Texaco, the petroleum company and distributor, and Electronic Arts and some
kind of manufacturer of die-cast model cars. I'm sure I'll find out more in a
moment when we get this package open but yeah. Because not only does it come with
artwork and branding for the Need for Speed game but it also comes with an
exclusive demo of the game itself for Windows PCs. Now there was a demo that
you could download for free online, but these, as far as I know, were
exclusive to the packages that were sold in Texaco stores. So gas stations, service
stations, truck stops, what-have-you. I remember seeing these next to the cash
register in various gas stations just kind of stacked up next to the Slim Jims
and chewable tobacco. Anyway let's go ahead and get this thing open because
I've had this for a while and I've been itching to get into it and I figured "ahh
why not to unbox it?" And we're gonna try out the demos as well.
[box-cutting sounds interspersed with jazz tunes]
Okay, well it looks like we got a note in here from the seller I got it from.
It's just saying which ones that it came with. As far as I know though this was
supposed to come with at least one example of each of the different car
packs that were available. Okay! Oh wow, this brings back some memories. I worked
in retail for... uh, too long. Setting end cap planograms and ohmuhgahd it's all
coming back and I don't like it. But anyway I'm gonna go ahead and separate
these out into the individual kits but you can kind of see what's going on there.
All right so here are the five different ones that you could collect!
So yeah each one of these comes with a different race car model based on a
real-world car. And then each one of these will also come with their own
individual demo for Porsche Unleashed. It is kind of an odd promotion if you think
about it. Like you have NASCAR and CART racing in here, and this is a promo for the game
Porsche Unleashed which is all about racing through histories in classic
Porsches, and there's nothing to do with any of these American racing things.
And there have been other Need for Speed things sold in retail stores too, like
Walmarts, and in fact they still sell them for different modern games like
here's a Forza Motorsport one sold by Hot Wheels.
This one actually makes sense because this is a car and a configuration that
you can actually get in the game. And look at all those like, I kind of want to
collect all those. I just picked this up randomly when I saw it the other week
and was like "hey that reminds me of my things that I, you know!" All right let's
go ahead and take a look at these individually here and see what we get.
All right so first up here is the "Mario's Last Car." It's interesting, it
seems to be that the car was like secondary, they were really selling the
demo to Porsche Unleashed and the collector car is listed as a bonus.
That's interesting. But yes "custom CD-ROM game inside!" And this comes with the 1988
944 S Turbo Coupe. "Texaco offers you an exclusive collection of the
award-winning game Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed by Electronic Arts. This sampler
series offers you the mind-numbing..." Mind-numbing? That's kind of a weird
way to put it. "...open road racing experience that Need for Speed ™ is
known for." Look at that it's even got installation instructions on the back
and some controls right there for the game. So here's the company looks like put
it out: Equity Marketing Incorporated, Los Angeles, California. Yeah I was wondering
who was responsible for actually putting out this package for EA and Texaco and I
guess that answers that question. I got a little bit off track there but
let's just take a quick look at what the other ones are. So this one here with the
2000 911 Turbo, that was an exciting car in 2000. Came with the bonus car the
number 28 custom Texaco race car. Okay so car number 3 is the 2000 Boxster S and
the bonus car is the number 28 Ricky Rudd race car, that one is the
official Texaco car. Next up the fourth car here is the special Havoline race
car number 28. Mmkay. And then the version of the game that it comes with, or the
demo, is the 1959 Porsche 356. Very cool classic convertible. And then finally the
fifth car here it comes with the custom Texaco race car and this is the 1973 911
Carrera RS 2.7 coupe. Mmm that is a lust-worthy mode of transportation.
Okay so let's go ahead and open up Mario Andretti's last car here.
[cutting, shuffling noises] Alright.
Some nice details on there. It's not quite up to the quality of something like a Hot
Wheels or even a Matchbox but it does have rubber wheels and some nice little writing on
there I mean, like, I like the decals. So this is the company that makes it? 'Action'
something or other. I'm not familiar with that brand at all.
There's the CART logo right there, so it is an officially licensed CART
product at least. Yeah cool. [plop]
Okay. And now let's just get to the CD which it looks
like that opens up on the back here. [light slicing noises]
It doesn't look like there's any really
easy way to open that... so we're just gonna go for it. I'm curious what the CDs
look like exactly because I don't really recall actually having seen what's
inside here. Most sellers just leave these sealed. Well that's interesting.
So we got the game logo right there, "sampler version," got Texaco and EA logos and then
it says which one of these is on the disc.
And it actually says on the back here too, yeah it says the violet package, it says it
comes with the 944 coupe. And here we go, went ahead and opened all of them got
them all laid out nicely here for you. Each of the cars are pretty much the
same quality, actually not that bad the more I look at them. They just feel like
really cheap in terms of the metal but the details are nice visually. And of
course the CD-ROMs themselves I mean, they're proper CD-ROM pressings, they look
good. The only thing really distinguishing them, of course other than the text, is
that little color that associates with the car demo that it comes with. Enough
unboxing teasing let's go ahead and install these demos on Windows 98! I'm
curious if they come with the same track or anything like that, y'know I'm just curious.
Okay so I'm gonna go ahead and try these demos out in the order of the
release of the cars that we'll be demoing, starting with the 1959 356.
[engine rev sound]
Hm, this is already different! "This sampler version is intended for promotional
purposes only," and blah blah legal stuff. So this autorun looks pretty much like
what you would get with the full game, except it's way laggier. And it has
these different menus here, what is this "buy the full game," what does that do.
Website probably? That's an offline website, that's interesting. "Buy the game
get a free die-cast miniature race car complete with Need for Speed decals! Hurry
this order is available while supplies last." Okay so apparently there was also a
Texaco version of Porsche Unleashed? I mean seriously yeah, "type promotion
code Texaco when you order online." Man. I'm curious what that car was that it
came with or the decals or whatever. Alright let's go ahead and play here,
"install the car, race, register" yeah let's just install this car. So this is known
as Texaco Web Demo 3 apparently. Wonder why they chose this one to be the third
demo? Clearly my sorting system by age of the car's release in real life is a much
better way to sort things out. Heh, so it looks like it put it in the Electronic
Arts folder with my full versions of the rest of the games as Texaco Web Demo 3.
Okay, let's try this out. Ahh I was wondering how it handled this!
So you get a custom menu here just in the autorun and it shows which cars are
installed. Okay so let's check just this one and then we'll install the rest of the cars.
[whooshing menu sound plays]
The user is "tex." Sure let's go with tex. All right well, that's one
thing that's different immediately: there are no background images here and
there's no music either. Kind of makes sense, the music it does say it's on but
nothing is playing. And of course pretty much everything else is blanked out as
you would expect. So I'll just go straight into single player here, we have
difficulty selection -- go with advanced. And we'll do a quick race here and of
course that is the only car that we can select. And just the one track, the Côte d'Azur.
Makes sense, that is pretty much the first track that you get in the game if
I recall. We can at least choose any color we want for the 356 A convertible
here. And we'll put the roof down because heck yeah. And we can select some
opponents, we'll just do one.
[vrooooooooom]
[more engine revving]
"Three! Two! One! Go!" Well it's Need for Speed five,
just on one track with one car. Which you know, that's pretty much what the demo
was for just the one you could download online for free for anyone.
I only tried it very briefly because I just ended up buying the full game
anyway because I knew I wanted it. Whoops. There we go. All right well that's pretty
much all I wanted to know, so let's go ahead and install the other cars and see
if we do get any other tracks or anything else with that but I'm
doubting it. Okay so I have all five discs installed and they all go into the
same folder here, in Program Files\Electronic Arts\
Need for Speed Texaco Web Demo folder. And we've got five demo folders here.
And it's kind of weird it has installed everything five times, the only thing
that's different is of course the car information. So each one of these has
each separate car. Like we saw earlier all of them are right here able to be
selected so there really are five different games. It's just a kind of a
messy situation but yeah. This also means that if you changed any of the options
like say, miles per hour to kilometers an hour or the graphics options... then yeah,
you'll have to change that every time you switch cars. It's the price you pay
for not having the full version. Oh wow so you do get a different track per car!
Interesting! So we've got Corsica here let's go ahead and just try this out.
And here we are, a totally new car, new track.
"Three! Two! One! Go!"
Uou actually do have some pretty good incentive for collecting all five!
Y'know, or I guess really just buy the full version because wow, what a pain to
have to switch completely different programs every time you want to try
another car and track combination. Although it makes me wonder if you can
combine all of them -- oops I was not paying attention -- if you could combine
all of them into one. I might have to try that here after we try all these
individual ones. All right and this one comes with the Alps track.
And we had a lot more pre-made colors here, we're just gonna go with nice
bright red. Yeah that's crazy to me that each one of these actually comes with a
different track. I was honestly not expecting that because you know, I didn't
think that EA would be 'giving away' so much of their goods. Still, of course
you're missing out on a lot of the experience: no music and no career mode
or anything, but uh. Man I would've been happy to have collected these back
before I bought the full version. Because like the normal demo that you got online
was something like -- yeah this game does not work well with a keyboard like this,
I can barely see where I'm going too, this track is so dark... Anyway yeah, the normal
demo that you would download for free I believe only had Normandy and like the
1995 911 and that was it. What? There's a different user this time tex and nenad.
Huh! Neh-nad? Nuh-nod? Why is there a separate user here? Sure okay, so we get
the Industrial Zone, I always liked that one. It's a very well... industrial-looking
track. Yeah whatever it's fine, silver Boxster, four opponents in the industrial
zone. It reminded me of Empire City and Need for Speed III and
unlockable in, well, unlockable in both three and four. But I am I'm also not
noticing any traffic on any of these maybe I just didn't
enable it or it's possible that it doesn't actually come with any oncoming traffic.
I'll have to check on the last last one here. And the last one is the 911 Turbo
from the year 2000. The title car, the one that graced the cover art. Alright so we
just got tex this time again. There we go let's see what we got here. Okay, 911
Turbo, let's go for nice bright yellow like the cover has. And we have
Auvergne is the track here. No, we cannot actually change the location settings so
I guess there just isn't any traffic, which, I mean that makes sense.
"Go!" GO, HYAUUGHH.
I don't actually remember playing this track a whole lot. Don't remember if it's
because I didn't like it or what.
[chuckles at car flying] Oh I'm fine! [laughs aloud] Oh man!
Ah, this game's a lot of fun. Not ideal with a keyboard whatsoever, but
you know, good game. Gooood game. All right let's try to just combine everything
into one folder, see if that works. I'll be shocked if it does. All right,
so in theory all we really need are these three folders. And I mean there's
some stuff in here too that may determine where it's actually going to
be looking, so if it's that involved I'm not gonna mess with it I'm just gonna
try and copy over everything into one folder and see if it works.
Hey we have our other user again, nenad. Alright single player, quick race...
cannot select anything else. I expected as much really. Just curious if it'll
work with this executable which seemed to give me a car selection thing, like a
drop-down menu. Nope it doesn't work at all, we still just get the one car and
the one track of whatever the executable is. So I'm sure that maybe it could be
modified somewhere but I don't remember enough about the way NFS5's file
structure works. And it might just have that blocked off, I'm assuming
that they would try to do that but yeah it's got me curious.
At least tentatively but not enough to do it in this video, hehe. I'm definitely glad that
I picked these up when I did because, well, they're just curious releases and I like
exploring things like this on LGR. Especially games that were favorites of
mine back in the day and are obscure-ish releases that I don't really know
much about and there's not much information online. So I hope that you
enjoyed exploring with me and if you did then perhaps you'd like to see some more
LGR things. There are new videos right here every Monday and Friday so stay
tuned if you'd like. And as always thank you very much for watching!